Knowledge : Choosing Your Juicer
Choosing a Juicer
The most important thing for us is that you get the right juicer for your needs. Surprisingly, a good choice of juicer for one person could be totally wrong for another. For example, busy parents trying to get more fruit and vegetables into their kids with juicing will have different priorities than someone using juicing as part of a nutritional therapy to combat poor health. We have juicers to suit everyone and our information pages will answer most juicing questions. If you need further help with choosing your juicer we are always happy to hear from you. We have the knowledge!
Lower down the page you will find information on choosing fruit and vegetable juicers, citrus juicers and juicers that are capable of juicing wheatgrass. Before you read on, there are some general points to be made that are relevant to making your choice.
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About Juicer Comparisons
Six years ago, UK Juicers was one of the first companies to offer a comparison of the main contenders in the world of specialist juicing machines. We published test results from controlled juicer tests with uniform batches of juicing ingredients in table form, to try and give our customers an objective view of how each machine performs. As more online sellers started offering specialist juicers we noticed quite a few other juicer comparisons started to appear online and we read them with interest. After reading some of the claims being made, we realised that offering this type of consumer information was beginning to suffer some serious credibility issues. In the unregulated medium of the internet it became obvious that some unscrupulous sellers were concerned more with promoting particular products than they were with offering good consumer advice. Some of the information out there is downright misleading. We want to help you cut through the nonsense and get straight to the facts and what follows is designed to inform your choice rather than sell you a particular product.
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About Long Product Warranties
Manufacturers seem to be engaged in a competition to see who dares to offer the longest guarantee on their products. This is a marketing activity designed to create the impression that the longer the guarantee, the more reliable the machine will prove to be. Sadly, this is not so. The honest answer to the question of 'How long will my juicer last?' is not the same as stating the length of the guarantee period. Frankly it depends on how often you use your juicer and how good the build quality is for a particular machine. We recommend that you ignore the warranty period as an indicator of quality. In our experience there are plenty of examples that prove the opposite to be true.
Any manufacturers guarantee is only as good as the service you get if you are ever unfortunate enough to need to ask for product support. Here at UK juicers we take pride in dealing with almost all our warranty support at our own workshop. Occasionally we may refer you to a manufacturer but we will always be here to help with any product issues you may have in the future.
I don't recall if I have already emailed you about this but I just wanted to say a big thank you for the replacement part you sent recently. I was fully expecting to pay for it but you sent it free of charge! I only wish all companies had your fantastic customer service ethos!
J.Praill - London
It is also important to understand what is being offered in a manufacturer's warranty. Products are usually only guaranteed against manufacturing defects and NOT against general wear and tear. Genuine defects will usually appear very early in a product's lifespan, so having a 20 year guarantee on a juicer motor becomes a little irrelevant when a manufacturer can simply say that you have worn it out. Some juicers are extremely reliable and others less so but unfortunately you can't tell this simply by the length of guarantee being offered. We choose the juicers that we offer very carefully to ensure you receive value for money.
UK Juicers imports juicers and other healthy products from around the world and we are the UK agents and service centre for L'Equip Juicers and Champion Juicers
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About Juice Yield Testing
Some of the claims being made for certain brands of specialist juicers on the internet would be laughable if they weren't so seriously misleading. We would advise that any claims being made that clearly promote a single juicer above all the competition are probably false. We would also advise you to ignore any juicer comparison that presents a particularly negative view of certain products.
There are some bizarre claims being made on the internet about how much more juice you will get if you choose certain models. In reality, apart from some notable poor performers in the world of centrifugal juicers, there is not a massive difference in the juice yield you will get across the entire range of juicers on offer. If you were juicing caviar it would be an important consideration, but a ten percent difference in the amount of juice you get from a kilo of carrots is not as important for most people as the quality of that juice, or how user-friendly the juicing process is.
There is waste involved with any juicer and the machine that extracts all the juice from fruit and vegetables has yet to be invented. The quality of the juice is directly related to how well the produce is broken down in the machine and the quantity is directly related to the pressure or force used to separate the juice from the pulp. This can vary depending on machine type but it is important to remember that even the cheapest juicers on the market can offer potential health benefits. We don't sell cheap juicers though, because we prefer to have happy customers!
In many ways, the internet is still just like the Wild West. Anyone can pull up their virtual horse and cart and start pontificating about the benefits of a particular product in pseudo-scientific jargon designed to convince you that your life is at risk unless you buy it. Sadly we can't offer you the elixir of life. We do however promise not to make any unscientific claims about anything we sell. You may have read that centrifugal juicers 'destroy enzymes' when there is not one scrap of proof out there to support such a claim. In fact enzymes are abundant in the juice from most centrifugal machines. You may have read that 'bio-ceramic magnets preserve vital nutrients for longer' when there is no objectively verifiable scientific evidence to suggest that this is so. It may be so; but there is no proof. There is plenty of other cringe-worthy nonsense out there, but not on this website.
Ours is an award-winning business and we don't make promises that we can't deliver. We know that some of our juicers represent a significant investment and we want you to be happy with your purchase. In these times of economic uncertainty we are confident that choosing a juicer from our selection will be an investment that pays dividends for your health for years to come. Read on....
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Choosing a Fruit and Vegetable Juicer
Juicers capable of juicing fruits and vegetables generally fall into two categories –
Masticating or
Centrifugal.
Juicers using the masticating process (which generally work at a slower speed and effectively "chew" the vegetable up) releasing more nutrients from the cell walls) have been shown to produce juice with a higher nutritional content, and to incorporate less oxygen, giving a longer shelf life.
