$54 Fruit? Oster Food Dehydrator Review

Back in the early 90's I received a dehydrator for Christmas and used it quite a bit at the time. I remember making jerky from deer meat and dehydrating pineapple and apple rings. As time went on and the new wore off - it ended up in a garage sale, I'm sure.

Now that I am trying to eat healthier, I thought I would invest in a new (and improved, I thought) dehydrator - so I went to Walmart and purchased their one and only  $42.00 Oster Food Dehydrator. Since I can not eat pineapples (gallbladder woes) and jerky is way too high in sodium to eat like I would like to eat it (terryaki) then I was going to stick to apples, tangerines, grapes and then some bananas for the hubs. So after about $12.00 in fruits - I sliced them all and put them in the dehydrator at 2:30 p.m. yesterday. I had forgotten how long it takes to dry out these fruits! The booklet said 12 - 16 hours. I got up at 1:30 a.m. and checked on everything - not even close. At 6:30 this morning - we were getting there...at 8 a.m. (almost 17 hours later) we tasted a bit of everything. Grapes - they were ok but still VERY juicy. Apples and tangerines - they were ready but not that good - bananas - still had far to go - very chewy... But I could tell by the look on my husbands face - he wasn't diggin' them at all.

I turned the blasted thing off  and threw the banana chips in the trash. I bagged the grapes since I can eat them all in 2 days and they will be ok juicy. I bagged the apples/tangerines and maybe they will get eaten...we'll see.
For $54.00 this is what I got:

I cleaned the trays - boxed it up and it goes back to Walmart Monday. I can buy a whole lot of dried fruit for $54!!

I think I will buy a new coffee maker instead.



***(I did not receive payment for this review - this is my personal opinion based on my personal experience)