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.

What is the best juicer for soft fruits?

A cold press juicer. Both vertical or horizontal juicers can squeeze soft fruits with ease.

The newer style vertical juicers also excel with soft fruit.

Some horizontal juicers have adjustable end caps. This feature will allow you to adjust the pressure that is applied during juicing which is very useful when juicing hard and soft produce together.

What is the best juicer for hard fruits and vegetables?

With their larger auger (gear) and the help of gravity, vertical juicers are best suited to cope with the demand of hard veggies such as beetroot and carrots. Always be careful not to overload your juicer when doing hard produce. The larger the pieces the more work the motor has to do.

What is the best juicer for leafy greens and wheatgrass?

Horizontal Single Auger Juicers and Twin Gear juicers. This style of juicer produces very little is any foam when juicing leafy greens. You will also get to most amount of juice from your produce using this style for greens.

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.

Types of juicers and what they do

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

Centrifugal Juice Extractors

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.

We do not currently stock any centrifugal juicers.

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

Cold Press 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

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

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 different fresh produce.

Horizontal juicers

Horizontal juicers (also known as 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 too dissimilar to a mincing machine.

Pros

Great for leafy greens, works great on wheat grass
Great yield
Slow rpm so does not oxidise juice
No need to pre-cut leafy greens
Juice can be stored for up to 72 hours
Some have adjustable end caps to adjust the pressure on the produce

Cons

generally have a smaller feed chute so may require more preparation time
Can take a bit more time to extract juice
Large footprint
Some produce 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.

Twin gear juicers

Twin gear juicers (a.k.a. triturating) take longer to use but offer the best juice in terms of yield and nutritional 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 takes longer than with other types of juicer.

Twin Gear juicers are however, the optimum machines for getting the best possible results from wheat grass, leafy greens and all other vegetables.

Pros

Gets the most juice out of your fruit and vegetables
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 push produce through the feed chute
Takes longer to clean because it has more parts
There is slight learning curve involved in terms of assembly

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.

	Centrifugal juicers	Vertical juicers	Horizontal juicers	Twin gear juicers
Nutrient retention	Okay. The high RPMs generate heat which can break down nutrients.	High. This process produces no heat, thus maintaining more of the ingredients’ nutrients.	High. This process produces no heat, thus maintaining more of the ingredients’ nutrients.	Very High. Recommended by nutritionists due to the high nutrient retention.
Ability to process leafy greens	Poor. Far less of the juice is able to be extracted from greens.	Reasonable. Must be fed folded up.	Very high. Great for fans of green juice.	Very high. The best and highly nutritious green juice extraction available at home.
Cleaning	Easy. Not many parts.	Medium. Bit of effort required, A few minutes. Most have a self-cleaning capability.	Easy. Not many parts and they are small too.	Hard. A lot of parts and can therefore be time consuming.
Noise level	Very noisy. As loud as a blender	Very, very quiet.	Very, very quiet.	Very, very quiet.
Juice production speed	Very fast	Fast	Slow	Slow
Pulp	Some	A lot	A lot	A lot
Price	$ to $$	$$ to $$$	$$ to $$$	$$$ upwards

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. The larger the pieces of hard vegetables the more work the motor has to do so this style of juicer may not last as long as others.

If you want a whole juicer look for one with a good warranty.