Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75A
Food Dehydrators can be a lifeline for some people. Sure, while most have access to grocery stores and delivery options 24-hours a day, it’s easy to forget that’s not how the world works for everyone. Living in an area with a long winter season and very poor road connectivity, it has always been vital that I store sufficient food for the cold months. I’ve tried many things. At one point I even attempted to set up my own food canning station at home, but it didn’t work as advertised. So, after that bad experience, I turned to food dehydrators to make my winters a little more bearable. With winter fast approaching and little time for studying food dehydrator reviews, I chose what appeared to be the most popular product in the market, the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75A. It was a rushed decision, but one that I certainly do not regret!
Two winters later, my hubby and I find ourselves with a much more nutritious diet thanks to the numerous benefits offered by this product. This machine truly can be a life-changer, if you embrace it. So without further ado, let’s discuss the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75A. Keep scrolling and I’ll break down all of the machine’s remarkable benefits along the few minor faults.
There is Such Wide Range of Food Recipes Available.
As a lifelong fan of turkey and trail mix, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dehydrator is not only capable capable of dehydrating these, but also producing beef and fish jerky. Furthermore, the product allows for dehydrating and storing virtually any fruit (or even fruit leather) to produce dry fruits that remain edible over the crucial winter season. It’s amazing how easy it is to fill a pantry with all of your favorite foods that will last through those cold winter months with this machine.
Beyond all of the tasty treats that I’ve made with this machine, the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75A is also great for crafts. I’ve used it to dry flowers, make potpourri, and even dry papier-mâché projects. As a result, I’ve participated in a variety of local craft and art competitions using the same machine that keeps my family fed all winter long!
It has an Excellent Thermostat and Drying Mechanism
As you might have noticed in our guide to food dehydrator reviews, the Converga-Flow system created by Nesco is a unique and powerful system. It forces air to flow down rapidly along the outer shell and then move radially inwards across each tray. This, along with the fact that the fan is at the top of the machine and not at the bottom, makes the product one of the most efficient when it comes to drying high moisture foods in a short period of time. Further, the drying of turkey, fish, and beef as well as delicate flowers and herbs are made possible by the 95°-160° F temperature range of the thermostat. Food dehydration is tricky and without the proper machine, you could end up with piles of spoiled and inedible foods that you were depending on.
It has Good Drying Power and a Vita-Save Exterior
Speaking of underrated qualities in food dehydrators, let’s talk power capacity. As we all know, quality thermostats need to be accompanied by a great power capacity. Thankfully, the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75A comes with 700 watts of power. That’s plenty of juice to dry whatever you need. Intriguingly, the actual power used by the machine at any time is dynamic. Instead of using full power at all times, the machine varies the power consumption over time to provide efficient drying without those nasty high power bills that make life miserable.
On top of that, Nesco provides yet another innovation with this stunning dehydrator: Opaque Vita-Save. This ensures that any foods or flowers drying inside are not exposed to any lights from outside the machine. Since lighting has a direct impact on the quality of drying (complicated, but true!), this feature ensures that anyone can use the dehydrator in a well lit, kitchen, living room, or dining room without losing any nutrients and minerals of the food.
It Comes With Extra Racks and a Recipe Book
Not content with merely providing their customers with an excellent dehydrator, Nesco also offers some exciting additions for anyone who might be interested. The product comes with 5 racks/trays, but if that’s not enough, a further 7 can be purchased from the market at a low rate. Whether you use 5 or 12 trays, the drying efficiency of the product remains unchanged. It merely offers the opportunity to dramatically expand the amount of food that you can dehydrate at once, should you wish.
To make life easier for novices, the company has also come out with a free recipe book that will teach you how to make everything from regular fish jerky to fruit rolls without having to requisition many new items. This takes the stress out of figuring out how to use the machine and offers many interesting ideas for anyone excited to experiment with their new dehydrator.
And One Disadvantage..
