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I have found that buying a vitamix first is the best choice. That way, you can get those wonderful green smoothies in your system. But a dehydrator is wonderful to have as well. I have a 9 tray excalibur, it works great. I tried using the oven on the lowest setting of 100 – but it was hard to keep the temp that low, and there was cost involved in using the gas stove. It’s your call – i’ve successfully made crackers in the oven, but I can’t guarantee the temp was low enough, and there’s no way i’d try making the more delicate recipes in the oven.
I use parchment paper on dishware placed directly on my radiator. I’ve made loads of things this way and you can moderate the heat by adding more plates if it’s too hot. This free dehydrator method will last me till I get a proper Excalibur. You can also sun-dehydrate just about anything. I have these screened little umbrella shapped covers so I can put things on the balcony without worrying about insects.
I got a dehydrator recently and it is fabulous, except I had to order some sheets for it. I recommend it, but only if you think you can’t do without it. You can use radiators or warm rooms to do the work for you ;) It’s up to you!
I don’t use a dehydrator, or an oven, and don’t really want to use either. I love my hydrated food!
If you get a dehydrator, brown parchment paper will work… it’s dries food out a little better than Teflex. And, you have to buy it more often. The Teflex sheets do make foods more “smoother”. But, it’s made of teflon.
Have you tried a toaster oven that goes below 118F? Someone mentioned an Oster has one that goes that low, which I want to buy sometime for warming up small amounts of raw foods… (I have a dehydrator too).
The downside, is that there is no air… so things may take longer. And, also, you only have one ‘shelf’.
I agree with winona, even though I bought my dehydrator before my blender, I find I use my blender more (and I have 2 of them now).
Yeah, you can easily do the oven thing with the door cracked open and buy one of those mini fans to get some air movement in there!
But it also depends on what type of raw fooder you want to be! For some people, they like to go all out and dehydrate all kinds of things… or like me, the blender was my big purchase and I have yet to dehydrate anything (after about 2 years). Maybe one day I will give it a try but like I said, everyone has their different tastes! I would go ahead and use your oven. If you feel like you would like to dehydrate on a regular basis then by all means go get your self the dehydrator!