How To Buy A Good Juicer
Many consumers can now get a hold of fresh juices from local juice bars or high-end grocery stores, but for committed juice enthusiasts (or those living too far from juice bars for convenience), owning your own juicer can make those tasty drinks a part of everyday life.
how to buy a good juicer
These juicers work by crushing the fruits and vegetables in order to squeeze out the juice. They work slower than centrifugal models, but are better at juicing a wider variety of vegetables and produce juice that stays fresh longer. They can even be used for some foods beyond fruits and vegetables, like turning nuts into nut butters or making baby food.
Do keep in mind, however, that juicing can become an expensive habit if you do it regularly. Expect to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables to produce just a little bit of juice. If you intend to juice multiple times a week, then the higher yield you get from a more expensive juicer could pay off pretty quickly.
In most kitchens, counter space is a valuable commodity. Juicers unfortunately take up a lot of it. Make sure you have a space for the juicer you want before purchasing it and that the cord will reach to an outlet from the space you have in mind. Many juicers have adjustable cords, so you may have some flexibility on that point.
You can find a number of quality juicer brands on the market. To help you gain a clear sense of what to expect from the products of each, we dug into the consumer reviews of juicers to see what kind of reputation the main juicer brands have. Here are five of the most popular brands available.
Dash sells both centrifugal and cold press juicers at prices below the range typical for comparable products. Reviews are fairly mixed, with more leaning toward the positive, and many users are pleased at finding a serviceable juicer at such a competitive price.
Hurom makes cold press juicers that are on the higher end of the market cost wise. They get a lot of raving reviews from customers, with some complaints mixed in from those who expect a better performance from juicers that cost so much, particularly when it comes to juicing heavier duty items like leafy greens.
Kuvings sells high-end juicers that get positive reviews throughout the web. Their most popular juicers are cold press models, but they make juice extractors as well that get solid ratings. One of the big selling points for their masticating models is the noise levels, or lack thereof. If avoiding noise is a priority for you, Kuvings has the market cornered on that feature.
If you hate prep work, the centrifugal Breville Juice Fountain Cold Plus is the juicer for you. It can fit a whole apple in its 3.5-inch-wide feed tube. Unique rivets on the top of the feed tube help easily position and guide ingredients into the juicer. In our tests, it juiced carrots and kale the fastest and was a top contender when it came to juicing apples. The results all tasted sweet and pulp-free.
Several parts are dishwasher-safe, and it also comes with an innovative cleaning tool that wipes away the pulp from the inside, outside and bottom of the cutting blade in one swipe, while protecting your fingers. Although the juicer was a little loud in our Lab tests, the price, speed and results make up for it.
Breville's Juice Fountain Elite is a top-notch juicer that powered through sturdy fruits and vegetables faster (and quieter!) than most juicers we tested. The resulting juice from our Lab testing was smooth, creamy and pulp-free.
It comes with a 1.1-quart juice jug with a froth separator and a 3.2-quart pulp container allowing you to juice a larger amount of produce in one session. It has a large 3-inch feeding tube to fit bigger fruits and veggies, and the juicer runs at two speeds so you can juice both hard and soft ingredients.
It comes in black, cream, pastel green, pink, red and pastel blue so you can match it to your bar cart or the aesthetic of your breakfast bar. If you don't want your juicer to live on the countertop, we love that this electrical citrus juicer weighs under 6 pounds and can be easily moved from the countertop to the kitchen cupboard.
While traditional juicer strainers have tiny holes that are harder to clean, this strainer features elongated slits that are much easier to clean without additional scrubbing. In our tests, it produced rich kale juice and apple juice that was very tasty but had some pulp remaining. The inclusion of multiple strainers and attachments allows you to make smoothies, ice cream and even nut milk. It has a slimmer footprint than many juicers because the pulp container is hidden under the juicer.
They have large vertical grooves that are much easier to clean. The tilted juicing chamber pours out more juice, too, which leaves you with less mess inside. In addition to the new strainers and improved interior, this slow juicer comes with a double-sided cleaning brush that gets into all the crevices of the mechanism. Plus, it's easier to remove fruit and veggie pulp from the juicer thanks to a little trap door that allows for even easier cleaning and less digging around the machine to clean it thoroughly.
