It appears that Julia and I have the same one and she makes some excellent points. I agree about the sloping and I have to wait until they are crusted a bit. Admittedly, I went for budget when I got mine and that was a driving factor in my decision. The Excaliber is indeed better with the sliding trays and non-sloping issue. As I have to keep fending my Boy Scout son off from wanting to use mine to make jerky, if I do relent, hand mine over to him and upgrade, I will look at the Excaliber. For now, it does the trick and I just have to bear its issues in mind.