Juicer For College Dorm Rooms

Healthy Living In The Dorm: Choosing The Best Juicer For Your Dorm Room

If you’re heading off to college this fall, and you want to be able to juice, then you might want to get a juicer to bring with you that you can use in your dorm room. If you are attending school in a big city (say NYC or Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus) then you will have access to little shops that sell fresh juice. But if you’re attending a big campus in an area that only has a little college town, or a school that’s not in a trendy area with alternative food shops, then you will need to bring your own juice. In fact, even if you are going to NYC, Berkley, UT Austin, University of Chicago, Boston U, etc….and you have access to juice bars, you still might want to get your own juicer and have it in your dorm room. Buying fresh vegetable and fruit juices is expensive, and as you’re a college student, you are going to be on a budget.

It could be fun if you and your roommate are both into juicing, then you could hit up the farmers markets and bring back awesome, healthy (and cheap!) produce.

I’m going to list three juicers below.

Before you run out and buy a juicer, think about what it needs to be. Of course you want one that makes great juice, but as a college student living in a dorm, you are going to have a few other concerns that normal people don’t have.

 Features Four Your Dorm Room Juicer

Noise

This one’s a big issue. You don’t want a juicer that creates a lot of noise. There are two ways to solve this problem. First, you can get a manual juicer. I’ll discuss these below. The only thing to know about these juicers is that they are not good at juicing apples, celery, but they are great at juicing wheatgrass. They do ok with kale and other leafy greens as well. My only problem with them is that they require you to hand crank them. This can get a bit tedious after a while. So, before getting a hand cranked auger juicer, know that you will have to exert yourself to make the juice. The upside to these juicers is that they are super quiet. There is no motor, so there is not noise. Also, they are not electrical. So, if your dorm has any sort of restriction on appliances, then this is perfect.

Space

Living in a dorm means living in a small space. You don’t have the luxury of a really big kitchen. Because of that, you will want a small juicer. You’re going to want a juicer that doesn’t take up lots of space. Normally I recommend everyone get the Omega, the only issue with this juicer is that it is a horizontal design. You might want to look at a vertical juicer. With that said, I think that there is a solution which will let you use the Omega. What I do is disassemble the juicer after I use it. I clean the front parts (it’s very simple you just rinse them off in the sink) and then store them in a Tupperware container. You could do something like that. The body of the Omega (the chrome part shown below) is not too large and you could leave it out.

With that said, I’m going to list three types of juicers. The first is a vertical juicer that uses an auger device. An auger device is used by masticating juicers to slowly squeeze juice out of fruits and vegetables. The second type of juicer is the Omega horizontal model. This is my favorite juicer, but you will probably want to keep the front parts in a separate container when not in use. Finally, there is the option of manual juicers. The hand cranked juicer can be used with wheatgrass, parsley, kale and other leafy greens. If you want to do citrus, I suggest getting a separate citrus grinder.

3 Great Juicers For Your College Dorm (or off-campus living)

The Omega Vertical Juicer (For Hardcore Juicing)

Omega is a awesome brand. If you’ve never gotten a juicer before, just know that Omega is a well respected brand that was one of the first to make slow juicing machines. There are some other brands (GreenStar comes to mind) but they are a bit more pricey and they are larger. The Omega brand is a true quality product.

This particular model is designed for people who have limited space and also are not big fans of clean up. So, if you don’t have easy access to a sink, this is perfect. The machine has a self cleaning function. Interior blades wipe it down. What you can do is pour a cup of water through the juicer when you are done juicing your veggies and fruit. The water will run through it and help to rid inside of any juice leftover. Ideally, you should still take the machine apart every so often and give it a quick cleaning. They are not difficult to clean, and you can wash it out under running sink water.

Pros: Doesn’t take up much space. It very quiet. Has a self cleaning feature.

Cons: A bit expensive.

Judgement: If you’re sure you are going to be juicing a lot, and you want a quiet, masticating auger juicer with a self cleaning feature, that doesn’t take up too much space, then this is a great choice.

The Omega J8006 (suite or off-campus living)

This is my personal juicer, and it’s really an awesome machine. First off, it’s simple to operate. It is not very loud and it extracts a really high amount of juice. When you feel the pulp it’s very dry. That means that you get a maximum amount of juice extraction from your fruits and vegetables. If you are looking to make wheatgrass, kale, celery, and apple drinks, then this is an awesome juicer. It will juice organic lemons better than the hand pressed ones. The reason this sort of auger juicer is better than a regular citrus juicer is that you can juice the skin. You want to juice the skin of organic citrus fruit such as lemons because that’s where the essential oil is. That oil is both healthy and also really flavorful.

If you get one of these, get a small cutting board. The reason for this is that you will need to cut up the apples, quarter the lemons, etc….The feed chutes on auger juicers are not very big. There are some auger juicers that have what is called a “wide mouth” which will let you drop in a whole apple or lemon, but they do cost a bit more. I would just suggest getting a small cutting board. It doesn’t take long to cut the apples or lemons, or kale. You don’t have to cut wheatgrass, so don’t worry about that.

For storage options, I use a Tupperware container. Get one that has a top so you can put the front parts into it, then over it and put in under your bed, or in a drawer until you need the again.

Pros: Very quiet. Extremely durable. Easy to assemble and disassemble. Easy to clean.

Cons: If you leave it assembled it does take a up a decent chunk of table space. That’s why I suggest keeping the front parts in a separate Tupperware container.

Manual Auger Juicer (No Motor)- Wheatgrass Only

Ok, so here’s the deal with these. If you’re only doing wheatgrass, or baby spinach and kale, then these are going to be awesome. They work really well with leafy greens. You will have to put some muscle into it, but not so much that it will tire you out. They are not the best design for hard vegetables such as carrots, or fruits such as apples.

A lot of people who use these are big into wheatgrass and coconut water mixtures. You can get Zico coconut water and use it to cut the heavy flavor of the wheatgrass. You could also get young coconuts and crack them open.

I would suggest getting one of the juicers listed above unless you can’t have an appliance in your dorm room. If that’s the case, then this is a great alternative. One major benefit to them is that they are the best cold press juicers available. That’s because there is no motor. Other cold press juicers have motors, so they work on the principal of a slow RPM. This design is hand cranked, without the heat of a mechanical motor.

So, If you want to juice wheatgrass, leafy greens like kale, spinach and parsley, then this is fantastic.

What you might want to pick up is a small hand held citrus juicer. You can use these to crush a lemon or lime into the juice once your done and ready to drink. Fresh lemon juice is much better than the bottled stuff you get in a store because it doesn’t have those nasty preservatives and it also has lots of living enzymes and healthy nutrients.

Pros: No motor, no loud noise, no electricity. Excellent at juicing wheatgrass and other leafy greens. If you want a juicer that doesn’t need electricity, then this is it.

Cons: Not great for hard vegetables.

 

Updated for May 2021

I’ve updated this older article to include my new recommendation for the Hurom. It’s a self cleaning and doesn’t take up too much space.

 

I also am aware that some people are on a budget, and so here’s a good choice for those situations.