Honestly, for me? I don't try to dehydrate to preserve summer squashes that way in the dehydrator. I mean this for shelf storage, not as chips for snacking on, which is a different animal IMO.

What I do to preserve summer squash for dehydration is I grate it fresh. I use a food processor with a grating attachment. I pack up about 5 quarts full of summer squash, and vacuum seal it- then let it sit in the fridge for a day or two. Helps let the liquid get out and vacuum sealing the shred helps keep it crisp and fresh.

Then the day before dehydrating.. Early in the morning I get out a big colander and some cheesecloth, and lay down the cheesecloth, dump all the grated squash in, fold over the cheesecloth.. then put a plate on top and weight it down with a few big cans of veggie juice, or a couple 5 pound bags of dried beans.. whatever I have on hand at the moment to weigh it down. Depending on how hot it is in the kitchen, I let this sit for 2-4 hours. If it's cooler I let it sit longer, if it's hot out, I cut it shorter. Then I make sure the top shelf of the fridge is open and I put the colander in a bowl or plate without the top weights on the cheesecloth into the fridge overnight.

Then the next morning I load up my dehydrator trays.. set the temp at 140.. and away I go to dry land. I shuffle the trays around a couple times, and flip the shreds over once or maybe twice depending on how fussy I'm being.

A big point for me is that I start out the summer squash with as little time and temp abuse as I can. After picking, I toss my squash into a green bag and into the fridge if I'm not going to be processing it right away. I process squash one quart at a time and into the fridge, don't max out the time for draining under pressure... because I know I will be abusing that squash during it's first couple hours of dehydrating time.

Try steam blanching instead. Much less messy and difficult. But if you do it in smaller batches at a time it is much easier. And you a bigger container of the ice water - they will flaot and strighten themselves out for the most part.

Spread out a towel on the counter, lay down a layer of paper towels, spread the steam blanched slices on it, top with another layer of paper towels and just keep layering. They will then be dry enough for the dehydrator.

Dave