Open sun drying is a traditional drying method that is used in Sri Lanka to dry spices due to its low operational cost and simplicity. However, open sun drying has several limitations such as contamination, uneven drying and weather dependency. Electrical oven drying is one of the solutions to address these limitations, but it also suffers from issues such as high energy consumption and inefficient heat distribution. This study was done to develop and evaluate an improved electrical oven dryer that aims to enhance drying performance. The electrical oven dryer features a unique dual-chamber design with three trays, axial fans, a heating coil, and a microcontroller-based temperature regulation system. For the performance and quality comparison, open sun drying and controlled oven drying were employed. For the testing, fresh turmeric rhizomes were cleaned, sliced uniformly and subjected to drying without prior boiling. Evalua-tion of two drying methods was done based on moisture removal rate, energy consumption, colour change, and total ash content. Results showed that oven drying achieved a moisture removal rate of 14.93% per hour which is more than three times the moisture removal rate of sun drying (4.31% per hour), while maintaining uniform drying and comparable quality. Therefore, the proposed electrical oven dryer offers a more efficient and hygienic alternative to traditional open sun drying while making it suitable for small-scale spice processing.