Fruit Dryers - Dehydrators

[David2up]

We are looking for info on fruit dryers.

We've of multitude of various fruit trees and wish to do some drying. More for home consumption, but commercial possibilites are always in the back of the mind due to the number of trees that we have. Also, drying of various veggies could also be a go.

Cheers,

[Somtham]

We are looking for info on fruit dryers.

We've of multitude of various fruit trees and wish to do some drying. More for home consumption, but commercial possibilites are always in the back of the mind due to the number of trees that we have. Also, drying of various veggies could also be a go.

Cheers,

We dry our chilis in the sun. Just spread them out on the corrugated sheet metal during the day and bring them in under cover at night. Takes about three days. With fruit you could probably do the same and place some mosquito netting over them to keep the flys off. The price it right and it works.

rgds

[David2up]

We are looking for info on fruit dryers.

We've of multitude of various fruit trees and wish to do some drying. More for home consumption, but commercial possibilites are always in the back of the mind due to the number of trees that we have. Also, drying of various veggies could also be a go.

Cheers,

We dry our chilis in the sun. Just spread them out on the corrugated sheet metal during the day and bring them in under cover at night. Takes about three days. With fruit you could probably do the same and place some mosquito netting over them to keep the flys off. The price it right and it works.

rgds

Hi Somtham,

Thanks for this. We understand about the chilis, in that we do ours this way too. But drying fruit or veggies in the sun, especialy during the rainy season, would not work as well. Hence the search for a proper dryer.

Doing a Google search I find some suppliers of dryers in BKK, but I'd really like to find someone with first hand experiance.

Cheers,

David

[Maizefarmer]

David - held back my 2cents worth as this is a subject I know zip nothing about. However I did speak to a local who is a buyer in the North area for some of the Thai big names in processing fruit - asks me to ask you 6 questions: the answers to which will enable him to come back with some input regards what type of drier, what size and what it's likely to cost you.

The questions are:

1) how much do you anticipate drying (volumes) and, how often?

2) what is your power source (e.g. gas, single phase, three phase, heavy oil - meaning diesel)?

3) do you have a preferance for drier type (e.g. infrared, hot air, freeze, vacum - the last apparently is the most popular in Thailand and genrally cheapest to run).

4) How dry is dry i.e. how much moisture are you wanting to take out?

5) How will you be (e.g. tins, plastic vacum, loose pack ... or whatever else)?

6) and lastly, and not such a big issue - more an option really: do you need to incorporate sterlizing (e.g. ultraviolite)

Get back with some input on the above and he'll in turn come back to me in few days with detail on who to contact and what equipment type/model to enquire about.

But if it's only for home use, as others have said, the opinion is - best to slice up and put on a rack with some mozzie netting for cover, and simply sun dry.

MF

Edited May 21, 2007 by Maizefarmer

[Farma]

I’ve seen small fruit dryers for sale in electrical shops. Unfortunately I can’t remember exactly where. They would do the job on a small scale for home use.

These dryers have a stack of 5 or 6 x 30 cm round perforated trays with a modified hairdryer on top.

[pete_r]

Here is a solar dryer seen at AIT: A flat box (WxLxH about 100x200x5cm) with a glass top, inclined about 30 degrees, with the top and bottom walls left open (covered with a mosquito-net to stop insects). Stuff to dry goes in the box, and the theory is that the air heated inside will flow out the top wall and evacuate moisture, while drier air will be sucked in from the bottom wall.

I'm not sure the system is much more efficient than open air sun-drying, but maybe better to protect the fruits in case of sudden rain.

When I took the picture there was leftover food drying, which they later compact to make a kind of solid fuel.

[chownah]

Doing a Google search I find some suppliers of dryers in BKK, but I'd really like to find someone with first hand experiance.

Cheers,

David

I have experience drying fruit but not in Thailand. The principle's are the same though. Air flow is more important than temperature and the higher the humidity the more important the air flow is. If the humidity gets too high then you will need some heat source to pre-heat the air because this has the effect of lowering its humidity. Too much heat is bad as it will cook the fruit but this might be ok for some fruits. Direct sunlight is not the best for some types of fruits but is just fine for others and it really depends on how you like it....some people prefer the sundried effect and some people don't. If fruit spoils before it dries try cutting it thinner. Dipping fruit in lemon juice (lime might work too) helps it to keep its color and there are chemicals that will do the same but I've never used them.

