STX International Dehydra 1200W-XLS Food Dehydrator | Commercial Stainless Steel | Digital Controls | 10 Trays | 2 Food-Safe Mats | 1200 Watts | 97–165°F Temperature Range | 15-Hour Timer | Jerky Safe

I researched dehydrators intensely before making my choice. I was certain that I did not want heated plastic in contact with my food for hours. The stainless steel option was more expensive, but well worth it for long-term safety. The STX Stainless Steel Digital Dehydrator provided all the features that were important to me. On receiving the product, I unpacked, washed the parts and put it together which took about 20 minutes. The operation is very intuitive, no instructions required, but they are there if you want them. The back of the dryer with the digital parts and fan is completely separate from the dryer box. The two sections hook together with easy to use latches, and the dryer is completely secure once latched. Next, I put in the shelf guides and the shelves. This shelf design makes the dryer exceptionally easy to clean. The shelves come out, of course, but the guides also come out leaving the smooth dryer box that I can wipe down or wash, with no `nooks and crannies' to trap dirt or food particles, and if I want, no electronics to protect from water. Just unlatch the back and everything else is completely washable. Just re-hook the latches,and the guides slip back in easily. I love the fact that I can set the dryer for up to 15 hours. After setting it up, I immediately started drying things. I have dried apples, bananas, tomatoes, pears, zuccihini, sweet potatoes, banana leather, Satsumas, oranges, broccoli, potatoes, and asparagus in the past month, and I am as happy with the product as I thought I would be. More, in fact, because it is easier than I expected it to be. The reviews claim that the dryer is noisy, but mine is not. At about 4 feet, all I can hear is a faint air movement - it's a whisper. The front door does not fit tightly. I feel that this is part of the design, to increase airflow. I do not want the temperature to get high. I do not want to cook my food; I want to dehydrate it, and bringing in dry air, moving it over the food, and moving it out of the dryer is necessary for effective dehydration. Therefore, this design works fine for me. It does not rattle or make any noise. It dehydrates well, the timing can be monitored easily and set to prevent over drying. The shelves have a one-inch grid, which works fine for large pieces, but it also comes with two silicon mats for leathers and small pieces. You can always add parchment paper or screening if you use a lot of small pieces. Someone complained that there are sharp edges. They are not rolled, but I have not harmed myself on them either. The product is simply constructed, easy to put together, easy to use, and easy to clean. I had one question for the company, so I left a voicemail. Someone returned my call and answered my question within 24 hours. I love the STX Stainless Steel Dehydrator, and my only regret is that I waited so long to buy it.

Love my new STX-DEH-1200W-XLS. It works great, looks great, and easy to clean. Past reviews complained about the one inch mesh trays. Well mine came with 1/4 inch mesh trays so there is no food falling through them now! I have done three batches of beef jerky in it and it works great. I recommend that you put the thinner cuts on the bottom as it doesn't get as hot down there on the bottom two positions. If I use 3/16 to 1/4 inch thick meat, it takes from 5 to 10 hrs to get done. Love that it has a digital countdown timer so if I had to run out, it shuts itself off to prevent over drying. The end cover is a little tricky installing after you have slid your trays in, but after a few times it isn't so bad. Clean up is easy as i wash them in my sink. They are so wide, they don't fit in my dishwasher very well. But that's okay, not hard to get them clean as I use an oil base marinate for my jerky. It's really big so I am forbidden to leave it on the kitchen counter. I take into the garage and run it on my workbench. Looking for a stainless food prep table now to set up my operation on. Think I'll get my own meat slicer next. 22Dec19 UPDATE to my review.- I am going to bump up my rating to 5 stars!! I have been using this dehydrator for over a year and a half now. I can't tell you how much beef jrky I have made with it, but I know its in the hundreds of pounds. I use sugar in my marinate for my jerky so it does leave a rather heavy residue when I am done. But a little soaking in dishwater and scrubbing with a brush gets it right out. That scrubbing might have been why a few of the wires that make up the screen of the tray have come un-welded and stick up, so I must be careful not to stick myself with that loose barb when using them. I contacted the company via e-mail to find out how to order replacement trays. Well blow-me-down... I got a reply from Sasha at their company and she has sent me out a few replacement trays FREE OF CHARGE!! You just don't get customer service like that any more. I am beyond happy to say the least. My STX 1200 is still going strong and I love it more than ever. I HIGHLY recommend this item if you are looking to make some serious jerky. 31Jan2020-. Another update to further info on the outstanding customer service this company has. The replacement trays they sent me are more rugged and slightly larger than the 1/4 inch mesh trays I got with the unit. Well I inquired about buying a set of ten of these larger mesh trays as I liked them way better. They were just trying them out to see how they would work. I guess I got the sample trays by accident. At any rate, they are sending me the rest of these trays and I couldn't be more grateful. The customer service person, Sasha, and their head Technician, Todd, said in the future, they were going to replace the 1/4 inch trays with the more rugged 3/8 inch trays. That's a real bonus for anyone that's going to buy one of these awesome units, of anyone that needs replacement trays. Thank you STX International!! 14Feb2020- Update - Well I have been using the 3/8 inch mesh trays a couple of loads now. I must say that they are way better than the 1/4 inch ones. Sturdier and they seem to dehydrate faster. Maybe the air circulates through them better. If you already have an STX, do yourself a favor and order the 3/8 inch trays when they come out for the company. I scrub my trays vigorously with a kitchen brush and they hold up very well. And they clean up easier too! So pleased with them. Sooo- it’s been 5 years since I have purchased this unit. Have been using the heck out of it. I mean I’ve been making A LOT of jerky. I’d say an average of 8 to 10 pounds a month. I still love this machine and am so impressed with its performance. I do clean it thoroughly after each use so it looks brand new, so that might have something to do with it. If this one ever craps out, I will definitely buy another one!! Thanks STX.❤️💯💪🇺🇸

