[Paddlewise] Follow-up Dehydrating Questions

Rick Sylvia wrote:



>>>>> No source of info even remotely mentioned the freezer for even longer
storage.  So..... is it good, bad or indifferent to store dehydrated food in
the freezer?



Also, I've read that some items take as much as 60 hours to dehydrate. I
think that was apricots, if I recall correctly.  Anyway, I know virtually
nothing about electricity, and the differences between, Watts, Volts, Amps
and so forth.  So, the question is, 60 hours is a long time..... how much
does it actually cost to operate a dehydrator? Surely, it's pennies, or it
wouldn't be cost effective, right?<<<<<



If I intend to keep the dehydrated food for very long, I always put it in
the freezer.  Since most freezer damage is the result of ice crystals
forming in the food, the fact that dehydrated foods have low moisture
content protects them most of this damage.  I've kept foods such as
dehydrated tamale pie for over two years with no apparent loss of quality.
It keeps even better if you vacuum pack it before putting into the freezer.



Regarding electricity consumption: In my 500 watt Harvest Maid dehydrator,
apricots are supposed to take about 14 hours to dehydrate.  The electric
companies bill you for "kilowatt hours".  So if you multiply 500 watts by 14
hours, you get 7 kilowatt hours (a measure of the total amount of
electricity you've used).  Although I haven't checked my electric bill
lately, in my neck of the woods (Woodinville, Washington; USA) I think we
pay around 10 cents per each additional kilowatt hour.  So using my
dehydrator at full power for 14 hours would cost roughly $0.70.  If your
dehydrator really takes 60 hours, I suspect your wattage is proportionally
less, so the above calculations should still be roughly accurate (in other
words, whether they dry quickly or slowly probably takes roughly the same
total amount of electricity).



Evan Dallas
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