Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This review is coming from someone with nearly 20 years of juicing experience that has realized tangible benefits long ago and am sold on the need to juice. However, in that time I used a centrifugal Juicer, with my most recent one of 11 years being the Waring PJE401 Juice Extractor, Quite White and Stainless Steelwhich is still going strong, and juiced about 80% carrots and about 19% apples. I recently realized, after attending my mothers funeral, 92 1/2 years old, and pondered what else can I do to stay healthy unlike all my siblings, that what was truly deficient in my regiment was greens. The more I read, especially the book Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body's Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free, the more it was obvious that since I always hated eating them and since that was not going to change, I can just juice them. I then educated myself on every juicer on the market - learning the brands, watching endless youtube videos and juice-off comparisons, and of course following that up with reading numerous customer reviews. Investing in the right juicer is a big decision and it is cheaper to get right in the beginning. So this review will share what I learned and I hope this helps you make a decision. First, know this, 1) the best juicer is the one you use regularly - if it is difficult or too time-consuming to use or clean or too be big to fit in a prominent place in your kitchen the honeymoon will be short. 2) A cheap juicer will cost the most - because it is either inefficient with the yield, or it will break quickly, this is the lifespan of the juicer so calculate this investment in cost/year. A $69 juicer that lasts a year costs $69/yr. A $300 juicer with a 15 year warranty cost $20/year. The cadillac of home juicers is the Super Angel, $1000 and extracts 10 - 25% more juice than other juicers in the $200-$1000 range. How much will you juice helps to calculate how long a 20% higher produce bill for a $300 juicer will recoup your investment. If you juice only once in a while, the higher investment will never pay for itself. But, if you juice 2x day, or for several people, it could be within 3 years of so before the more expensive juicer actually pays for itself. That $69 juicer will likely yield 40-50% the of the Super Angel juicer, or perhaps a 25% for most other, so if you will be juicing a lot, that $69 juicer will cost the most. The above cost analysis was for all those people on the fence about price. My 11 year old $200 Waring, which is still working, cost me under $20 year, while my first $69 juicer, and my second, $99 juicer, never had their second anniversary. What is does well: Leafy Greens, Wheatgrass, Celery, Carrots. Also, apples. Like almost all masticating juicers, soft fruits are not their thing, they do better in centrifugal juicers or smoothies. Centrifugal juicers just do not leafy greens well at all, period. Masticating juicers like this squeeze the life, I mean juice, out to the cells. These are the best way to get nutrients from greens since we are not cows with four stomachs designed to break down the cellulose walls to extract the nutrients, humans don't do this well so the need to chew their greens many, many times to break it down before swallowing. Few of us do that, we often ignore the parsley with comes with a meal, even though ounce for ounce it is the most nutritious thing on the plate. And the few times someone like me does put it in my mouth I chew lightly and swallow since it is not a pleasant taste. Leafy greens and wheatgrass do very well. Cleanup: Do not underestimate cleanup as a factor in your selection. Some juicers take in excess of 10 minutes to properly clean. Perhaps not a big deal if you make a large batch for two days but if you make a glass to drink fresh twice a day then cleanup time is serious consideration. Cleanup time on a juicer is mostly related to the size of the screen which needs to be cleaned right a way with a brush (including with the juicer) else the holes get clogged and the process becomes less efficient. The Omega model has a short screen and only a few parts and once you master a workflow for cleanup is literally less than 2 minutes, probably the shortest time for any juicer on the market. A Greenstar Elite juicer, for $500 is a great double auger juicer, and cleanup is between 5 -10 minutes, closer to 10 minutes due to tough to clean edges, and the Super Angel takes a little less time than the Greenstar. Comparisons to Omega 8004/8006: The Omega 8004/8006 models has the best warranty in the business, 15 years. The more expensive Omega Vert 350 is only 10 years. Omega 8004 is white and the 8006 is chrome covered plastic for $40 more - (I actually purchased the 8004 and used the savings towards 40 pounds of inorganic carrots). That is the only difference!!! Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer costs about $379 and is seemingly faster to use and has bigger opening so cutting up to smaller sizes is slightly less work. However, it is known for stalling on carrots, clogging on stringy celery, and having plenty of pulp in the juice - see reviews. The Omega 8004/6 includes a pulp screen to fit over the juice bowl, the Vert does not. Compared to the Omega 8000 series, based on video juicer-offs, it has a lower yield and much higher foam for wheatgrass and greens like kale. Also, cleanup is about 2x longer so the faster feed may be compensated by the longer cleanup depending on how much you are juicing at one time. Champion Juicer Doesn't do wheatgrass or leafy greens well unless you buy a separate $75 attachment increasing the overall cost. Even with that, the yields are lower than the Omega and the net price would be more. Centrifugal Juices: These `noisy juicers' excel at speed/faster juice times and do soft fruits and things like carrots better in terms of quantity. But, since the blades wiz by so quickly they oxidize the juice - this is evidenced in the foam. As a result these juices have a shorter shelf life. Which is not a problem if you drink your juice right of way. But, that's not all, this can harm the