Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all I have a Breville J98XL Centrifugal Juicer. I wanted a better juicer so I started researching Masticating Juicers and came upon the Omega 8000 series machines. When looking at the Omega brand models I became confused. What's the difference between them? They all seemed similar. I watched some Youtube videos and read tons of reviews online and this is what I found: First of all, they are all very similar. They all use an auger that squeezes, or crushes the produce slowly to make juice. The juice drains through the bottom hole and the pulp ejects out the front. The Auger presses the juice in two stages to get the most out of it. This machine is referred to as a "Single Auger juicer." The older models used a white colored auger which is made of melamine plastic. The newer models have a black auger which is a much harder plastic material made by GE which replicates the hardness of a stone. (Think of Stone grinding) As far as I can tell all of the Omega models are now coming the new black auger, which is supposed to be 8 times harder than the older ones. In the end I decided upon the 8008 model. Which is the same as the 8007 only in a different color. The 8008 is a plastic chrome finish and the 8007 is a silver plastic color. Everything else is exactly the same. The 8003/8005 are the same and the 8004/8006 are also the same. (Just different colors) The latest models, the NC800/900 series are also the same. The only advantage the NC800/900 machines have is they use a little bigger opening where you put the produce in, have a slightly smaller footprint and have an adjustable pulp nozzle. (More on that later) I haven't found the smaller opening to be an issue with my machine and actually, I think it is somewhat advantageous as it slows you down from putting too much produce in at one time which can clog up the machine and juicing screen. These machines are not designed to make juice fast. They are designed to make quality juice at a slow pace. The larger opening is just a marketing gimmick in my opinion. The juicer will only chew produce at a certain pace. If you put too much in at one time you are going to have issues. So why did I choose the 8008C over the others? This machine has a few minor upgrades that I thought were worth getting over the other models. First, it has a removable and larger top plate for loading the produce. (Very handy for faster cleaning.) You can also put more produce on the top plate while you are feeding the pieces in. It also has a stainless steel and larger juicing screen than the older models. The larger screen is supposed to yield more juice out of the produce. The plastic juicing screen caused some problems with older units where they sometimes broke. I can tell you the juicing screen on the 8008 is not going to break. I also believe they improved the older plastic screens so this is probably no longer an issue with any of the 8000 series models. Even so, I liked the idea of having the stainless steel screen as this part gets the most abuse in the machine. One thing I wasn't expecting with the 8008 is that it came with a variable pulp output dial. (Just like the newer NC800/900 machines.) The idea here is that you can tighten it up for harder vegetables to get more yield out of them. Basically it just keeps the pulp in the auger longer to extract more juice. It also comes with the open end cap, like the other models, if you don't want to fuss with the adjustable output dial. I have seen some Omega advertising saying that the 8007/8008 uses a "commercial" grade motor. i talked to the technician at Omega and he said all of these machines use the same motors. They are basically a 1/3 HP motor which, with lower gearing, simulates a 2 HP motor output. The 8008 series is made in a factory in China and the 8006 and below machines are made in Korea. Who cares, really? They all have a similar warranty from 10-15 years. If they break, Omega will fix them. The technician seemed to indicate that the motors are all made in the same place, the only difference is some models are assembled in China instead of Korea. So - other than cosmetics and a few bells and whistles, they all do the same thing. In the end, there just isn't much difference between any of them.. So - my advice, buy the one that is available to you and where you can get the best price. I agonized over these different models and I would have probably been just as happy with any of them. As mentioned earlier, I do, however, think the 8007/8008 have some minor advantages over the others. Now, here is my review of the 8008 juicer. It is a bit slow to juice vs. the centrifugal juicer, but the quality of the juice is much better and you don't get nearly as much foam. The juice also doesn't heat up as much with centrifugal juicers. The greatest advantage of this juicer, however, is how well it juices greens. My centrifugal juicer didn't extract hardly any juice from greens. This juicer extracts every last drop. In fact, I would venture to guess that these masticating juicers extract 25-30% more juice from everything you throw in it vs. a centrifugal juicer. Since fresh produce is quite expensive these days, why not get as much juice as you can from them? One other thing I read online, which I have not been able to validate is that masticating juicers remove more pesticides into the pulp than centrifugal juicers. In theory this sounds good, but I haven't seen any scientific studies to validate this. The 8008 series juicer is also a little faster to clean than my Breville centrifugal juicer. I'd say the biggest time saver is cleaning the screen, since the centrifugal juicers have larger screen areas to clean. Some say this juicer is bad at juicing soft fruits/vegetables. There is some truth to this as it isn't as efficient. However, it will juice these just fine if you alternate something harder after the softer ingredients. For example, put Kiwi in first, then alternate celery with it next, etc. You can buy cheaper and more expensive juicers on the market than this model. I think this juicer hits the mark for price & performance. If you divide what I paid for it by 15 years, this is a very good value. What products today come with a 15 year warranty? Why did I rate it 4 stars vs. 5? This juicer is much quieter than my Breville J98XL, (which sounds like an airplane taking off) but it still makes some noise. Depending on what you put in it you will hear noise including some high pitched squealing. These sounds are mainly from the plastic on plastic parts rubbing which don't exactly give you a high sense of "quality". The housing is also all plastic. Cleaning is still pretty slow going as there are a lot of parts to be washed. I think they could have engineered this to be easier to clean. On the other hand, if Omega made made these changes, , it would probably end up being more expensive, so, the trade-offs probably make sense. All in all, this is a great juicer that I would highly recommend. Kudos to Omega for putting a 15 year warranty on it. If I had a 4.5 rating, I would give it the extra 1/2 star. I hope this helps you eliminate some of the research I did. You can't go wrong with any of the Omega single auger masticating models. I do like the 8008 for the better stainless steel screen, adjustable pulp output dial and removable feed chute. If you can find one at a good price - I'd go with this particular model, even if it is a little bit more expensive.