SousVide Tools 6 Tray Food Dehydrator

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How easy is the SousVide Tools 6 Tray Food Dehydrator to use?

This dehydrator is simple to use. Its controls are clearly labelled and the trays slide into the dehydrator with ease. There’s a generous amount of space between each tray, meaning even thick foods can be dehydrated.

We’d have liked to see more detail in the manual. Although factors like room humidity can affect drying times, it would have been useful to have a table of suggested timings for a wider range of ingredients. Information on what thickness the fruit and veg should be would help first-time users, too.

This model ranges in temperature, from 35C – 65C, and temperatures are set using the dial on top of the machine. There’s no timer with automatic shut off, so you’ll need to set your own.

The wire trays and the two extra plastic trays aren’t dishwasher safe, but we cleaned them with a damp cloth easily.

Results

We were impressed with the SousVide Tools dehydrator. There was a bit of guess work involved when it came to working out how long to dehydrate foods for, but we found it worked well when we got the timings right.

Apples were quick to dehydrate, taking just over four hours. We cut them half a centimeter thick, and after dehydrating, they were pliable and spongey. As with all the apples we’ve dehydrated, the skin had gone slightly crisp and the inner portion of the apple discoloured slightly. The flavour was brilliant; dehydrating brought out the natural sweetness and the overall flavour had been intensified.

This model performed well when dehydrating lemons, although they did take 14 hours to dry. All lemon slices were evenly dried and had the glassy centre we were looking for. We did notice some slightly uneven colouring as the lemons at the back of the dehydrator were darker in colour than those at the front. This didn’t affect the flavour, however.

The vegetables were well dehydrated, too. Tomatoes were pliable and brightly coloured, and mushrooms remained spongey and malleable. We were equally impressed with the dried basil results; each leaf was perfectly brittle.

We used the supplied plastic tray to dehydrate fruit leather. In our haste to get the test started, we found that this tray will warp slightly if you add warm fruit puree to it, so make sure to let the puree cool completely. Our blackberry and apple fruit leather was leathery and pliable with an intense and bold flavour.

Conclusion

This is a professional-looking dehydrator that comes at a reasonable price. The six trays are ideal for someone looking to get into bulk dehydrating, though we’d suggest reading up about it elsewhere as the manual offers limited information.

It excelled on almost all of our tests, particularly with vegetables and herbs. It’s not the quickest model on the market, but it does produce consistently even results. We also found it was one of the quieter models we’ve tested.

It’s a simple to use machine that’s definitely worth considering if you’re in the market for a large dehydrator, but not looking to break the bank.

Specifications

Number of trays: 6
Temperature range: 35-65C
Time: up to 20h
Dishwasher safe trays: No
Accessories included: 1 x perforated plastic tray and 1 x solid tray
Wattage: 220
Dimensions (cm): H: 31.5 x W: 34.5 x D: 45

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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