Nesco American Harvestor Dehydrator FD -60 Snackmaster Express

17 years ago

Another one goes bad!

Had been running for nearly a day set at aprox 115 on the dial and was reading 130Â° on my probe type thermometer that I use to constantly monitor temps. (a perfect temp for what I am drying) Checked this morning and was over 160Â°!!!! Unplugged, let cool off, checked tray positions to see if airflow blocked etc. Turned dial all the way down to bottom (95Â°) and drove to town to pick up mail. Came back and temp was 149Â°.

Now this unit is a replacement for the same model that went bad back in I think 2005. Same thing happened.

Called Nesco this morning. Nothing they will do as is obviously out of warranty. A replacement top (heating unit) available for $28 plus $5 shipping though. And they had never heard of a similar complaint before. Hello!!! When I called in they found my previous file from my phone #.

Just a heads-up. Caveat emptor if you will. I expect most people don't care or know what temps they are dehydrating at and for some things 160Â° might be just fine. I need low temps for what I do. Be sure and use a thermometer probe to monitor temps if you use one of these units. I expect a 15Â° variation from what says on the dial & that is acceptable.

Very disappointed. Will probably email a complaint to

WallyWorld and hope they decide to stock a more reliable brand.

JohnT

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Comments (5)

Linda_Lou
17 years ago
Goodness, I have had two Nesco dehydrators for years and they are still going strong. Mine are not the new kind with the dial on top, but the thermostat on the bottom. The link below shows the ones I have. I would get the best one with 1000 watts, but mine are still good, so can't justify buying one now.
I am sorry you have had such bad luck with them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nesco dehydrator.
John__ShowMe__USA
Original Author
17 years ago
Linda Lou,

Mine are the ones with the top heating element and dial on top. I went to my local WallyWorldStuporStore to buy yet another today as have some stuff drying that I really don't want to lose even though might be ruined by the high heat already. Was informed by the dept mgr that the store no longer carries it!!! She remarked "and it was a good seller". There were tons of them there less than a week ago that I saw while buying some canning jars.

Now I could wire in a cheapo rheostat that would control the heat (although would slow down the fan too) and continue to use the two bad units. But... now am getting ticked off. For the customer service rep to say had never heard of any similar complaints just rings false to me.

Ran down another unit and bought it. Temps are reading very close to what the dial setting says. From past experience expect that as time goes on the differences between dial and actual temps will gradually grow and will one day go nuts again.

jt
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I second Greg's suggestion! Here's the one I have! http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nesco-Professional-700W-5-Tray-Food-Dehydrator-FD-75PR/10982697#about I don't know what the difference is between the FD-75PR and the FD-75A! They seem to be identical! Mine was bought as the PR. It has 5 trays (you can add more) and it came with a couple of the "solid sheets," and a couple "mesh sheets." I love that the motor/fan is on top so there's no mess dripping down onto it, and the "plain" bottom is easy to clean, and I like it because it has a completely adjustable thermostat, unlike some that only have "on" and "off." I've had it for, I think, 3 years now and haven't used it a whole lot, but I'm really glad to have it when I want it. I wouldn't call it "noisy" at all, but there is the constant sound of a fan running and I wouldn't want to constantly have it in the same room with me, but that's no problem at all! Sometimes I just leave it down in the basement, and when I was drying basil a couple months ago and wanted to check it often I just put it in the living room--where I seldom am! When I was deciding which one to get some people were complaining that this one doesn't have an on and off switch--but I was like: how awful is it to have to unplug it if you want it off, and you can take the top off to check inside without turning it off anyway! When I had it in the living room I plugged it into a switched plug and just flipped the switch off if I was checking it! Here's a site I used when I was trying to decide what to get. http://www.dehydratorbook.com/food-dehydrator-reviews.html When I got mine WM had it at $65 but I got it online on sale for $55. I don't think you're gonna find it that cheap anymore (tho it's always worth looking on eBay!), and the price Greg found on Amazon looks pretty good to me. I consider mine to have been a very good investment. Skybird
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gardenlad
17 years ago
John, fwiw, I've always used the bottom-heat models, similar to Linda Lou's, and have never had that problem either.

Maybe next unit you should change direction?

I see that the newest model can accomodate up to 30 trays. Mine is the 12 tray model, and I think, for various reasons, if I needed more capacity I'd opt for two 12 tray models rather than one 30 tray unit.
ksrogers
17 years ago
High wattage might be nice if you were needing a dryer to 'cook' things. I would expect a dehydrator would only need about a 100 watts or so to efficiently dry something. My old Ronco, really cheap and no fan or temp settings, has worked for nearly 20 years without any problems. Its heater is a low 35 watt one, enough to dry out most things. It does have a 'dead spot', but if the round trays are rotated, and turned about 2 times a day, they dry more evenly.
John__ShowMe__USA
Original Author
17 years ago
Brook & Ken,

I very seldom have more than 4 trays going at one time and have never needed more than 6. Just don't do things on a large scale here.

Heat control is really important to me. Mostly I dehydrate hot peppers for powders and never go over 125Â° because want good color. Lately have been dehydrating fermented pepper mashes and want 130Â° for that. Capsaicin melts somewhere in the mid to upper 150s and gases off in the upper 140s. The capsaicin heat is important to chile-heads and I want to keep as much as possible.

jt

Nesco American Harvestor Dehydrator FD -60 Snackmaster Express

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Nesco American Harvestor Dehydrator FD -60 Snackmaster Express

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