My husband and I love dried fruits, veggies, and meats. However, these are usually pretty expensive (especially the more natural, MSG-free variety) so we've been on the market for a dehydrator.
I've been hovering around the the Excalibur Dehydrator: http://tinyurl.com/5vtp9zn
Also, any good literature on the beginner dehydrator? I think over time we'd save quite a bit of money by making our own jerky and dried produce!
I have an Excalibur Dehydrator and Excalibur Dehydration Guide that contains all the basics on how to prep and dry each food type. Instructions for yogurt and jerky are also included. I have recently researched books on dehydrating foods and decided they would not be worth the investment cost. Some time searching on the internet will yield how-to information for the more advanced items. While I am still inexperienced with dehydration, I do know that having a dehydrator with temperature control and a fan system gives much better results than other dehydrators.
As an example, you can dry whole peppers to have peppers for enchilada sauces and moles, red pepper flakes, chilies for various ethnic dishes and to grind for your own cayenne pepper, chili powder, etc. While some of the small chilies can be strung and air-dried, the larger ones will often mold before drying unless dried in a fan-type dehydrator. (A hot dry climate would work for air-drying large peppers, also, but I don't have that.)
The Excalibur is supposed to be the best. I have a cheap Ronco dehydrator and it works well enough but I guess there are fancy things you can do with the kind that has a fan that I can't do with my cheap dehydrator.
I have decided that it is not possible to save money on some foods. For instance, dehydrated bananas require you to purchase a huge bunch of bananas and what you end up with is a snack that is so tasty you eat more bananas in a sitting than you might if they were fresh!
I think a good way to save some real money would be if you have access to backyard fruit. There is an apple tree on my walk to work that drops all its fruit every year. I intend to pick up a few apples on my way home from work each day when the apples are falling. I could dehydrate those. Same for a plum tree also on my way home from work. It is legal to take other people's fruit if it hangs over into public property, so I do not worry about the legality of this.
I have learned that it's a good idea never to leave the house without a plastic bag or two. You never know what you might find.
A good resource for dehydrator recipes are backpacking recipe sites and raw foods recipe sites.
The excaliber might be great, but it sure looks pricey. The Nesco American Harvest is what I have from Walmart for about $40 and it works great.
There are plans to build a solar dryer on page 56 of the pdf document here:
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