Breville Juice Fountain Compact BJE200XL, Silver
| Asin | B000MDHH06 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 9.84"D x 9.06"W x 15.75"H |
| Weight | 8.38 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Breville |
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Breville Juice Fountain Compact BJE200XL, Silver
| Asin | B000MDHH06 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 9.84"D x 9.06"W x 15.75"H |
| Weight | 8.38 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Breville |
D. Fowler –
If you’ve ever seen the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead , you probably immediately put the Breville on your wish list. I saw the movie and on it went. No, I’m not fat, but have always tried to eat as healthy as possible. Although Joe Cross purchased a heavier duty Breville, this one definitely suits my needs for now and was affordable. Not much if anything to say negative about a product I carefully thought out before purchasing, but I’ll set out a comparison “chart” of all the Brevilles so you can take a look. I snagged these from Breville. Cut, paste, and print them out for side-by-side comparison. I’ve also added a few books you might wish to take a look at.
You don’t just get a little pamphlet that is passed off as a user guide, you actually get something more in line with a book (English, Spanish, and French). It includes everything you need to know, especially tips on juicing and a trouble guide. It even includes several recipes under the categories fresh starts, vitamin boosters, liquid lunches, icy coolers, spirited juices, energy fuel, and fiber favorites. After using this juicer, the verdict? It’s affordable, works great, and is an excellent investment toward healthy living.
POPULAR JUICING BOOKS:
The Big Book of Juices: More Than 400 Natural Blends for Health and Vitality Every Day
The Juicing Bible
The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies: 365 Natural Blends for Health and Vitality Every Day
The Healthy Green Drink Diet: Advice and Recipes to Energize, Alkalize, Lose Weight, and Feel Great
BREVILLE JUICERS:
Compact Juice Fountain 700-Watt Juice Extractor (the juicer I purchased)
Key feature: Compact design takes up less space, with all of the juicing capabilities of the other juicers.
Type of juicer: Centrifugal
Motor: 700 watt
Speed: 14,000rpm
Materials: Titanium cutting disc; stainless steel micromesh filter.
Innovations: Centered dual knife blade assembly; 3″ circular feed tube processes whole fruit; stabilizing knife.
Breville Je98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicing Machine
Key feature: Die-cast juicer with soft fruit attachment and variable speed capability
Type of juicer: Centrifugal
Motor: 1200 watt
Speed: 5 speeds ranging from 6,500rpm to 13,000rpm
Materials: Heavy grade die-cast metal body; titanium cutting disc; Stainless steel micromesh filter; Stainless steel puree disc.
Innovations: Centered dual knife blade assembly; 3″ circular feed tube processes whole fruit; stabilizing knife; second juice disc purees soft fruits for 100% fruit smoothies.
Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite 1000-Watt Juice Extractor
Key feature: `Rolls Royce’ of Juicers: die-cast metal matched wtih power
Type of juicer: Centrifugal
Motor: 1000 watt
Speed: Low speed of 6,500rpm, high speed of 13,000rpm
Materials: Heavy grade die-cast metal body; titanium cutting disc; stainless steel cutting disc; engineering grade polymers.
Innovations: Centered dual knife blade assembly; 3″ circular feed tube processes whole fruit; stabilizing knife; Dual high/low speed switch for hard or softer fruits and vegetables.
Breville BJE510XL Juice Fountain Multi-Speed 900-Watt Juicer
Key feature: Variable speeds maximize yield across variety of fruits.
Type of juicer: Centrifugal
Motor: 900 watt
Speed: 5 speeds ranging from 6,500rpm to 12,500rpm
Materials: Stainless steel body; stainless steel micromesh filter; stainless steel cutting disc; engineering grade polymers.
Innovations: Centered dual knife blade assembly; 3″ circular feed tube processes whole fruit; stabilizing knife; unique 5 speed smart juicing system maximizes juice yield according to softness and hardness.
Breville BJS600XL Fountain Crush Masticating Slow Juicer
Key feature: Makes thicker juices and yields more juice for leafy greens and wheatgrass than non-masticating juicers.