'The Champion 2000+ Juicer' is a unique masticating juicer that uses a single cutter. This is cylindrical in shape and tapered to the end, with tiny stainless steel teeth running across the length of the cutter. These teeth effectively shred and chew up produce inside a stainless steel chamber and juice is squeezed through a strainer below. For convenience, durability and long-term value, The Champion is the one of the best general purpose juicers and rattles through the task of juicing for the whole family. They are so strong and durable that they are often used in cafes and restaurants. The Champion Juicer also crushes nuts to make nut butters, frozen fruits to make instant 'ice cream' and with the optional grain mill attachment you can also make healthy wholegrain flours and meals.
Twin-gear masticating juicers such as the 'Green Power KempoJuicers' and 'Green Star Juicers' use two cylindrical gears which fit very tightly together. Produce is crushed and pressed between the gears with juice being pressed out and passed through a screen. These juicers are often recommended by nutritionists to their clients because they offer the best possible quality of juice from a domestic juicer. They achieve this because fruits and vegetables must pass through a tiny gap between the gears and get thoroughly broken down. The juicing and clean up process is a little slower than in the Champion juicer or a centrifugal juicer and these machines are chosen by the real juicing enthusiast and by people combating ill health with juicing. Twin Gear juicers are the optimum machines for getting the best results from wheatgrass and green vegetables, as well as everything else. These also usually offer other functions in addition to juicing. When making your choice of Twin Gear Juicer we recommend that you choose on the basis of the features that appeal to you most. It is practically impossible to tell the difference in results from any particular model – they are all excellent and all have very reliable low speed induction motors.
Single Auger masticating juicers such as the 'L'Equip Omni Juicer' and 'Samson 6 in 1 Juicer' use a slowly rotating screw that crushes produce against a stainless steel filter by a process similar to a mincing machine. These juicers are an alternative choice to a Twin Gear juicers for those juicing greens, harder produce and wheatgrass. The juicing process is also a little slower than in the Champion or a Centrifugal Juicer but these too offer additional processing functions. Again we recommend you choose on the basis of the features you find most appealing because the results from all auger juicers are very similar.
Centrifugal juicers work by using a flat cutting blade on the bottom of a rapidly spinning basket. Food is shredded by the cutter and flung out to the sides of the basket. Due to the high centrifugal force, juice then passes through tiny holes in the basket and through a spout. In the case of the 'L'Equip XL Juicer' and the 'Breville JE4 Juicer', pulp is spun off and collected in a separate container. The juice produced by centrifugal juicers is not quite as rich as juice from a masticating juicer but it is still excellent. The extraction process and higher revs do incorporate more oxygen and therefore reduce shelf life, so it is best to juice to order with these machines (we think it is best to drink juice fresh anyway). By the nature of the cutting process, centrifugal juicers do not break down leafy green vegetables quite as well as masticating units but they are quick and convenient and a great choice when time is at a premium. Unfortunately with centrifugal machines there are a lot out there that don't perform brilliantly. It's worth spending a little more to get a tried and tested model.
All these types of juicers can be found in the Fruit and Vegetable Juicers section of the site.
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Choosing a Wheatgrass Capable Juicer
You may be wondering what
wheatgrass juice is and whether it is something you are interested in if you are new to juicing. Wheatgrass juice is extracted from young shoots of grass grown from wheat grain and it is extremely nutritious. It is usually only drunk in shot-glass measures because of its concentrated nutritional values. You can find out more on our wheatgrass page.
Centrifugal juicers and also the Champion 2000+ masticating juicer don't do a very good job of juicing wheatgrass. Twin Gear juicers and Single Auger or Screw Type juicers are very good for wheatgrass and other leafy greens because they operate at low speeds.
The important choice here is to decide if you want your main fruit and vegetable juicer to be able to do wheatgrass too. Low speed masticating juicers like the 'L'Equip Omn Juiceri' and the 'Green Power Kempo Juicer' will do a great job of wheatgrass and all your other fruits and vegetables but they do take a little longer to use than non-wheatgrass juicers. It is a small investment of time to get excellent juice but for some people it is preferable to have a quicker juicer for the main fruit and vegetable machine and a separate hand operated juicer for wheatgrass. A great example of a good quality hand-operated wheatgrass juicer is the 'Z Star Juicer'.
All the juicers that are capable of juicing wheatgrass are in our Wheatgrass Juicers section.
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Choosing a Citrus Juicer
If you want the regular antioxidant benefits of a daily glass of freshly squeezed orange juice it is better to have a separate machine for oranges. Beware of 'freshly squeezed' orange juice from the shelves of supermarkets. 9 times out of 10 it has been pasteurised and the heat involved in this process inevitably destroys some of the goodness in the juice. You can juice oranges in any fruit and vegetable juicer but they are one of the few fruits you have to peel before juicing because of the bitter oils in the skin. If you don't fancy the hassle of peeling a pile of oranges before you start juicing, a dedicated
citrus juicer means all you have to do is cut the fruit in half and off you go.
You have two groups of orange juicers to choose from; manual citrus presses and electric citrus reamers.
With the hand operated type you pop the half orange on the pressing cone and pull down a lever to squeeze out the juice. The
OrangeX is by far the best example of a manual citrus press we have encountered. In fact the OrangeX is so powerful it is one of the few juicing machines that can juice pomegranates. Pomegranates are even more rich in vitamin C than oranges and a cocktail of fresh OJ and pomegranate juice is lip-smackingly gorgeous.
If you want electricity to do the work, we have a great selection of motor powered citrus juicers to choose from starting with the stylish but economical 'CitriStar' ranging right up to the stunningly beautiful 'Remida Auto' with its commercial grade components and gorgeous Italian lines. With electric citrus juicers the half orange is pressed either by hand or by a levered top cone onto a spinning reaming cone. This extracts the juice and passes it through a strainer. For those of you who like their orange juice with 'bits' don't worry, these machines are designed to filter out the pips and leave a little texture in the juice.
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