Juicer Buyer's Guide

When it comes to choosing a juicer there is never a one size fits all solution. The most common question we are asked at Juicers Direct is “What is the best juicer?” The correct answer is largely dependent on what the juicing needs are of the person asking the question. We have juicers to suit all situations and we have the knowledge to help you decide what is best for you. It is of great importance to us that you get the right juicer first time.

For example a busy parent making fruit and vegetable juice for the whole family at breakfast time will likely have completely different juicing requirements than someone that is juicing as part of a nutritional therapy course to battle poor health.

The following information has been designed to guide you towards the best juicer for you. If you need a bit more help then please contact us. We have the knowledge and are more than happy to help you select the right juicer for you.

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What is the best juicer for soft fruits?

Vertical Slow Juicers. Also known as cold pressed juicers.

What is the best juicer for hard fruits and vegetable?

Centrifugal Juicers.

What is the best juicer for Leafy greens and Wheat grass?

Horizontal Single Auger Juicers and Twin Gear juicers.

What is the best juicer for all ingredients?

Vertical slow juicers because they juice just about everything pretty well and are very convenient and user friendly.

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Types of juicers and what they do

With a few exceptions juicers mainly fall into two main categories – Centrifugal or Masticating.

Centrifugal Juice Extractors (Omega Centrifugal, HD, Brushed Stainless, BMJ332S)
Traditionally, this is the most common type of juicer. These typically utilise a fast-spinning metal blade that spins against a mesh filter, separating juice from flesh via centrifugal force. The juice and pulp are then separated into different containers. Most are easy to use and maintain and they produce juice quickly. The downside with centrifugal juicers is that the fast-spinning metal blade generates heat and may destroy some of the enzymes in the fruits and vegetables you’re juicing. The heat also oxidizes those nutrients, rendering less nutritious juice than a cold-press juicer.

Pros

·        Great for people who will only juice for themselves

·        Juices really fast – great if you can’t set aside time to pre-cut produce

·        Does not take a lot of space

·        Great for hard veggies like celery

Cons

·        Can’t make larger batches

·        Fills up pretty quickly

·        Won’t extract a lot from leafy greens

·        Oxidises juice fast – you have to drink it within 15 minutes (unless you put it in a refrigerator)

·        Very noisy

We recommend a centrifugal juicer if producing juice quickly is important and you are only juicing small amounts at a time for immediate consumption.

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Masticating (a.k.a. Cold Pressed Slow Juicers) 

These juicers extract juice by crushing and pressing fruit and vegetables for the highest juice yield. Due to the extremely low number of RPMs they don’t produce much heat which gives you juice with a high nutritional content. This method of juicing incorporates less oxygen to the fruit and vegetables giving it a longer shelf life.

Masticating juicers can be divided into several categories. Vertical Slow Juicers, Horizontal Single Auger Juicers and Twin Gear Juicers.

Vertical Slow Juicers are the most popular and the most user friendly models. This relatively new style of juicer, despite rotating at a slow speed actually juices fairly quickly. The vertical style juicer is very much the everyday all-rounder juicer.

Pros

·        Works great for fruit and vegetables

·        Larger feed chute (compared to a horizontal juicer) requires less pre-cutting

·        Small footprint compared to a horizontal auger juicer

·        Above average yield

Cons

·        Steeper learning curve

·        Fibrous greens HAVE to be pre-cut or else it’ll wrap around the auger or clog the pulp ejector port

·        If you juice a lot of leafy greens it may produce a lot of foam

We recommend a Vertical Slow Juicer if you are juicing a mix of leafy greens, fruits and hard vegetables like beet or carrots.

Horizontal Single Auger Juicers are best for leafy greens and wheatgrass and pretty good for everything else too. Horizontal juicers use a slowly rotating screw that crushes produce against a stainless steel filter by a method not to dissimilar to a mincing machine. An issue with some low speed masticating juicers is that they do take a bit longer to produce juice.

Pros

·        Great for leafy greens, works great on wheatgrass

·        Great yield

·        Slow rpm does not oxidize juice

·        No need to pre-cut leafy greens

·        Juice can be stored for up to 72 hours

Cons

·        Small feed chute requires more pre-cutting

·        Takes a bit of time to extract juice

·        Large footprint

·        Produces a pulpy juice (you may need a strainer)

We recommend a Horizontal Juicer if you are planning on juicing a lot of leafy greens and but don’t want the complexity of operating a twin gear juicer. This will work well with all types of leafy greens and if you are juicing wheatgrass everyday this is a great investment. If you’re juicing a lot of greens, prep time won’t be an issue because you don’t need to chop them.

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Twin Gear Juicers (a.k.a. Triturating) take longer to use but offer the best juice quality. Twin-gear masticating juicers such as the GreenStar Elite Juicer use two cylindrical gears which fit very tightly together. Produce is crushed and pressed between the gears with juice being pressed out and passed through a screen. Twin gear juicers are often recommended by nutritionists to their clients because they offer the very best quality of juice from a domestic juicer. The juicing and clean-up process is takes longer than with other types of juicer. Twin Gear juicers are however, the optimum machines for getting the best possible results from wheatgrass, leafy greens and all other vegetables.

Pros

·        Great yield because of the adjustable end cap

·        Very good on leafy greens

·        Juice can last up to 72 hours

·        Produces the highest quality juice of any juicer

Cons

·        Expensive

·        Effort is needed to shove produce through the feed chute

·        Takes longer to clean because it has more parts

·        There is slight learning curve involved in terms of assembling this (particularly the dual gears)

·        Juicing leafy greens will produce lots of foam

We recommend a Twin Gear Juicer if you want maximum yield and nutritious juice. Particularly from leafy greens and don’t mind cleaning a lot of parts.

Another important factor to consider when choosing a juicer is how much prep time it will require. Some juicers have small feed tubes requiring some chopping prior to juicing. Others have large feed tubes (often called Whole juicers) which allow large parts of produce to be passed into the feed tube cutting down preparation time.

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