Unfortunately, no product is perfect. During my initial use, I found that the product offers little in way of good indicators. There are a number of indicators for temperature, but none for other parameters (such as the fan). Though not a major inconvenience, it can take a little time to get used to. After all, some recipes require very specific settings that aren’t always easy to set up with this model. With some experimentation, it’s easy to find solutions and work-arounds. But it’s still an oversight that Nesco will hopefully address in future products.
Conclusion
Though some food dehydrator reviews may include a number of other angles, it is my belief that the above constitute the primary USPs of the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75A. Though the lack of indicators takes time getting used to, the sheer range of drying options and the efficient drying mechanism ensure that the product truly offers remarkable value for money. This is an excellent option for anyone looking to get into the exciting world of food dehydration. With a 1 year limited warranty, you know you’re in safe hands with Nesco. So, if you’re looking for a starter dehydrator, we can’t recommend the Nesco Snackmaster enough. Buy one today and start stockpiling all of the dehydrated treats that you’ll need to get through the coming winter, or your next camping trip for that matter!
- Performance - 7/107/10
- Ease of Use - 6.8/106.8/10
- Design - 6.7/106.7/10
- Features - 7.2/107.2/10
When I first received my Snackmaster, I absolutely loved it. I’m a hunter, and I make large batches of beef jerky every year to hand out to my friends and neighbors, and this machine allowed me to make a delicious batch of deer jerky in a little under 7 hours. I liked that I could use the folding handle on top of the machine to take a look inside and see what was going on during the process.
Unfortunately, my good experience with the Snackmaster Pro ended rather quickly. This is because one of the dehydrator’s trays warped during my very first usage. I carefully used the dehydrator according to the instructions, so I don’t think it’s a result of user error. In addition, I didn’t place it in the dishwasher or anything like that, so it’s obvious that this happened during the actual product use. Since the tray now dips down in the middle, it touches the tray below it, resulting in a gap. It’s very disappointing to have such a serious problem with my machine after the first use.
If you ask my husband and my kids, they will tell you that wasting food is one of my biggest pet peeves! We are blessed to have a lot of fruit trees surrounding our house, but we normally could not eat all of the produce before it started to rot. I was tired of throwing away rotting apples, and shriveled grapes, so I purchased this device.
The Snackmaster Pro is really easy to use. It comes with 8 trays, but the machine can handle a total of 12 trays. I ended up buying 4 more trays because I wanted to use the machine to capacity. I enjoyed dehydrating a big batch of apples. My house smelled amazing during the process, and my kids are eating the dried apples as a healthy snack. Keep in mind that this unit does use a lot of electricity, so that’s the only negative. It eats up 600 watts of electricity during a 20-hour cycle, so we’ve seen some higher electric bills during the months I use it a lot.
The Snackmaster Pro FD-75A provides a great value for the money. It is very reasonably priced, and it gets the job done without any hassle. I’m a hobbyist who enjoys drying mushrooms and herbs. I enjoyed my dehydrator so much that a second one is on its way to me now! I’m looking forward to being able to do 2 large batches at one.
My mushrooms need to stay in this machine for around 18 hours to get done, so it’s not the fastest dehydrator, but I am more interested in quality than speed. Although the instructions state that you don’t need to rotate the trays, I find that I do need to do this at least once during the cycle for the best, most consistent results. This is a minor inconvenience that is worth it because of the dehydrator’s low price.
If you are an avid hiker like me, you really need to give this product a try. I got tired of paying sky high prices for dehydrated meals to take on my backpacking trips, so I purchased this dehydrator and started experimenting! It is super easy to use, and most of my experiments have come out great. I was surprised to find out how good broccoli can taste after it is dehydrated. My dehydrated meals not only cost less now, but they also taste a whole lot better.
My family loves to camp, and this handy dehydrator has made preparing for our next adventures so much more enjoyable. We have found a lot of great recipe ideas for camping on YouTube. It’s amazing that we can fit meals for 14 days in our tiny little camper refrigerator once they are dehydrated! This machine is easy to use and it does what it says. I highly recommend this product.