Who We Are
BestDehydrator.com is an independent food dehydrator review site, founded in 2017 by Julian “Jules” Vance. We test dehydrators the way a buyer would use them — bought at retail, run for real batches of food, measured with real instruments — and publish what we find, good or bad.
Since 2017, we’ve tested 47+ dehydrators and logged 2000+ hours of drying time across every price tier, from $40 budget units to $400+ commercial models.
Our Mission
Most dehydrator “reviews” online are written from spec sheets, not experience. We started this site after wasting money on a unit that ran 15°F hotter than its display claimed — and finding no source online that would have warned us. Our mission is simple: be the site we wish had existed then. Every review here is based on hands-on testing, not manufacturer claims.
Meet the Team
Julian has spent over a decade moving between professional kitchens and backcountry trails, and has run BestDehydrator.com’s testing program since 2017. His specialty is diagnosing the gap between what a dehydrator promises and what it actually does under real use — uneven trays, temperature drift, control panels that fail after six months.
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Favorite Tool: The Excalibur 9-Tray (for its “old-school reliability”).
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Most Viral Achievement: Successfully dehydrating and rehydrating a full Thanksgiving dinner for a thru-hike.
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Secret Skill: Turning “ugly” garden leftovers into “Green Gold” nutritional powder.
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Controversial Opinion: Fruit leather should never be perfectly smooth; texture is everything.
How We’re Funded
BestDehydrator.com participates in the Amazon Associates program and similar affiliate networks. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission — at no extra cost to you.
This does not influence which products we test or how we score them. We buy every test unit at retail price ourselves. We do not accept manufacturer payment for reviews, placement, or ratings, and we regularly recommend products that pay us nothing, when they’re the better choice.
Full detail on how testing and scoring work is on our Testing Process page.
Contact Us
Questions about a review, a correction to report, or a dehydrator you’d like us to test?
Email: [email protected]
Location: Portland, Oregon
We read every message and use reader requests to prioritize what we test next.
Editorial Policy
- We buy all test units at retail price through normal consumer channels.
- Manufacturers cannot pay for coverage, placement, or a favorable rating.
- If we discover a factual error, we correct it within 24 hours and note the correction at the bottom of the affected page.
- Reviews are re-tested or updated when new competing models change the category, or when long-term use reveals an issue our initial testing missed.