How much power does your stove draw if the warming oven is electric or amount of fuel used vs. the dehydrator? My dehydrator does tomatoes in 12-14 hours but uses much less electricity than my electric stove does so I gave up on the oven drying for that reason.

Do you have any problem with the tomatoes developing a "gas" flavor? I know gas ovens sometimes have that problem, "gas taste to the food".

Dave

I don't have a dehydrator, but I do have a warming drawer, so thanks for the suggestion! Do you dry other foods this way, too?

Digdirt - I don't know how much gas it uses, but I can't imagine it is much. I like to dry cherry tomatoes and they fell through in my dehydrator, so I just found it a pain to use. I bought it at a yard sale, so I am sure the newer ones would be better. I just figured if my warming drawer could do the job, I didn't need another gadget laying around. I have found no gas flavour at all.

kriswrite - I haven't dried anything else. I used to do blueberries, but now I freeze them and use them in my breakfast cereal frozen. I do both cherry and paste tomatoes in the warming drawer.

I tried drying apple rings this way, just a few days ago. It worked well! It took about 3 hours. I can only dry about an apple at a time that way, but I think I may experiment with this some more. It will help me know whether my family will eat the food I dehydrate before I invest in a dehydrator.

I'm pretty sure most warming drawers are electric, even in gas ranges. I have a Frigidaire convection gas range and it has a warming drawer on the bottom where a broiler would normally be in older models and both the convection (fan) and warming drawer are electric and controlled from the touchpad.

I mince my own garlic and dry it in the warming drawer to make garlic flakes...onions too.