Help with juicers please!

[raweater]

Do you have to have one of the expensive juicers to do wheatgrass at all, or will a cheaper one do them, maybe just do an inferior job? Or could you use your blender, and then just strain it? I am really wanting to do some wheatgrass, but with a baby coming and midwife bills (no insurance), it is not looking good until fall, at least, LOL! However, I don't mind burning up $10-$15 used juicers or blenders every few months until then, if I can get even a portion of the benefits of wheatgrass juice!

Mouse Bandit

It must be a juicer that an do wheatgrass, most cheaper juicers will throw the wheatgrass immediately into the pulp bin untouched.

However, there are $40-60 options, there are manual hand crank wheatgrass juicers which would do the job.

[raweater]

subbacultcha: How about one of those hand crank ones? You'd get quality juice like the $300 machines but from a $40-60 juicer, and it would make leafy greens (most centrifugicals throw those out unjuiced). Only dissadvantage is you have to hand crank, if I wanted a low cost juicer, and having myself seen how poor the centrifugical ones are (I unfortunately bought one, and deeply regreted it), I'd get a hand crank, it extracts MUCH more juice and will not destroy nutrients.

Also, have you ever tried a centrifugical juicer or tasted the juice from them? I highly recommend you try them before buying one, they basically make colored sugared water, not juice, which is very unhealthy and easy to do a sugar overdose (you're getting almost only sugar and no nutrition from these juices). I would not recommend a centrifugical juicer to anyone, I would recommend having nothing at all over one of those (better for your health than loading yourself up on refined sugar). That's why I highly recommend agaisnt them and recommend the hand crank juicers for $40-60, not only do they cost about the same or less, they extract a LOT more juice (= savings) and much more nutrients (= not refined sugar comming out of the machine).

I haven't gotten my green star yesterday and made a carrot orange juice in my centrifugical juicer yesterday, it was tasteless and my friends also agreed. Centrifugical juicers are not juicers, they are refined liquid sugar making machines IMO.

[Tirza]

I was using a Champion all the time for carrots, etc. But it doesn't do wheatgrass. So I got a hand crank juicer which does all juices and also does wheatgrass.
I really like the idea of having something that I can take on a trip that doesn't take up much packing space or weight, or depend on no power or a different current. Also like to be prepared in case of power outages. However, I got a little impatient with it since it does take a bit of time and my arm got a bit sore. (If I had persisted, the arm would have gotten stronger!)
So I got one of the slow-speed juicers that make the pulp very dry. Surprise, surprise ! - ! it doesn't go so much faster than my hand cranked juicer!!
So I would highly recommend that you get a hand cranking one if you are a bit cash-strapped. Then you will also have it on hand for those other benefits mentioned above.

[subbacultcha]

subbacultcha: How about one of those hand crank ones? You'd get quality juice like the $300 machines but from a $40-60 juicer, and it would make leafy greens (most centrifugicals throw those out unjuiced). Only dissadvantage is you have to hand crank, if I wanted a low cost juicer, and having myself seen how poor the centrifugical ones are (I unfortunately bought one, and deeply regreted it), I'd get a hand crank, it extracts MUCH more juice and will not destroy nutrients.

Also, have you ever tried a centrifugical juicer or tasted the juice from them? I highly recommend you try them before buying one, they basically make colored sugared water, not juice, which is very unhealthy and easy to do a sugar overdose (you're getting almost only sugar and no nutrition from these juices). I would not recommend a centrifugical juicer to anyone, I would recommend having nothing at all over one of those (better for your health than loading yourself up on refined sugar). That's why I highly recommend agaisnt them and recommend the hand crank juicers for $40-60, not only do they cost about the same or less, they extract a LOT more juice (= savings) and much more nutrients (= not refined sugar comming out of the machine).

I haven't gotten my green star yesterday and made a carrot orange juice in my centrifugical juicer yesterday, it was tasteless and my friends also agreed. Centrifugical juicers are not juicers, they are refined liquid sugar making machines IMO.

