I have been doing some research on food dehydrators, and came to the realization that I don’t know if I simply want a nine tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator. I’ve had them, but since we have been on a build-it-yourself kick, I thought it would be awesome to build a food dehydrator custom for underneath my counter with a full glass door (probably made from a salvaged window). The design on the left was made by Charles Sanders and I’d like to take the principles of his design and create a built in food dehydrator in the first bay of my under counter space.

As I continued to research, I realized that the sun heats up so beautifully here in New Mexico so why not also have a solar dehydrator outside as well.  We’re excited to build something outside that is totally solar, but the biggest challenge for me is building it to look good in the yard as well as being functional. I have a real aversion to our yard becoming a scene out of the old TV series “Sanford and Son.” Since we have big plans for the back yard, I want to plan it permaculturally and add my elements in such a way that everything looks like it belongs. This is not an easy task when you have funky looking plywood boxes lined with aluminum foil! If anyone reading this has built a solar dehydrator please leave a comment and tell me all about your experiences. What is the “good, the bad and the ugly” to having one of these homemade beauties? Did you use mostly salvaged materials? We are planning to make the whole thing from mostly salvaged materials…the challenge? Form and function! It needs to look good and work well.

Tags: excalibur dehydrator, homemade food dehydrator, solar dehydrator