Type of juicer: Masticating/slow juicer
Motor: 240 watt
Speed: 80rpm
Materials: Painted premium plastic
Innovations: Direction control; two step safety start; filter basket with auto-purifying; crushes and squeezes to make juice with nutrients and a little fiber for a thicker, smoother texture.
Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor
Key feature: Great entry price point for Breville juicers
Type of juicer: Centrifugal
Motor: 850 watt
Speed: Low speed of 6,500rpm, high speed of 12,000rpm
Materials: Heavy grade polymer body; stainless steel micromesh filter; stainless steel cutting disc.
Innovations: Centered dual knife blade assembly; stabilizing knife; dual high/low speed switch for hard or softer fruits and vegetables.
Peter –
Buying a juicer can be a leap of faith. Unless you’ve seen one in action, you never know what to expect. You can put faith in reviews and roll the dice, but even the highest-rated juicer might not be the best juicer for you. Well, I rolled the dice, and I came up a winner.
The biggest considerations for me were price, size, and ease of clean up. I didn’t want to pay hundreds of dollars on my first juicer, and the $99 price from Amazon was acceptable. Anything less and I would have questioned the quality of the item. Anything more and I would have been reluctant to make the commitment. After unpacking the item, I was impressed. It’s a solid machine. I was expecting a light and flimsy machine, but this had some weight to it, which keeps it stationary when in use.
Before I bought the juicer, I viewed some videos of it on YouTube. It seemed like there might be some splatter from the feed chute. However, I tried two different recipes the first day I used it, and I didn’t have any splatter. Some bits of veggies stuck to the food pusher when I used it, but I didn’t have any splatter on the walls, counter or ceiling.
I have a small kitchen in my apartment, so space is an issue. This juicer is a relatively compact size, with a footprint perhaps as much as a large coffee or home espresso maker. It fits on my counter along with my food canisters and toaster. I’m glad because I want to keep it out to encourage me to use it often.
Because it’s not too large, there is only so much pulp that can be stored before it fills up. Depending on the fruits and veggies you use, you can get about 24 ounces of juice before the pulp fills the reservoir. Fortunately, the pulp is stored internally, so you don’t have pulp spewing out the back into a bowl or on your counter. The cleaning brush serves double-duty as a tool to scrape out the pulp. Even the most colorful and staining vegetable (i.e., beets) rinsed cleanly from the plastic. Also, the juicer seems to extract most of the juice from veggies. The pulp is fine and mildly moist. It has a consistency similar to Play Dough.
It’s a lot quieter than I thought it would be. I expected something louder than my vacuum cleaner, but this is much quieter. I would feel comfortable using this early in the morning in my apartment without fear of bothering the neighbors.
I’m very pleased with this juicer. If you take a chance, you might be pleased, too. Good luck.
Review Update 11 October 2012:
I used this juicer intensively for a week during a juice fast, and I wanted to update my review. I’m keeping my original 5-star review, but I wanted to share some observations. I used the juicer 3-4 times a day with all types of fruits, veggies, and roots. In addition to the popular apples, carrots, celery, pineapple, and cucumbers, I also tried leafy greens, ginger, burdock root, parsnips, peppers, and potatoes.
The juicer didn’t extract all of the juice out of leafy greens, but this is expected with centrifugal juicers. (Masticating juicers work best with greens.) The juicer turned most foods into a fine pulp. However, sometimes pieces of food (such as an apple rind or piece of celery) would end up in the pulp container. I mitigated this a little by making sure not to apply too much pressure when using the food pusher.
I commented in my original review that the juicer doesn’t splatter, which is true. However, since the filter basket spins so fast, leafy greens and broccoli sometimes get caught in the whirlwind because they are so light. When you remove the food pusher to add more food to the feed chute, some bits of food can float out.
Since this is a centrifugal juicer, the juice will be aerated, and it will be foamy. I actually prefer some of the juices foamy. The foam seems to cut the sweetness a little, and it has a good mouth feel. If you let the juice sit for a few minutes, it will separate. Stirring the juice will blend everything back together.
