Nesco American Harvest FD-50 Snackmaster Pro 4-Tray Dehydrator review and price compare 2025

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Product overview

Brand	NESCO
Material	Plastic
Color	White
Wattage	500 watts
Item Dimensions LxWxH	14 x 13.5 x 8 inches

product features

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500 watts of power dries foods and flowers quickly and evenly
Dehydrator measures 13-1/2 by 8-1/4 inches; four trays are each 12-3/4 by 1/2 inches
Patented system pressurizes heated air up through and across each tray
Thermostat adjusts from 95 degrees up to 145 degrees
Dehydrate fruits, vegetables, herbs, jerky, granola for camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities

product description

Product description

Made in the USA - Nesco American Harvest FD-50 Snackmaster Pro 4-Tray Dehydrator Professional food dehydrator and jerky maker uses patented fan to force heated air up the exterior pressurized chamber. Heated air is forced horizontally across each tray for fast, even and nutritious dehydrating. 1200 RPM motor and specially designed 5in. fan ensures the fastest, most nutritious drying.

Amazon.com

Drying apple slices in just six hours and beef jerky in nine-and-a-half, this 500-watt dehydrator is exceptionally fast for its price range. Its patented system pressurizes air up through the drying trays' outer rings and across each tray, ensuring not only speed but uniformity, so foods dry evenly. The dehydrator's thermostat adjusts from 95 degrees F up to 145 degrees F, offering flexibility for drying different items. Each of the four trays is 12-3/4 inches in diameter and 1/2-inch deep (the durable plastic dehydrator is 13-1/2 by 8-1/4 inches overall). Additional trays may be purchased, providing up to a total of 10 square feet for drying lots of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and/or flowers at one time. A fruit-roll sheet inserts into a tray so that applesauce or other fruit sauces can be dried into healthful snacks. You can also use the tray for drying other liquid foods, such as soups and sauces, for camping trips. This dehydrator comes with beef-jerky spices and a booklet with recipes and instructions. --Fred Brack

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Questions about Nesco American Harvest FD-50 Snackmaster Pro 4-Tray Dehydrator

Will it work on 220 volt?

where to buy tsller racks

Where can I get a booklet to learn how to use American Harvest dehydrator?

Answer: If you didn't get one with the machine, go on line. Most manuals are online now. As for how to use it, what more do you need than slice, lay out on shelves, put lid on top, turn on machine, let run for several hours or until slices are dry. Dry to taste. Happy dehydrating! They are fabulous snacks for kids, and so healthy.

Answer: Check online on the web site.

Answer: I don't know, but Google is a great start.

My fd-50 no longer works. are my trays compatible with any of the newer dehydrators such as the 75a?

Answer: The FD-50 trays only fit the FD-50 Dehydrator.

Does this dehydrator have a grey protector tray to cover fan

Answer: It's white color.

Answer: Yes it does. Sorry for the slow response

Answer: Yes it does.

What extra trays do u order for the FD-50?

Answer: did not order any extra trays for the FD-50.

Answer: I ordered the FD-30 trays and they fit perfectly. The machine is powerful enough to handle the two I bought, and I think could easily handle two more, but that would be very tall and I don't have that much produce to dry. I may in the future, and use them for making the fruit rollups.

Answer: They can be ordered separately and come in packs of 2. We ordered 3 packs for our needs.

Will trays for thr fd50 fit the older model fd50/30? They look very similar.

Answer: Yes, the trays for the fd50 model also fit the fd50/30 and the fd40 models.

I need a new top lid for my FD-50

Do you have drying trays for FD50?

I have the American Harvester FD 40 and I need to replace the trays, no FD 40s on here so which trays do I order? From the FD 50???

Are the trays BPA free?

Answer: Yes, all of our plastics are BPA free.

Does anyone have an old Snackmaster Pro FD-50 dehydrator they want to sell?

How many consecutive hours can I run the dehydrator for?

Answer: I run mine 8 hours at a time with no issues.

Answer: I have used mine for 12 hours at a time -- I turn it off at night -- and it doesn't heat up, and stays efficient. Not sure if you need to turn it off at night; I just do for safety reasons that may or may not be valid. The machine is sturdy, simple, and results are excellent.

