In this work, a passive, mixed-type solar dryer was designed, constructed and evaluated. The solar dryer evaluated has the option of working as an indirect-direct dryer (mixed solar dryer, MSD) or in indirect solar dryer mode (ISD), since the drying chamber has a mobile opaque cover. The energy efficiency, drying efficiency, and the drying kinetics were the evaluation criteria for thermal performance of the dryer during the drying of tomato. During the experiments, the temperature inside the drying chamber at solar noon was in a range of 65C-70 degrees C operating in MSD and 55C-60 degrees C in ISD. The results showed that drying the tomato in ISD (26 h) took longer than the MSD (17 h). The efficiency of the solar collector was between 52.30% and 55.45%. The overall dryer efficiency in MSD and ISD mode were between 10.66% and 8.80% respectively, while the drying efficiency was in a range of 5.47% and 4.48%, respectively. The experimental data of the tomato drying kinetics were adjusted to five different mathematical models; the Modified Henderson & Pabis model showed the better fit with an r(2) of 0.9888 and 0.9996 and an RMSE of 0.0027 and 0.008 for the MSD and ISD respectively. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.