The Excalibur 9-Tray Food Dehydrator review is for serious home jerky makers who have outgrown the COSORI: more capacity, horizontal airflow across 15 square feet of drying space, and a reputation in the food preservation community that extends decades.
What Makes Excalibur the Professional Standard
Excalibur builds dehydrators with horizontal rear-mounted fans that push air across all trays simultaneously and uniformly. This isn’t a significant advantage at 5 trays, but at 9 trays (the Excalibur’s standard configuration) it’s critical: without uniform horizontal airflow, bottom trays run hotter and top trays cooler, requiring rotation every hour. The Excalibur eliminates the need for tray rotation entirely.
The 9-tray capacity handles serious batch sizes — 2–3 pounds of raw meat per batch, producing 8–12oz of finished jerky. For someone making 2–3 batches per week for a household, this is what makes the economics work. The digital temperature controller is accurate; the timer runs up to 26 hours for long-batch projects like fruit leather or vegetable chips where jerky would be the shorter overnight cycle.
How We Tested It
We compared the Excalibur directly with the COSORI using the same beef batch size, temperature (160°F), and timing. Excalibur produced more even results: zero variation across 9 trays on temperature, no rotation needed. The COSORI was nearly as good at 5 trays. For the additional cost of the Excalibur, you’re buying capacity and professional-grade temperature uniformity.
Who Should Buy This
The Excalibur is the right choice for people who make large batches of jerky several times a week, use the dehydrator for multiple food preservation projects (jerky, dried fruit, herbs, raw treats), or want a machine that will last many years under heavy use. It’s not necessary for occasional jerky-making.
How It Compares
Against the COSORI, the Excalibur is larger, more expensive, and has better uniformity at high tray counts. The COSORI is the right pick for 1–3 batch-per-week users; the Excalibur is for people who make 3+ batches per week or need maximum capacity per cycle.