I have a centrifugical juicer and it is really not good. I juiced tomatoes in it once and it was really watery. It is also a major pain to wash up and produces very wet pulp.

I'm now thinking of getting a hand-held one and asking for a masticating juicer for my birthday in October, probably the Champion.

[Tirza]

The Champion is a pretty good juicer, even though it does yield wetter pulp than the single or twin auger types. And it is cheaper than those types. You can likely even find one for very cheap, second hand. Nothing to go wrong with them and parts are readily available.

Most people use one of these two solutions: Put the pulp through a couple of more times. It definitely squeezes it out further, but adds a fair amount of foam to the juice. You also get a little bit of sediment with the Champion. If that doesn't bother you, fine. But if it does, you can line your container with one of those nut milk bags or some other fine straining cloth. The juice goes right into the bag in the container - you lift that out and squeeze the juice from the little bit of pulp that is in there and you have pretty nice clear juice.

Speaking of squeezing, that is the other solution for the wet pulp. Actually the renowned Walker (I think?) two-step juicing system is based on that - you first reduce the produce to a pulp with a fine grinder, then put the pulp into a bag and squeeze the juice out of it with the use of a pressing mechanism. The pulp gets very dry that way. Apparently some really important nutrients are salvaged that way, by squeezing the cells of the pulp out that dry. I did that for awhile, by putting it through the Champion, with the pulp and the juice going into their respective containers which were both lined with a nut milk bag. Then I squeezed it out by hand. I actually got a good cup extra of juice (starting from about 8 big carrots) by squeezing the pulp that way. I squeezed it and wrung it by hand-which didn't take all that long. Although it was a bit messy and my hands were a bit orange until I washed them with soap, it wasn't too bad.

I have noticed that since I am getting older, my hands don't have as much strength in them as they used to have. So instead of buying a squeezing ball or some such thing for exercise, I do my juice and get strengthening exercise for my hands!!! Amazing, eh? We can actually regain or maintain our fitness by doing things the way our forefathers/mothers did things! What a concept! I used to be all for step-saving kitchen designs and labour-saving appliances, but am slowly getting back to the idea of doing things in less expensive, (ultimately less time consuming) ways that actually result in better physical health for me. sorry--I got off on a tangent;)

[subbacultcha]

..........

[subbacultcha]

Oh, apparently the Oscar Vitalmax 900 is the same as the Omega 8003! I was wondering why I hadn't heard of it. Must be a UK/US thing.

So, Oscar/Omega or Champion?

I will get a handheld juicer which I will be buying soon for greens...Is the Easy Health a good one?

Thank you all very much for your informative and detailed responses everyone! I am really grateful, I have no clue about juicers!

[mousebandit]

I'd be very interested in recommendations for the hand crank juicers as well! This sounds like a great idea, and very economical!

Thanks!
Tracey

[FloridaPatty]

It does wheatgrass and just about everything else. I got it for $209 plus free shipping. The site I got it off of has a comparison of it with several other juices. I love it. Does a great job.

I have a Champion. It doesn't do wheatgrass. You also have to chop up the celery or it doesn't juice it. It's a pain to clean. I rarely used it. I had to go outside to clean it because I don't have a disposal in my sink and there was a lot of the smashed pulp in the grinding area. The Solo II is very easy. 90% is already out of the machine.

vitalityplus1.com

[CrazyDelicious]

I love love love my champion juicer.
I have had it a long time - it is indestructible! It juices everything I want, and I use it for homogenizing pates and ice cream. I don't find it a pain to clean compared to my old centrifugal which required special tools to clean it. It is fast enough that I make juice/clean juicer in the am before I go to work - would never have done this with old juicer. I don't juice wheatgrass though - for the amount of wheatgrass I drink, it makes more sense to buy it by the shot than buy the equipment and grass.