COMPARISON
There are basically two types of juicers. Both work well but have different methods and advantages.
The most common type of juicer is the centrifugal type that cuts vegetables at high speed with stainless steel blades. The juice is filtered through a stainless steel mesh basket.
Pulp is collected in a catcher. And the juice comes out a spout.
This is the least expensive and most common type juicer on the market. The smaller, less sophisticated juicers may be made out of plastic and have small or oddly curved spouts to put the foods through. This makes it difficult to juice larger vegetables and fruits as they have to be cut into narrow pieces beforehand in order to fit through the juicer.
More sophisticated juicers have the wide mouth feature to process whole, medium sized tomatoes or small apples without the prep work of cutting, a big advantage. Also, the more costly juicers of this type, are made sturdier, often with metal casing and are engineered to run quieter and not dance across your counter top while juicing. Some juicers are multiple speed - slower for softer pulped fruits like kiwi, and a higher speed for denser vegetables like carrots and beats.
Advantages
- High speed, one can quickly put fruits and vegetables through the machine to make juice
- Ease of use
- Less expensive
Disadvantages
- Juice processed at high speed through a cutting process aerates the juice. Some people feel this robs the juice of nutrients and heats it while processing it.
- Foam, or froth, is produced on top of the juice which some people find unpleasant
- More cleanup work; one must deal with a lot of wet pulp and cleaning of the fine mesh screen is not easy
The second type of juicer is called a masticating juicer. Using a corkscrew type motion, the machine compresses the food while forcing it through, rather than using cutting blades. This type of machine extracts, through compression, more of the available juice without aerating. These types of machines sometimes have other capabilities such as extruding pasta dough or making baby food. It's worth investigating if you have other needs.
Advantages
- Less, if any, foam
- More juice for the money spent on produce
- Easy cleanup - pour water through, while the machine is still running, then disassemble later for a more thorough cleaning.
Disadvantages
- Slow processing; juice is produced at slow speeds; the machine feeds food through at low RPMs
- Narrow mouth, vegetables and fruits must be cut into small pieces
- Takes up more counter top space
Some juicer manufacturers claim to do it all. The Jack LaLanne juicers, which have a good reputation, claim to get up to 30% more juice. The Omega 350HD is a vertical masticating juicer, essentially blending the two technologies. It claims to combine the speed of the centrifugal machine with the juicing capability of the masticating technique. Below is a video comparing these machines and demonstrating use.
This blog does not attempt to promote one juicer over another, merely to educate the reader on different types and choices. I do not have firsthand knowledge of the many makes of juice machines available. Juicers range from about $35 to upwards of $2,600 for the commercial types. I was amazed to learn that one high quality kitchen store that I know of, took a woman's two year old juicer back when she decided to upgrade to a higher priced model. Juicers are remanufactured and many sold at discount online. So one may find a good deal on a remanufactured model.
I decided, for my second juicer purchase, to go with a relatively low cost, high speed Hamilton Beach. I paid $60 for it. It comes with an attached pulp collector and automatically ejects pulp while juicing. This was an important feature for me, because it allows me to juice more than one glass at a time without stopping to empty the pulp container. If one is going to go to all the trouble of making juice, a larger quantity is a nice feature.
I also chose this juicer, and am happy with it, because of the wide mouth, and high speed at producing juice. I do not have time to stand around all morning slowly feeding carrots into a machine. The machine also came with a nylon bristle brush for cleaning the basket.
I am not concerned about losing nutrients to aeration, as I drink them immediately. I am not refrigerating and storing my juices.
FROTH (or that nasty foam)
I am not a fan of foam on juice. I don't like the texture and tickle, and have no desire to drink it with my juice. "I DO NOT LIKE IT, SAM I AM."
While at the kitchen outlet store where I purchased my juicer,
I bought a $5 gravy separator cup to collect my juice when it comes out of the machine (similar to the one shown here). More than once, I have forgotten to put a cup under the machine. Some machines have one that attaches, hmmmmm.
It's designed to pour gravy from a low spout on the container, without pouring the oils and fats floating at the top.
FOAM FLOATS, so I thought it might work for that icky froth. A plug of it collects at the top of the spout, but that can be poured down the sink easily. Then, if one pours somewhat slowly, one can get the juice -- avoiding the froth. But hey, if foam is your thing. . .
HAPPY JUICING!
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| Pineapple, beet, orange, banana |
