Hanging Raw Food Dehydrator - Solar Powered review and price compare 2025

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Questions about Hanging Raw Food Dehydrator - Solar Powered

Have the Collapsing Trays been Fixed? I don't want to have to RETURN it.

Answer: The problem is not that they come collapsed, it is that they can come undone easily when packing it up. It is the hugest pain in the butt to thread the web loops onto the slots in the trays.

Answer: I am the Inventor, around 80,000 have been sold. Maybe a dozen or two had not been properly assembled. Everything has been perfected, I have video from the maker as how each is inspected prior to shipping. Thank you. Respectfully, Duane Erickson

how long does it take to dehydrate fruits and veggies

Answer: It depends how thick they are sliced, your room temp, and humidity. Longer than an electric, but usually a couple days does it.

Answer: In a dry environment I have had thin material go to leather stage in two days and crisp in four or five

Answer: I don't know. I brought it as a gift for someone.

Can I hang this on a garden stake?

Answer: I wouldn't. I would use a something more sturdy like a fence post with a hook bracket attached. . You don't want critters with teeth and claws getting to it. I hang mine on a clothes line when I take it outside. It is flimsy and I had to sew the brackets to the net because I live in a windy climate.

Answer: You might be able to if it were a tall, very sturdy stake with a curved hooked at the top--like a shepard's staff. Be warned though, when I bought this the trays were always falling down. I really wanted it to work but it didn't. Hopefully they have improved the design since then (that was about 5-7 yrs ago.)

Answer: A tall stake would work!

Is it designed for the top and bottom white pieces to snap together to be able to store it in a 5" space?

Answer: the top and bottom (at least on mine) does not snap together. But it does fold down small enough to be less than 5" high.

can it dry all kinds of meats if so how long does it take?

Answer: No. Unless the dehydrator hangs in a very dry and very warm (hot) place for an extended time (days) , it doesn't work very well, or at all. I tried to dry tomatoes near a wood stove, and they molded long before they dried. Also, the shelves collapse easily and are difficult to reinstall. Claims that the collapsing issue had been resolved predated my purchase but proved to be untrue. A good idea, but not fully developed.

Answer: Meats need a higher temp and better air flow. I think they would spoil before they dried with this setup

is this suitable for drying leaves?

Answer: I would think that it is.. It is very sturdy and good air circulation.. I use it dry meats and works great..

Answer: leaves? I guess so. I can't see why not. Our only problem with it was that the trays fell down really easily so we ended up returning it. Maybe they have improved it because it's a great concept.

Answer: It depends. If you are talking about tree leaves for nature study/decorating, the leaves would krinkle upon drying without any weight added to keep them flat. I would be hesitant to place weight, like books on top of the leaves in the dryer since the racks do not appear to be designed to hold a load. You can dry leaves for nature study/decorating easily enough between the pages of a big book (free option). If you are talking about drying herbs, it does the trick well.

What are the shelves made of?

Answer: some kind of plastic. There is nothing on the product that indicates what kind

Are the trays bpa free?

Answer: I've had this for many years. The box says that it's US made, food safe and UV protected plastic, whatever that means. I got it before bpa was a hot topic, so it's not mentioned on the label.

Answer: yes

Can this make beef jerky with this item?

Answer: I wouldn't recommend it because it takes a long time for meat to dehydrate at such a low temperature, allowing bacteria to grow. I use an electric one at 145 degrees or an oven on low.also, one can dry strips hung over a rod over a campfire

Answer: I wouldn't count on it. Weather would have to be very hot and dry. We used it in Africa in very hot and dry conditions and had trouble drying fruits and vegetables

Answer: yes

I don't see solar panels. This is just a passive dehydrator, right? No "power"

Answer: yes, just passive and unfortunately my experience is that the shelves fall down a lot. But perhaps they have improved the design since when i bought it several years ago. You can ask them.

Answer: Correct, no power. Just air drying in a warm location.

Answer: This is just a passive dehydrator, but it needs to be near a good, strong, protected, and steady source of heat, or the vegetables being dried will just mold. The shelves tend to collapse and are very difficult to return to their original positions. Their claim to have fixed the collapsing was made before I bought mine, but they still collapsed. It might work in a greenhouse, but don't think your wood stove is going to do it.

Answer: Need warm or hot summer days. No power.

I am a raw foodist and would like to make raw breads and crackers-- will this dehydrator work for that? It normally takes many hours in an excalibur.

Answer: I like keeping things raw too. I would not, however, recommend this particular product for making things like raw crackers or bread, because there is not enough air flow to dry the goods. For this, and making marvelous Kale chips and all my dehydrated backpacking foods, I use an Excalibur with 9 trays. The Excalibur allows me to dehydrate at temps that keep the enzymes live. Hope this helps!

