Bio Chef vs Excalibur Dehydrators – Comparison

If you are looking for an affordable dehydrator with stainless steel trays in the UK, the 8-Tray Bio Chef Arizona might be a good choice. You can check the current Amazon price and read reviews of this model here.

Excalibur may be one of the most famous companies that manufacture and sell dehydrators with stainless steel trays, but it is by no means the only one. If you live in the UK or Australia, another name that frequently pops up in this context is the Australian brand Bio Chef. In this article, we take a look at how Bio Chef's Arizona dehydrators fare against Excalibur's stainless steel tray models in terms of various key features. At the end of the article, you will also find a handy Bio Chef vs Excalibur comparison chart which allows you view these and other features side by side. Please note that this review only covers models designed for home use.

Temperature Control

Another thing that all Excalibur and Bio Chef dehydrators included in the comparison chart below have in common is that they all come with an adjustable thermostat. Getting a dehydrator with an adjustable thermostat is important because different foods have different optimum drying temperatures. For example, meat should be dehydrated at a relatively high temperature, while vegetables and fruits are usually dried in the 125°F to 135°F range.

Position of the Fan

All of Excalibur's non-stackable tray models and Bio Chef Arizona dehydrators have rear-mounted fans, and hot air blowing across the shelves eliminates the need for bothersome tray rotation. Units with bottom-mounted fans, by contrast, typically require you to shuffle trays up and down during the drying process if you want your foods to dry evenly. What's more, if you get dehydrator with a rear-mounted fan, such as a Bio Chef Arizona dehydrator or an Excalibur, you won't have to worry about drippings from foods soiling the fan.

Tray Material

As far as differences between the two brands go, all of Bio Chef's non-commercial dehydrators (i.e. models BCAZ6, BCAZ8 and BCAZ10) come with stainless steel trays, while Excalibur has both models with stainless steel trays and models with plastic trays. The comparison chart at the end of this article only covers models with stainless steel trays — if you want to get an overview of all popular Excalibur dehydrators you can buy in the UK, including models with plastic trays, check out the article Excalibur Dehydrators Available in the UK.

Capacity

Finally, there are significant differences in capacity between Bio Chef Arizona and Excalibur dehydrators. When trying to figure out which model has the right capacity to meet your family's needs, it is important to look at the actual drying space rather than the number of trays because some models have smaller trays than others. You should also keep in mind that unlike some other dehydrators out there, neither Bio Chef Arizona dehydrators nor Excalibur's rectangular tray dehydrators are expandable, which means you cannot expand their capacity by purchasing more trays to stack on top.

Side-by-Side Comparison: Bio Chef vs Excalibur

The following side-by-side chart lets you compare Bio Chef's non-commercial grade dehydrators with Excalibur's popular tray dehydrators with stainless steel trays. Due to lack of space, the chart excludes Excalibur's EXC10EL dehydrator, a feature-packed high-end model with 1.48 square metres of drying space.