Brod & Taylor SAHARA Folding Food Dehydrator (Stainless Steel Shelves)

My husband gave me the Brod & Taylor Sahara Dehydrator for my birthday, and I’m very impressed with its design—particularly how it folds down for compact and convenient storage. I’ve used it once so far to make beef jerky, and it performed exceptionally well. It runs very quietly, and the rear-mounted fan provided even drying without the need to rotate or rearrange the trays. I really appreciate the glass doors, which allow me to easily monitor the items being dehydrated. The unit isn’t too tall, so it fits comfortably under my kitchen cabinets and sits nicely on the countertop. The digital display and control dial make setting the temperature and time simple and user-friendly. I had been watching this dehydrator for a while, and I was pleased to take advantage of a price drop during Prime Days.

Overall: I like the dehydrator and am glad I purchased this model over some of the other models I was considering, mainly due to the folding ability and currently having limited storage. While I have some complaints it works reliably well for multiple things I’ve tried, and has considerable capacity. It’s worth noting my other dehydrator before this was an “All-in-one” unit that started me looking for a dedicated unit, but I don’t have enough experience to compare this product to other similarly priced items. Temperature: See attached images. My testing method was placing my temperature probe in the empty unit on the middle rack, setting it to the specified temperature, giving it a few minutes to stabilize and then resetting the high/low values. Unfortunately I don’t have something that could log the temperature and give an average, but I would guess the temperature is ~2.5 F below the set temperature averaged over time. It’s also worth noting that the temperature will be more stable when food is in the dehydrator and brought up to temperature. Controls: The controls are easy to use and intuitive. Only has a few buttons, and the wheel to select the time/temperature is a nice touch. Temperature can be adjusted by 1F and time is in 15 minute increments. The functionality of dual temperature/times is a nice feature, but the user manual provides no guidance as to exact settings for different foods. Since a lot of dehydrators don’t have this functionality I couldn’t find much online either. I’ve tried it with apple chips to speed up the initial heat up, but without a test between 2 settings it’s hard to say how helpful it actually is as well as how much time it potentially saves. Usability: As stated in the ‘controls’ section the UI for temp/time selection is straight forward. Folding of the unit works well, it’s fairly straight forward and I don’t have any complaints. The knobs on the glass door feel a bit undersized in that they are a hard to grip, but I haven’t had any real problems with them. I assume their size is due to the fact that they have to fold into the unit so couldn’t be larger. The plastic tray at the bottom meant to catch drips from food in the unit works well, and is fairly easy to clean but I have a few complaints. The tray itself is a bit flimsy, and it feels like if you were letting it dry and let something kind of heavy against it you would have a risk of bending it. Additionally, it doesn’t actually cover the entire bottom of the dehydrator. This isn’t a huge deal to me, since you probably won’t put anything right on the edge anyway, but it is a bit inconvenient. I assume it is a limit of the folding design and storing it inside the unit when it is folded away. It would be nice if there was a light in the unit, but given how fast it comes back to temperature if you really need to look into it while it is being used opening the door and shining a flashlight in isn’t the end of the world. Food racks: I went with the stainless steel version. They fit just fine in the included carrying case, and the benefit is they work with the Brod & Taylor silicone ‘large’ style sheets (vs only ‘regular’ on the plastic trays) as well as whatever reservations you had about the plastic in the other version being gone (though most of the unit in the heating chamber is plastic anyway). Overall these are my biggest complaint about the unit. They work well for the dehydration process, but the metal running between the horizontal/vertical edges is very thin. This leaves me with 2 complaints: • The racks themselves feel flimsy, I haven’t noticeably bent them but it feels like you have to be careful with them way more than I would expect having to with metal racks. • They are difficult to clean. I’ve tried scrubbing them with a sponge after a few dehydration sessions and I’ve always noticed food built up where “connections” of metal meet. You really have to soak them or put them in the dishwasher to clean them adequately. Pricing: This kind of annoys me. The stainless steel shelves when I bought it as part of the unit cost another $100, but on their website they cost ~$90 and the plastic “Poly Shelves” cost ~$60. So, it would have been cheaper to buy the unit with the plastic shelves and then buy the Stainless Steel shelves separately from their website, and I would have had both sets of shelves. Accessories: (I didn’t consider this in my rating as you don’t get these items when purchasing the unit, but I wanted to put them here in case people were interested). I bought the carrying case and a few silicone sheets with the unit. The carrying case works well, it holds the unit and the bag with the food racks all in one. I also have the spare air filter and the user manuals with it as well. My biggest complaint with the setup is that it doesn’t have straps to secure the food trays in the case like it does for the main unit, not a huge deal but for the price I would have hoped for a better setup. It also doesn’t have any smaller outside pockets for auxillary items (air filters, user manuals) that I was hoping for. Overall it’s not bad, but for the price it wasn’t as good as I was hoping for. If you have the space to put the unit in a cabinet or something and not in a closet like I have I don’t necessarily think the case is worth it. The silicone sheets work well. They are a lot thinner than other silicone sheets you will find, I assume by design so they allow more heat transfer to the bottom of whatever food is on top of them. Makes them kind of a pain to clean,

