Which fruit and vegetable juicer is the best?

There is no doubt that home fruit and vegetable juicers are on the rise as a popular option today.  Understandably, you are trying to work out which one is right for you, because the array of choices is truly bewildering.  You may have come to the idea of raw juicing through many avenues.  Perhaps you have decided to improve your health naturally with raw juice on recommendation from a doctor, naturopath, or a friend or family member who is a raw juice enthusiast themselves.  This post will help you to choose the juicer that is best for you, by comparing different available types and models, having a look at the pros and cons of each type, and encouraging you to start juicing as soon as possible for you and your family’s health.

The kinds of juicers which are available for purchase

Every kind of juicer, right from the most basic of hand press lemon juicers to the high-end twin gear juicer machines and the commercial-grade power juicer.  Hand juicers can operate via a reamer (cone with ridges), a press with a lever, or a more complicated auger setup with a turning hand crank.  Then there are dedicated wheatgrass juicers, both hand and electric and that will generally juice other sprouts and nutritional grasses as well.  Let’s not forget the juicer based on the principle of centrifuge: with a centrifugal juicer the raw ingredients are dropped down a chute and fall downward into a drum which spins at a very powerful high speed, thus forcing the ingredients flat against the outside of the drum and squashing the juice from the cell walls of the fruit and vegetables. There are masticating juicers, which operate in a different manner whereby the juice ingredients are squashed gently against a sieve via a spinning auger, or in the case of twin gear juicers, the ingredients are squeezed between two augers rolling in towards each other.  Let’s make a list to classify the different kinds of juicer machines that you can buy, so that it’s easy to see how they group together.

• cold-press juicers
  • manual juicers (hand juicers)
    • reamer
    • press action with lever
    • auger with hand crank (may also be known as a masticating juicer)
  • electric juicers
    • electric single auger (may also be known as a masticating juicer)
    • electric twin gear (may also be known as a masticating juicer)
• non-cold press juicers
  • • electric centrifuge/centrifugal juicer

So which type of juicer machine is right for me?

If you’re just starting to look into buying a juicer, and you have no idea what to start looking for, begin with an assessment of your own needs.  Are you single or a couple without kids, or do you have a family?  Do you have children, special-needs, or elderly people who will be operating the machine?  Do you live in a co-joined housing arrangement and/or work shift work that will require you to have a juicer that operates quietly so as not to disturb others living in close proximity?  (Or pets who may be frightened by a noisy machine?)  Remember, it is something you will be using potentially every day so consider all of these factors, even if they seem insignificant now.

Do you have a tiny kitchen or an expansive one?  Do you want the juicer to fit in with your kitchen decor?  Will it sit out on the bench permanently or will it be stored away in a cupboard or shelf, and if so, does it need to be under a certain weight for portability?  Consider your prioritiesl you will not get all of the following attributes together in one juicer, but you can pick and choose to a large extent what you will look for in the juicer that is right for you.

• cold-press juicing (of higher health benefit) vs. power juicing (faster and MAY be easier to clean – not always)
• large juicer (large chute or area in which to feed/drop chunks or whole ingredients) vs. smaller juicer (more compact but you MAY need to chop ingredients up more first)
• juicer with more working parts (cold-press juicers are more likely to have separate parts that may need fitting together and need washing separately) vs. centrifugal juicer (mainly the drum and the spouts to fit together and wash, but they are large parts and may be more awkward to wash in the sink)
• no sharp parts (press-style juicers, reamers, single auger and twin gear juicers are unlikely to contain blade or sharp parts) vs. juicer that contains sharp blades or parts (centrifuge juicers usually have a spinning blade or a grater-like part inside that will need washing)

As you can see, it is impossible to say which fruit and vegetable juicer or wheatgrass juicer is the “best overall”.    There is no one best juicer choice, but there will no doubt be a juicer that is right for your particular set of cirumstances.  If you can afford it, some people will choose to get more than one juicer – for instance, they may buy a simple hand juicer for quick occasions, such as needing a little citrus juice for a cake recipe, and then buy a multi-purpose fruit and vegetable juicer in say, the single auger style, for making the family’s raw juice for breakfast every day…

Unfortunately there is no juicer ratings system that is totally unbiased, but there are no such ratings really in any industry… everyone has something to push about the pros and will try and distract you from the cons.  I will give you my two cent’s worth here, which is that ultimately if you are juicing for health, a twin gear juicer is the best you can buy in the industry.  When my on friends ask me what juicer to get, I unashamedly tell them, a twin gear juicer.  The allure of a power juicer or centrifugal juicer is tempting in that it says that it will juice your fruits and vegetables oh o mega-fast, but you won’t be able to juice wheatgrass or sprouts or make nut butters and seed oils with this kind of juicer.  Neither will your juice keep for very long retaining its fresh raw enzymes and vitamins, vivid colour and wonderful taste.  Of course, if all you want is to squeeze a few drops of juice for a cake, then by all means they should get themselves a one-piece reamer or a hand press juicer, but then we have one of those anyway and we still have our benchtop juicer.  A single-auger is a good compromise if you are feeling a bit apprehensive about going all-out and getting a twin gear, but you are forewarned: those who start with a single auger generally end up with a tin gear eventually!

But, I am trying to be objective here as the thing I want most of all is that you start juicing, because… here it comes yet again… any juice is better than no juice.

“But I’m still confused.  Please tell me how to choose a juicer.”

Compare juicers and you will be able to find the best juicer for you – consider all factors, check out what’s available online (many more juicer choices are available online than in the stores, trust me) and then go with your gut feeling – obviously you can always upgrade later and buy a better machine if you find that you are using and loving your juice every day.  Which, I bet you will be!

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