If you want to keep the temperature down then an option might be to dehumidify the air in a closed loop system (fan driven) but I have never heard of anyone doing this and it is just my own idea about what might be done.

All of this information (and more) is readily available by googling I think so I"m not sure why you want someone's personal experiece here....with a little bit of creative googling you should be able to find many people giving their personal experiences in home fruit drying and probably many different do it yourself designs for fruit driers....drying fruit is a very popular thing and I imagine there is a ton of stuff available on the net......but if you have any questions I'll be glad to give answers if I have any.

Chownah

[lingling]

Easy, cheap and hygienic is probably some kind of vacuum device - home made or ready made...

http://www.dream-models.com/eco/vacuumpump.html

http://www.sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/aero/vacuum/

http://www.vortexvibrations.com/

http://pumprebuild.com.www.readyplanet.net...104&Ntype=2

Edited May 22, 2007 by lingling

[David2up]

Easy, cheap and hygienic is probably some kind of vacuum device - home made or ready made...

http://www.dream-models.com/eco/vacuumpump.html

http://www.sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/aero/vacuum/

http://www.vortexvibrations.com/

http://pumprebuild.com.www.readyplanet.net...104&Ntype=2

[David2up]

We are looking for info on fruit dryers.

We've of multitude of various fruit trees and wish to do some drying. More for home consumption, but commercial possibilites are always in the back of the mind due to the number of trees that we have. Also, drying of various veggies could also be a go.

Cheers,

Update Time - I found what we were looking for here in the local OTOP Office. Chiang Khong has three OTOP offices, each with a different focus. We found a ten rack Dehydrator with temp control and timer, vacum pack machine and a bag sealer machine in the local office that does Mekong River seaweed. Fortunatly (for us) it's only in use a few months a year and the rest of the time they do not know what to do with the equipment they have. So next week we start doing a couple of different types of fruit as well as tomatoes.

We also found out what to do with all the fruit that falls onto the ground and is not good for eating; turning it into fertilizer...

If anyone is interested in what we are doing, then email me and we'll exchange phone numbers and we can chat.

Cheers,

David and Mai

Chiang Khong

[chownah]

Using fruit for fertilizer doesn't seem too promising to me. Seems like most fruits don't have much in the way or N-P-K in them. Can you fill us in on what's up with this?

Chownah

[David2up]

Using fruit for fertilizer doesn't seem too promising to me. Seems like most fruits don't have much in the way or N-P-K in them. Can you fill us in on what's up with this?

Chownah

Hi Chownah,

The local shop tells us to:

Take a 150 liter container and fill it 80% full of - in this case Linchee fruit. Other old fruit and compost will also work. Pour two liters of low grade sugur cane molsasses into this. Fill with water and stir. Cover and let sit for two weeks. Drain off the liquid and store in seperate container. This can be diluted one part per hundred and sprayed onto plants or around the base of them. They sell this liquid in the fertilizer shop for 120Baht for a four liter container.

The sludge in the bottom of the 150 liter container can be placed around plants, shrubs or trees as a fertilizer.

I did a "Google" and found that sugur cane molasses is excellent for making fertilizer. While for lawn care, beet root molasses is even better for it kills most of the weeds in the lawn while giving a nice dark green luster to the grass.

Cheers,

David

Edited June 1, 2007 by David2up

[scotbeve]

Hi all,

We had 3 x 1 ton gas fired convection dryers which we used to dry longans and chillies. You placed the product in netted layers and had to "turn over" the product 2 to 3 times during drying. This meant having one dryer on standby all times. A lot of work and manual handling.... temperature was regulated manually by adjusting the gas flow. Would get 2 to 3 tons (metric) / day.

[Muzarella]

On 2/27/2008 at 7:45 AM, scotbeve said:

Hi all,

We had 3 x 1 ton gas fired convection dryers which we used to dry longans and chillies. You placed the product in netted layers and had to "turn over" the product 2 to 3 times during drying. This meant having one dryer on standby all times. A lot of work and manual handling.... temperature was regulated manually by adjusting the gas flow. Would get 2 to 3 tons (metric) / day.

Helloo. I am looking for a gaz dryer, new or second hand for ginger roots. I live in Chiang Rai. Do you know where I can find it? Thank you.

[pwnewenergy]

Dear Sir, 

We are heat pump drying machine manufacturer, 

We can offer a different type of Drying machine.

if interested, please feel free to contact with us E-mail: [email protected]

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