Does anyone know where to get extra trays and fruit leather trays for this dehydrator?

Answer: I ordered my extras right on Amazon. Look around.

Do you still sell the anodized aluminum jerky/granola bar press?

where do i buy taller racks fir dehydrating

Answer: We do have a thing called a convert-a-tray, the model number you would look for is CT-2P.

Answer: Have no idea. If they're not on Amazon, they don't exist. Good luck.

What screens for the trays do i order for this fd50 model

How many additional trays can be added to this dehydrator? Thanks

Answer: I have used as many as 12 trays, but I recommend rotating them part way through so that they dry more evenly.

Has anyone used this to cook analog tape for restoration purposes?

Answer: Never thought of that. Might it damage the tape? Have no idea.

Answer: Yes they certainly have!! This is actually a common practice with the dehydrators.

Can I purchase a lid replacement?

Are the trays BPA free?

Answer: Yes, all of our plastics are BPA free.

need manual forFD-40

Answer: Try the Nesco Website.

Product reviews of Nesco American Harvest FD-50 Snackmaster Pro 4-Tray Dehydrator

Morgan Dalas : I love my dehydrator!

Purchased this model used for 1/2 of retail, and would still be pleased with it if I had paid full price, it's exceeded my expectations. Trays clean up easily with a brush in the sink or placed in the top rack of the dishwasher, it has the adjustable thermostat that I need for raw vegan foods, and it's done a nice job on everything I've used it for, from entrées to kale chips to drying soaked nuts.

Efficient yet a little noisy for me to be in the same room with for any length of time, I usually turn the thermostat down to 95F and run it overnight. Although planning to get more trays (mine has 4) along with additional mesh and teflex sheets, lining the trays with plastic wrap for wetter items like raw breads works just fine for me.

mgr : broke

Have had this for a number of years. It just quit working. I took it apart but can't see anything to repair. It is a travesty to have to throw all this machinery out for lack of repair.

C. Buck : Very pleased

I bought this dehydrator on the recommendations of all the reviewers and I have been totally pleased with it. I have tried tomotoes, mangos, bananas and jerky. The only drawback to this is the fact that drying food is more an art than a science. I have done 3 batches of jerky, and each time it gets better, but still too dry. I am narrowing the drying times down to within a few hours, but still not quite perfect. Other than the On-the-job-training in drying times, this works quite well. I am please with it and would recommend it to anyone. The plus is that I have even found accesories for it at Wal-Mart!

KNairn : Pleased with results!

I'm currently borrowing this model from a friend to process some of our summer salsa garden. It's very efficient, quiet but not real quiet, and easy to clean. We dried some apple slices dipped in pineapple juice, sugar and cinnamon to ship to my nephew who is stationed in Afghanistan. The trays looked messy and gooey afterwards. We put them in hot sudsy water and the goo just softened up and rinsed away. The only thing that I haven't been exactly pleased with is the drying times seem to be a few hours longer than stated in the manual. We've been drying hot pepper varieties raw and par-boiled at almost 24 hours! Some were "whole" and some were sliced. So I don't know if we did something wrong or if the machine just doesn't have the wattage to pump air thru 4 trays of evenly spaced produce. I must add however, that I have intentions of owning one nontheless. Maybe a model with more power. arr arr

Happy Homemaker : I am enjoying using this appliance

This is a great machine. I have used it for fruit and for herbs. It is easy to use, no moving trays. The thermostat is easily marked for particular item, ie. fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc.

The trays have been easy to clean.

The book is very easy to dicipher, with clear directions and recipes.

I heartily endorse this item.

mgr : broke

Have had this for a number of years. It just quit working. I took it apart but can't see anything to repair. It is a travesty to have to throw all this machinery out for lack of repair.

R. Adler : good product...

This Nesco food de-hydrator works well and does an excellent job. There are newer, larger and more powerful models available, but this does a good job for me.