This is an amazing dehydrator, I had it running at 135° for 8 hours, making miso salmon jerky, made my house smell like a fish market 😅 worth it! I want to persevere the shelves for as long as possible, so I put the fish on 1/4 sheet trays. Worked amazing. Really intuitive to open and unfold, thought I would need an engineering degree but it was really simple. The time and temp are easy to set. Not to loud, honestly not any louder than a running fridge, you get used to the noise and it's really clear when it shuts off, you notice the silence. Beeps 3 times when it's done. I've only had it for 3 days, if I think of it in a year I'll leave another review. Worth the money. 2 Week Update. I have one complaint, the knobs are tiny, hard to grip. I might buy wider ones if I get really motivated about it. But really, that's my only complaint. I've been running this dehydrator basically non stop for 2 weeks. I've made salmon, beef, and mushroom jerky. I plan to make venison jerky tomorrow. I've powdered lemons, limes, oranges, tomatoes, Sriracha, sardines, red miso, black garlic, and sweet peppers. I've made instant white and wild rice. And SOOOO much more. I'm really running it all the time, I think it's been off for 30 hours since I got it. 4 month update.....I used it as a pancake warmer today for Easter breakfast. I can only make 1 pancake at a time, so I set the dehydrator to 130° and kept the pancakes warm until they were all ready. First time we've all eaten pancakes at the same time. 😊 Multitasking product! Hey I remembered! 1 YEAR REVIEW. Buy it. Really. Buy it. I run it daily, I always have something in it. I’ve used it to proof bread, make yogurt, keep pancakes warm, powder food, jerky, dog treats, fruit roll ups, and tree ornaments(lime slice garland). Seriously, buy it. Still haven’t got motivated about changing the nobs, still on the list though. The plastic shelves are in great shape, no discoloration. I have run them through the dishwasher, but I usually just rinse them. They wipe clean so easily. I bought grill mats to use as dehydrator mats, much cheaper and I was able to cut them to the perfect size (take a lighter to the edges to clean them up). I was so afraid I would never use this, but I shocked my lazy self by using it more than anything else in my kitchen, buy it. I have folded it back up once, ONCE, it’s always in use. 4.5 years and it still lives on my counter top. Still haven’t changed out the nobs, just not that big a problem really. The shelves are in great shape, no warping, no discoloration. Still using the grill mats. Used it as a bread proofing box just the other day, I use it to warm plates while I make dinner when it’s really cold outside. I’ve stored the dehydrator away twice, it never stays hidden long. I’ve changed the filter on the back once. It’s a great piece of kit. Worth every penny!

Very nicely put together. Louder than I expected but not an unpleasant sound. Temperature reaches the 165 max and keeps it. Love it that it has a fan only mode with no heat, and the programmable timer up to 99 hours is impressive. The glass doors and magnetic clasp feel nice and secure. The gap between the door panels that some have commented on is not a fault -- the air is meant to circulate and the machine has vents on the top as well especially for that purpose. Very happy with my purchase.

Really intelligent design. Ground beef jerky comes out perfectly even across the entire space. Pairs well with the Sahara Carrying Case for quick storage. All the grills fit inside too. The only thing I'm disappointed with is I couldnt believe the entire machine was made of plastic, except for the grills (if you choose the metal grills option). It stinks of plastic chemicals. I'm worried that these chemicals end up on my food. Almost all dehydrators on Amazon are fully made of metal, body included. I dont know how they can charge this much for a plastic device with a fan and heater. It does get the job done and its portable so it gets 4 stars. I should have paid more attention before purchasing.