Juicer Reviews

• By Healthier Than A Vegan
• 12 September, 2012
• 1 Comment

When it comes to buying the right juicer, it takes time and research.  Initially, picking a juicer seems straight forward.  You ask: How much will it cost and where can I buy it?  Will it match my other appliances?  Is it easy to use and clean?  But, you need to consider other factors first, like: Why and how often am I going to juice? What am I juicing? How much time do I have to juice?  You should know these answers when finally deciding on which juicer to buy.

For me, juicing was to become a daily routine.  So I was looking for a juicer that was durable and capable of efficiently juicing a variety of fruits and vegetables, including wheatgrass and that included a long term warranty.  This is not like buying a toaster; you will depend on this juicer everyday to perform.  Affordability was important, too.  So I was looking for the best prices online and at retail stores.  I also considered the noise level of the juicer because I planned to juice early in the morning and I didn’t want to wake anyone in the family.

The first juicer I considered was the Breville Ikon which cost about $200.00.  I originally didn’t think I had to spend that much, but it was highly rated and the customer reviews on line were good.  It was stainless, tall and would look good in the kitchen.  Of course, I compared the Breville Ikon to other brands in its price range, doing side by side comparisons of each juicer’s features.  While going through this tedious decision process, I learned the Breville and the others I was comparing it to, were “centrifugal” juicers.  Did that matter?

Before buying I further learned there are different “types” of juicers available today and centrifugal is just one of them.   The other two types are masticating and twin gear juicers.  Each type of juicer fulfills different needs.  That’s why it’s important to know what your juicing needs are.  Breaking down each type juicer can help in deciding which juicer is right for you, even before considering price and appearance.

The centrifugal juicer is probably the most popular type.  They are attractive, affordable, and take up little counter space.  As it name implies, it uses a high speed spinning method to extract the juice from your produce.  The fruits and/or vegetables you use are ground to a pulp and the spinning motion separates the juice from the pulp.  This high speed method tends to be noisy during operation and creates friction, which heats up the juice.  This rise in temperature can cause the juice to lose some nutritional potency by speeding up oxidation. More importantly, I found centrifugal juicers cannot juice the green leafy vegetables efficiently that I needed each day.

Masticating means chewing.  This type juicer imitates the way we eat our food to extract the juice. This juicer uses a worm to crush the produce at a slow speed, preventing any heat buildup (oxidation).  Masticating juicers can juice a wide variety of produce, especially green leafy vegetables like kale, parsley, spinach, and even wheatgrass keeping their nutrients and enzymes intact.  Another important benefit of a masticating juicer is that it is more efficient requiring less fruits and vegetables to create more juice.  A masticating juicer tends to be quieter, less messy and easier to clean.  It’s takes up a little more counter space and is not as attractive as the centrifugal type, though, and tends to be more expensive.  But, the efficiency, nutrient effectiveness and versatility of this type juicer are hard to beat.

The other juicer type is known as a twin gear juicer. These juicers use two worms instead of one as in the masticating juicer.  The twin gear juicer runs at lower rpms than most juicers, therefore extracting maximum nutrients and slows down any oxidation.  Oxidation is the enemy of fresh juice.  These juicers can also juice a wide variety of produce, and is relatively quiet, but because of its lower rpms it takes more time to extract juice than the other juicers. So, if you don’t have a lot of time for juicing in your schedule, this might not be the one for you. Twin gear juicers are called the ‘Cadillac’ of juicers and its pricing supports that label starting at $500.00 and up.  So affordability is another consideration.

For those who have little time to juice, don’t want to spend a lot of money and enjoy mostly fresh fruit juices rather than vegetable juices, a centrifugal juicer might be the right choice.

If juicing is going to be part of a nutritional plan, using fresh vegetables, fruits and leafy greens, investing a little more money in a masticating juicer should be your option.  Choosing a juicer that produces high quality, nutrient rich juice with little or no oxidation will guarantee maximum benefit.

If money and time is no object, the twin gear type is a viable alternative to the masticating juicer.  Even though it may take up more counter space, it delivers high quality juice and is versatile juicer. The Green Star models lead in this category.

If you are managing a health issue like cancer, arthritis, or a heart condition, it is imperative to drink the highest quality juice.

After all my research and product comparisons, I purchased the Omega 8004 Masticating Juicer.  I have been using this juicer for two years now.  It has delivered reliability and consistent performance and I juice every day. If you read my article on “juicing made easy”, you’ll see I juice all fruits and vegetables, even wheatgrass.  This model costs about $260.00 today and comes with a long term warranty.  You can find and purchase all of our recommendations, including the very same one I use, at ‘Healthier Than A Vegan’s’ online store by visiting http://astore.amazon.com/healthierthan-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=2 ; all products are sponsored and bought through Amazon.com!

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