Drying vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and herbs ā a great alternative to freezing and canning. How does the Zigmund & Shtain ZFD-400 dry food?? Test and find out.
Features
Features: Dried vegetables, fruits, berries, mushrooms, herbs, meat, fish and other food by natural dehydration.
Cooking marmalade, marshmallows, marshmallows, etc. desserts.
Power: -500 W.
Design: Plastic-coated body of the base, 5 removable trays, a plastic grid with small holes for marshmallow and marmalade, a transparent cover, 2Ć0.75 mm2 cord, length ā 1 m 20 cm.
Control: temperature regulator on the base, power button with display.
Modes: from 35 to 70 Ā° C, step ā 5 degrees.
Trays: diameter ā 30, cm, internal height ā 2,5 5 cm, 2 levels of installation.
Features: cyclic operation of the heating element 30 s 30 s , automatic shutdown in case of overheating, maximum operating time without interruption ā 20 h.
It is recommended to install at least 3 trays, even if some of them are empty.
Dimensions: 395x315x315 mm.
Warranty: 1 year. Lifetime: 3 years.
Manufacturer: Peopleās Republic of China.
Price: 3599 Dollars.
Appearance
Electric dryer Zigmund & Shtain ZFD-400 ā round, snow-white.
In assortment of the company there is similar model of beige color ZFD-401 .
This dryer has 5 trays in its set, each 30 cm in diameter, thanks to which the capacity of this dryer is the same as that of narrower models with more trays.
I will also note the increased length of the power cord, so you can place the dryer is not very close to the power supply.
The transparent lid has 4Ć5 vapor holes that allow moist air to escape quickly and evenly.
Control
The control panel at the Zigmund & Shtain ZFD-400 dryer is located on the body, which is traditional for this technique. Temperature regulator has a power button with a display.
The inscriptions on the temperature regulator are large, clear and well visible.
The dryer will start working as soon as you plug in the cord and press the power button.
If the temperature regulator is turned all the way to the left, the fan will still work, but the heating element will not turn on, so do not forget to set the desired temperature mode.
Ergonomics:
The 5 circular pallets can be placed in any order.
You can also adjust the height of the trays to 2.5 or 5 cm, depending on what youāre drying.
Trays are easy to install, held firmly.
Not necessary to fill them all, but the manufacturer recommends putting at least 3 pieces, even if they are empty.
5 trays of 30 cm in diameter allow you to dry a lot of food in one cycle.
It is not possible to name the exact number of pieces of food to be loaded it all depends on the type of raw material and the cutting features. I will count the capacity in cherry tomatoes:
On one tray fits 300 grams of cherry halves, the total weight, on all trays thus can reach ā 1 kg 500 grams.
You can, of course, make the apples and then put them in more pieces, but for better drying you need to let the air circulate freely between the pieces.
If you take regular tomatoes larger and heavier , you can put more than 2 kg. The drying time increases, and can be up to 20 h.
Instructions
Itās nice that it comes with a colorful brochure that includes a small recipe book in addition to the instruction manual.
The instructions are detailed, written in large print, the brochure is pleasant to hold and easy to read.
All the necessary information is included, itās detailed and clear.
There are illustrations on each page.
There are time and temperature recommendations for each type of food.
It says that you can blanch some products before drying to reduce the drying time and improve the quality.
I only wish that instead of āsome of the productsā it was specified which ones.
One small note ā the drying time in the general table and the time in the recipes do not match. In particular, tomatoes in the table ā should be dried from 10 to 24 hours, and in the recipes ā 8-10 hours.
Functionality
The Zigmund & Shtain ZFD-400 dried cherry tomatoes, apples and parsley.
Itās great that there is a grid for making marmalade and marshmallow in the kit.
The only pity is that one: you can not cook this delicacy in two or three trays at the same time, and by experience ā is eaten homemade marmalade much faster than cooked.
This is a convection dryer.
The working principle is the following: TEN heats the air and the fan pushes it over the whole surface. The warm air rises and the steam escapes with the moisture from the holes in the lid.
- The fan works all the time and the heating element cyclically, that saves energy.
Drying is a slow process, so energy efficiency is an important detail.
- Although the manufacturer gives you the choice of temperature, I just put the knob on the maximum so that the drying would be as quick as possible.
As I have learned from reading the reviews of other users, this is the case for many people
.
The cherry tomatoes dried for 7 hours until just right.
I cut the apples into thin slices. In total, it took 6 hours to dry them.
The greens dried the fastest, the drying procedure took 3 hours. I could have taken them out earlier.
Thatās pretty fast for an electric dryer!
The manual says that the drier can run for 20 hours without interruption, and at first I thought that this time might not be enough, but after testing it, I came to the conclusion that it is unlikely to have to finish drying something, a full cycle is enough for standard tasks.
Drying quality
Drying is uniform, but the trays should be periodically swapped out in the process.
On the wide trays near the middle and at the edges all pieces are dried evenly.
Noise level
All dryers are noisy, and the Zigmund & Shtain ZFD-400 is no exception.
But the noise is barely audible, so it shouldnāt bother you too much.
Care
Plastic trays need to be washed by hand, using regular dishwashing detergent. You canāt wash the base, but you have to wipe the top, especially if you use spices and salt when drying.
The instructions say that it is not recommended to wash the trays in the dishwasher. Only āmanualā care.
Test results
The Zigmund & Shtain ZFD-400 was designed to do the test in a nutshell.
It dries fast and with high quality.
The five large diameter trays hold a large enough amount of food to dry.
Fast thorough drying, additional accessory for making desserts, easy operation, recipe book included.
In some cases, a single cycle time may not be enough to thoroughly dry food.
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