Is the Excalibur Performance 10-Tray (DH10SS) hot enough for jerky?

Last reviewed October 2026.

The dial reaches the line — and USDA says the dial was never the whole question. Excalibur publishes 85–165°F for the DH10SS on its product page and in its manual, so the dial clears USDA's 160°F line on paper. The manual's jerky recipe goes further than a dial number: at the 155° setting, it says, “your meat will hit 160º”, because the thermostat cycles the air temperature up and down around the set point. That is the maker's statement, not a measurement on file. Excalibur's own FAQ says food runs about 20 degrees cooler than the air while it dries, and USDA's guidance is that a dehydrator cannot be assumed to get the meat to 160°F before it dries. The oven pre-heat or post-heat step is still the answer.

The facts on file

Sources — read them yourself

• Excalibur — Performance 10-Tray product page (85–165°F, up to 80 hours, 800 W, 10 stainless trays, 16 sq ft)
• Excalibur — DH06SS/DH10SS Performance Series manual (85–165°F; jerky recipe: 155° setting, “your meat will hit 160º”)
• Excalibur — FAQ (food runs about 20 degrees cooler than air, because of evaporation)
• USDA FSIS — Jerky (heat to 160°F before dehydrating)

How to read this

USDA's jerky guidance sets the numbers — 160°F for meat, 165°F for poultry — and explains why the dehydrator can't be trusted to hit them on its own: evaporating moisture absorbs the heat, so the meat stays cooler than the air until most of the drying is done. Independent dial testing routinely finds units running 5–15°F below their setting. The answer on every row is the same and costs nothing: the oven step, before or after drying. And remember the dial is not the food's temperature.

See every dehydrator we track, claim by claim → · the units marketed for jerky below the line →

Dehydrator Score indexes manufacturer-published temperature specs and marketing claims against the USDA jerky record, with attribution — we test nothing and give no safety advice. No dial setting substitutes for USDA's instruction: heat meat to 160°F (poultry 165°F) in an oven before dehydrating, or bake the finished jerky after — inside a dehydrator, evaporating moisture holds the meat below air temperature until it is already dry. If a maker publishes a spec or manual that changes a row, the page changes — the record wins.

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