How many times per day or week do you plan to juice and what quantities of juice will you need to make? Is it just for you, you and your partner or your entire family? Is the time it takes to make a juice a major concern? Masticating juicers while producing the highest quality juice are much slower than high speed centrifugal juicers, if you need to make a lot of juice quickly and you are willing to sacrifice a little on quality then centrifugal juicers are a good option, however if juice quality is your primary concern and you plan to juice mainly vegetables and leafy greens then a masticating juicer is by far the best choice, the bad news is that a masticating juicer takes 60-100% more time to make a juice compared to a centrifugal juicer. For example when you are all prepared and ready to juice it will take a masticating juicer about 5-7 mins to make a 500ml of juice, while it would take a centrifugal juicer only 3-4 mins (however you will have a lot more waste!)
Juice yield is a critical way to measure the quality and effectiveness of a juicer. If you look online you will see many video comparisons showing how effective different juicers are at juicing the same quantities of produce. Typically as the Juice yield increases so does the price. For example the Samson 6 in 1 Juicer for 179 is an excellent juicer and our top selling juicer for under 200 however if you compare it to the Rolls Royce of Juicers; the Angel, which retails for 800, the difference in yield is quite apparent. The Angel for example can extract 25% more juice from carrots and 30% more from leafy greens. Twin gear masticating juicers tend to give the highest Juice yield and produce very dry pulp while centrifugal juicers tend to give the lowest yield and produce the wettest pulp.
Like most things in life you get what you pay for , same applies when it comes to juicers. Typically as the price goes up so does the juicer performance. With a higher price comes higher juice yield, more features, an easier to clean product, better warranty and in many cases a more ascetically appealing product. If you plan to make juicing a key part of your diet and health regime we recommend not skimping on the price, many people start off juicing by buying a cheap centrifugal juicer for less than 100. This is false economy; you may quickly become disheartened with the effort involved in assembling the juicer, the large amount of waste and indeed poor quality of juice and the juicer and in turn the juicer becomes another kitchen gadget gathering dust or worse breaks down within the first year. If you are willing to spend 200+ you will get a high quality juicer that should last you at least 10 years.
Juicers come with varying warranties, you will see that most high speed centrifugal juicers come with only 1-5 year warranties as the motors can burn out, on the other had masticating juicers come with substantial 10 year plus domestic warranties on the motor and 5 year plus warranties on the parts. Ensure to check where warranties are serviced and what the warranties do and do not cover. Juicers.co.uk are the official distributors and retailers for the products we sell, we have a dedicated service centre based in the UK where we can quickly repair juicers and we carry a full range of spare parts for the Juicers we sell.
In my opinion the greatest benefit of juicing is the capacity to extract a raw live juice from leafy green vegetables. No other foods are as rich in vitamins, minerals and enzymes as leafy greens especially wheatgrass, spinach, kale, chard, cabbage etc.. Centrifugal juicers are very poor at juicing leafy greens and in effect simply cannot juice them. Our advice is to stick with masticating juicers (single gear = good, twin gear = best) which are excellent at extracting leafy green juice.
Many juicers now come with a variety of food processing features. For example many can now make oils, nut butters, ice creams and sorbets, pasta, crush ice and coffee, can make soya and almond milk and a host of other grinding and mincing features. Ultimately we recommend your Juicer for Juicing, experience tells us that most of these other food processing features could be done using a cheap food processor and using your juicer regularly as a food processor could deteriorate its juicing performance, nonetheless keep an eye out in the product descriptions to see what accessories come with the juicers and if accessories can be purchased separately.
To get the most from your juicer we recommend you keep it visible in your kitchen otherwise it may end up unused in a cupboard somewhere. Many juicer designs are stunning; most of the leading manufacturers have tried to design a range of styles and colours for a contemporary kitchen environment. Consider the colour of other appliances in your kitchen, also consider the size and shape of your juicer and make sure to consider having space around your juicer for the collector bowls and for the produce you are juicing, also consider the space above your juicer where you will need to access the hopper to feed produce in. Many juicers are quite large and most now are of either horizontal or vertical persuasion, it is important to consider the juicer dimensions when choosing your juicer. Some of the most stunning juicers include the Sage Juicer 606, the Hurom HF second Generation in stainless steel and the all stainless steel Angel Juicers, these are sure to be the focal point of any kitchen. 041b061a72