How Much (Money & Electricity) Does It Cost To Run An Dehydrator

I was thinking about purchasing a dehydrator as a way to preserve food, however, I wanted to be sure this appliance wasn’t a false economy and ultimately end up costing a lot to run. I did some research and found the following;

It costs between $0.06 and $0.10 per hour to run a dehydrator based on a KWh costing $0.13 and with an appliance wattage of between 450 and 750.

In this article, I’ll be discussing what went into my research, and the things I believe you should, as a result, consider when deciding whether investing in this appliance is right for you.

What Is A Dehydrator

A dehydrator is an electrical appliance which is used to dry out foods by circulating air at a very low temperature. Dehydrators are popular appliances for those looking to minimise food waste, especially if you’re growing your own fruits and vegetables in a garden or allotment.

Food which has been dehydrated correctly will retain the vast majority of their original nutritional value and allow for convenient long-term storage.

Dehydrator’s Size & Electricity

Dehydrators use a different number of electric watts which is dependent on their power. The power often comes down to the appliances capacity, performance and settings however with an appliance as basic as a dehydrator these are often not a major factor.

Below you can see four different dehydrators which are currently for sale on Amazon. These vary between 450 watts and 750 watts and it’s this measurement that will depend on how much electric the appliance consumes.

We can then use this wattage amount and convert it into Kwh which determines the estimated cost (based on the price you personally pay for electricity) to calculate how much the machine is going to cost to run. This is also a great way to see the cost difference between lower wattage dehydrator and higher wattage dehydrators.

Although the wattage shouldn’t be your only factor when purchasing a dehydrator it is something to consider when deciding if this appliance is a worthwhile investment for you personally.

Energy Suppliers & The Difference In Price

Two people could buy the exact same dehydrator from the store and use it for the exact same amount of time each week. However, the cost of running the machine could differ based on the cost of energy at each home.

The average cost per KWh in US homes at the time of writing is $0.13.

So assuming one person was paying $0.10 per Kwh and another was paying $0.15 (giving us an average of 13). Both of our test dummies used the machine for one hour a week, every week for a year.

In which case person one who pays $0.10 per Kwh would have spent $5.20 and person two who pays $0.15 per Kwh would have spent $7.80.

An increase of 50% or a difference of $2.60 a year from one appliance alone.

How Much Does It Cost To Run An Dehydrator

To make all this much easier to digest I’ve made the following table which should help you to understand how much money your dehydrator costs to run.

This table isn’t going to be 100% accurate as we determined earlier that different machines despite being the same size can use a different number of watts.

However, it’s relatively close and should help you to understand the difference between the numbers and the total cost.

TimeWattkWhCost
15 Minutes4500.11$0.01
30 Minutes4500.23$0.03
45 Minutes4500.34$0.04
1 Hour4500.45$0.06
15 Minutes6000.15$0.02
30 Minutes6000.30$0.04
45 Minutes6000.45$0.06
1 Hour6000.60$0.08
15 Minutes7500.19$0.02
30 Minutes7500.38$0.05
45 Minutes7500.57$0.08
1 Hour7500.75$0.10

This table is also based on the cost of one kWh being $0.13 (as it is at the time of writing this article)