Welcome to my juicer reviews and a consumer’s guide to buying your juicer.
Yes, some people think I am a food fanatic, others think I am a bit nuts, with all my cooking and baking. But juicing is one thing that I’ve been doing for the last three years, and I would go crazy without my juicer.
I first starting juicing when I went on a juice fast to lose weight – I wound up detoxing and kickstarting my weight loss. Since then my husband and I have fresh juice each morning. Some days we do skip out and those are the days when I really feel the impact of not juicing – my energy levels and attention drop. Juicing means that I maintain my health, I am the best and most productive person I can be. It also helps me stay in shape and knock wood, stay healthy and avoid illnesses.
So if you’re serious about juicing for your health and well-being, then it makes sense to invest in a good juicer. Of course, a “good juicer” is kind of a vague concept and depends on a number of things. So I’m going to start off by covering those things in this
Juicer Buying Guide
How To Choose The Right Juicer
If you’re going to buy a new juicer, you need to take some things into consideration. Figuring out these things first will make life easier for you when buying your juicer and comparing various models.
The three things you need to consider are your budget, type of juice you want to make, and finally the juicer’s speed and ease of use.
How Much Does A Good Juicer Cost?
First of all you will need to consider your budget. Most people don’t want to spend thousands on a juicer. However, I recommend setting aside $300 or so to get a good juicer that will last a long time, and be easy to use and clean. Of course, if you are on a strict budget then you can find decent models for much less as well. Although personally I would opt for spending a bit more and getting a better quality juicer.
A very high end juicer such as the Norfolk 275 will cost $2500 – but I don’t know anyone who’s actually got such an expensive juicer. Maybe one day if I win the lottery, I’ll buy this and report back on how I like it 
Till then I’m going by heresay to report that it’s really great but makes a big dent in the budget!
You can also get cheap juicers for $50 or so. But these are highly suspect in terms of durability, can be difficult to clean, and might not perform all the functions you want.
I’ve found that $100 – $299 is usually the sweet spot for most juicers, in terms of functionality, ease of use and cleaning, and of course budget.
What Type Of Juice Will Your Juicer Make?
The type of juice you want to make can be the most important factor after budget, when choosing a juicer.
If you just want to make some fresh lemon juice for recipes, or some fresh orange juice to have at breakfast time, then you can just get a citrus juicer. A citrus juicer will be quite cheap, which is a definite plus point. Options include the Tribest Citristart Electric Citrus Juicer or the Oster 3186 Juice-n-Serve.
If you want to make juices with various hard fruits and vegetables like carrots and apples, then you will want to get a centrifugal, masticating or twin gear juicer.
A centrifugal juicer is good enough for making juices with hard fruits and vegetables. However, beyond that their functionality is limited, since you won’t be able to make good green drinks with this kind of juicer.
If you want to make green drinks, for instance with leafy vegetables like spinach and kale, then you will want either a masticating juicer, which grinds slowly, or the twin gear models, which grinds slowly and crushes as well. These types of juicers will yield the most juice when it comes to green juices. However, these juicers are slower and more expensive than basic centrifugal juicers.
As you can see, the type of juice you wish to make is the most important factor when choosing a juicer.
Speed of Juicing, Ease of Use And Cleaning
The next factors you should consider when purchasing a juicer relate to how it functions. Juicers with fewer parts are usually more easy to assemble, use and clean up.
The speed of juicing can be a very important feature to many people. However, the kind of juicer will influence how quickly it juices. For instance, centrifugal and citrus juicers are quick to use – partly this is because you won’t do much processing beforehand like chopping up greens.
With a citrus juicer, you simply have to cut the fruit you want to juice into two.
Many popular centrifugal juicers these days come with very wide openings, so you can throw in the fruits and vegetables whole or roughly chopped – for instance, the cheap Breville BJE200XL comes with a three-inch wide hole.
Most masticating and twin gear units have much smaller holes, which means that there may be more time involved in preparing the food. Of course, the Omega VRT350HD can take in more produce at one time than the other horizontal style models, but it is still less than most centrifugal units. There is an obvious trade-off here, the masticating and twin gear models are slower but they have more flexibility of use.
There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing the right type of model. I started off with a centrifugal juicer so that I could make mixed fruit and vegetable juices quickly. I then got a citrus juicer for my mom who visits sometimes and loves her freshly squeezed orange juice I also own a masticating juicer, which I purchased soon after I finished my juice fast and wanted to be able to make high quality green juices. I do not own a twin gear juicer although I briefly considered buying one.
If I had to choose owning just one juicer then I would pick either my Omega VRT350HD or the Breville BJE510XL. Citrus juicers are quick and easy to use, but they are too limited in their functionality for me. The Breville juicer is a bit cheaper and works quickly, but the Omega does make a higher quality juice
So if you can afford the Omega and want to buy only one juicer, then this is the model I recommend. I love how I can drop things in the chute and the high quality juice it makes. I guess I might be a bit biased, because this is the model I’ve been using for years, but can you say, it really is the best!
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Hi, I'm Alannah Harris, a certified clinical nutritionist from Melbourne, Florida. I'm very serious about leading a healthy lifestyle, and for me this involves preparing food at home. Juicing is also a very big part of my life, and I am constantly testing out new juicers. I believe that health comes from within, and we need to do our bit to get enough nutrients naturally.