Answer: Unfortunately, it's doesn't work because the trays fall down constantly at the slightest touch. Too bad because I really like the idea. I returned mine and they even said it wasn't that good of a design. Maybe they've improved it. I bought it about 2 yrs ago.

Answer: We found this to be poorly designed. The trays balance in the structure and the supports were not rigidly attached allowing all the trays to tilt spilling the entire contents in the bottom (domino effect). We now use the trays without the structure. I would not recommend buying it for any purpose.

Answer: I wqs interested in purchasing this but my question was never answered so did not buy.

why is it called solar powered if the sun doesn't increase the temperature to dry the foods? what does the "solar power" do?

Answer: The drying occurs as a result of air flow and warmth from the sun. It is a passive system.

Answer: you use the sun to dry it.

Answer: It's an air dryer; it has nothing to do with solar power unless you hang it outside where everything will rot. It does not work in Maine, and the shelves continually detach and drop to the bottom. Basically it's a bug net; if your food will dry properly on the counter, this will keep the bugs away. It adds nothing more to the process, IMHO.

Answer: Solar power is more of a marketing word, though when it is sunny and warm, it works better, even inside in the shaded corner. It is great for low moisture things at all times. I would never do meat and tomatoes rotted on me. There are YouTube videos on it so you can better see how it works.

how does this product get up to temps to kill bacteria? need at least 140 degrees.

Answer: This product has no way to heat the food, as it is a passive system, using only air that comes in through the screens. Foods can be rinsed in a 1 part to 10 vinegar/water solution to reduce spoilage (rinse with clear water afterwards if you wish). If you want to use heat to dehydrate, you'll have to get an electric dehydrator to do that.

Answer: Bacteria needs moisture. Otherwise not sure. Never had any problems though.

Answer: I spray veg and fruits with a light mist of CHICO WASH - an organic food wash that kills bacteria and viruses and since one of the ingrediaents is ascorbic acid -- they hold their color. This works GREAT for me. I have 3 of them -- tomatoes, grapes, apples, peaches -- all have turned out Great. Dennis

Answer: I haven't had an issue with the temperature. Being Native American, our ancestors even dried meat outdoors and it didn't kill us :)

Is this a safe method compared to dry food compated to an electric dehyrator? Having a hard time putting my head around the concept and food spoilage

Answer: Since I live in the high desert, the land of low humidity, it works for some foods better than others. Winter is a good time to use this too, as the cold keeps spoilage at bay. But it would not work for "wet" foods like fruits. I use it for making meat jerky - beef and chicken - at have never had a problem. But only use it at times of low humidity, like dry cold winter days or the very dry summer days we get here in the desert.

Product reviews of Hanging Raw Food Dehydrator - Solar Powered

Mercy : Handy, with a little know-how

Mine hangs on the back porch in the summertime, and in the winter I hang it in the kitchen. Note that I'm only using this for dehydrating, and I'm in a fairly hot & dry climate, but I'm fond of mine.

I noticed the problem with the loops slipping off the tabs, but early on I found that loading it from the bottom (putting the lowest tray in first) drew the straps tight enough that it generally wasn't a problem. I've got no use for the "sprouting tray"- but if you put it in the bottom inside the mesh bag the extra weight keeps it from being blown around on all but the windiest days & my trays seldom fall down.

A note for the vertically-challenged: don't plan on hanging it directly from the ceiling unless you like dragging a stepstool around. I hang it on a bit of chain so I can reach/monitor the top trays without straining myself.

Bindy : I like it, but....

The dryer does a great job of drying while keeping bugs etc. away from your food. I plan actually to buy another one of these.

HOWEVER, the supports that hold the trays can (and do) easily slide out of the support straps in the process of moving it around. Meaning the whole thing can easily basically come undone and then you have to put it back together again. Until you get the hang of it, it takes FOREVER to slide the loops back on and put the thing back together. After fiddling with it for over an hour, I can now reassemble it without too much time, but when this first happens you want to fling the whole thing into space.

If it weren't for the fact that this device easily disassembles itself, I would say it's perfect. It does just what I need it to do (for a reasonable price). With some practice you can learn to handle it so that it doesn't come undone too often and put it back together quickly if it does. If there were a better-made, similar item I would buy it, but I haven't been able to find anything that does the same thing at a reasonable price.

Anima : Love this dehydrator & the fact that the creator of ...

Love this dehydrator & the fact that the creator of this made it so bugs and other objects are not able to effect the food drying. Only thing is in places where it gets cold during winter months, it is not as easy to dehydrate since the food must be kept inside otherwise outside it will be too chilly.

Naomi Wilson : Disappointing

We had an old screen dryer and when I found this I was super excited. But we have only used it 4 times and I've had to put it back together 6 TIMES. The loops that hold the trays and hook to the top, pop out at the slightest chance and are a PAIN to put back. Very frustrating for the money spent. :(

Bucknroll : Five Stars

Well made and has been in use for weeks for garlic and onions.

