It looks like Vevor make a knock off of the Excalibur 10 tray one at about a fifth of the price

In some of the advertising copy on Amazon they call it a beef jerky dehydrator

Australian Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/VEVOR-Food-Dehydrator-Machine-Temperature/dp/B0C5XK6ZT4

It looks like it's on American Amazon too, though Amazon.com was only showing me the 220V ones

It seems a fraction smaller than the Excalibur — 0.77m^2^ for Vevor compared to 0.86m^2^ for the Excalibur top model

I also found "biltong box" on Amazon which seems to be comparable, but also supports hanging the product being dried

Biltong boss USA: https://kalaharikhabu.com/product/the-biltong-boss-biltong-drying-chamber/

Australia: https://kalahari.net.au/product/biltong-boss/

I'm thinking of doing a DIY dehydrator made of a cardboard box, heat lamp, fan

I have a cheap dehydrator which dries meat in about 16 hrs, but it only can handle about 3kg

I'm also thinking of just doing small batches until summer and let the sun do the work

My current $15 dehydrator takes forever..

Just FYI: A more expensive dehydrator won't necessarily take less time than your cheap one. It's still going to be a 6-8 hour process.

Excalibur is great if you're up for the price tag.