I enjoy juicing, and I might go ahead and get a more expensive masticating juicer for juicing leafy greens and making nut butters. However, I’m still going to keep and use this Breville. It’s definitely great for a quick juice. It’s compact enough to keep it on my counter, and it cleans in less than 10 minutes. It handled roots and root vegetables very well, and I really enjoyed my frothy pear juice.
Jojo –
I’ve tried various juicers throughout the years. The reports about centrifugal juicers heating the juice is just not true. At least, I’ve never witness it. I prefer a juicer that is quick, & I like when the spinning throws it out to the sides where it then pours into my container.
Instead of dealing with hydraulic or corkscrew juicers, I find juicers like the Breville to be just as good, yet faster. It’s been said that you get more juice & nutrients in the slower juicers, but who has really measured the nutrients ? People like to guess a lot, then act like it’s truth. It’s still a guess.
I am a therapist of the healing arts & I am picky about the tools I use, & the accuracy about information. If there is some nutrients lost in a spinning juicer, then I say that you should just juice a few more veggies to make up for it.
The Breville is an impressive juicer, which may be a copy of the Acme. Whether a copy or not, by my research the Breville has improved the design greatly. The wide chute is the most useful idea. I cut a romaine lettuce in half & was able to plunge the halves, one after the other, in just seconds. There’s enough room for several carrots, but it is best to do no more than 2 large ones, or several small ones.
The spinning is awfully fast which throws pieces of celery or carrots around. To prevent that you’d have to put a bunch in the chute, then slowly plunge them so they won’t tilt & not get juiced. The motor is strong but you can overwork it if you don’t plunge the group slowly. At the same time, it’s actually fun to just do one item at a time & watch it juice them in 2 seconds. Amazing.
Now the work part. Cleanup. The pulp is pretty darn dry. Not bad. I just pull it out into a bag for composting. It’s the screen insert that is the hardest to clean. The brush they include doesn’t do the job. I leaned to use a toothbrush from the last juicer I had, the Juiceman. It was great, & the screen was better than the Breville which was slightly easier to scrub clean. This is the first time I actually could use a dishwasher to do the cleaning for me. You save time juicing, but spend it on cleaning the screen.
Otherwise, I like that preparing veggies is easier because of the large chute & juicing is faster. Other facts are that there’s some spillage at times from the spout, it assembles easily, has a safety bar, & is a large machine for doing a lot of juicing. Even so, if I’m doing lots of juicing I find I have to stop it & clean out the pulp in order to do more. I expected that. I’m not so put off by that as much as I am with the screen scrubbing. That’s not my favorite part.
The juice is clean with sediments at the bottom, & occasional foam… all of which is fine, to me. The Breville is simply a collage of improved ideas from many other juicers. I did like my Juiceman, but the Breville’s stronger motor & large chute are two improvements I like. I may get another Juiceman to do quick juicings because cleanup is a bit quicker with that one. For now, I’m keeping the Breville for large jobs that other juicers can’t handle.
AnneM –
After a couple weeks of random discussions about different aspects of juicing—health benefits (vitamins, minerals, nutrients), time commitment (process of juicing, bottling, cleaning), and financial requirement (cost of fruits, vegetables, and machines)—my partner and I decided it was time to purchase a juicer for our family. I did some research and read countless reviews of juicers before finally choosing this Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain.
Although the name of the product reads “compact,” this juicer is not tiny, measuring at 9.5x 8.8×16 inches and 11 pounds. It has a 700-watt motor that spins the inner basket at approximately 14,000 RPM. Note that other high quality juicers such as the Breville BJE820XL Juice Fountain Duo has a larger 1200-watt motor, yet only has a maximum speed of 13,000 RPM. This model only has an ON/OFF switch so you will not be able to adjust the speed. That luxury is available in other models at $100 and above more.
There is a three inch feed chute to accommodate whole fruits and vegetables while its dual knife assembly keeps fruits and vegetables centered and stable. The juicer comes with a one liter pitcher, froth separator, and a cleaning brush.
Most parts of this juicer are plastic, making it lighter and easier to move to the counter from one of the lower kitchen cabinets and back after use. This was perfect for us because like many others, we simply do not have the counter space to accommodate a ‘large’ small appliance permanently. The plastic parts also help protect your machine from discoloration. Juicing can be a little messy and splashes of brightly colored beets and carrots are easily wiped off. Contrary to popular belief, stainless steel can stain so the plastic parts are easier to maintain. In all, the design is aesthetically pleasing. The only concern I had was the metal safety lock that comes in contact with the cover. When the metal hits the plastic, there’s a small scratch left behind.
During my research for the right juicer, many reviews suggested their particular model ‘bounces’ around the counter while operating. I am happy to tell you that this Breville is absolutely sturdy. Its powerful speed does not compromise its stability. Of course, I’ve experienced a few splatters here and there, but juicing can be a bit messy depending on the fruit or vegetable. If you have a big issue with splatters, just put a towel under the pitcher and ensure that it is aligned properly to the spout that juice comes out of.
This juicer’s performance is absolutely solid. It produces a high yield of juice, leaving relatively dry pulp in the catcher. It works fast and the quality of the juice is excellent. It lacks the finishing touches of masticating juicers such as the reduction of foam and coarseness, but the froth separator on the pitcher lid reduces the foam you get in your cup. At this price point, it truly rivals the performance of higher end juicers.
Cleanup is relatively easy. Be sure to scrape out the fibrous remnants and scrub the metal basket well. The cleaning brush that comes with the juicer is extremely durable and cleans the basket extremely well especially if you scrub it as soon as you’re finished with the juicer. The parts are safe on the top rack of your dishwasher. I personally prefer to make things harder on myself and scrub everything by hand. It’s honestly not that bad, but when you juice every day, the dishwasher is always an easier option.
While the $99 price tag is still an initial investment, you will truly be saving a substantial amount of money by juicing at home. Think about it. A pre-bottled fruit and vegetable juice for $4 (at the lowest) twice a week every week will cost you approximately $416 per year per person. A pre-bottled three-day juice cleanse for at least $150 three times a year will cost $450 per person.
So how did we celebrate our investment? A homemade three-day juice cleanse. Yes, a celebratory cleanse. While this was the most dreadful 72 hours of my life (worse than labor and delivery) and I thoroughly regretted purchasing this juicer, I honestly felt amazing. As of now, we have had this juicer for approximately four months. We’ve used this little machine everyday whether we’re making juices to accompany our regular meals or giving our daughter a serving of vegetables juiced with apples or other fruits.
Engineered simplicity. Solid performance. Excellent value. I highly recommend!
R. W. Pochciol –
Kat –
I love the compact design and relative ease of cleaning. Relative – because all juicers are a pain to clean and this one is no exception. The pulp lands on the lid and the bulk collects in the body, so you have maneuver it out with your fingers or a thin brush. But this juicer’s design make cleaning easier than others, especially if you do it right away before the pulp has a chance to dry.
The juicing aspect is great. The machine is powerful and fast, and the discarded pulp is dry, so far less waste than my previous juicer.
The only drawback is that the juice comes out with such force that you cannot juice directly into a glass.as it splashes everywhere. You must use the pitcher that comes with it.
Ron –
I had a Breville Juice Fountain Elite for years, and unfortunately don’t have it anymore and couldn’t afford to replace it. However, I could afford this one, and having missed juicing, I picked it up. Love it! It’s not the Elite, but it’s 1/3 the price of the Elite and just as effective. It does have a slight learning curve to it if you’re not used to juicing, or if you’ve used other juicers. But, it’s not difficult by any stretch of the imagination. if you’re making more than 2 quarts of juice, you are going to have to stop at some point and empty out the pulp. That’s easy, it’s no big deal. If you’re making something like OJ where there’s not going to be a lot of pulp, I imagine you can make a lot more. I mainly juice pulpy things like apples, carrots, and beets. Highly recommended!! Seriously, look at how many 5 Star reviews there are here, you’ll likely love this juicer.
I want to address some things I’ve read in other reviews here:
1. Regardless of what your problem is, either you’re doing something wrong or you have a defective machine. The machine is so simple, chances are you’re doing it wrong.
2. If you have wet pulp, cut your produce up. Sure, the mouth is wide enough to drop a small apple through. That doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do. I quarter my apples and get dry apple pulp. Try it. I cut my carrots into 3″ long sections and get dry pulp. Try it.
