[Food Storage] Dehydration

Ludi · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:39 pm Post subject: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Here's pics of the solar dehydrator my husband built:

So far we have only four drying racks made, but eventually there will be ten, each about 20 inches by 17 inches.

Our only problem with the unit is it tends to get too hot! Over 150 degrees F on a clear day, so I have to partially cover the collector with a towel. We're planning to install a solar fan to pull air through faster, which should both keep the temp down and speed drying.

Plans:

http://www.littlecolorado.org/solar.htm
_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy

uNkNowN ElEmEnt · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:15 pm Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Wow that's really impressive. Nice work. where did you get a food safe grade screen? can you get that at the hardware store? or did you improvise?

Ludi · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

We used hardware cloth and covered that with removeable pieces of polyethylene screens made for a retail dehydrator. I think if we searched harder we could have found polyethylene screen from some other supplier.
_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy

skyemoor · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:03 pm Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Ludi, this is appears to be an excellent dehydrator. Was it all built from scratch, or did y'all use a food-warmer as your drying box?

Are you going to put the fan in a screened hole in the bottom, to provide full circulation throughout the box?
_________________
http://www.carfree.com
http://ecoplan.org/carshare/cs_index.htm
http://www.velomobile.de/GB/Advantages/advantages.html

Chance favors the prepared mind. -- Louis Pasteur

He that lives upon hope will die fasting. --Benjamin Franklin

Ludi · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:10 am Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Thanks!

Built from scratch.

We're planning to put a small PV fan at the top back vent opening, to pull warm air through faster.

We found a source for very inexpensive 12V fans

http://www.allelectronics.com/
_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy

kelee877 · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:39 am Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Could you use old school lockers we have abunch of those..

skyemoor · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 9:09 am Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Ludi · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:31 am Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

There's a chimney at the back, with an opening on the bottom, so air will be pulled from the top where it enters from the collector, down through the drying box, through the vent to the chimney at the bottom, and out the vent at the top of the chimney at the back. This is illustrated in the plans. I suspect warm air might be stagnating at the top of the drying box currently, though so far things have dried quickly and evenly throughout the box.
_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy

frankthetank · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:41 pm Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

What have you dried so far?

I'm interested in this, because the cost of dried fruits in the store are outrageously expensive.

Ludi · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:59 pm Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

So far I've only dried some red peppers and a few herbs. I'm currently drying some seed corn, keeping to a very low temp by covering most of the collector.

I wanted to dry lots of vegs, but my harvests have been rather small and we eat everything fresh with none left over to dry. Sad

_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy

Wednesday · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 4:27 am Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

This is awesome Ludi. I was thinking about getting a Ronco Ronnie version lol.

My hubby is more of a hunter than a carpenter. I'm not much of a woodworker either. This is a pretty elaborate project for someone like us.

I want to dry squash and and other veggies to add to soups. You guys think those little commercial dryers are a good idea?

Ludi · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 5:47 am Post subject: Re: [Food Storage] Dehydration

Yes, my husband's pretty handy with making things, it's what he does for a living - not carpentry though, he's actually quite critical of this project and not all that happy with it!

Lehman's has a sale on hanging food dryers, you might want to think about something like this:

food dryer
_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy