How to dry apples.....?

​I have this wonderful friend. She had to put her mother into a nursing home due to dementia. My friend had to get rid of all of her stuff, and she had two dehydrating mechanisms to get rid of. I told her I would take them.  I always wanted to dry my own fruit!! 

​I get onto the  internet and try to find the proper instructions for these two different dehydrators. There are no temperature controls, so I figure that it can't be that hard, right??
​I find a video to guide me and follow all of the steps for drying apples and bananas  . YUM, I can't wait. ( I can be very impatient). 

18 very LONG hours later, the fruit is in several different stages. Some are pretty dry. Some are kind of gooey, and some are  still pretty tacky. I get frustrated and throw them in the oven  ( my convection oven) on the temperature 325 degrees. It is the lowest setting it will go, but quite a lot hotter than what is suggested.  OH weeeell, I am going to give it  a try anyway. I put the fruit on the pans and place them in the oven. I get busy on another project, and then next thing I know the fire alarm is going off. NO SHIT!!   AHhhhhhhhh! 

​I run into the kitchen , which is full of smoke, and turn off the oven! I about burn my face off taking the fruit from the oven. UNFORTUNATELY, the fruit is now black little pieces of charcoal . They stink like burnt food. I wonder why??  SO, I never did get my homemade dried fruit. I think the dehydrators were too old and must not have worked well enough. SO, I either give up on this idea of my own dried fruit, or buy a new dehydrator. To be continued.............MAYBE!!   So much time and food wasted for no good reason.