3. If you cut things too small, then you get pieces of stuff in the pulp catcher. Next time cut them a little bigger and see what happens.
4. Juice slowly. Just because you can cram stuff down the throat at an alarming rate doesn’t mean you should. Going slow reduces the wetness of the pulp.
5. Experiment! Have fun! You’re making juice! Experiment with sizes and how you do it. You’ll learn so much that you’ll get dry pulp with no pieces of stuff in the pulp catcher.
6. Yep, you’ve got to be quick on the draw with the plunger thing, otherwise stuff will bounce out or fly up and out of it when you put it in.
7. If stuff is flying out of it and you’re not putting stuff in, that means the pulp catcher is too full and you need to empty it.
8. If you’re complaining because the fresh juice is a little warm, and you are drinking it immediately because you can’t wait for it to become cool in the fridge… put an ice cube in it. Jeez, does someone really have to tell you that? Because if it’s that important to you to drink it immediately, the ice cube isn’t going to have enough time to melt and water down the juice; if the ice has enough time to melt and water down your juice, then you aren’t drinking it immediately like you say you are and you should be cooling it in the fridge or freezer. Also, you may be kind of crazy, because this juicer has been tested by Breville and Consumer Reports, and the temperature difference between the produce and the juice is less than 2 degrees farenheit.
9. If juice is running into the motor housing, or anywhere else that’s just not out of the little spout, you need to make sure the cup is put in correctly, and that you’re pulp catcher isn’t filled. If the pulp catcher is full and something’s blocking the spout, the juice has to go somewhere.
10. Just because you can put things in the dishwasher, doesn’t mean that you should. No part of any juicer I’ve ever had even knows what a dishwasher is. Hand washing all the pieces takes less than 3 minutes. The last thing I’d want to do is put any part of this in the dishwasher. The thing is purity. I rinse most of it with hot water and call it good. Dishwashers will scratch plastic, which will then stain, trap smells, taste, etc. and then your juice tastes and smells like garbage. Not for me.
11. If you have a Jack Lallane juicer, and love it, then stick with it because the Breville is not for you. Yep, Jack lived to be 128 years young and did so by drinking a glass of juice every day since he was 3. But his juicers are horrible and mainly toys.
Have fun, it’s juicing, not nuclear physics! Take the time to learn how it works for you and you’re going to love juicing. This is so quick and easy to clean up it’s ridiculous.
Here’s some tips you may find useful: If you do greens like Kale (and please, do greens like Kale) wad them up, stuff them in the chute, then turn on the machine and plunge it down. You will be amazed at how much you get. Also, if you’re juicing leafy greens, have the proper expectations. There’s not much liquid in them, it’s mainly all in the stem.
If you do ginger, don’t cut it and just drop it down with the machine off, drop the plunger, and then turn it on. Watch as pretty much all of the ginger is liquified.
Here’s a recipe I like to call the Hairy Mangina:
A baby’s arm of ginger
6-8 good sized carrots
4 large lemons.
Juice them all. Take a sip and, POW! That will put hair on your mangina!
June 2, 2013 EDIT:
I’ve been using this machine a few times a week since I bought it, and I just wanted to drop in an update. It’s still working great, and juicing exactly as it should. Nothing’s going into the motor housing, parts aren’t matched up incorrectly, hot water hasn’t warped anything, the screen hasn’t shattered/punctured/rusted/clogged. Still haven’t put any part of it in a dish washer, still have no plans to do that. Still rinsing it all by hand and letting it air dry. The parts still look new and work like new.
I wanted to come back and add the edit because a few of the negative reports on here seem to start after a couple of weeks. I’m not having any of those issues. It’s working great. When I fill up the pitcher I just automatically remove the pulp and then keep juicing. No problems. I haven’t seen any leaking, especially around the motor housing (base). The screen is still perfect and all I do to clean it is scrub it the included brush while running it under hot water. Once on the outside, once on the inside, and then do a visual check and take care of anything I see there.
Still a fantastic juicer and worth of the 5 stars!
