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What Juicer should I buy?

My generous mama gave me some $$ for my Birthday to buy a new juicer! Yay! I have been slowly killing my 10+year old hand me down Juiceman Jr. Haha!

So what kind do I get? Masticating? I was looking at the Champions. Anyone know anything about the Jack LaLane one?

My budget is $300 with shipping. I MUST have a big chute. I am tired of cutting everything up like I have to now.

Thanks!

Comments

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    although it may be tempting with the big chute to get a breville, but don’t do it. my screen broke and so did another part.

  • I have a jack lalane juicer, and honestly got it because it was less than $100. I bought it about 2 years ago, but it wasn’t until this year that I used it on a regular basis. I use it every morning to make juice, and it hasn’t broke down on me yet. I think you get what you pay for though.

    Pros: It’s cheap, it has a big chute (I rarely have to cut anything up), and is really easy to disassemble and clean. It juices fruits like oranges and apples easily, as well as veggies like carrots, beets, and ginger.

    Cons: It doesn’t juice greens very well, for example, I can pretty much forget about juicing parsley, it just chutes out the back. It’ll juice lettuce and kale okay, but the pulp is still kinda wet, so I feel like I am wasting even though I am composting. I think it is kind of loud, but I’ve never used or seen another juicer, so I can’t compare.

    I’m glad you got some cash to buy a juicer, it is the most consistently used piece of equipment in my kitchen and am very happy that I have one. Good luck!

  • ZanzibarrrZanzibarrr Raw Newbie

    I had a Samson one gear, I do NOT recommend it (Lots of foam, lots of waste) and anyway you need to cut everything in small pieces. Jack Lalane, I had a blender, which is now dead, it never felt very strong anyway. Does anyone know if you can get a manual juicer where I can put my veggies and turn the arm by myself, I need a very portable one as I’m always on the road, for the blender I have a PB 200, which is really great, but I have no idea for the juicer…

  • FeeFee Raw Master

    I have a matstone gear juicer which is really good as it also crushes nuts etc and makes fantastic banana ice cream. It does have a small chute though but I dont mind chopping first.

    Kevyn – I have a portable juicer which I think is made by Green Power. I find difficulty keeping it suctioned to the worktop as my worktop is not totally smooth. I guess you are not in England as I was looking to get rid of it. (I need to seriosly declutter!)

  • ZanzibarrrZanzibarrr Raw Newbie

    Fee- yes I live in London

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    Mamak, it depends largely on what you intend to juice. Some types/brands do some foods well and not others. For example, my mom loaned me her Champion, which does hard, crisp things like carrots and apples very well, but cannot handle leafy greens or soft veggies or soft fruits well at all. Since I wanted to mostly juice leafy greens, I decided to buy an Omega, which is supposed to handle that.

    Decide on what you intend to juice the most, and go from there in making a decision.

  • TomsMom – Right now, I’ve been doing a little bit of everything. Some greens. My Juiceman does ok with kales and parsley if I ball it up. Not fabulous, but I can tell I’m getting something out of them. I also have been doing some carrot/beet blends but it seems like all juicers do well with the firmer stuff.

    Maybe I should look into a regular Juiceman since the Jr has stood the test of time.

  • I have had an Omega 8005 for about 3 years now. No problems, dry pulp, great juice and easy clean up. Did I mention easy clean up??? That is REALLY important.

    The Omega can do fruit, veges, wheat grass and other greens, nut butter, etc. It is really a great appliance. You can get one for under $300 incl. shipping.

    You have to cut the stuff up, but not that small.

    We’ve barely used the juicer since November when we got the Blendtec, though. If it were my money, I’d consider saving for a bit more and getting the Blendtec instead. The only things I pull the juicer out for now are sorbet and frozen bananas for raw ice cream.

  • AKAAuburnEyesAKAAuburnEyes Raw Newbie

    We have a green star juicer and are very happy with it. We can juice wheatgrass, all kinds of greens and vegetables and even fruits, though we don’t juice much fruit. Mainly apples with sweeten vegetable juices once in a while. The chute is not huge but I don’t feel like I have to cut up the vegetables too small. It uses magnets that is supposed to prevent rapid oxidization of the juices and is a twin gear juicer. The cleanup is fast and easy, even though there are a handful of parts. Longest part of it is brushing the screen clean and even that doesn’t take long.

    Before making a decision on what juicer I wanted I read this article: http://www.discountjuicers.com/bestjuicer.html and then thought about what I really wanted to juice and what would work best for that. I bought the Green Star from discount juicers. I thought their prices were good.

    Happy Birthday to you mamak :) and good luck choosing your juicer.

  • evergreenevergreen Raw Master

    hi…you may want to check these sites before you buy,they have such low prices on some items they have to e-mail you! www.2-life.com and www.vitalityplus1.com

  • shgadwashgadwa Raw Newbie

    From my studying….seems like green power, green life and such are really the best….it gets lots of juice, and they claim that because it is low RPMs, the juice is better for you, lasts longer and it also is magnetic so that it helps do something to the juice….it also makes the juice more nutritious. The green power ones get more vitamins out. The downside is things like carrots and nuts take longer to process.

