My new toy!

[TomatoNut95]

Woo-hoo! Finally got the food dryer of my dreams! Constructed for me by DSF (he's the carpenter, not me) it is from an old window panel he had on hand, screening and cedar and treated wood. I am easily able to remove the top off and move the dryer if need be and I'm just so proud of it!!

Can't wait to use it, but not enough peppers yet, and it is supposed to rain all next week.

[HoneyBerry]

very nice, good work, love that it is solar

[kayjay]

That's awesome! I have a crappy $20 Walmart dehydrator which is okay, it gets the job done, but how 'bout that for saving electricity.

[Gary350]

Your solar dehydrator looks nice have fun with it.

I learned 180 degrees F cooks away all the vegetable flavor & hot spicy flavor is lost, peppers are very dark green or dark red close to brown color.

150 degrees cooks away about 50% of pepper flavor and color loss is less you get a nice dark shade color red or green with about 50% hot spicy flavor lost.

125 degrees only about 20% flavor and hot spiciness is lost color is a good red or green color only slightly darker shade color.

100 degrees no pepper flavor lost and no hot spicy flavor lost red and green colors are both very bright red and green color.

You being in TX your air humidity is probably lower than TN you will probably have dehydrated vegetables 2 or 3 times faster than me in TN. Your sun is hotter so keep an eye on your temperature.

OH well sun is FREE if it takes all day to dehydrate a good size batch of vegetables so what its free. Experiment and have fun see what works best for you. A tiny solar vent fan works good with a 100 degree thermostat to remove excess heat and humidity.

[TomatoNut95]

I won't be getting enough sun for a week or more to get to use it yet. WWAAAAAYYYY too much rain predicted in the future, I'm getting rain right now as a matter of fact. I put my dryer away in the building, I know the wood (not the cedar part) is treated but I like to take care of my stuff so it'll last longer.

Yesterday I noticed though I was feeling underneath the glass and it just didn't feel very hot. I hope that glass window pane was the right kind to use. I'll try to see if I can find a thermometer to place in there and see how hot it actually gets intside, but won't be able to for a long time yet. Stupid rain.

@Gary, it gets pretty humid here in Texas, especially if I get a lot of rain like I'm getting now, and am going to get for over a week from now.

But maybe by the time all this rain is over with I'll have enough peppers or Roma's to actually work with. I'm anxious to see if I can make my own tomato powder. If it works great, and if I make enough of it, that might be my Chrismas presents to all my friends and family, ha-ha!

[!potatoes!]

this style of solar dehydrator usually needs a black layer under the screen to heat up enough. checking the temp may show that.

[TomatoNut95]

You mean like like a layer of black plastic? I believe I have a piece somewhere. I plan to check how hot the dryer will get during the day, but it will be a long time before I have a day of all-day sun so I can do so. Rain predicted for every single day for over a week.

[Gary350]

Black helps to adsorbs heat from the sun. Paint inside black. Picture looks like bottom of your solar box is glass too? Cover bottom with black, paper, plastic, paint, cloth, anything black. Test it first see how hot it gets. I think it will get plenty hot with black on the bottom only.

[TomatoNut95]

No, bottom is screening, just like it was supposed to have. Top is glass window panel. Yes, I will test how hot it will get inside, but not enough sun for the next week to dry anything. Too much rain is in the forecast. And too humid. Should I fasten a piece of black plastic underneath the screening?

[Vanisle_BC]

Ideally you want hot air to flow up through the screening, around the food. If you put black material underneath, I think there should be space between it and the mesh for air to enter and be heated by the black. Maybe you could rest a black 'plate' on the horizontal members of the support frame? I don't think plastic would be ideal; won't get hot enough - painted metal would be better (copper ideal) or even black painted wood. And I think it would be good to have a vent at the top so that hot air is not trapped under the glass but keeps flowing up through, but maybe it will work OK without that.

Whatever you do, keep us informed and tell us the results!

[Vanisle_BC]

T_Nut, maybe I misunderstood your setup. Is the mesh attached to the bottom of the 'window box' or is it down below, resting on the horizontal pieces? Wherever it is, my idea would be to put the black heater-panel far enough below it to allow good upward airflow.

[TomatoNut95]

The mesh is attached to the bottom of the window box.

[Vanisle_BC]

The mesh is attached to the bottom of the window box.

How do you put food in - lift the glass off?

[TomatoNut95]

Yep! See the first photo on my first post. I'm lifting the panel there.

[Vanisle_BC]

Yep! See the first photo on my first post. I'm lifting the panel there.

Ah, now I get it. I thought I was looking down at glass in that first photo - and wondered what the hand was doing! I guess you'll be able to regulate temp by wedging the glass open as/when necessary

I've played with the idea of a backyard solar dryer and looked at some designs but so far I just rig some mesh racks in my wee cheap greenhouse, which works quite well so I never get around to building something like yours; which is pretty handsome. Tonight we had the last of our 2019 sundried tomatoes on our pizza - delish.

[TNCatHerder]

You could use black weed cloth under the screen to attract more heat and lose less flow.

[TomatoNut95]

I should have a piece of black plastic somewheres that I can play around with by attaching it underneath the screening - not RIGHT underneath, but a bit further down so air flow can escape.

I'm really disappointed that I cannot even use my dryer yet, I've got some peppers that I could start test-drying but not any sun to work with. It will be cloudy and rainy every stinking day for a week or more.

[TomatoNut95]

According to the weather, today looked sunny enough so today I'm giving my dryer it's trial run! To see more pics, please visit my garden thread.