It's true, this is an awesome machine. Very fast, fairly even drying, large trays, huge capacity. My main complaint is that the fan is rather loud, and when it's on for many hours in a row it's a bit grating. Don't bother with the Paraflexx sheets for fruit leather - unbleached silicone parchment paper (NOT waxed paper) is faster and less expensive, and you can just cut and store the finished leather with the paper still on.

I ordered directly from the factory following a link here -- the factory sells a model with a timer and they offer a better warranty to drive sales. This review is not about the unit but is about customer service. I ordered 7 ParaFlexx sheets (about 1/3 of the cost I paid) with the unit and 2 sheets were part of the sale. NONE arrived with the unit.

I called and was told they would be sent the same day via Fedex. When no tracking number was sent to me I emailed asking for the tracking and was told the sheets were mailed via postal mail -- the Fedex address they have for me does not receive postal mail -- they assumed they could use the same address I gave them for a Fedex delivery. I quickly notified them again that I cannot receive postal mail at that address. No answer. I called again to ask for assistance and was told they would call me right back to help with the problem but they had to pull out the file. A day has passed, no return call. If I have to wait for them to get the returned undeliverable postal items and then for them to re-send the sheets it will be weeks before I can get the unit operational. Fedex took more than a week to deliver the original box. Postal service back and forth and another mailing or Fedexing would take perhaps 3 weeks more.

I think I will return the unit. I want this unit and it is highly rated, but all the sellers of Excalibur rely on the factory to drop ship -- so I wonder if there is any way around this issue of missing parts and poor service. I don't even know if the sheets are perhaps out of stock!!

I was so anxious to get this unit operational and now I am just disgusted and disappointed. My calls and emails are not being replied to at all!!! I don't see how they can operate this way.

Another day of email, fax and calling. I have the RMA and will return it now!

We got the 9 tray that is on top of the line directly from Excalibur company about a month ago.

It is a little noisy but we have gotten used to it. Generally it is one of the best investment we have made as far as food preparation is concerned.

The best thing about our dehydrator is that, it has a 26 hour timer.

I highly recommend it.

I use to burn out lots of the round dehydrators you can buy at Target, or similar stores. I make a lot of Beef Jerky and the drippings would get into the fan/heating elements (located at the base), eventually leading to cracking and malfunctions (smoking).
After a lot of research I decided to go with the 9 tray Excalibur. This unit is AWESOME!! You can dehydrate anything! I had so many hot peppers from my garden this year that I just cut them in half and dried them out. You can also dehydrate larger items by skipping a tray or two, something you cannot do in the round types. Since the trays are square you do not have to twist and finagle (sp) beef an other products like the round ones.
As stated by someone else in these reviews the fan and heater are located on the back, so they stay clean. It does have a large footprint and is about as noisy as our hood over the oven, not overly annoying but not super quiet either. Definitely worth every penny if you make a lot of jerky or like to preserve your summer bounty from the garden!

OK, let's clarify the amount of noise this machine puts out ... it is equivalent to the sound of the exhaust fan in our bathroom ceiling. It makes NO more noise than our dishwasher.

Yes, it's a bit distracting if you are watching TV, but it's nothing that should stop you from getting this 9-tray machine. (We moved it from our kitchen to our garage because we have a small kitchen and needed the counter space. The noise was not a deciding factor.)

It is absolutely WONDERFUL!

We dehydrate chicken and beef for ourselves and our dog so that we NO LONGER have to purchase expensive, irradiated jerky made in China. (We can season it however we want to, with ingredients that we can tolerate in our digestive tracts - in other words, we no longer suffer from gastric disturbances.) We have also dehydrated pineapple rings and tomatoes.

It's easy and fun, plus saves money. We run a batch at least once per week, sometimes more.

I researched dehydrators for quite a while because I only wanted to buy ONE and keep it for a long while. This is the machine to go with - the fan and heating element are on the back wall of this unit versus on the bottom like in other machines. Therefore, the drippings stay out of the mechanical workings and do NOT effect the durability of the machine.

I highly recommend the 9-tray model so that you can accomplish a lot of dehydrating within a minimal amount of space vs. 2 of the 4-tray models - they would need to be set side-by-side as the heat would be a concern if they were stacked directly on top of each other. I would only consider stacking the units if you had a SHELF in-between them.

The Excalibur is easy to clean and easy to use. I give it my highest satisfaction rating, and encourage anyone who wants a quality dehydrator to purchase this one.