Mercy : Handy, with a little know-how

Hollywood : Not for everything

I bought this in an effort to prepare foods in the event of power loss. I dehydrated apples easily. Next I tried bananas, which did didn't turn out so well. A "how to" video would be nice, very little info on youtube about this.

offthegrid farmette : Rotten design

When I opened up the Hanging Raw Food Dehydrator, it started falling apart immediately. As a retired architect and designer, I decided to figure out what was wrong. Because of the way the shelf supports are connected to the straps. if the dehydrator tilts at all, the tray supports become disconnected from the hanging straps. I figured out a Rube Goldberg solution which took me 6 hours to implement. If I were teaching a course in design, and if a student came into class with this as a project, I would give the student an A for imagination and a failing grade for the class because the student failed to consider what could go wrong if the product was tilted at an angle and failed to design solutions to prevent the catastrophic failure of the product.

susan : If the wind doesn't blow... it might stay together!!

Poorly constructed... zipper is of very poor quality.. and to my dismay ... the hanging frame inside the netting is hung on flimsy tabs that "let go" at the slightest movement..(there are about 25 plus tabs) > 1____ _____1 > the material loop is suppose to stay put between these tabs... only to find out that when I tried to fix one others came loose.. apart.. thus all dried herbs came crashing down....... dumb design!
For the price...... two window screens would do a much better job plus.. you would have much more control..!!!

Deb : Poorly made. arrived broken. Wasn't what I expected ...

Poorly made. arrived broken. Wasn't what I expected at all... didn't appear to be able to hold much weight.

Anima : Love this dehydrator & the fact that the creator of ...

susan : Very poor quality and difficult assembly

What a joke! Very poor quality and difficult assembly. Shelves are always falling down. Called the company/ man that has the patent and he was extremely defensive about his product. I asked for a refund that I was told once sent back that I could get a "new one". Wasn't happy, but ok. Sent it back and two years later I still don't have a new one.

JIMFRISKY : Five Stars

WORKS JUST FINE KEEPS FLYS OFF FOOD PERFECT

Kalajeng : NOT worth the money. Not even close

As others have stated, this thing comes apart very easily and is extremely annoying and difficult to put back together.

Hooking the webbing back into their slots is tedious and, again as others have said, I have no idea why a simpler system was not used. After putting it back together once the stitching on some of the webbing started to come undone, making it much harder to put back on.

This thing is also cheaply made. You could get some no-seeum netting and a few plastic trays and fashion your own in an afternoon and it could be close to the same quality.

I'd much rather have a free-standing, well made dehydrator.

I was given this as a gift. After working with it my guess on its price was $19.99. If I found it at a garage sale I wouldn't have paid more than $3 for it.

harry : Waiting for new product

I would like to purchase 3 of these, but am also waiting for the improved product. These postings are a year old, but I can't find any mention of the problem being fixed.

Kindle Customer : Not so good

To filmy and did not work like I thought it would. I probably would not buy another one. Tried it several times and it took so long and the trays were to hard to deal with.

Linda Noren : Nice idea but constantly collapses

I bought this solar dehydrator because I liked the idea of not having to use electricity to dry our veggies and fruit. Unfortunately, the trays collapse under any kind of weight. My husband finally gave up and just laid the trays out on our patio--just what I was trying to get away from!

Mark Garner : Issues Still Not Fixed

As other reviewers have stated, this dehydrator readily disassembles itself if given the slightest provocation. Luckily I've not had anything drying when it has happened. To me, it appears to be a huge design flaw that the straps can so easily slide off the tray holders. It is also a huge pain in the you know what to put it back together again. If you are very careful and make sure that you raise and lower it vertically, without bumping it from the sides, generally you can avoid the problem altogether.

When we received ours there was a hole ripped in the netting. I did not want to bother with sending it back so I fixed it myself with the included netting patch.

Despite those two setbacks I still find this dryer useful. The only thing I haven't attempted to try in this dehydrator is jerky. It works great for apple slices and herbs. The manual states that you can dry jerky in the dehydrator, but I would never attempt it because I am not sure if it would be truly safe.

Naomi Wilson : Disappointing

Northwoods gal : great concept!

I received this Pantrie last year for Christmas. I've used it to sprout a wide assortment of seeds and right now have at least 25 apples drying in it. I have used an electric model for a lot of drying, but our electric bill really rocketed this month! I'm glad I have an alternative of using a non-electric dryer! Thanks!

yvonne : Five Stars

excellent!

susan : If the wind doesn't blow... it might stay together!!

you can compare the product price from Costco, wayfair, bestbuy, lowes, target, homedepot, Walmart, ebay, amazon to find the best price for you