Hello, I don't generally do reviews, i know I should because I read other's all the time and it helps to make a better purchase. This time I felt I should. I've had this thing only a few weeks at this point, but its been running almost non-stop. I can't comment on longevity just yet. On the other hand i will on what I've see so far. -Very easy to assemble, no damage during shipping -Some people have commented that its loud. Cannot be farther from the truth, this thing is so quiet i can barely hear it running. There is no rattling, and the pieces all fit together snuggly. -Temperature settings are accurate to a couple degrees, (well within any industry standard for any product.) -It's easy to clean as it all comes apart well. -So far I've done Garlic, Green onions, bell peppers, and Jerky. All have come out perfectly. The veggies have been taking longer than I'm used to, but its because im at a lower temperature with this one, past dehydrators I've used are one temp only and usually around 155 degrees. So it makes sense that its taking longer and that's fine. -The capacity as you would figure is huge! i do huge batches of jerky at a time and used to need 4 of the circular dehydrators (with add on screens) all going at once, and still have to do at least an additional few batches. This thing handles a ton with no issues. -So all good so far! -The only issues I have with this unit is that there is a 15 hour timer. i have to keep resetting it to make sure it doesn't shut off on me during long dehydrations. The other issue is the large grating on the racks, with small stuff like garlic its a bit tough to not have it fall through. I'll get some baking racks or something for those. Other than those 2 issues, its great. Definitely worth the price tag! In the picture that's 5 whole bunches of green onions all separated, and barely uses 3-1/2 racks. Huge capacity! Thanks, G

I make ALOT of jerky and have several of these dryers. The biggest plus...hmmmmm. I guess they are cheap and I also like how the tray brackets come off for easy cleaning. Some other guys complained about noise. I dont give a damm about the noise. Yes they are louder than what I thought but I dont care. I know these are all stamped in china but here is what I wish I had. First is the dryer should have come with an insulating blanket so I can help heat up the meat quicker. I made my own. The fan should be 3 speed. The front set of openings should have some kind of damper on them so I can close 2/3 of the opening and lowered the fan speed and help heat the meat better. I would have made 2 heating elements and 2 fans. These could have been two 600 watt heating elements and had more air flow control. The temp should get hotter quicker. These improvements might add 100-200 but I think lots of us guys would pay more if there were some more quality built into it. For guys like me who are serious about jerky but not usda approved there is nothing else but these poorly made factory stamped dryers but having said this I would say for the price....I would recommend it.

I just received the dehydrator, putting the side rack bars and racks in was very straightforward. The unit is very well built. I really like that the heating unit that is attached to the back of the unit is separate because God forbid, anything goes wrong with it, it will be easy to replace. I read the other reviews and complaints so the first thing I did was run the temperature up as if I were making jerky to make sure it would get warm enough for jerky, one of the reviewers said theirs would not get hot enough. It took 20 minutes and it went to 165 degrees so I was pleased that I was not going to have to return it. I also read a review that said theirs was noisy, mine is very quiet so some poor person must have received a bad unit or something. I am very impressed with the quality of this unit. The heater and fan are in the very back and I LOADED it with frozen mixed vegetables so of course it took longer than it would have if the vegetables had been fresh but there was great flow over all of the vegetables and they dried well. Be sure to order the 2 of Non Stick Silicone Food Dehydrator Sheets, 15.75''x15.75'' Pack of 5, Chinese Bun Steamed Bread Silicone Screen Mesh Mat For Fruit Dryer Dumpling Sold by: Zhovee-Mall $10.59 or something similar because the corn and small vegetable pieces fall through the mesh of the stainless rack which is to be expected. I made the mistake of ordering only one pack of 5 and there is ten shelves so I had to put tin foil on the other five racks in order to fill the dehydrator. The tin foil worked ok but because it made a solid bottom on the tray, they dried a little slower. Needless to say I ordered another pack. I will keep this updated if I have any problems. 1st update. This unit has not been turned off since I received it. The stainless is excellent. It is easy to clean and maintain. The tray that is on the bottom of the unit is exactly the size of the bottom of the unit so anything that falls off as I remove the racks is caught by the bottom tray so I am not trying to pick up scraps out of the bottom. All I have to do is remove the tray. Some of the items being dried sometimes get over on the rack holders and the rack holders are easily removed and easily replaced after I tap them on the bottom tray to remove anything. The temperature is always within what the margins designated on the unit. Still loving it.

