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Juice extractors (juicers) - what to ask before you buy
If you're thinking of buying a juice extractor or juicer, but you're not sure what to ask before you buy, these questions will help you to make a better decision about which appliance is right for you.
Click on a question below for more information.
- Process: What process does the juice extractor use?
- Ease of use: Is the juice extractor easy to use?
- Efficiency: How efficient is the juice extractor?
- Noise: How noisy is the juice extractor?
- Speed: Does the juice extractor have variable speed?
- Power: How much power does the juice extractor have?
- Pulp collector: How big is the pulp collector?
- Construction: What is the juice extractor made of?
- Cleaning: Is the juice extractor easy to clean?
- Capacity: What size fruit/vegetable will the juice extractor take?
- Size: How big is the juice extractor?
- Features: What other features might the juice extractor have?
- Warranty: What kind of warranty does the juice extractor have?
1. What process does the juice extractor use? 
Fruit and vegetable juicers
- Centrifugal - the most common, based on spinning to extract the juice.
- Masticator - this grinds up the fruit and squeezes, thus reducing its exposure to oxygen (which afffects the taste) and better preserving the vitamins and minerals in the juice. They are very efficient for juicing fruit and vegetables.
- Steamers - these are generally for commercial use, and take a lot more time to extract the juice but can produce large quantities.
Citrus juicers
- Presses - manually operated presses produce virtually pulp-free juice, but they are only appropriate for relatively small quantites.
- Reamers - with the electric citrus juicer, you use a shaped handle to press the half-fruit onto a 'squeezer' shape that spins to extract the juice, and when you raise the handle, the machine stops.
Combinations
- For example, some centrifugal juice extractors have a reaming attachment for citrus juices.
2. Is the juice extractor easy to use?
Find out how easy it is to assemble and pull apart for cleaning. Check the size of the feed tube - do you have to chop the fruit/vegetables into tiny pieces or will it take whole fruit or vegetables?
3. How efficient is the juice extractor?
How much juice is produced will vary with the type of juice extractor and the individual product.
4. How noisy is the juice extractor?
Generally, the greater the RPM of the motor, the more noisy the machine, but there are exceptions to this.
5. Does the juice extractor have variable speed?
Having variable speed means you can get the most juice, depending on whether the fruit or vegetables are hard or soft.
6. How much power does the juice extractor have?
Low cost juice extractors are likely to have less power.
7. How big is the pulp collector?
Bigger is better if you don't want to stop juicing to empty it periodically while juicing.
8. What is the juice extractor made of?
Are the parts made of metal (stainless steel or an alloy) or plastic?
9. Is the juice extractor easy to clean?
- How easy is it to dismantle the juice extractor for cleaning?
- How many parts have to be washed after use?
- Are all parts easily accessible?
- Can all the juice extractor parts be washed in the dishwasher?
- Is it easy to get the pulp out of the machine?
- How big are the juice extractor parts - will they easily fit into your sink?
10. What size fruit/vegetable will the juice extractor take?
Will it take whole fruit/vegetable or do you have to cut it up first? Note that citrus juicers will take pretty much any citrus fruit cut in half.
11. How big is the juice extractor?
Consider how much bench space or cupboard space it will take up.
12. What other features might the juice extractor have?
Other features may include an option to vary the amount of pulp in the juice and a variety of attachments to do other things like mincing or chopping food.
13. What kind of warranty does the juice extractor have?
Is the warranty suitable (i.e. domestic or commercial)? For how long is the warranty valid? This can vary from 90 days to product lifetime. Find out how reliable the juice extractor is - if it comes with a 90 day warranty it's probably not built to last.
