The Best Food Dehydrators, According to Our Kitchen Tests

If you love to snack on foods like fruit leather, beef jerky, and apple chips, consider investing in a quality food dehydrator to make your own goodies at home. Dehydrating foods is a long-standing food preservation method that's often overlooked in favor of canning and pickling. While in the past the act of removing moisture from food required leaving it out in the sun for days on end, modern food dehydrators offer a faster and more sanitary approach to the process.

To help you sort through the crowded market, our experienced product testers performed side-by-side testing on 22 food dehydrators, evaluating them based on their design, noise level, performance, and ease of use and cleaning. We landed on the Magic Mill Food Dehydrator Machine as our winner because it dried herbs and fruit evenly and efficiently while also boasting a thoughtful design and reasonable price tag. Below, we've highlighted the pros and cons of the best food dehydrators on the market, plus everything you need to know about food dehydrating.

Why It's Great

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Our testers gave the Magic Mill Food Dehydrator perfect scores across all categories, including design, performance, noise, and ease of use and cleaning. Everything about our top pick was designed with the user in mind. "The front door is easy to open and it is see-through, so you can see the progress of food dehydration inside," one tester said. "The door will stay open when you need to access the contents on trays, and the trays are easy to slide in and out."

Thanks to its rear-mounted fan, the machine dries food evenly regardless of which of the dehydrator's seven trays it is on. And even with its superior airflow, our testers said it operated quietly. The soft-touch digital interface makes it a cinch to set the time and temperature, or you can set it on "Fast" mode or "Raw" mode and let the dehydrator do the work. During our tests, the temperature stayed consistent throughout the drying time.

If a top-performing machine wasn't enough at this price point, the Magic Mill also comes with mesh trays for herbs and nonstick trays for fruit leather, in addition to the seven dishwasher-safe racks.

The Details: 15 x 13.5 x 19 inches; 15.7 pounds; ranges from 95 to 165 degrees F; 600 watts

Also available at Walmart.

Why It's Great

Grain of Salt

The Cosori Food Dehydrator ranked right up there with the winning machine, earning a 4.9/5 rating from our testers. They praised its even drying, quiet operation, and user-friendly design. "This is a nice, compact medium capacity machine, not taking up too much space on a countertop," one tester said. "The door opens and closes nicely from the side and will stay open when you are moving trays in and out of the machine. The temperature and time controls are digital and easy to use."

The machine includes six stainless steel trays that make the most of the space, and they're dishwasher safe for a quick and easy cleanup. It's slightly more compact than Magic Mill's model, so it's a nice fit for smaller kitchens, plus comes with a cookbook to help beginners get started. The only downside: At 23 pounds, this dehydrator is one of the heaviest on our list, which may limit your options in terms of where to store it.

The Details: 17.8 x 13 x 12 inches; 23 pounds; ranges from 95 to 155 degrees F; 600 watts

Also available at Home Depot.

Why It's Great

Grain of Salt

This round five-tray dehydrator from Elite Gourmet goes for less than $50 but still packs a powerful drying punch. "This is a small machine with a small footprint, but the capacity feels better and larger than some of the other small models," one tester said.

The plastic trays and unique stacking design allow you to watch your food dry from all angles, which you may need to do considering it doesn't have a timer and the knob temperature control only allows you to set a range instead of a precise temperature. But since it is under 5 pounds, it's incredibly easy to pull down from a high shelf in your kitchen or pantry (if that's the only free space you have) when you want to use it.

The Details: 12 x 12 x 9 inches; 4.25 pounds; ranges from 95 to 158 degrees F; 350 watts

Related: We Tested the Best Air Fryers—Here Are the Ones Worth Buying

Also available at Kohl's.

Why It's Great

Grain of Salt

Of all the dehydrators we tested, this Nesco model was the speediest to come to temperature (it reached 145 degrees in just five minutes!) and took under four hours to make fruit leather. It comes with four trays, but if you want to dry large batches, you can buy more trays and use up to 20 at once. Because of its outstanding performance and customizable design, it earned 5/5 ratings for both categories from our testers.

This dehydrator doesn't have a window to view the progress of your food, but its digital time and temperature control gives you accurate results. Another thing to note is that it can get pretty noisy while operating, so you won't want to use this machine when guests are over.

The Details: 15.5 x 15.5 x 9.5 inches; 8.5 pounds; ranges from 90 to 160 degrees F; 1000 watts

Also available at Williams Sonoma.

Why It's Great

Grain of Salt

Worried about where you will store your dehydrator? The Sahara machine may be the one for you. When not in use, it folds down to less than 4 inches tall and comes with a zippered carrying case. Our testers loved how compact it could be for storage, but also pointed out that it requires quite a bit of counter space when it's in use, as it's very wide compared to other models that occupy vertical space. All in all, they gave it a perfect score for its design, saying, "it has a large capacity and a simple, utilitarian look."

