Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Dehydrator

Status
Not open for further replies.

canadish

New Member
I am looking to build a dehydrator. It would require a heat source. Convection via heat element(not my preference after a little research), or heated fan. A heat sensor to keep the temperature within an acceptable range 105°F to 165°F with an adjustable thermostat would be required. A meat thermometer embedded within the food being dried would be the best case scenario. I see that digital cooking thermometers are available, that track temps and sound an alarm when desired time or temperature reached. I am a complete novice when it comes to electronics and would like to begin to learn by setting a few projects for myself.
Many thanks
 
I have a commercial dehydrator, and it just seems to be a heater, a fan, and a timer...
 
I built a dehydrator for a friend to make Biltong. I bought a 12V SMPS of ebay (240W) and used power resistors as the heating elements (6.8ohm 20W). The fans were 2 90mm computer fans. With 8 resistors it dried the meat (about 2Kg) in about 20 hours.

As you're inexperienced, I would definitely advise to go the low voltage route. Buy a decent sized power supply (12V 20A) and make sure the mains side is done properly.

The above components cost me about $50.

Mike.
 
If your food is thick enough to embed a thermometer in it, it's too thick for dehydrating safely.
 
Temperature measurement may be unnecessary. The only dehydrator I've seen had none. A flip-disc (or similar) thermal cut-out would be an essential safety feature, though.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top