I'm not sure I understand what the argument you're making is-- Are you genuinely concerned that it looks ridiculous to you? Are you genuinely concerned that law enforcement would be interested in you for rigging it up? I'm assuming you're being facetious about that, and that something that you only use on occasion for 1-2 day periods (and which you can leave in a bathroom or any other out of the way space) isn't principally about aesthetic appeal.
So, doing it with a box fan and some filters has the following advantage:
1) A box fan can be used for another purpose, as dehydrating food is likely to be infrequent
2) A box fan is something many people already own
3) The total cost for the parts is easily < $15.
What would be the advantage of using a dehydrator, given equivalent functionality? I'm not trying to start a fight, I just can't quite parse what your complaint about the suggestion is.
My complaint is partially legitimate and partially facetious, but are you seriously claiming you can't parse what my complaint is? I can understand the key points of wanting to do this (the DIY aspect, a bit of fun factor, the fact it does work), but my initial reply was to someone who said using a commercial dehydrator is bulky, to which I pointed out a box fan and cinder blocks is much bulkier. He also mentioned that the commercial unit is more expensive, which may in fact be true for initial upfront cost, but you also don't have to keep buying filters for the commercial unit like you do the "DIY" box fan/bungee cord/filter version. That said, I do parse why one would want to do this, I just wouldn't.
The part of my post that was facetious was about law enforcement.
I am complaining about the looks. It looks ridiculous
in my opinion. Not yours, or his, or anyone elses. Mine. It's large and unwieldy, it ties up the use of a box fan that you may otherwise be using for something else, and you have to continuously be buying filters to use it. Unless you reuse the filters indefinitely, which seems unsanitary to me. Advantages of a dehydrator are that, in the long run, it's cheaper. It takes up less space. You don't have to assemble/disassemble it, other than removing a lid. And yes, it is far more aesthetically pleasing.