Dave C : Leaving you high and dry

I had purchased this dehydrator at a retail store for more than it is offered here, but it is worth it. I sit in an office chair all day and tend to get a case of the "munchies" during the day. I used to buy candy bar after candy bar, which in turn put a few pounds on me as well. With the dehydrator I can make healthy foods to snack on that are good tasting and economical. I would suggest to anyone looking to save a few dollars and a few inches on the waistline to invest in one. You won't regret it

Karen Cookson : If you love fruits, you'll love this!

This machine went to work the minute it arrive. It's harvest time, and this year was The Year of the Apple. And the Pear, and the Plum, and lots more. We can only make so much applesauce, apple pies to freeze, apple cider and bake so many dishes with apples added. How to keep this treat throughout the year? Dehydrate! It works like a charm, is simple, and easy to keep clean.
If you live on a farm, have a garden, or live in the city and buy fruit, you can use this. These are the best snacks for kids to have, and so good for them, and they love them! Every family could use one of these.

Mohamad A. : A product that does what it advertises

This is my first experience with dehydrators but I wanted to make Deer Jerky so bad that I bought this one after looking a lot thorugh the different models. This is a basic, no frills model but it seemed to do the job very nicely. I do not know what the more expensice models give you but I doubt if much more. The meat was dehydrated in 5-7 hours and it came out perfect.

Negatives: The fan is loud and could be heard from other rooms. A nice feature to have would have been a built in timer instead of having to buy an external one.

Elge S. Spalding : Nesco Dehydrator FD-50

Excellent product made in the U.S.A. Does exactly what I needed it for. (I am baking Ampex 407 recording tape). Thanks

Elge S. Spalding : Nesco Dehydrator FD-50

Excellent product made in the U.S.A. Does exactly what I needed it for. (I am baking Ampex 407 recording tape). Thanks

mgr : broke

Have had this for a number of years. It just quit working. I took it apart but can't see anything to repair. It is a travesty to have to throw all this machinery out for lack of repair.

Elge S. Spalding : Nesco Dehydrator FD-50

Excellent product made in the U.S.A. Does exactly what I needed it for. (I am baking Ampex 407 recording tape). Thanks

Nathan Eady : I have always wanted one of these, since I was a kid...

It takes me twenty minutes to core, peel, slice, and treat 5-6 apples, lay them out on the trays, and get them started. After some experimentation, I have settled on using four parts water to one part lemon juice and a little cinnamon for the treatment, and the same liquid can be refrigerated and used on subsequent batches. (For other fruits, use common sense; e.g., for pears, I use ground cloves instead of cinnamon.)

I initially tried using a slicer/corer and then sliced the slices lengthwise in thirds or so. However, this gave them all an uneven thickness, which was not ideal. I then tried the way recommended in the book: core and slice in rings. This was better, but ultimately I developed a hybrid approach: cut the apple in half through the stem and core; core each half with a knife, peel, and then slice the other direction into half-rings. It's easier to get a uniform thickness this way than with the full rings, and more apples fit on the trays at once due to less wasted space. (I majored in math, so I know how to fit the max number of slices on at once without overlapping. YMMV.)

As far as apples: use apples that have good flavour. It does matter which variety of apples you use. Granny Smith have good flavour, but are not terribly sweet. Fuji are very good. Macintosh are excellent. Sarah will just about go through fire for dried Yellow Delicious. Gala are pretty good. Jonathan are excellent, and Jonagold are good. I want to do Grimes Golden, but I couldn't find any this year; maybe next year.

There's just one problem: at the thickness I've been slicing them, it takes about six hours for a batch of apples to dry. This produces one Ziploc freezer bag full of dried apples, which my family proceeds to eat in about an hour. They then look at me with greedy eyes: "When are you going to dry more apples, Nathan?" Well, let's see... if I put some more in right away, I'd have to stay up till about 3am to get them out. I have a feeling my family would be okay with that: they could then have dried apples for breakfast.

Since I wrote the above paragraph, I now have a four more trays (total of eight), which helps a lot. The book says that I can use up to twelve trays with this model. The four trays it comes with are enough for experimenting, but not enough for the sort of mass production my family wants me to undertake. (I keep pondering when the novelty will wear off. I'm not holding my breath: dried apples are _good_.)

