Mrs TLC - I have to tell you that my Excalibur doesn't dry foods as evenly as advertized. Food and trays still need to be moved around while drying. My old American Harvester, now called Nesco, worked quite well for me. I consider it a good buy for the money. L_in_FL - I did buy a jerky gun but I haven't use it yet. I wish that I watched the jerky videos more carefully before buying the gun because I didn't realize that the ground meat has to be mixed with chemicals so it can turn into a paste. That didn't appeal to me. I need to do more research on that. If anyone has experience with a jerky gun, I would like to know also. You don't need a jerky gun to make jerky. It's only for ground meat. I want to learn how to make ground turkey jerky because it is healthier than beef. Years ago when I made beef jerky I would ask the butcher at Publix to slice the meat for me. That is really important so you get the slices the right thickness. I have seen some videos on making jerky with sliced chicken breasts. I want to give that a try. Christine

danab_z9_la (Dan) - I hope this information from a homemaker will make your research day for you. You will find USDA (United Stated Department of Agriculture) information at the link below on preparation of fruits (including figs) for dehydrating, and it may help answer your other questions - so read it carefully and take notes. Maybe you haven't studied this yet, but storage time of all food, including home-dehydrated foods, depends on several things: 1.) Heat 2.) Light 3.) Moisture 4.) Oxygen Shelf-life of storage foods are usually calculated at an "average temperature", often called "room temperature" which is usually 70-degrees F. To maximize the shelf-life the optimum storage temperature would be between 40-60-degrees F. for "room-temperature" storage. Zero-degrees F or colder for even longer storage time, and the food will also maintain more nutritional value at freezer temperatures. If you are going to freeze the food, you may want to use a method called DEHYDROFREEZING which is a combination of partially dehydrating the food and then freezing it. Fruit will normally have 80% of the moisture removed during dehydrating (you can weigh your food before drying, and then post-drying to determine how much moisture has been removed - Figs contain about 78% water before drying - you do the math...). When you use dehydrofreezing you dehydrate 70% of the moisture BUT the food MUST be stored in the freezer to avoid bacteria growth. Benefits of dehydrofreezing: the fruit will have good flavor and color and they reconstitute in about one-half the time it takes for traditionally dried foods. Information you can easily find in books at your local library on the subject, or on-line, will show most dried fruit can be stored in an air-tight container (NOT vacuum-sealed or with an oxygen absorber) for one year at 60-degrees F, or six months at 80-degrees F. Vegetables have about half the shelf-life of fruits because fruits contain sugar and sugar extends shelf-life. Extend that time to double normal storage time by vacuum-sealing (oxygen-free). Extend it even longer by vacuum-sealing AND storing in the freezer. Information from "How To Dry Foods" by Deanna DeLong (a book commonly found in libraries, or available through Inter-Library Loan - or purchase it through Amazon.com): Figs are excellent for drying. Storage time for best quality at 34-degrees F - 18-24-months or 5-8-years at 0-degrees F. Three pounds of fresh figs makes 1-pound dried. Fifty-five percent of the weight of dried figs is natural sugar. Check out the book for more information including: -varieties best for drying -which fruit to select -water content before drying -how to prepare figs -pretreatment (if any) -drying temperature -dryness test -how to use Oddly enough, I pulled all this information from my home library and information I teach in home-dehydrating classes I give. No big Government Research Grant funding this - just a nice person who took my personal time to enlighten someone doing (ah hem) "research". -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Drying Fruits

As said the different wattage might make a difference in drying time but these are slow anyway. Sometimes a slower drying is better. Some units have adjustment on the power. Some have fans. Some don't. The fan is advantageous in that you don't have to rotate trays as much. I had an American Harvest. Worked fine but once crippled up I can't do that kind of stuff much anymore so I gave it away. You can dehydrate in an oven too for that matter. You might start with a cheapie and if you get into it, buy a better (or second) unit. Remember that many things need to be blanched before dehydrating. Potatoes, for instance, will turn black if you don'[t blanch them. Won't really affect them but it's not very aesthetically appealing. Follow safe food handling techniques and you can have fun and get benefit from a dehydrator.

There are all kinds of household anti-bacterial disinfectant cleaners available that are safe to use on plastics. Some ready to use, some you dilute in water. If nothing else you can use what many use to disinfect their plastics - a 10% clorox bleach solution. 1 part Clorox bleach to 9 parts water and spray. Dave