GG –
I was spending 6-9 dollars per glass to get organic juice from a local health food store. While I also own a Vitamix, I was hesitant to purchase other device to create health promoting drinks. The Vitamix is an amazing blender, but the flavors from juicing are far more pleasing to my palate than anything I ever created with my Vitamix. Granted, I didn’t put extras like honey or agave, it was pretty much just flax and fruits and greens. Plus, I recently read that if you have digestion issues, I have GERD and EE, that the fiber could actually aggravate your problem, which it often did. Granted, I still need to kick the Pepsi habit. Yeah, I know its bad for me, and its by far my biggest vice, but I need to phase it out, which I’m currently doing.
Any who, after much research, I went with the most affordable Breville as a start in my juicing journey, after being convinced by two people at my local juice bar, that I should go in on the low end, to make sure that juicing is something I’ll stay with, and at the lower cost, it won’t be as bad should I not follow through.
On to my product review…
Easy to clean. It breaks down quickly, and the parts seem pretty solid. The screen can be a pain to clean, but I’ve used a soft bristled toothbrush to clean it, and seems to do the job in the crevices I can’t get with just a quick rinse, and gentle enough to not harm the screen. I’ve read several reviews about the screen being a pain to clean, and it can be, but the toothbrush thing works for me. Its a screen, and things will get embedded in there, but it just takes a bit of effort to clean it.
Seems to produce a fair amount of juice. I have nothing to compare it to, but plan on buying a masticating juicer in the near future, with the idea of comparing the two, and keeping the winner.
As far as noise goes, I’ve read several complaints that its too loud. What did you expect it to do, be quiet like a toaster? Is your blender quiet? When you’re not processing anything, it hums. However, when you’re juicing, of course its loud, but not as loud as my Vitamix for sure. Perhaps some people had a different expectation of how loud it should, or would, be, but consider what its doing, and that should explain the noise.
Space. Sure, it takes up a bit of space, but what appliance doesn’t? More tall than wide, but I keep it out on my counter because I use it every day.
I’ve had no problems juicing greens: romaine, parsley, kale, and cabbage, so far. Carrots and greens seem to leave the most residue in the screen, but that’s to be expected, as I use carrots a lot, and greens are more stringy than other veggies, other than maybe celery. The pulp also comes out, as one other reviewer compared it to, similar to the consistency of Playdoh.
Is it perfect, no, but what do you expect? There’s been times I chunk or two have been not fully processed, but those chunks aren’t that big, and if you push harder on the plunger to quickly juice something, it seems that’s when it’s missed some parts. I try to leave the product in as large a piece as the chute can handle, and slowly and evenly press down on the plunger. Seems to also produce the most juice, at least in my experience. I’ve made a full measuring cup (included with the Breville) without having to change or wash the screen. In fact, I’ve made well over that, without having to change the screen. Some produce seems to produce more juice than others, and greens definitely don’t juice as well as apples, carrots, celery, and the like, especially in relation to their size. If anything, the container filling up with processed produce quicker than the screen gets gunked up.
Do not juice berries, bananas, or other soft fruits, as you won’t get much from them, but that’s just common sense. I try to juice what I don’t like to eat, or things that its easier for me to juice, rather than cook and eat, or I don’t like to eat raw, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower. I look at the juicer as a nutritional supplement more than anything else.
I really don’t understand the major complaints in some of these reviews. Don’t expect BMW reliability and performance, when you’re buying a Hyundai. If you understand that you’re buying at a lower price point, then your expectations should also be lowered a bit, and you’ll appreciate this more. Also, the enzymes aren’t getting killed. The juice isn’t in there long enough for this to happen anymore so than in any other machine. The juice doesn’t stay in the machine cooking, is released very quickly, and comes out the same temp as the produce I’m pitching in there. And don’t pay attention to those that complain about foam. It goes away once you pour the juice into a glass, and should only be an issue if your drinking straight from the receptacle.
When I buy an Omega masticating juicer, or something comparable, perhaps my view of this machine will change, but for 99 bucks, it is worth every penny. Staying, or getting healthy isn’t easy or cheap, but its worth it. Just like everything else that is of value in our lives.