enzymes. In my own juice-off for carrots with my Waring juicer, the Warning had a 3% higher yield, but the juice had over twice the foam and but more importantly the taste was noticeably more watery than the richer tasting masticated juice - yes, this was the same batch of carrots. So quality of juice is not as good, but total time is significantly less - lower quality is always better than anything you buy in the store so if you are in a rush each morning and only can make time to drop a whole apple and a handful of carrots down the shoot, get a centrifugal juicer. A better juicer that is not used is a useless juicer. Double Auger models: This is a single auger masticating juicer, and there are also double auger juicers and the two best models are the Green Star Elite Jumbo Twin Gear Juice Extractor (GSE-5000) and Super Angel All Stainless Steel Twin Gear Juicer- 5500. Double auger juicers feed leafy greens and wheatgrass in very well - they will literally pull them in between the two augers. This is great but with harder things like carrots, you will need to push down unlike a single auger which will go in easily and be broken-up during the initial feed. The Greenstar model will also produce a lower yield and more foam with wheatgrass and leafy greens but will do better in terms of yield with carrots, apples, celery and cucumbers. So the omega 8004/6 is better at just leafy greens but you will likely juice other things as well so the Greenstar will net a higher overall yield. The longer screens on these models add to the cleanup time. The Super Angel is by far the most efficient juicer for just about everything and cleanup to faster than the Greenstar. It costs 2x more, has a 10 year warranty, but the screen only has a 1 year warranty and costs $190 for a replacement - something to consider. The screen on the omega is covered for 15 years and if you step on it and break it, the replacement cost is only $26. Norwalk Juicer: This is the Rolls Royce of juicers and possibly the best juicer in the world and will juice anything that can be juiced via a two step process that first triturates (break apart) the produce and then presses out the juice in a hydraulic press. This is the juicer recommended for the Gerson diet since it has the best quality and quantity. It costs $2,500!!! Good choice for big families, especially if you want to save on baby food, but not as great if juicing for one - as I am. Frozen Banana Berry Smoothies: The Omega has attachments for pasta, baby food, spaghetti, and a blank screen. I have used the blank to make frozen banana and berry smoothies. These are great and better than ice cream. I personally add a few whole nuts and coffee beans so they get ground up to make a great treat with a caffeine buzz. Smoothest if you run it through twice. Tips for use: Invest in a good sharp knife. The extra cutting for the small 1 1/2" opening is only seconds if you have the right knife. I use the Victorinox 40570 Cutlery 6-Inch Chef's Knife, Black Fibrox Handle for all my needs. Start and end with a carrot - if you are using carrots. All masticating juicers require some back-pressure at the end and the harder pulp of carrots is perfect - softer apples are less ideal. I also end with a carrot to push out any slush. Wheatgrass: start with a carrot piece to built up pressure else lose a few precious drops and the initial squeeze, then run the wheatgrass through and grab the pulp and drop it in the hopper a second time for a second press - this will yield another 10-20%. Alternate your produce as you juice, do a carrot, a few leafs, celery, then a carrot... Instead of doing all your carrots, then all the apples... Don't force it too fast, push it in slowly, it's not a Breville. Celery leafs are bitter, consider cutting them off before juicing Clean immediately, I clean mine before I drink or finish my juice - easy since cleaning is very fast and easy with this design. Greens are strong tasting and can have a fast and potent detox effect - headaches, runs to the bathroom. Start by make your dark greens about 25% by volume and have a base of something like celery, cucumber, carrots and apples. Carrots and apples help to sweeten the bitterness of some leafy greens like kale. Any headaches and sudden bowel movements will go away with time as you body detoxes and adjusts - those problems are the reason why you should juice, not why you shouldn't!!! Apples, pears and lemons/limes can be mixed with vegetable juice. Other fruits should not be mixed - something to due with digestion efficiency, sweet vs alkaline. Do not juice the skins of orange or grapefruit - they are slightly toxic. Lemons are okay Juicing is great breakfast since `breakfast means to break the fast' of not eating during your nights sleep. With an empty stomach juice gets absorbed best without taxing your body. I hope the above helps you see I think it is the best value juicer for most people. Decide your priorities and pick the one that is best. This is a long term investment in yourself, try not to be cheap and ideally buy from a place you can return if what you get is not for you. I love mine and use it twice a day. Juicing is a simple way to get essential pro-life nutrient dense foods efficiently into your body - nutrients are already digested saving your body the work. Very important if you don't eat a lots of veggies, especially greens, like me. This is lifestyle choice to protect, prevent and heal your body so the best juicer for you will be the one you will use daily. This model is easy to use, and one the fastest and easiest to clean - under 2 minutes. Slower than centrifugal juicers but the quality takes time, especially with the dark greens. If you owned a million dollar race horse how would you feed it? An ounce of prevention is worth pounds of toxic medicine. As a side note, in the past few months of using using this model, about twice day, with plenty of greens like wheatgrass (growing my own on my balcony), kale, collards, parsley...mixed with mostly carrots, and also apple and celery, my enlarged prostate problem as disappeared!!! So glad I made a move to a masticating juicer to get those well needed greens in my body.