The Best Dehydrators of 2024

The Nesco Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator is one of the most popular, best-reviewed dehydrators on the market. It features a simple, expandable design that uses a top-mounted heating element and fan that sits on top of stackable trays where you place the food you’re trying to dry.

This design allows you to dry up to 20 trays of food at once, with each tray offering about one square foot of space. It doesn’t allow for large items, though most dried food is cut thin to allow for even and efficient dehydration anyway.

Reviewers love this unit, particularly the easy-to-use digital time and temperature controls, and the expansive range of temperature settings (from 90°F to 160°F) letting you dry out all sorts of items. The main drawback here is that it ships with just four plastic (BPA-free) trays, though you can add up to 16 more trays.

There are a number of dehydrators online that look just like the Magic Mill, but this is one of the best-reviewed versions. It’s a simple design, with a box housing basic stainless steel trays, a 600-watt heating element, and a large fan to evenly distribute heat and draw water out of whatever you’re dehydrating.

Reviewers were particularly fond of this dehydrator's large display, which lets you control both time and temperature (from 95° to 167°F). The trays are stainless steel, meaning they’re fully dishwasher-safe, which is a nice touch. It also comes with mesh trays that are workable for small items like nuts that fall through slats on other trays, and it can even be used to dehydrate fruit rolls.

The Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator is another top-mounted dehydrator that sits atop stackable trays. These trays are also plastic (BPA-free) and about one square foot each, though this 600-watt dehydrator only supports a maximum of 12 trays at once (it ships with 5).

Reviewers were generally very high on this dehydrator, especially its ease of use and ability to hold the most popular temperature for dehydration (140°F). It supports a full temperature range (from 90°F to 160°F) and comes with two fruit roll sheets.

The main thing to note here is the Snackmaster has an analog temperature control knob vs the more common digital display. It also doesn’t feature a timer of any kind so you’ll need to set an alarm to check on your items.

The Tribest Sedona Express is a “premium” dehydrator that is well-constructed, offers a ton of space for dehydrating items, and has a robust set of different modes for dehydrating all sorts of foods. It ships with a whopping 11 stainless steel trays, has a digital time and temperature control, and has a cleanable/reusable air filter.

The unit itself is heavy at just over 20 pounds, but it’s compact overall and reviewers loved how much space inside it held. Since you can remove some of the trays it can support taller items like mason jars and yogurt. Reviewers in particular loved the “Fast” setting, which makes jerky in just over 5 hours in some cases, about twice as fast as some other dehydrators.

The Cosori Premium Food Dehydrator is similar to other models we’ve seen such as the Magic Mill, and it’s a simple design. It features a stainless steel box, stainless steel trays that are dishwasher- safe, and a very simple front display with time and temperature control.

Reviewers found this to be a solid, compact dehydrator that worked well, quietly and was easy to clean. One thing that stood out in our research was the included recipe book, which multiple reviewers called out as better-than-expected, which can be helpful if you’re just getting into dehydrating your food.

Hamilton Beach has been making great, compact kitchen gadgets for years, and this little dehydrator is no different. It is slightly less powerful and smaller than some of the other dehydrators we recommend, but for a small load it’s more than sufficient.

It features a 500-watt heating element that is seated at the bottom of the unit, with five stackable trays that go on top. It has a standard temperature range of 100°F-160°F. It does include a solid sheet for making fruit rolls and a mesh sheet for smaller items, but the trays are (BPA-free) plastic and have larger slats that those items may slip through.