Has anyone here got a dehydrator?

I was looking for one last week as I have hundreds of chillis that I've grown and I wanted to dry some out but I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on something that I would probably only use a few times.

After having a bit of a google around I decided that Mr M could make one! We took a cardboard box with a lid and lined it with tinfoil. Then Mr M added a light-fitting - I used a 75 watt bulb as that was the highest watt that I had and it works great. The website that I read said to use 100 watt.

It tooks about 12 hours to dry out some chillis. I'm thinking about trying to dry out some fruit too.

I've got an excalibur 9 tray. I use it to make flax crackers mostly. (Not a fan of jerky so not tried it). I've also made other crackers, fruit leathers and nut cookies for walking holidays.

I is very good, although large (about the size of a microwave). I think there are smaller ones so look into those if space is an issue.

I use it on low settings so it does take a while (i.e. hours) but the results are good.

I did initially make a cardboard box one, but Mr S thought my handiwork was a fire hazzard and banned me from leaving it on while we were out. So I got a proper one.