    I have an old champion….its about as old as I am, I think…just a little younger. It can get bogged down at times and can heat up too…but its all I have right now.

    Also, norwalk seems great too…its EXPENSIVE.

  • shgadwashgadwa Raw Newbie

    Also, like AKAAuburnEyes said, greenstar, green life, green power, those juice wheatgrass and greens MUCH better.

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    Another idea is to use your vitamix blend and nut milk bag to strain. Juice! That’s what i do. works like a charm!

  • I have tried the blender and straining the juice and it’s just a big mess and PITA in my opinion. LOL

    I have a toddler and not much time in the morning, but I have been sticking with using my juicer since it’s not too much of a mess.

    Thanks everyone for your feedback!

  • If I had money for a juicer, I would buy the Green Star or the Omega. Right now I use an old Hamilton Beach juicer…it’s slow, but it does work for greens and fruit. But the pulp is super wet…that is very frusterating because it’s so not economical.

    I’m hoping to buy a good one…so this is a great thread.

    www.rawroyalty.blogspot.com

  • Paxton SquiggledyPaxton Squiggledy Raw Newbie

    You want a masticating or auger-type juicer for juicing greens. They’re kind of slow and have a skinny schute, but it’s the kind that you need for greens.

    Me and my friend both have the same kind of juicer, the Omega 8003 and the Omega 8005 (basically identical): http://www.amazon.com/Omega-8003-Nutrition-Cent…

    Cheaper than the Green Power Juicer, and works well.

    After a year of use, it still performs like it was just taken out of the box. Does a wonderful job juicing greens. Does okay juicing home grown oat grass, and would probably do just as well with home grown wheat and barleygrass. But then, I mix the grass with carrot when juicing (put in a bit of grass, put in half a carrot, put in some more grass, then more carrot, etc.). But when I gathered some tougher, wild grasses and tried to juice them in the juicer, the juice and pulp got a little hot and the auger actually stuck a couple of times.

    Also, juicing pineapple can be a bit messy and frustrating in this juicer. I get around this by putting the peeled, cut up pineapple in my 800 watt (cost 40 dollars) blender, blending on high for 30-60 seconds, then straining the contents through a wire strainer.

    So, it does great with both domestic and wild greens, but tough, wild grasses not so much. And pineapple would do better in the blender.

    If I could afford a vitamix or blendtec blender, I would get one of those and just throw everything into that and strain it through a wire strainer or a nut milk bag. A lot less time to clean up, and it honestly looks a lot less wasteful to me, from all the videos.

    Just don’t be fooled by the super blender that is being sold in Jack Lalane’s name. Tons of people are very sorry that they bought it, because the pitcher usually won’t last. It rusts or something like that, it isn’t covered by warranty for longer than a couple of months (unlike the motor), and the last time I checked, they didn’t sell a replacement for it.

    Good luck to you, and happy juicing. :-)

  • I would go for any twin gear juicer.. I have one at home and it is really working well.

    Twin Gear Juicer Plus

  • How about the Hurom juicer? I think it's about $350, so a little over your budget, but I have had my eye on this one lately. It looks like it is pretty fast, decent cleanup, can handle both juicy things and leafy things. Also it's built vertically so it has a smaller footprint on your counter.

    I just broke my generic centrifugal juicer so I'm in the market for a new one too. I liked the centrifugal ok but hated how it bounced around on the counter when it got unbalanced (which was often). I borrowed a friend's Green Star and tested it out for a few months but was pretty annoyed by the:

    1. complex assembly

    2. pain in the butt to clean

    3. SUPER slow juicing. takes a long time to feed through everything you want to juice

    4. tiny feed chute - you have to cut things up pretty small

    That being said it creates super high quality juice, but I am wondering if the Hurom is the best of both worlds? anyone else have experience with it?

  • I have been entirely disappointed with my breville. It just doesn't get much juice out of anything green.

  • nsns

    BlendTec or a similar blender is not a good choice for preparing juice by blending and straining - doesn't work for me.

    Anybody has any experience with Norwalk?

  • Except for the most expensive juicers and blenders, you are going to have unprocessed parts of the food. The juicers are worse IMO, because you lose so much of the valuable pulp! I'm trying to sell my juicer!

    I have a blendtec blender and it does a great job chopping up everything and not having any blobs of missed food. It makes great smoothies too. The ice in cracked up into perfect tiny pieces and make it delicious!

    you can see it on my website: http://www.heartfelt-stress-relief.com/dieting-tips.html

    (click on the picture of the blender)

    It is a bit over your budget - but believe me, it's worth it! feel free to write to me about it.

    MANYthanks,

    Lianda

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