My first batch of bananas was a little disappointing: I expected to get the crunchy hard banana chips like you buy for two limbs at bulk food stores. For whatever reason, the ones I did did not turn out that way. I left them in for way longer than the book said bananas would take, and they were still chewy. I first tried fully ripe bananas, then tried some mildly underripe ones next time thinking that might be the difference; it was not. Also, the book didn't say anything about needing to treat bananas, so I didn't the first time, and they turned brown. I should have anticipated that (they're *bananas*, after all, of *course* they would turn brown). I treated the next batch with pineapple juice, and they didn't turn brown.

The book says use ripe fruit. It's not kidding. Results with under-ripe fruit are disappointing at best. Results with ripe fruit are always good.

We tried jerky, and it works if you're into that sort of thing. (Personally, I'm not a big jerky fan.) I want to try carrots and other vegitables.

The book says watermelon comes out like candy, so I tried it. As would be expected, it takes a lot longer to dry than apples, but the results are good. They're not like what you'd expect, but they're good. Dried watermelon does not taste nearly as much like fresh watermelon as most people expect, but once you get over the difference, it does have a good flavour. It reminds my mom of pumpkin, but you can taste the watermelon in it if you're paying attention. It's an acquired taste, but after a couple of pieces you don't want to stop eating it.

Dried peaches and pears are fantastic. I still want to know how to make crunchy dried banana chips, though.

This is fun, and tasty.

*** Addendum: I have now had a chance to compare this model and the (cheaper) Ronco FD5 in action side-by-side, and the Snackmaster FD-50 is easily worth the extra ten bucks. For reasons why, see my review of the FD5.

Five stars. Five words: Buy one of these things.

C. Buck : Very pleased

Elge S. Spalding : Nesco Dehydrator FD-50

Excellent product made in the U.S.A. Does exactly what I needed it for. (I am baking Ampex 407 recording tape). Thanks

Heather Nichole Lucas : Time is money!

The product works great, but don't expect tasty treats any time soon. We found that using the lowest heat setting and letting fruit go for 24 hours works best. Caution: Buy your fruit slowly or it will go bad waiting for its turn in the dehydrator (or you can always buy more racks, but then add more time to the dehydrating time).

Lisa Almarode : Great dehydrator

I suspect the model currently pictured (with red "Nesco") is actually model FD-40.
Model FD-50 is my first dehydrator, and I've had it for two years. It is wonderful. I've dried a LOT of tomatoes. Also have dried apricots, zucchini chips, and herbs (some won ribbons at the county fair, in fact).

kitchen junkie : A workhouse, but trays with hole in the middle can be a bit awkward for food removal...

It's a great machine - it's worked flawlessly for a long time, and dries food evenly and well. That's what it's supposed to do, right? But - I personally have issues with the tray design. I understand that the holes in the middle make for even air flow, which of course is crucial - I don't contest that. However, that design complicates the removal of certain items from the trays, especially when using the flexi-screens. It's not much of a problem for larger sliced items like bananas or veggies, but I don't just use this for fruit & veggies - I also use it to dehydrate herbs, and soaked nuts & grains. Trying to remove a screen covered with dried loose small objects, when there is a hole in the middle, makes for a lot of mess in the kitchen! I've figured out how to sort of squeeze the screen together into a funnel to pour out the items, which works reasonably well, but it isn't simple. (Perhaps I just shouldn't be dehydrating small loose items in here - I suspect something like the Excalibur is better suited to that, with flat shelves.) Anyway, just something to be aware of - think about what your use for this is and, if you'll be drying lots of small things, you might want to start with a dehydrator with flat hole-less shelves instead. If you're doing slices of food that can be more easily picked up, I wholeheartedly recommend this dehydrator.

J.P. : USDA FOOD SAFETY RECCOMENDS HEAT JERKY TO 160 F.!!!

I'm a Jerky Fiend myself, and am in the market for a dehydrator. I want to pass along to anyone making jerky:

THE USDA RECCOMENDS THAT YOU HEAT YOUR JERKY TO 160+ DEGREES F. BEFORE DEHYDRATING IT!!! OTHERWISE YOU RISK CONTRACTING BACTERIA SUCH AS E. COLI!!!

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