Today’s guest of our laboratory is a convection dehydrator (dryer for fruits and vegetables) GL-FD-01R from Gemlux. Convection means that air is taken from below, heated with the help of heating elements and rushes upward, blowing the contents of pallets stacked on top of each other. The manufacturer has long been familiar to us and has proven itself well, and we have already tested a myriad of similar dryers. The device is inexpensive and completely standard, without “bells and whistles”. So the main intrigue of this testing is how well the device copes with its, in general, only function.

Characteristics

Manufacturer	Gemlux
Model	GL-FD-01R
Type	dehydrator
Country of Origin	China
Warranty	1 year
Declared power	500 W
Control	electronic
Housing material	plastic
pallet material	plastic
Number of pallets	5
Drying temperature	40-70°C
overheat protection	there is
Timer	up to 48 hours
The weight	2.76 kg
Dimensions (W×H×D)	333×365×265 mm
Network cable length	0.84 m
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Equipment

The almost cubic box is decorated in the Gemlux corporate style: on a black and turquoise background, we see a photo of the device and some technical data.

There is no handle on the box, but the dryer is light, so it is easy to carry the box, although not very convenient due to its size. Inside we found:

• dryer body,
• 5 pallets
• lid,
• instructions (aka warranty card).

At first sight

If you have ever come across an inexpensive convection dryer, then you will not find anything new in the GL-FD-01R configuration. In a plastic case 11 cm high, heating elements and a fan are hidden, dispersing hot air through the levels. The case itself is white with metallic edging. On its front side there is a control panel and a display showing the remaining operating time and temperature. The power cord comes out on the opposite side.

At the bottom of the case we find three ventilation holes and four rubberized legs.

Five pallets with a diameter of 35 cm and a height of 3 cm, stacked on top of each other, are made of light, barely translucent plastic.

The bottom of the trays is mesh, in the center there is a hole with a diameter of 7 cm. Unfortunately, the cells are large, that is, you will have to cut the products large or make substrates from gauze or other suitable materials, because a special mat for marshmallow, which could be placed under, for example, berries, not included. The trays are the same, except for one: its central hole is closed with a plastic valve, which tells us in three languages that this tray should always be on top. This fact did not make us very happy: after all, in vertical dryers, we often have to change pallets in places due to the uneven distribution of warm air, and such a restriction threatens us with unnecessary manipulations.

From above, the entire structure is closed with a transparent plastic lid. There is no handle on it, but there are 4 oblong holes for air outlet.

That’s all. Just outrageous, no stunning design or technological solutions. And we didn’t expect anything else: the design in such a device is the last thing important, and space technologies would cost more.

Instruction

The instructions are simple to match the device. The black and white 10-page brochure is written in plain language and contains all the necessary information.

In addition to standard safety precautions and recommendations for storage and care, here are tables that summarize the drying time and temperature for different products, so that even a neophyte can get started without Google. True, we ate a dog on dehydrators, so the advice to boil chicken and vegetables before drying / drying surprised us a little.

Control

The control panel consists of four buttons: on / off, “+” and “-“, “set” (that is, “installation”).

Two seconds after turning on the power supply, you can set the operating parameters. To begin with, the “+” button sets the hour (“-” for adjustment), then you need to press “set”, and you will proceed to the temperature selection. Here, too, “+” and “-” are used. To switch from degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit, you must hold down the “set” button until you switch to the desired system. When you have chosen the time and temperature of operation, it remains only to press the “on” button once, and the dryer will do its job.

Both the timer and the temperature can be adjusted as the drying progresses. After the set time has elapsed, the device will stop working and go into sleep mode.

Exploitation

First of all, of course, we washed the trays and the lid with warm water and detergent, and wiped the body with a damp and then dry cloth.

From the point of view of control and design, working with the GL-FD-01R was easy, but the dryer did not allow me to completely relax. We were prepared for the fact that the upper levels would warm up worse than the lower ones, but it turned out that the heating is uneven inside the same pan. I had to periodically climb into the dryer and stir up its contents, turning the pallets and shifting the products from place to place: in the center the air warmed up more than at the edges; on one side of the tray, the products were already dried, and on the other, they were still like new. The contents of the bottom, which is understandable, and, oddly enough, the top pallets dried the fastest.

As we mentioned at the beginning, the cells of the grid of trays are very large, therefore, for example, we dried greens directly with branches, chopped them already in dried form. The instruction recommends cutting carrots into circles, but we are used to the root crop being dried in smaller pieces, so we had to cut out substrates from thin lutrasil. Often, so-called marshmallow mats come with dryers, but not in this case. In theory, they can be bought separately, but it turned out that the central hole in the pallets is non-standard: here it is 7 cm in diameter, while most of these devices have 6 cm, so finding a suitable “tuning” is not easy.

Another not critical, but still inconvenience – to see what is displayed on the display, you can only bend over so that it is at eye level. At the top you will see only “88”.

During drying, pleasant smells hover around the device: onion turned out to be the champion, dried chicken was in second place: the spices from the marinade were fragrant with might and main for the first three hours.

As for noise, the device is very quiet. After a minute, the ear gets so used to this barely noticeable buzz that you can completely forget that the dryer is present in the room.