I received the dehydrator about a week ago. The stainless was not bent correctly keeping the door from closing properly, no biggie I repaired that it the door works fine now. Once the unit is put together it is not as flimsy as it seems to be while assembling. I have had some beef marinating for a couple days and today I filled four racks and placed them in the center top portion of the dehydrator. The meat has been dehydrating for about 12 hours and is not close to being done. Like someone else said their cheap plastic dehydrator worked better. I checked the temp with a digital thermometer and the temp in the front inside of the unit was 105 degrees, in the rear between the heating element and trays was 115 with the element on and dehydrator temp set at 150. I have written the seller and we will see what happens. Someone else wrote something about the heating element being a piece of coiled wire. It is heating element wire, same as what's in your electric dryer or the electric heat in your cooling/heating system. I have no intentions of sending this thing back if the seller/manufacture cannot take care of the problem. I will fix it myself so it works like it's advertised to do. It''ll turn out to be more money wasted on a mis-represented product on this site. HOT OFF THE KEYBOARD, UPDATED INFO. 22 DEC 2012 I contacted seller about my issues. They were easy to work with. I explained my findings. I was told the back or heating portion that latches on could have gotten damaged in shipment. They sent me a new back and I got around to using it a few days ago and upon startup I could tell a difference already. It dehydrated the several trays of meat in about 12 hours, I let it go for awhile longer to get extremely dry. One possible issue is using an extension cord with the unit. If you use a standard household cord you may or will get a voltage drop which will cause poor performance of the unit. You need to either use a heavy wire gauge cord or plug the units cord directly into a properly rated outlet for the unit. I am happy now and will be returning the original back, back to the seller with a the ups shipping tag they sent. It's not costing me an extra dime, just a little time. Update: 2 June 2015 Have been using the unit for awhile now and it works fine, it rattles because of the all steel construction but that is easily fixed. The only other thing I have done is bypass the timer so the machine does not shutoff before contents are dehydrated. I still have to rotate trays but not near as much as this round plastic convection unit I had. I have also run a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the dehydrator so no more voltage drop because of under rated extension cords. Update: 31 Oct 2016 The unit has been working fine. It does take longer to dehydrate than what is suggested, but this is true for every other dehydrator I have had. I did have an issue with the dehydrator yesterday when drying hot peppers. The machine shut off but it was easily troubleshot. The problem was the cheap power switch. I replaced the switch this morning with a 20 amp toggle so this issue will not happen again. I am still happy with the unit. I did get my hot peppers dried, and processed. I now have a gallon of some very hot peeper. It's a mixture of Serrano, Jalapeno, Cayenne, Habanero, and a few Hungarian Wax.

Received this promptly in the middle of harvest season, washed it, set it up and put it to work. Apples, asian pears, pears, grapes, and figs all found it's way through it's cycle. Easy to understand instructions and can't fail if you follow them. One hint, if drying grapes for raisins you don't need a mat, simply crack the grapes by plunging them in hot water to crack skins, remove and put on towel, then place on bakers parchment cut to fit racks. The unit has great capacity and I can see it working for years as it is simple and well built. I called the company and talked to the owner about rather sharp edges on the door that need to be burnished by sanding or filing. Easy to do with crocus cloth or emery paper, I used 800 grit. would not hesitate buying again and have in the past used the round stack-able plastic type that I'd never own again. 2015 update: Getting ready for the harvest season I've begun thinking of getting our dehydrator out of it's box (save it or get one slightly larger to put the unit away at the end of the year), clean it up and put to use for the 4th year. With over 50 fruit trees and 25 grape-vines we have really put a lot of loads through drying and it's not failed us. At this point if we had to do it again, we would buy the same model. Please note we do not have this updated model with the digital electronics, ours is the old style with twist knobs (we can't vouch for the updated). I will tell you that if our heating unit fails I wouldn't hesitate ordering the electronic version to replace the original as I feel it would work as well (better?) and the company would stand behind their product. (See my prior note about dealer support).

I am not impressed. I paid a lot more than I planned when thinking about purchasing one because we want a dehydrator that will make good, safe jerky. I thought I'd first give it a try with herbs. It has taken over 7 hours to dry my herbs. (The herbs are sparse inside, not taking up much of the space) I don't think I'll try fruit since that may take days! I emailed the company and have not heard a word. I've read all the literature to make sure I'm doing it right. I looked at the CD they provided. It is a HUGE unit and takes a lot of space which would be ok if it was worth the space it takes up. The plus is that it's quiet. Considering how long it's having to run, it's a plus!

100% perfect beef jerky, Best of the best! Worth paying an extra couple 100$ vs the 200-400$ machines