I have a pair of dehydrators, so that's what I use, but I've known lots of people who use their oven and are satisfied as well, I think the risk of using the oven is from the burner being on/off cycling as much as it does to stay at a LOW temp, you can burn the burner out, plus you get temps varying a lot, 200* down to 160, back up to 200, etc. I don't believe you can go wrong with a dehydrator, and for the most part, the marinade the you put the meat in is such a high salt content, that you could probably safely eat that meat raw and not worry about getting sick.