This dehydrator has seven large racks and 11 square feet of drying space, making it one of the biggest options on our list. Though, if you're drying lots of food in one batch, you may need to keep an eye on it over the hours. Our testers noted that the temperature did not stay super consistent, and the food on one side of the machine dried faster than the other.

The Details: 23 x 12.25 x 3.75 inches; 23 pounds; ranges from 86 to 165 degrees F; 750 watts

Why It's Great

Grain of Salt

The Samson "Silent" Dehydrator earned high scores from our testers for its design, performance, noise, and ease of use. "This is a medium-size machine — not too tall, so it could fit underneath cabinets if needed," one tester said. "The metal trays feel like they would be more durable than the plastic trays in other models." In addition, this dehydrator comes to temperature quickly and dries faster and more evenly than some of the other dehydrators we tested.

The only category the machine didn't succeed in was ease of cleaning. It's the only model on our list that doesn't let you pop the trays out and put them in the dishwasher, which means it is a bit more work to clean. But considering the price tag, it's a great starter dehydrator. Bonus: If you want to go bigger, Samson makes a nine-tray model for just $10 more.

The Details: 13.5 x 17.5 x 12 inches; 12.7 pounds; ranges from 95 to 158 degrees F; 480 watts

Also available at Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

Why It's Great

Grain of Salt

Food dehydrators aren't known for their looks, however, this one from Tribest won our testers over with its sleek appearance. "It's probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing with a clean and simple design," one tester said. "It has a large capacity without being too bulky. I wouldn't hate leaving this out on the counter."

Aside from its appearance, this machine offers nearly 10 square feet of drying space with 11 stainless steel racks that you can fill with a wide variety of foods. After the fruit leather and herb tests, our testers described its performance as "even drying from top to middle to bottom, dried quickly, and fruit leather came off in one piece and easily." They also loved how quiet it was, saying, "the noise really just fades into the background."

The Details: 17.5 x 14 x 12 inches; 20.4 pounds; 77 to 167 degrees F; 470 watts

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After rigorous testing, our testers determined that the Magic Mill Food Dehydrator Machine is the best on the market, thanks to its thoughtful design, even drying, easy-to-use controls, and accessible price. It earned perfect ratings across all categories, including design, performance, noise, and ease of use and cleaning.

As with all small kitchen appliances, size is key — you don't want to purchase a dehydrator only to discover it doesn't fit in your kitchen. Think about where you're planning to store your dehydrator, whether on the counter, in a cupboard, in a pantry, or in a closet. The height, width, and depth of your shelves and spaces will determine if you need one that's wider and shorter or more of a cube.

How much food are you planning on dehydrating at a time? The dehydrators on this list have between four and 11 trays to hold food in the machine. If you want to make big batches, choose a machine with more trays.

In addition to considering how much food you want to dehydrate at a time, think about what foods you want to dry. In some dehydrators, the trays are very close to one another, which makes them more suitable for thinner foods, like fruit leather or beef jerky, while others have taller shelves that are optimal for kale and apple chips or dried tomatoes.

In our test kitchen, our team tested 22 of the best food dehydrators on the market, evaluating each one based on its design, noise level, ease of use and cleaning, and performance during the dried herbs and fruit leather tests.

Each food dehydrator was rated based on the following criteria:

The Cuisinart Dehydrator heated up fast and dried food evenly and quickly, but the controls are very rudimentary — there's no timer function and you can only select low, medium, or high temperatures. Sure, it's inexpensive, but there are better value picks.

This dehydrator was very easy to use and quiet compared to other models we tested. That said, it is bulky and takes up a ton of counter space, plus the garage-style door is a bit cumbersome.

With its higher price, bulky size, and industrial look, this STX International dehydrator seemed out of place in a home kitchen. What's more, the metal racks are not dishwasher safe, so it was difficult to clean.

It depends. You can find dehydrated foods in grocery stores, so if convenience is the most important thing for you, it may not be worth dehydrating your own food.

That said, buying fresh foods and then dehydrating them will likely save you money in the long run. Plus, you have complete control over what foods you dehydrate and what's added to them. For example, you don't have to worry about fruit leather containing loads of added sugar or kale chips completely coated in salt. If these aspects speak to you, a food dehydrator is a good investment.

You can dehydrate just about anything, but there are a few foods that people gravitate towards. You can dehydrate fruit to make chips or fruit leather, beef, salmon, or turkey to make jerky, or vegetables to make chips. You can also dehydrate fresh herbs to make dried herbs.

Dehydrating food takes a while. That said, you will get better results if your dehydrator comes to temperature quickly and maintains it consistently — qualities that come from high wattage. The dehydrators on this list range from 350 to 1000 watts of power. If you're planning to do a lot of dehydrating, you will likely benefit from a machine with more wattage.

Allrecipes is a community-driven brand committed to providing helpful resources and trusted information to home cooks. Alyssa Sybertz is an experienced home cook, recipe developer, and food writer who has covered cookware, cooking techniques, and all things kitchen for Allrecipes. For this piece, she used testing data and insights from our team of professionals who analyzed 22 different food dehydrators in our test kitchen to determine the best models on the market.