Top pick
This stainless steel dehydrator has a sleek look and a pleasantly quiet fan. Its generous amount of drying space makes it well suited for most at-home projects.
The Magic Mill Food Dehydrator MFD-7070 is a beautifully designed appliance that can reliably and evenly dehydrate a lot of food at once. Its seven tightly spaced stainless steel trays lend it greater capacity than many other models with the same footprint, and the trays are dishwasher-safe for easy cleanup.
Its 600-watt fan circulates heat extremely well. This horizontal-flow machine dehydrated a full load of apple chips with impressively uniform results and with zero tray rotation necessary. Though this model’s trays are more jam-packed than those of other dehydrators I tested, it dried the apple slices just as quickly, in about seven hours.
Other tests with beef jerky, mint leaves, and fruit leather went just as smoothly.
It fits more food than similar models. I tested three dehydrators with the exact same dimensions, and they were all able to accommodate relatively ambitious projects, all while fitting discreetly on my countertop.
But the Magic Mill MFD-7070 fits seven trays, while the other two models (the Cosori Food Dehydrator and the Samson Silent Dehydrator, a former pick) hold only six. The MFD-7070’s trays are only 1.25 inches apart, in contrast to the other models’ 1.5 inches.
It has an unobtrusive look and sound. Americans’ love affair with stainless-steel appliances has endured for many years, and the Magic Mill MFD-7070 delivers that signature modern, high-quality aesthetic. Recessed black plastic handles on the sides make this dehydrator easy to lift.
This machine also has a pleasantly quiet fan (admittedly, this is coming from a white noise lover), but so do most of the horizontal-flow machines I tested.
It’s easy to clean. This machine’s stainless steel trays fit neatly in most dishwashers and are safe for the bottom rack. While the stainless steel exterior is easily smudgable, it’s simple to clean.
The interior of the chamber is easy to wipe down, and you can place one of the two included smooth plastic trays on the bottom to catch drips. Those plastic trays are technically not dishwasher-safe, but they didn’t warp when I absentmindedly threw them in a cycle.
The settings are simple and convenient. The Magic Mill MFD-7070’s temperature range of 95 to 176 degrees is the widest of all the machines I tested, and you can set the timer in increments of 30 minutes, all the way up to 48 hours. When the timer is up, the machine turns off.
The touchscreen control panel is intuitive and straightforward, with two preset options: fast (a hotter temperature, great for making jerky) and raw (a lower, slower setting for fruits and vegetables). It also has a keep-warm option, which automatically starts a 24-hour, 95-degree cycle when the timer is finished; this setting is helpful when you’re out of the house or asleep, so your food won’t be sitting in a cold machine, possibly reabsorbing moisture for hours afterward.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The touchscreen buttons are … touchy. You may find yourself cursing your luck if you accidentally press the start/stop button twice, thus resetting the machine, after you just spent several seconds using the up and down buttons to set the machine’s temperature. Unfortunately this is all too easy to do with this machine’s highly sensitive touchscreen buttons.
The trays have large mesh holes. The Magic Mill MFD-7070’s stainless steel trays have 0.5-inch mesh holes, so small items like tiny dried mint leaves can easily fall right through. But it also comes with two plastic mesh tray liners for smaller items, and you can purchase extra mesh liners online. (Our other two dehydrator picks have finer-mesh trays.)
Number of trays: seven
Drying space: 7.6 square feet
Warranty: one year
