DIY Solar Dehydrator

One afternoon my wife and daughter were going to see the latest twilight movie and asked if I wanted to go. I politely declined. So after they had left to head to the theater I was getting a little bored so I decided to build a solar dehydrator and drink beer.

I went down to the hardware store and picked up some materials

I cut some 2×4’s down to 2 and 4 foot pieces

and screwed them together to form a framework

I had picked up some 2×2 sheets of aluminum and 2×4 sheets of luan. I test fitted the luan onto my frame

and screwed the aluminum onto the frame

I backed it with the piece of luan

I grabbed my 1 inch wood bit and drilled out vent holes in the top and bottom of the frame

I spray painted the whole thing flat black

I had picked up a 2×4 sheet of lexan. I laid it on top of the frame and pre-drilled mounting holes

and screwed it down to the frame

I set up my thermocouple to check the temp and it was climbing

I let it sit in the sun a little longer to see what I could get the temp to

and was able to get it to 123 after about 15 minutes

I grabbed some more 2×4’s to make the frame for the dehydrating chamber

and stood the panel up into the frame to test the angle

and was able to get the temp up to 136

so I took the lexan panel off

and mounted some netting across the bottom holes to keep bugs out of the chamber

I used some soda cans I had and placed them into the chamber to increase surface area for creating heat

I used the scraps from my whole saw to block up the cans so they didn’t interfere with air flow

and spray painted the whole thing black

I used the netting to hold the cans in place

I trimmed off the excess netting and ran a bead of silicone around the frame

and remounted the lexan, I overtightened the screw in the top right corner and cracked it, awesome

I continued building the frame for the chamber

and screwed down a scrap piece of luan for the base

I did another temp test

and was able to draw 152 degrees

I used a piece of scrap wood to establish spacing for the tray holders

and screwed down a scrap piece of 1x material

and continued screwing them down

and mounted the other side

I used some scrap T&G pine I had to cover the outside

I picked up a vent for the roof

and spray painted it black to help with draft

I started sheathing the other side

and did a quick temp check and I was still over 150

I sheathed the back wall

I made a simple door and z backed it for stability

temp check

I mounted some simple piano hinges

and mounted the door

I used more scrap and set up the roof and traced out for the vent

I cut out the hole and mounted the roof

temp check

I had a scrap piece of ice and water shield

and mounted it on top of the roof

I cut out the hole for the vent

and mounted the vent

I stapled a piece of screen across the opening

I picked up a cheap digital thermometer

I used some 1x material and made some tray frames

and stapled screen material on the trays

I loaded the chamber with the trays

It is all complete, it took me about 6 hours from start to finish

With everything that happened last summer with the loss of my wife’s father and everything else that happened we didn’t get a chance to play with it a lot. A couple of design flaws that I need to fix this year. The bottom is a dead space where the solar panel comes into the chamber, so I want to install insulation to fill the space. Second is airflow through the solar panel, the way the cans are set it restricts the air flow to much and actually overheated the panel and caused the lexan to buckle and shatter.

I think it would have been better served with less cans and leaving a straight shot for airflow. A lot of people will actually just use the solar collector without any cans. Airflow is more important than heat. This project will be continued!