Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Warning! Long review. I wanna give it 5 stars because I do "Love it" (what amazon considers a 5 star item); but this really is NOT a 5 star item. Where to start? First off, if you're reading my overly long review, it must be because you are looking to buy one. If that's the case, buy it somewhere with a good return policy! I got mine at Macy's and they have a very liberal (thankfully) return policy. Bed Bath and Beyond is quite liberal as well. I'm on my second one after two weeks. The manual says that clicking and squeaking is normal. And if you look up "single auger juicer" on you tube you'll know what they mean. Its a gentle kinda ticking as the gears are humming along and the auger squeaks inside as the wipers wipe as well. Overall, your stand mixer will make more noise and drown out these sounds. The first juicer I had was bad from the get-go. It made a hard plastic thwack when it started up and when the going got tough (hard carrots and such). The sound it made was ... hmm ... Open a plastic bag clip and let go quickly so that the clip snaps shut as loud as possible. Thats the sound it made at start up and when working hard. It also bucked up and down about 1/8th an inch as it worked. Also the shut off valve never worked and broke when I tried to remove it to wash. Also, the lid was difficult to snap to the lock position. Oh, and the blade had a shard of blade still attached (it was badly stamped). I could certainly understand all the 1 star reviews because that one was just awful. It worked, just clearly a bad unit. Luckily for KitchenAid, the cashier at Macy's told me to try it more than a few times and give it a chance and return it even if you don't like it after 3 months. So I did. The broken unit produced juice and kept me yearning how to get the most out of it. I eventually decided to take macy's up on their policy and swap it for a new one. So far, this second unit has fixed everything that the other was lacking. I've used it only once so far to turn 7 apples into about 45 oz of juice; but it didn't click, the shut off valve worked (it dripped, then I turned harder past a vague detent and it locked shut and stopped dripping - check out the video, it gets 1/4 full and no dripping), this one doesn't rock about, the blade is well stamped, and even though the defective unit got worn in and became easier to lock close; the new one was easy to lock close from the box. Excellent so far. In KitchenAid's defense, the first one that had issues did make about 3 gallons in a weeks worth of use and got better over time (clicked only at start up towards the end and the lid became easy to snap on). This is to say, it didn't break, even with some abusive use. Trust me, there were times when I was trying to bust it by overloading it so that it'd be easier to return. It only got better with use, but still clearly defective. Oh yeah, I also smeared lard onto the square peg that mates with the stand mixer. I could see a gap between the housing and the square peg and figured that might be the ticking. When I greased that bit, the clicking improved vastly from all the time to just at startup. After a use, the grease had turned black and sliver from all the shavings emulsified within it! Ok, enough about that. Lets move on to Pro's and Con's. Cons: * Its expensive. MSRP was $249?!?! Wow. It then dropped to $199, and now is less (I got mine for $170). I believe the word is out that many (or the first revision) is just crap. If quality control made every unit behave as my second one does, I could see $129 - $150 as a reasonable price for what it does. Maybe $199 in premium store. * There are purpose built machines that are in the price ball-park to this ATTACHMENT (no motor included). * There's no reverse incase the unit jams. * The slicing blade bounces the fruits around and prevents you from seeing when it's jamming * I have a 475 Watt machine, and this attachment doesn't phase it at all. It powers through and keeps chugging. I run it at 6 or 8. Others with lower wattages mention the motor slowing down. I believe this is why KitchenAid uses the blanket suggestion of just running it at 10 so that even the 250 watt classic units have a chance of making it work. Running it at 10 makes a lot of noise and is faster than what I would consider a slow juicer. * Quality control may be lacking. I originally got a defective unit which exhibited many of the problems others have had with this attachment. If they stopped these broken units from reaching the market, more people would be satisfied and receive a higher rating over all. * A lot of things to clean. Takes a bit of time, but I suspect not much more than any other auger type juicer. * Lots of plastic. At this price range, I expect more metal in the build. Perhaps the gear housing could be in cast aluminum. * Theres a blade in the design! You have to be aware of this while you're cleaning it! * Designed for the Tilt mixer - I use this with my lift mixer and it is higher by a few inches. So the juice tends to spatter when it drops that far into the collection cup. Which in turns spits out onto the table and makes a sticky table. * Juicing makes you poop more. True fact for me. Your milage may vary. Pros: * Small enough to keep around in my tiny kitchen (about the size of a 2 or 3 quart pot) * Various pulp baskets to vary the amount of pulp your final product has! I don't know of another comparable juicer that has this ability! * Makes sauce (apple, tomato) * Makes pulpy juice * Makes (my favorite) mildly pulpy juice. I know I mention pulp 3 times, but the flexibility afforded is really cool. * The blade kinda makes up for the lack of reverse by making the produce easier for the auger to juice and reduces the time you need to prep. * You can vary the speed (given your KitchenAid mixer has the power to do so). * Simple design. I notice many other machines have gears to run the wiper. This design uses notches in the cutting blade plate that spins with the auger to move the wiper along. Pretty simple and straight forward. * It works well! I've made literally gallons of apple, carrot