Nesco American Harvest FD-1020 Gardenmaster 1000-Watt Digital Food Dehydrator
- 1000-watt 4-tray digital food dehydrator dries in hours instead of days
- Flavors don’t mix; no need to rotate trays; opaque exterior blocks harmful lights
- Adjustable thermostat; 48-hour digital timer; dishwasher-safe parts
- Includes recipe book, solid sheet, mesh sheet, and jerky spice packet
- Measures approximately 15 by 15 by 9 inches
Product DescriptionThe Gardenmaster digital food dehydrator comes with 4 trays and accessories. Easily dries fruit, vegetables and jerky quickly and evenly. Dries food in hours not days. Unit disassembles easily and all parts are dishwasher safe except the power head. The Opaque Vita-Save exterior helps block harmful lights which destroys nutritional content of food being dehydrated. The Patented fan flow radial air action forces air down the center of the unit and horizontally across each tray for fast, even-drying. No need to rotate. 1000 watts of power.
Nesco American Harvest FD-1020 Gardenmaster 1000-Watt Digital Food Dehydrator
Tagged with: 1000Watt • American • dehydrator • Digital • FD1020 • Food • Gardenmaster • Harvest • Nesco
Filed under: Dehydrator
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I wanted the Gardenmaster to make my own gluten-free jerky. Despite many readings of the instruction manual I missed that for safety I needed to include the spice packet (which makes things dry faster, before bacteria can grow at the low-heat levels). So that batch is sitting in the freezer and I’m not sure what to do with it.
The directions are confusing (the top of the machine very clearly states that jerky is made at 160 degrees, Nesco customer service says 155–doesn’t sound like a big difference but E. coli is killed at 160). The manual says to dehydrate jerky for 2-15 hours. Customer service says 5-8. Why the huge difference? Doesn’t instill a lot of confidence.
Customer service also didn’t offer very helpful advice about whether their spice packets were gluten-free (“yes, except Teriyaki flavor, and in the case of allergies it’s best to play it safe if you’re not sure”–duh!).
Does the temperature rise high enough fast enough to be able to skip the pre-dehydrating cooking at 160 that the USDA recommends? Nesco didn’t respond to that (though it would seems that exactly why they made a dehydrator that reaches those temps, but I’d like confirmation), said to just use the aforementioned spice packet that may or may not include allergens.
I’d give it a lower score because the whole experience has been disappointing, but the machine is relatively quiet and dries well.
Rating: 2 / 5
I was a bit dissappointed with the whole ‘drying’ experience- I tried to dry peaches as directed, watermelon as directed, banana’s as directed- I tried and I tried but no matter how I sliced and diced they never seemed to work out for me! The fruits never dried througouhly- and I tried many different time settings- could be user error- or just mis-guidance in the directions. For me, it didn’t work out- for others it may be the perfect product.
Rating: 3 / 5
We bought this high end product based on good reviews. What a disappointment! When we dried prune plums from our trees, at a medium temperature, it melted the top two trays. The melted trays had to be tossed, and as I sit here and look at it, five of 12 trays warped enough to let air flow out the sides instead of all the way through the trays and out the bottom. I just dried some pie cherries from the freezer and due to the air flow, they came out very unevenly dried.
Rating: 2 / 5
Happy with first two batches, the unit worked better than expected. On the third it stopped heating and after just 60 days I have to send in for warranty at my expense! This after having to toss 25$ worth of beef. I will check back in to advise on the experience.
Rating: 2 / 5
Well made product. Really like the timer! Enjoy being able to adjust the heat setting.
Rating: 4 / 5