Choosing a Juicer to Suit Your Needs

You have decided you want to make an improvement in your health by adding freshly-made juice to your diet.  How do you know what kind of juicer will satisfy your needs or requirements for the type of juice you want, including you time spent juicing and cleaning up afterward?  I thought you could use a few tips to look for when purchasing a juicer.  Finding the right juicer is key in keeping your time and efforts to a minimum. No one, including me, will spend hours preparing the fruits and vegies, juicing, and cleaning up… it’s just not practical or sustainable. That’s why I focused on finding a juicer that gets the job done efficiently and at a reasonable price.

Basically there are 3 types of Juicers that I would recommend, that are on the market today and here at healthy kitchens we carry all three.  The Centrifugal Juicer which has probably been around the longest, the Ejector style juicer which is the most common type, and the Masticating type juicer which is the most versatile juicer.  I have made this convenient chart for you to compare the features of each of these types of juicers.

CENTRIFUGAL STYLE                                         EJECTOR STYLE                                MASTICATING STYLE

Overall, I favor the efficiency and affordability of masticating juicers.  I would recommend the Omega 1000 Centrifugal Juicer if you just need to make one or two glasses of juice daily and need a fast cleanup.  I would recommend avoiding cheaper Ejector-Style juicers that are readily available in most store that carry appliances, because I feel you’re not going to be happy with the end result. Plus, their high-speed process is noisy and often causes excessive oxidation of the juice (turning brown faster and loosing nutrients).  However, if you want a juicer that does more (including non-leafy vegetables and fruits), then I recommend a multi-purpose masticating juicer.

Since purchasing something that would be an integral part of your daily health, I thought a check list would be a good idea so here it is----

The Juicer Selection Checklist - to pick a juicer that will suit you.

Over the years, I’ve spent quite a bit of time comparing a number of different types of juicers.  We always demonstrated the various kinds of juicers in our store and now the demonstrations are online here, so I have used them all.   Regardless of whether you’re looking for a high-quality juicer to simply juice wheatgrass and leafy greens or want your juicer to do more, here are what I consider to be some of the most important factors.

A good high-quality, versatile veggie juicer…“

• Separates out the (pulp) efficiently – It is good to remember that a juicer and a blender are not the same. A blender chops and blends everything to create your juice, so it will be filled up with pulp. This is especially true with veggies, you don’t want thick pulp in your juice because to me, it makes it pretty difficult to drink and enjoy.  Kids especially will not drink a soup! A high-quality juicer will eject the pulp into some sort of container or in the case of the Omega 1000 Centrifugal type a filter.  There are a few things you can do with the pulp to not waste it as we talked about in our last blog.
• Uses a good reliable motor – Whether you use a high speed ejector style or a low speed masticating style you want a good quality motor that will run for years.  Weak machines with lower power output often have to run at very high rpm (revolutions per minute). These high-speed machines will be noisier and if you have a juicer with not enough reliable power, when feeding produce into the juicer, the rpm could drop greatly and result in the machine jamming and even stopping dead while juicing. Some high-quality wheatgrass juicers don’t use a motor at all. Instead, these juicers take advantage of human energy to keep the cost low and still produce excellent results.  
• Is EASY to feed the veggies – Finding a juicer with some sort of auto-feed capability is a must.  The vegetables and fruits in most cases will feed using gravity but if you have to keep pre-cutting everything small and exerting pressure to push it through the juicer, you won't use the unit as often as you should.  An auto-feed mechanism helps pull the ingredients into the device for more efficient extraction. The L'Equip XL juicer with it's wider mouth is a good example for this principal since you don't have to pre-cut most veggies or fruits and the gravity feed helps speed up the juicing process. .
• Is EASY to use and clean – When you’re pressed for time and are trying to be as efficient as possible, you need to be able to clean up quickly. Don’t overlook this key factor.  This is why we really like the Omega 1000 Centrifugal juicer since you can clean it without taking it apart every time but look for a juicer with as few pieces as possible and/or one that ejects the pulp. This is especially important if you plan to use the juicer for large quantities of juice during the harvest season.  The more parts you have that require cleaning, and the more pulp you have to scoop out of the juicer, the more time it will take you to clean up. With a higher-end multipurpose juicer, make sure the majority of juicer parts are dishwasher safe as well.   
• Will juice a wide variety of fruits and veggies etc. – Because I have been discussing vegetable juicing, that’s the number one priority in finding the best juicer. However, if you can find a reasonably priced juicer that will handle all types of juicing chores (fruits, etc), all the better. But if you’re only interested in juicing wheatgrass and leafy green vegetables, look for one that is designed to effectively juice wheatgrass, spinach, kale, and most other leafy greens. You can save some money if that’s your juicing focus.   

Keeping these important facts in mind have a look at the great quality juicers that we carry in our store and feel free to watch me demonstrate their various abilities to make great tasting, quality juices in these online demonstration videos.