Looking for Answers about Open Country Open Country® 7-Tray Food Dehydrator?

About like a hairdyer on low fan setting. Sometimes there is a slight buzzing/vibrating sound from it about like crickets at night. The buzzing usually starts an hr or so into drying and happenes off and on (lasting no more than 5 sec at a time) for about another hr or so. Seems to be related to rising internal temp or something. For the first hr or 2 your house will smell strongly of whatever is drying. As it gets drier, the smells goes down dramatically. i.e. A totally dried onion smells nowhere as strongly as a warm, wet, freshly sliced onion. I try to use it on low humidity days, open a window, and use a box fan to blow out the smell for the 1st couple of hrs. Or just ignore it and throw some herbs into it afterwards to cover up the smell left by the jerky. There are also other ways to make the jerky smell "nice" when it's cooking, such as marinating in honey or liquid smoke, or throwing some lemon or orange slices in with the drying jerky,depending on which smells you find "pleasant".

No it's not loud at all {like a small fan on medium speed} Cooking smell just like if you where cooking a dinner.

It sounds like a fan and no, it didn't make the house smell like jerky.

the blower does make a little noise but it does not stink up the house

It is not as loud as a range hood fan and yes you will smell jerky in the house but the smell does not linger.

The unit sounds like a quiet hair dryer. It will smell up area where you are dehydrating.

it's louder than I thought it would be, but really not that loud at all. sounds like a travel hair dryer on low fan setting. the sound disappears into the background after a while.

And your house will only smell like jerky if you are MAKING jerky :)

Make a batch of cinnamon apples and your house will smell very nice!

No - It comes with 7. 5 are required, but more than 7 can be used as high as you want to stack it. There is an order form in the box to order more, in sets of 2, for $7-$25/set. Price depends on size (13" or 15") and type of tray needed (wet, sticky, or reg mesh trays).

You can purchase extra trays. It says it comes with 7 trays however the bottom isn't really a tray so I would say it has 6 trays which will dry quite a bit. I can usually get about 4-5 pounds of meat dried at one time. You can put the meat or fruit really close to each other because as they dry, they shrink up quite a bit.

You can buy extra trays. I was able to make 5 lbs of chicken with the supplied tray

It comes with 7 trays and it holds alot

the unit is sold with 4 trays but additional sets of 2 trays can be purchased

Just like in the name it comes with 7 trays.

Generally, no. It depends on what you are drying, how you slice it, if it's fresh, marinated, or previously canned, and how many trays you are using. It always has to have at least 5 trays. It comes with 7 trays. You can order as many extra trays as you need. With 7 trays, I've never had to rotate anything, even when mixing different meats, veggies, & fruits all in the same batch. I just be sure everything is sliced to about the same thickness, put it all in, and let it go. It heats from the top down. Once I had to remove everything except previously canned peaches & cherries, to let them go longer. But that was because they were so wet/syrupy to begin with.

No

not necessary with the blower and fan and tray design.

I didn't need to.

No, I have never rotated the trays and get good results every time. I don't see any harm in rotating them, I just haven't found it nescessary.

It kind of depends how much you put in there and how thinly sliced. I did about 4-5 pounds of beef (1/4" strips) and it took about 7-8 hours.

I have been making chicken jerky and it takes about 8-12 hours. I did marinate the meat overnight.

I made about 15 pounds of jerkey at one time-using 8 travys and it took 11 hours. I cut the meat in 3/16 inch strips. Thicker strips will probably take a little longer.

About 7 to 8 hours depending on how much you do at one time.

I typically dry mine for 6 hours if I am going to use it right away. It's pretty moist still so I keep it in the fridge. I go 12 hours if I am going to take it out camping for a week.

The temp. in my unit got up to 160 degrees. All trays dried evenly without the need to rotate trays.

there is an enclosed heater and blower and it has a dial to varie the temperature setting up to 165 degrees F

Yes there is a heater and it is around 145 to 150 degr's

Yes there is. Dont know the temp. Only on/off.

Yes, it gets to between 160 and 180 degrees.

Yes, Great Jerky

Yes makes great Jerky!

Oh yeah...quite well too I might add :)

They make 2 sizes. 13" or 15". Trays that came with this one were 13". (must be inside mesh size of rack) Entire unit is about 14 1/2" across.

15 inches

13-1/2''

Min is 5 trays at a time. Don't think there is a max. All of the trays stack to form the outside, so you can stack it as high as you want/need. It heats from the top, so if stacked too high, lower trays would take longer to dry and may have to be rotated. With 7 trays, we never have to rotate anything for all trays to come out perfectly. As a "guestimate", each try holds about one large fruit or vegetable. I can usually do a 5 lb bag of potatoes (7-8 large white) in a single batch of 7 trays.

It says you can go up to 30?

given the amount of air this dehydrator moves, I would not consider adding more trays to this unit. step up to the 500 or 700 watt unit to add more drying capacity.

Yes. An order form is in the box. You can order from the Nesco website, by mail, or by phone. You can pay by check, money order, or credit card for xtra trays. A set of 2 xtra trays runs from $7-$25 depending on size/type of tray desired.

Yes and a order form comes with it

yes-extra trays come in sets of 2

Absolutely! Herbs are super fast in it. Less than an hr for most. They make a couple of optional trays called fruit roll & clean a screen that work better for small herbs without letting them all fall to the bottom as they dry & crumble. But I've never really had a big problem with that when they are all left on their stems. Sometimes I dry them before company comes by, just to make the house smell nice :-) Tomatoes do great in it, but take longer than most everything else I've tried (except pineapple, peaches, & cherries) Last batch took 5-6 hrs when cut 1/4 - 1/2" thick. But I also dried them totally to be powdered for soups & sauces. Depends on what you hope to do with them later, how you plan to store them, & how quickly you plan to use them.

This unit does not have an adjustable themorstat. According to the manual, herbs are to be dried at 95 degrees F, this unit runs around 160 degrees which is what you want for jerky. Open Country makes two other deydrators carried by Bass Pro, both have adjustable thermostats, I have been using my 7 tray unit so much, I was thinking of buying the digital unit. The digital unit also expands up to 20 trays.