Electriq digital dehydrator with timer EDFD06

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How easy is the Electriq digital dehydrator with timer to use?

The digital display is clear and the control buttons well-labelled. Like many of the other models, there are just two controls: one for temperature and another for time. The temperature control increases in 5C increments and can be set between 35-70C. The timer can be set for up to 48 hours.

The instruction manual provided is one of the more detailed we’ve seen. It’s highly detailed, with large dehydrating charts for fruits, vegetables and herbs, as well as sections on fruit leather. For almost all foods, a suggested cutting size is provided, which is useful also. General tips, such as how to stop foods from discolouring and how to impart more flavour into the food you’re dehydrating are included.

When making fruit leather, we struggle to get the mixture to stay flat and even due to the hole in the middle of the tray. We have to cut a piece of parchment with a hole in the middle, which makes pouring the mixture a little precarious and also means we aren’t able to spread the mixture evenly. We are able to work around this in the end, but we suggest drying your fruit leather a little longer to ensure those thicker patches are dried completely.

Results

This model performs well in fruit, vegetable and herb tests. Tomatoes are intense in both colour and flavour. They shrivelled slightly as expected, but have the leathery, pliable texture we look for.

Mushrooms are leathery too, with a slight sponginess. They retain the same brown/grey colour of the original mushrooms. Both ingredients took 11:30 to dry out at 65C. The tomatoes are cut to just under 1cm as directed, but no cutting size is provided for the mushrooms, so we cut those to 1cm too.

The instructions say to cut apples and lemons to 1cm thick. The apples are pliable as hoped, and have a slight bite to them. The skin on the outside is drier than the flesh, but it remains malleable without snapping. The slices are sweet and intense with a punchy apple flavour. These take just 6:30. The lemons look fantastic: they have a brittle, glassy centre and a rich egg-yolk colour – perfect for garnishing cocktails. These take 10:30 to dry.

As with many of the other dehydrators, herbs take a long time to dry. Ours take 24 hours to dry, but the results are perfect: the basil is brittle and fully dried through.

We make BBC Good Food’s apple and blackberry fruit leather. Aside from the slight issue we have with the hole in the middle of the tray, we are very happy with the fruit leather produced. It's tender to eat and the apple and blackberry flavours really sing.

Conclusion

With a footprint no larger than a sheet of A3 paper, Electriq has put a good deal of thought into designing a compact but effective dehydrator. Its six trays provide ample space for bulk dehydration without taking up too much counter space.

Its manual is detailed and gives a good run down of dehydrating times, temperatures and how thick to cut a range of ingredients.

This model performed brilliantly on all of our tests, but performs best when dehydrating the classic stuff: fruits, vegetables and herbs. If you want a machine to make your own fruit leather, we’d suggest opting for a model with flat and complete trays. This is a simple machine that comes at a great price.

Specifications

Number of trays: six
Temperature range: 35-70C
Time: up to 48 hours
Dishwasher-safe trays: yes (top rack only)
Accessories included: plastic mesh tray
Wattage: 300W
Dimensions (cm): H: 21.5 x W: 43.5 x D: 29.3

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This review was last updated in April 2021. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk