Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although I didn't get this juicer from Amazon, thought I'd add a review since I like the product so much. Have to say though, there are much better prices elsewhere. I'm fairly new to juicing, but the Omega NC800 was the forth juicer I went through in a pretty short period of time. I started with the Breville Slow Juicer (bought from Amazon) and after two of those that leaked all over the base after nearly every juicing, I switched to the Hurom Slow Juicer from Costco. It was better, but the top seemed pretty flimsy, carrots would cause it to bulge and I just didn't think it would last very long. It only has a 1 year warranty and is a lot more expensive than this one or the Breville. So, those three went back. Then I found a You Tube video by the guy from Discount Juicers where he was unboxing the new Omega NC800. Lots of very informative videos showing how they work, etc... I thought I'd give it a try even though I knew I wouldn't have the same return freedom from that vendor as Amazon. I've had the juicer now for 2 weeks and used it at least once a day. Here's my observations. 1. Ease of cleaning. The Omega is by far the easiest of the three models I've had to clean. And I mean BY FAR. The vertical slow juicers have a pretty huge screen area that is a huge pain in the neck to get clean after every juicing. The Omega horizontal juicer has a much smaller screen area and it's just much easier to get the pulp out of. Additionally, the vertical juicers have the small spouts that feed out the pulp and the juice. The design is just awful. Getting those clean requires a small brush of some kind that I didn't even have. The oversized "tooth brush" that comes with these machines was too big to clean those spouts. I was less worried about the tube where the pulp comes out, but the one where the juice comes out... well, the juice comes out of it! It needs to be clean. And just overall, the Omega has big, wide, easy to clean parts. I'd estimate that the vertical machines took me a good 5 minutes to get really clean and the Omega seldom takes over 2 minutes. It's really a huge difference and sometimes the difference between bothering to juice or not. 2. Getting produce into the things. Where the horizontal machines have some advantage is in their ability to "self-feed" your produce. You can just basically drop stuff in the opening and as long as it slides down the chute the auger is going to grab it and bring it in. Not so much with the Omega NC800. I need to use the "pusher" a lot more with the Omega to get things like carrots, cucumbers, fruit, even celery to feed in. I don't have to push hard, but stuff does need some coaxing. I did have both the vertical juicers jam on me -- usually with carrots. And they do have a reverse button, but I've never had it happen with the Omega. The Omega also has a reverse button in case that happens. 3. Yield. The You Tube guy does a great job of measuring this. I haven't had two machines at the same time to do any real comparison, but I do notice that the pulp coming out of the Omega is both dryer and more consistently shredded than out of the vertical machines. I don't think there is a ton more juice, but I would say that in general there is more. 4. Noise, performance. All of these slow juicers are wonderfully quiet. I've never owned a centrifugal juicer but just seeing them operate online it sounds like you've got a jet engine in your kitchen. And who want's to scare the cat like that? 5. Warranty. Well, it's no contest. The Omega NC800 has a 15 year warranty. Like I said above, the Hurom has 1 year and the Breville I bought had 5 year (although I think they've increased it to 10 on their newer models). 6. Foam created. This is apparently a big deal for some. The more foam you get (although it also depends on what you're juicing -- leafy greens produce more foam), the more oxidation the juice has so the lower quality. I don't juice ahead, but rather juice and drink it then so I doubt it's a big deal, but I've found the Omega produces almost no foam in my juice no matter what I'm juicing. And every time I juice it's 1/2 to 1/3 leafy greens. All in all, I'm extremely happy with the Omega NC800. It seems extremely well designed and I'm confident it's going to last. It's slightly more than the Breville, significantly less than the Hurom. I think it's a good value if you plan on juicing regularly.