How much do you love your juicer?

[Secret Heart]

A juicer is my next purchase....so I'm wondering how important juicing is for you in your raw life, what brand you recommend and any other tips or advice for a prospective juicer-purchaser?

Thanks in advance,

Heather

[TimmyC]

this is the one I have (this is from the Amazon site to give you an idea of a high end juicer price)...very high quality....but I don't use it that much. My $20 smoothie machine has been my lifesaver.


Breville 800JEXL 1000-Watt Juice Fountain Elite (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002VAFVG/sr=1-1/qid=1130037983/ref=sr_1_1/103-3954438-8231849?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance)
$349.99 $299.99
Used & new (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B0002VAFVG/all/sr=1-1/qid=1130037983/ref=sr_1_1/103-3954438-8231849?%5Fencoding=UTF8) from $289.99 http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-5-0.gifUsually ships in 24 hours

[Mina]

Hi Secret heart!!!!
I bought Breville -juice fountain Plus 850 watt motor-2 speed professional juice extractor. I love it I use my breville every single day sometimes 3 times a day. if you buy organic (fruits and vegetables) then don't have to peel or cut it has a wide feed chute(whole apple, whole cucumber fit) no worries. I bought mine last Christmas from Sears at $199.00 and the other day I was at Canadien Tire and they are at $145.00 go for it. it is a great investment. you are going to love it.
mina

[Revvell]

I've got a few ~ the Green Life, the Healthy Juicer and my wonderful Citri-Star. The only one I actually use on a daily basis is the Citri-Star. Bo and I both do daily orange juice. I use oj as the basis for my green and fruit smoothies.

Next I use the Healthy Juicer. It's perfect for one person; doesn't use electricity and juices anything I might want.

I rarely use the Green Life (other names for it ~ Green Power and Green Star ~ although there may be different attachments). It's a gem of a juicer. I can juice all kinds of greens including wheatgrass if I so wish.

R.

[rawpriestess]

I love my Vita Mix, $399 for whole juice, and smoothies, you drink the pulp

I also love my Champion $2.25 for juice without pulp, and it makes great ice cream (frozen fruits) and pates'

I have also a salton, which is centrifugal, (and has a citrus juice attachment) and I used to use it for carrott juice alot, now I use my Champion, but the salton was only $39.99, regular, I bought on sale at JC Penneys for $13. -- a million years ago.

I have a citrus juicer, works great, is small, easy to clean and I've used it daily on and off for about 10 years. Cost me about $7.00 new LOL, still works great.

My favorite is the Vita Mix, because I like the pulp and the fiber, although if you don't, then you really can't use this machine for juice, it's a big, tough and versatile blender.

Alissa sell the Breville, so it must be an excellent quality one.

So, at least you have a few choices and ideas.

[Over40]

I have three juicers, 1) The Juiceman Juicer from Walmart, 2) a Champion Juicer, 3) The Jack Lalane Power Juicer. My favorite to use is still the Juiceman. Easy to clean, inexpensive to buy, and the quality of the end product does not seem that different from the other juicers.

Jon

[Sharon in Colorado]

I recommend the Breville Juice Fountain Plus or Elite. It has 2 speeds, a hopper large enough for whole apples (the kind you get in 3# bags) and is very fast.

We had a Champion but sold it, as it's not as user friendly, messier and heats up. We use the food processor to homogenize now.

My husband uses the Breville to juice carrots and apples every morning. If you are planning on juicing greens it doesn't handle those as well, but it is better to have blended greens. I throw some spinach into our daily smoothies now.

If you are set on juicing greens, a twin gear juicer is your best bet. Otherwise the Breville is excellent as an all around juicer and you can put all the parts into the dishwasher.

Oh I wanted to add we also use the OJEX to juice oranges. It is a manual levered citrus press and is excellent at pressing all the juice out. This is the orange juice I put into our daily smoothies, which we make using the K-Tec Champ HP3 which is also an excellent blender.

We have a lot of gadgets. :eek:

[dhammala]

I bought a cheaper $40 one just to see how often I would use it. I found that I don't use it so much.. and when I do use it, there is so much pulp left over that I feel guilty! It is a very unattractive slop that I don't know how I could eat.. but it makes me wonder why I am not just eating the whole fruit anyway.

I am now saving my money to invest in a Vita-Mix. Many of my favorite recipies for fancy meals require the smooooothness a high-speed blender can make (like when making a cashew-coconut ice cream base, or yellow pepper puree.) I *love* the idea of juicing and drinking whole greens and fruits and veggies, instead of wasting all that pulp.