and grape juice. I have this for breakfast and has displaced my "lounging at home" soda consumption. Probably the same amount of sugar, but arguably more nutritional than Pepsi. * I like the nesting collection cups that came with it. A bit small for my usage, but they are thick and feel well made. The sealing lid is a nice touch to put fresh juice directly in the fridge. Thank you, to some engineer in KA for giving a hoot. * You know what goes in it. No included additives that are necessary to truck it hundreds of miles and remain "fresh". * Its also kinda fun to use * The juice can really be cheap. I bought a 4lb bag of carrots for $1.99 (clearance) and that filled an Odwalla carrot juice bottle that costed me $5.99 on sale (usually $7.99) So normally, that'd be about $5 saved. I also find apples on clearance and though they have bruises (what do I care, they're just gonna get smashed when I get home) they are only 50 cents a pound and make apple cider that get my friends asking me to make more. * Despite all the cons; if you have the $$ and you feel its worth the money to you, and you have a kitchenaid stand mixer. All the cons can be overcome by buying smartly and the attachment really is worth it. Use: I've done grapes, apples, and carrots so far. I'll get around to oranges, lemons, and mangos some day. Use water to get things moving if it clogs. If water doesn't help, you have to stop and clean the auger at the bare minimum. Carrots: They do well. Don't waste your time slicing to prep them. Wash them and jam them in. Use the small tube (remove the small plunger) if they are small. If they are too big, remove both plungers and jam it in. If you must, slice to fit. I crammed in carrots whole and it did fine. If it seems like its going to jam (you shove in a carrot or two and the pulp doesn't budge), pour in a little water and it gets things moving again. Straight carrot juice should be watered down anyways, it can be very potent :) Apples: I find that leaving the peels on works best. I thought I was doing it a favor by peeling the apples and it jammed 3 times over the course of 10-15 apples. Cussing the whole way. This was also before I devised my water flush trick, so that might have helped. Anyways, when I quarter the apples and remove the seeds but leave the peels on, and it does great. I guess the peels act like a conveyer belt and keeps things moving along? My current method is to use a corer. The slices are a bit small (which take more time to feed even at 2 or 3 at a time) but the prep time saved is great. I recommend it. Note; the manual says you can feed the extruded pulp in for a second round. BS. Maybe half a hand full, then a few apple slices....maybe. But straight pulp. No, don't, you're wasting your time...even with the water trick. Grapes: Not a problem. The juice is AWESOME. Its inefficient though. The pulp is super moist. I had to run it through 3 times (unlike apples, it did fine) and it was still watery. I guess I'll try putting the pulp in a mesh cloth and manually squeeze the juice out of the pulp in the future. Notes: It takes time to juice. Prepping takes nearly as long as juicing. Washing takes less than 10 minutes. Probably near 5. I get the feeling most of the gripes I've read stem from people thinking juicing is like how they see on a 5 minute you tube video. You know, where they have all the materials neatly measured in bowls. Yeah right. Forget the 30 minutes spent washing, and trimming the produce. Even my lazy apple coring method takes half an hour to scrub the fruit, core, pull out everything to get started. Thats why I try to make at least half a gallon at a time. This isn't a "make one glass" and move along with your day kinda thing. If you want that, buy at a store - the cost is about the same when you off set the cost of the attachment and the value of your own time. To clean: I clean mine by hand. Its not terribly difficult. After I un-twist and remove the feeder/lid I pull the whole plastic bin straight up from the base/gearbox leaving that part still attached to my kitchenaid. I then pull the basket, wiper, and auger from the plastic housing and put that whole thing in one of my mixing bowls that was holding my fruits. I wash the plastic housing first (just rinse it off, little to no scrubbing). The hard part is the poop chute, that takes the included brush, or a chop stick to unjam and clear up. I do the housing first so that as I wash the remaining pieces, I have a clean and safe place to store the rest of the pieces. After that, the wiper (red squeegie part) gets a rinse. I then turn the mesh basket upside down in the bowl, I grip it by the grey plastic band and push the auger out by pushing on the metal hex driver through the bottom hole of the basket. Or you could say I lay it in the bowl and pull the strainer basket away from the auger via the hex driver within the auger via the hole in the bottom of the strainer. This keeps my hands away from the blade as the two parts separate. I then rinse the basket under water and smudge my fingers all over the holes to force out any jammed stuff. I do this over the inside and outside. After about 30-60 seconds I pull away from the running water and visually inspect. Usually by then, the holes are all clear and the basket is ready to be placed back into the wiper basket. Don't forget to unplug the pulp poop chute. Last is the auger, its usually encrusted with a lot of food chunks, but once it hits water it washes off pretty darned easy. I just rinse it off and it all basically sloughs off and I almost never have to scrub. Often a bit of something will get stuck near the inner corner of the blade. Just use the brush that came with it or a chop stick (or risk a finger) and thats it. Not hard at all. I leave everything sitting in the housing to air dry and leave the lid off. By morning its all dry, I put it back together for grab and go use for the next time. So, to conclude. Quality control sucks. Buy ready to return. It works. It juices well and makes the KitchenAid more versatile. Its smaller than some stand alone juicers. If you get a good unit, you'll more than likely enjoy it!