What You Need to Know Before Purchasing a Juicer

There are many things to consider before making your final selection when purchasing a Juicer. A list of things I would consider are as follows:

1. What Types of Produce you will be Juicing with your Juicer

2. How much time you want to spend juicing (including cleaning and prep time) with your juicer.

3. How important it is to you that your juice maintains it's full nutritional content

4. What is my price range?

One of the first things to consider when looking to purchase a juicer is what you will be juicing. Most juicers wont juice everything well. Each one is meant primarily for one purpose or another, usually as a Wheatgrass Juicer (and other leafy greens), Vegetable and Fruit Juicer, or Citrus Juicer. There is not a juicer on the market that is the best at all three groups. So you will need to pick which is your primary most important group then proceed from there, as many juicers can juice all groups, just not be quite as efficient at the others.

The next thing to consider is ease of use. Some juicers are MUCH harder to use than others, take much longer to clean, and due to small feeding chutes, the produce must be cut up in small pieces to fit into your juicer, increasing your prep time. Our quickest juicers from start to finish would be our Breville Juicers, if you include prep time, cleaning time, and juicing time all together. Keep in mind that virtually no juicer is easy to clean, but many are much easier than others.

One thing that many people consider is the level of heat the juicer produces, and the amount of oxidation of the juice. Usually quick and speedy juicers don't go hand in hand with lower levels of oxidation and heat. There is not a juicer on the market that is good at both. Most of the juicers that have lower levels of oxidation and less heat created during juicing are much slower than the rest. If you start with cold produce, none of our juicers heat the juice anywhere close to the 107 degrees required to destroy enzymes in the juice. However, if less oxidation and lower heat levels are important to you, you may be interested in a juicer such as the Omega 8003/ 8005 Juicer, the Samson Juicers or the Greenstar/Greenpower Juicers. These juicers are all low RPM and create less heat and oxidation during the juicing process.

For most people, price is an issue. The review of each juicer below will hopefully help you decide which juicer is best for you for the money.

Juicer Reviews

The Breville Juicers are some of our easiest to use Juicers, while still maintaining a very reasonable price. With a 3 inch wide feeding chute, you can juice small to medium sized apples whole without having to cut them up, thus greatly reducing prep time. These juicers also have pulp ejection, to prevent wasted time having to stop and empty the pulp from the juicer. There are 3 models of Breville Juicers, and they are as follows. The JE900XL Breville Juicer is the entry level model, and has one speed. This juicer is excellent for crisp fruits and vegetables. The JE95XL Breville Juicer is the mid range model and is virtually the same as the entry level juicer, but has 2 speeds, and a little higher wattage. This juicer is excellent for crisp fruits and veggies on the high speed, and soft fruits (such as peeled oranges, strawberries and kiwis) on the low speed. The high end model is the 800JEXL Breville juicer. This juicer is much more expensive than either of the others, but plastic parts are replaced with stainless steel. This model also has 2 speeds, and is good for juicing all the same things as the JE95XL Juicer. All three models are some of the easiest to clean juicers available. With quick juicing times, low prep, and easy cleaning, this juicer is very popular. Editor's favorite.

The Omega Juicers are another popular brand. They have many models to choose from, and they all have pretty different uses.

• The Omega 1000 Juicer and 9000 Juicer are centrifical style juicers and are excellent for juicing most crisp fruits and vegetables. The models are the same except for the 9000 has more stainless steel parts. These juicers do not have pulp ejection, so are not recommended if you are juicing large amounts at a time (more than 1-2 8 ounce glasses) as you will have to stop to empty the pulp. These juicers are high quality. Quite hard to clean, unless you use the optional filters. The filters greatly reduce cleaning time and difficulty. This juicer has an optional citrus juicer attachment.
• The Omega 4000 Juicer is pretty much the same functionally as the juicers above, but this model has pulp ejection, so is better for juicing for several people. Does not use filters, but this juicer's filter basket is shaped differently than models above for slightly easier cleaning than the 9000 and 1000 juicers would be when used without filters.
• The Omega 8003/8005 Juicers are the same except for color. These juicers are excellent for juicing leafy greens, ok at juicing crisp fruits and vegetables, and ok and juicing soft fruit. It's main use is for leafy greens such as wheatgrass and kale, but it can juice just about everything. This juicer is great for those wanting low oxidation levels and low heat production. Drawback is speed. This juicer has low RPM, which makes juicing a slower process, plus it has a small feeding chute, so you have to cut your produce up.

The Jack Lalanne Juicer is about the same idea as the Breville Juicers, and is wildly popular due to TV advertising. The Jack Lalanne Juicer has all the great benefits of speed of the Breville Juicers with the wide feeding chute, but is,in the editor's opinion, of lower quality. The Jack Lalanne Juicer only has 250 watts of power compared to the 600-1000 on Breville Juicers, and when you are juicing whole apples at a time, power is important to keep the motor protected. This juicer is slightly cheaper than the Breville Juicers, but if you don't mind paying an extra $20-40 dollars, the Breville Juicers are a better buy. The Jack Lalanne Juicer is good for juicing crisp fruits and vegetables. This juicer is white, and will visibly stain much more easily than the darker colors of the Breville Juicer.

The Samson Juicers are excellent for those wanting to juice wheatgrass and other leafy greens. These juicers would be most comparable to the Omega 8003/8005 juicer models listed above. They can juice crisp and soft fruits and vegetables also, but are best at leafy greens. Low heat levels and low oxidation levels.

The Citristar Citrus Juicer is a very low cost option for juicing citrus. Low cost on this juicer though doesn't mean low quality. For the price, it is probably the best citrus juicer on the market that I know of. Very easy to use, and very functional. Exceptionally easy to clean. Has a flip up juice spout so that juice doesn't run on the counter when you pull the glass out. I think anyone wanting to juice citrus would be happy with this juicer.

The Champion Juicers are very high quality juicers that are pretty easy to clean. This juicer comes in many colors, which helps with matching it to your kitchen. Keep in mind that the almond color stains more easily than some of the other colors the Champion Juicer comes in. The Champion Juicer is excellent for juicing crisp fruits and vegetables and also does a decent job on soft fruits and vegetables. This juicer can also be used to make soft ice cream by putting frozen fruit and other frozen items through it using the blank screen. You have to cut produce to juice with this juicer unlike the Breville Juicer.

There are many other models of excellent juicers available, but the ones listed are some of the ones that stand out in our opinion. For a larger selection of juicers compared, click here.

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