I do also have a masticating juicer -- the kind with a hand crank -- used for wheat grass and such. It is fun to use but hard to clean.. I stopped growing wheat grass when the cat deceided it was her new bed.. LOL

I would recommend following the same path.. Buy a cheap one to see if you like doing it, or to have on hand for some recipes.. if you find you are doing it every day for three months, by all means invest in a full price monster! But I can't say I have ever met anyone who has stuck with the juicing that way..

[Punky]

Oh I wanted to add we also use the OJEX to juice oranges. It is a manual levered citrus press and is excellent at pressing all the juice out. This is the orange juice I put into our daily smoothies, which we make using the K-Tec Champ HP3 which is also an excellent blender.


I was thinking of asking for a Ojex type citrus press for xmas.
thanks for the recommendation Sharon.

[Halo Aglow]

I just got done ordering the Breville Juice Fountain Plus for $109.99 from Amazon.com which includes free shipping and the promotional $25 off Kitchen and Bath when you spend $125. Supposedly the $25 off sale ends tomorrow. Thanks for the recommendations everyone! ;)

I love juicing. Fresh live juice is SO GOOD. I have the manual Healthy Juicer which is cool but I get impatient when I'm not only juicing for myself. Since my little boy loves fresh juice also, having an electric juicer will make things easier on me. Whenever my hubby comes home from off the road he likes juicing too.

I make lemon-appleade mostly. Boy oh boy is it refreshing. I eat the leftover pulp also as tangy applesauce, YUM.

[anneley]

Me too, I'm still not quite sure which one to buy. After some research I decided to get one of these: The Breville 800 Elite or Omega 8005. Breville is faster, but Omega juices just about anything plus it also purees and Omega was recommended for raw foodists. On the other hand Alissa and Natalia Rose both recommend Breville, so... what to pick :confused: I like the look of Breville and the function of Omega :eek:

[rawpriestess]

Well, I am very much into what something looks like.

But when I bought my sewing machine a million years ago, for a totally outrageous price, I went for qualtiy, not the pretty one.

Husgavara had this gorgeous red sewing machine, OHHH< I wanted it so badly, but it had plastic inside parts, so I went for the all metal Bernina, it was ugly, but works so well.

Since it was something that wasn't out on my counter, I was fine with it, and still happy after 30 years of using it. (I used to make dance costumes professionally--so really needed a good machine)

But, if it were something that was sitting out on my counter all day and all night, and I had to look at it every single day, I would never buy somehting that I didn't like the looks of.

I thing the Green star/power or whatever they are calling it this week is soooo ugly, it is squatty, and looks like a sqished R2D2 to me. plus I don't like that color green, especially in my kitchen -- but the Champion has nice sleek lines, I bought a white one, but my friend just bought a black one, oohhhh, now that is pretty.

But, on the other hand, will you use it? That is the question?

You can always place a pretty towel over an appliance that isn't pretty, I did this years ago when all I could afford was a yellow appliance (ick), So, you CAN buy the more attractive one, or the better one as far as usefullness, and then place a towel over it, or hide it behind a cabinet, etc.

*******

But to answer the OP, I couldn't care less if I even owned a juicer, I have several, and don't use them much.

I use my Vita Mix for sauces and such, I use my champion for ice cream and pates' and I hardly ever use my juicer as I like to eat my fruit, and the pulp too.

Good luck either way you go.

[Sasha1200]

I have the Breville Juicer and it's a wonderful (and beautiful) piece of machinery. But looking back I wish I had bought a Vita-mix. Juicing is wonderful and all but I concur with the post above...not using the pulp is such as waste!

[fiddler]

I've had a Green Star for about a year or so and it works really well!!!
The carrot juice stays fresh for at least 3 days. I usually juice 5 or 10 lbs
of organic carrots at a time and store the juice in those Ball jelly jars.
I fill to the top as to reduce the oxygen content and use the plastic lids.
[Picked this up from a Hallelujah Acres friend of mine] I had purchased a Champion for my Mom recently and she likes it and uses it alot. I've used her Champion but prefer my Green Star. Price: Green Star online for about $350 whereas you can get the Champion for about $200.00. With the Green Star, you don't have to precut Celery like you do with the Champion. Also, if you ever wanted to do wheat grass, you could do so with the Green Star but not with the Champion. [ I've never done wheatgrass so I can't testify to how well it juices the wheatgrass ].

I know there's lots of info on juicers out there so you can do your own digging. I've even seen threads on this rawfoodtalk discussion board too.

My Juicer Recommendation: Green Star twin gear juicer!

Hope this helps,
Fiddlin' Gil