Bottom line for me is, if you’re looking to step into the world of juicing, but aren’t looking to drop over 200 bucks right away, try this one out. If you like it, keep it. If you don’t use it enough, you only lost 100 bucks. And if you want to step up to a supposedly better machine, do it. At least you’ll know better what you’re looking for.
ManuSchatz –
I recently started juicing and am switching to organic produce and fell in love with this juicer!
Going organic is not cheap (even here in CA where a lot of items are available from local farms) so you really want to get the most bang for your buck. Plus, making this lifestyle change will become challenging if juicing is wasteful, too messy or takes too long to clean up.
I tried two others ( Jack LaLanne JLPJB Power Juicer Juicing Machine and Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor ) before I finally got this one at a bargain ($99) right here on Amazon. The Breville wins, hands-down! I juice about four times a day right now so there were a few things to consider as I was testing my way to a winning juicer:
My reasons for liking my Breville:
PROS:
1) It’s solid when juicing and doesn’t rock or vibrate as easily as the others I’ve tried.
2) It’s not as quiet as the Lalanne, but only makes a whisper compared to the Hamilton Big Mouth.
3) The chute is huge! With 3″ wide & 7″ deep, you can put whole carrots in there and the ‘knife’ at the bottom inside the tube holds firmer items so you can control the speed at which produce gets processed – in turn, you get more juice by being able to go a bit slower.
4) Clean-up is a breeze – I can clean mine in 3 minutes flat (@ four times a day!) Everything rinses easily, no nooks’n’crannies that are are hard to get to or you would need a brush for. Everything pops right back together – no tools needed! (To give you a point of reference – with the others it took close to 10 minutes and then I’d still end up with spots on my kitchen towels because I’d inadvertently missed a spot or crevice that was hard to get to.)
5) Very small footprint on your counter top.
6) No need to buy extra bags to put in the pulp container.
7) The 26 oz Juice catcher hooks firmly under the juice spout so even if your juicer should vibrate and start traversing your countertop, the catcher is along for the ride:-); no more spilling. And, it has a lid to boot which helps to reduce oxidation (loss of nutritional value) and has a foam strainer for those that want none of the frothy stuff.
8) The pulp is really dry compared to the other juicers so I really feel like I’m getting the most juice from my products. Just need to figure out a no-fuss way to use the pulp. That’ll be the next step!
9) EASY-peasy lifestyle change – I can stick with this!
CONS:
1) You will have some ‘stuff’ flying out of the chute at times so you need to be quick at putting in your produce. This really only happens to me when I’ve juiced about 10 oz. As you juice, some of the mesh in the juicer screen will get clogged causing air to be pushed up rather than down and out through the juice spout.
2) For the same reason, the plunger for the chute will literally hover in the chute and start ‘taking’ off – just be prepared to be faster than it:-)!
3) The juice spout is quite narrow making it a bit harder to clean.
TIPS:
1) Juicing leafy greens/herbs – I just figured this out the other day – use a cabbage leaf (or other firm, large leaf)to create a spinach or other leafy green ‘spring roll’ – roll your greens quite tightly to be up to 3″ x 7″. With the cabbage on the outside of the roll, it will stick a little inside the chute and will keep your spinach tightly packed so it doesn’t just fly through the extraction process. You can feed in the produce slowly and get a LOT more juice!
2) Have a small spatula on hand to scrape out the pulp – it’ll leave the components easier to rinse and clean and you don’t have to waste a ton of water trying to rinse the pulp down your disposal.
3) Stick with a darker dish towel to avoid ruining the white ones, if you have them.
4) Try 1) but use the cabbage to hold a bunch of carrots or other produce together. It should keep stuff from bouncing around inside the chute which can sometimes unbalance the cutting blade.
Okay – enough said – for a one-woman juicing household – This is the juicer for me! If you need to juice for more than just one person, you may want to look at the larger Breville units.
Happy Juicing!
UPDATE 09/12/14 – And still going strong! Works great! I still use it all the time and have not had any problems yet.
Barney Jose Castellon –
Love that it came with its own brush, love that it doesn’t have a bunch of pieces so it comes apart and assembles easy! Has a great little pitcher with a fitting whole so there’s no splashing on the counter of what you’re juicing. Great buy for the money.