Care

Here everything is also elementary. The pallets practically do not get dirty, even after drying the marinated chicken, there are no traces left on them. Only sweet bananas stick a little during drying, so there is some “dirt” left on the mesh. But any contamination is easily washed off with warm soapy water.

Unfortunately, the upper part of the case is not removable, and food falls on it during drying (for example, we had a lot of dill). Some of this waste can be collected with a napkin, and to shake out the rest, you will have to turn the entire base of the dryer over.

Our measurements

The temperature in the dryer is regulated by turning the heaters on and off. When they heat up, the device produces power from 500 watts and above (the maximum recorded by us is 640 watts when operating at 65 degrees), then rolling down to 16-18 watts.

practice tests

A dehydrator is ideal for drying mushrooms, but not in season. So we dried and dried:

• greenery,
• fruits,
• roots,
• chicken.

Dried herbs (dill and parsley)

150 grams of dill and parsley were laid out on pallets (occupied 4 of them). Rough and thick legs cut off almost completely.

We checked the instructions, set the temperature to 45 degrees and started the dryer. Once every couple of hours, I had to change the pallets in places and turn them around the axis, since the greens dried unevenly even inside one tray.

After 7 hours, the dill leaves were already dry, but the stems and parsley were not yet in condition. Raised the temperature to 50 degrees. In total, it took 13 hours and 1.8 kWh to bring the greenery to perfection. Even after this time, the stems did not inspire confidence in us, so we simply ran our fingers over them, shaking off the dried leaves, and discarded the stems themselves.

Result: good.

Dried fruits (apples and bananas)

To begin with, apples were peeled and cores and cut into thin slices (up to 7 mm). Each pallet fit about 300 grams of fruit, so we successfully placed about a kilogram on three and a half pallets. 4 large bananas (each without a skin – about 170 grams) occupied the remaining one and a half trays.

We set the temperature to 65 degrees, the timer – for 10 hours. Periodically stirring up the contents of the trays and changing their places, after 9 hours they waited for the apples to be ready.

The bananas were left to wither for another 6 hours. Total yield of apples – 160 grams, bananas – about 200 grams. Energy consumption for 15 hours – 3 kWh.

It should be noted that we did not achieve complete drying of fruits – they remained plastic inside and became an excellent substitute for sweets for tea.

Result: excellent.

Dried root vegetables (carrots and onions)

500 grams of carrots were cut into quarter rings, a huge 300-gram onion – into cubes. They lined the pallets with lutrasil and laid out the root crops, which occupied three pallets. 55 degrees, timer for 10 hours.

Carrots were ready in 9 hours (yield – 50 grams). Onions were dried for another 4 hours (yield – 40 grams). The wattmeter showed 2.2 kWh.

The root vegetables have retained their flavors and make a great addition to soups or other dishes. And for a camp kitchen, this is an ideal option: after the dryer, one small carrot will fit in a matchbox. The texture of cooked vegetables is dry and brittle, so they can be stored for a long time in a glass jar.

Result: excellent.

Dried chicken (jerky)

Jerky, or jerky, usually takes more than a day to cook, but with a dehydrator, the process will take several hours. 1.5 kg of chicken breast fillets were thoroughly cleaned of fat (even the smallest piece of it will give the meat a rancid taste during long-term storage), cut into thin slices (5-7 mm) and marinated overnight in a mixture of soy and Worcestershire sauces, teriyaki, mustard were also added , dry garlic, star anise, fennel and Sichuan pepper. The main condition is that the chicken must spend some time in a salty environment, the rest of the ingredients can be anything, their range is limited only by your taste and imagination.

The pickled chicken was laid out on pallets (all 5 were in use) and the temperature was set to 65 degrees.

After 4 hours, the meat was noticeably dried out on the outside. Periodically, it was necessary to shift the pieces from place to place, since in one part of the tray the meat already looked like jerky, and in the other it was still almost raw. After 5 and a half hours, the thinnest and smallest pieces were ready, the last of the Mohicans kept for a total of 9 and a half hours.

During this time, the dryer consumed 2 kWh. In total, we got 650 grams of excellent spicy jerky. Beer suggests itself for such an appetizer, but abstaining tasters were also very pleased.

Result: excellent.

findings

Although the results of practical tests are generally not bad, I would still like to keep the number of dances with tambourines around the dryer to a minimum, and the GL-FD-01R requires special attention – every couple of hours you will have to mix the products and rearrange the pallets.

It is a pity that the trays are made of non-translucent plastic: it is impossible to assess the condition of the contents of the dryer without opening it. And a large bottom mesh in the absence of a special substrate for marshmallow creates additional inconvenience.

At the same time, one cannot fail to note the convenience of controlling the dehydrator and the wide range of available temperatures, also with a short step of 5 degrees. Taking into account the low price, the device as a whole was recognized by us as quite good and can be recommended to novice experimenters in the field of dehydration of products, as well as to those who use the dryer infrequently – for example, mushroom pickers.

pros

• easy to manage and maintain
• wide range of temperatures
• low power consumption
• inexpensive

Minuses

• uneven heating inside one tray
• opaque pallets
• large grid of pallets