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’m getting better at making Beef Jerky, and this was made possible by this Dehydrator machine. I’m doing 10 lbs of Beef Round, cut in 1/4” discs. I’m drying for 6.0 hrs at 165F. Phenomenal results. Easy to clean. Easy to carry the machine loaded with beef from my kitchen to the garage, because the motor & heater section, front cover, drip pan can all be removed. Beef Jerky is an underestimated ancient tradition, and it needs to be rediscovered!

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.❤️💯💪🇺🇸

We love that this is stainless steal and has the right temperature for jerky, but we've noticed it takes a little longer to dehydrate than our old one. Overall, it's great, but a little slow. The front is a little tricky to get on as well.

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 2012I 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 2015Have 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 2016The 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.