Congratulations, you’ve decided to start juicing. Drinking fresh vegetable juice is one of the healthiest things you can do. It not only tastes better than store brought juice, it is better for you. You get more nutrients and enzymes when you make your own juice.
If you have never owned a juicer before, then here is a brief introduction about the main types. Some juicers are designed just for citrus, others are solely for wheatgrass, others work best with leafy greens, fruits and vegetables when your making a large green drink.
Note, I’ve decided to update this section a bit to further explain the method and then give some concreate examples of what juicers you should choose.
My goal here is twofold. First, I want you to feel comfortable when choosing a juicer. It’s a big decision. You should know what it is exactly that you’re buying.
If you are comfortable buying a juicer, then you have a better chance of succeeding and not ending up as someone who fails and gives up on their health goals by storing a juicer in a closet or returing it.
Second, I want to provide some good quick examples of juicers that I personally reccomend.
I will do that right here. Note, I’m going to suggest a few different ones from different brands. I’m not a spokesperson for any brand, so you can feel comfortable that I don’t favor one over the other for any reason other than it’s actuall benefits.
So, before we get deep into the weeds on how to pick out a juicer, here’s my top three choices right off the bat for anyone looking to get started:
Now that I’ve given you my top choices to get started, let’s get into the weeds. I’m going to start out discussing manual juicers. Honestly, these are not for everyone. Then we’ll cover what I call blade style juicers. These should be avoided. Just skip anything that advertises itself as a centrifdugal juicer or doesn’t say auger or cold press. Finally, we’ll cover the cold press/auger juicers and review them.
Table of Contents
Manual Juicers
The manual juicer is exactly what is sounds like. It is completely hand powered. There are two types of manual juicers. The citrus juicer and the wheat grass juicer.
These are popular with people who do primarily wheat grass. They are fast to use and clean.
Citrus Juicer or Reamer
The citrus juicer design is one that most people are familiar with. There is a small bullet shaped piece where you press the cut half of lemon, orange, grapefruit or lime. The juice is then is collected in a small hopper.
The two main designs are either the press or the turn. The press one is designed to let you cut the lemon (or other citrus fruit) in half and turn it on the ridged cone with your hand.
If you are making lots of citrus juice, and not incorporating other fruits or veggies such as celery or apples, then a citrus juicer might work well.
I would recommend getting a stainless steel model. You don’t want to get an aluminum or plastic model. The choice of press or hand turned is up to you.
Manual Auger Juicers (for wheatgrass)
his manual juicer I’m talking about is different than the classic citrus juicer. The citrus juicer was used to squeeze juice from lemons, oranges, grapefruit or limes. These work well for what they are designed for: wheat grass. They also handle other veggies, but they work best with wheat grass.
The benefit to using a manual wheat grass juicer is that there are no moving electric parts. There is no motor to burn out. This means they are super durable.
I like the Z-Star. It is strong design.
I would suggest using a separate juicer for everything else. This is the perfect juicer for Wheat Grass. It takes up a small amount of counter space. I like the combination of a manual wheat grass juicer and a regular masticating juicer like a Hurom or Omega.
Centrifugal Juicer (not recommended)
These are juicers that use small tiny sharp blades to dice up the fruit and vegetables. These were the first electric juicers that came onto the consumer market. They were good at the time because they allowed people to make vegetable and fruit juice. Before that, people used to only make smoothies. The fiber content made it so that you couldn’t drink a lot of “juice”.
However, I don’t recommend using a centrifugal juicer. They are not a good choice. Here are my main complaints:
- Loud—Centrifugal juicers are really loud. They scream.
- Don’t Extract Enough Juice-They are not as efficient. They simply don’t get as much juice from the veggies or fruits.
- They are harder to clean—You need to use a brush to clean the blades. It takes much longer to clean the machine after use. I’m not a fan of anything that takes a long time to clean.
- Destroy Enzymes— This is a big problem. The heat created by a centrifugal juicer is said to destroy the enzymes in the juice.
Instead of a Centrifugal Juicer I recommend getting a slow process masticating juicer.
Masticating Juicer (auger juicers–recommended)
This the latest design in juicing technology. It is the preferred method over the centrifugal juicers. The masticating juicer is a slow style juicer. It is the best juicer for leafy greens. The juicer is designed in a way that allows for the most extraction of liquid. The auger slowly squeezes as opposed to cutting.
Masticating juicers are better because:
- They are quiet. They don’t make the racket that
- They extract more juice. The squeeze method gets more juice than the dice method.
- Easy Clean Up—The auger can washed off easy enough under running watcher.
- Preserves Enzymes and Nutrients—Low heat and slow process means you get the full amounts of nutrients.
You have four popular masticating juicers on the market. The most popular one is the Omega Juicer. They make several models. Their most popular model, the one I use, is the classic chrome model. I love it.
Omega Masticating Juicer (you’ll see that I talk about this one alot)
This is an excellent all purpose masticating juicer. I use this to make all my dark green juices. It also handles fruits like pineapples, citrus, watermelon, and apples very well. You get clean, pulp free juice full of nutrients and enzymes. I also consider this one of the easiest juicers to clean.
It is also simple to wash and clean and it is very quit. This is a great juicer for everyday use. If you’re making fresh vegetable juice then this is a perfect pick.
This is the best juicer for leafy greens. It has a simple one auger design, easy to assemble feed tube, and clean chrome design.
Twin Gear Masticating Auger
The Greenstart brand makes these.
They are a dual auger design. I have seen this in action and it is a really wonderful machine. It uses two augers. So you have twice the squeezing power.
The Green Star Juicer utilizes two augers and this makes it more efficient.
This is considered the best juicer by juicing fanatics for a number of reasons:
- Low RPM—The slower the better.
- Twin Gears— Double the squeezing power.
- Magnetic Extraction—This is something that the Omega doesn’t have. It works by extracting more minerals. The people who like the Green Star say that the minerals become colloidal, that is suspended in liquid. The magnets are there to “pull” them from the pulp.
- Excellent at juicing leafy greens, wheat grass, and virtually all other fruits and vegetable.
- Versatile—The Green Star is adept at making other things: Nut Butters, Organic Baby Food, Vegan Ice Creams, Pasta. It is a truly all purpose machine.
You can read more Green Star customer reviews on Amazon.
If you’re still unsure about which type of juicer to get, then I have a review of the best juicers for beginners that you can read.
As a final note, since updating this article and noticing that people are having difficulty affording food and groceries what with all of the rising cost of goods, one amazing way to save moeny is to stop buying juices and smoothies out at stores and make them yourself. For every juice you make you’ll save close to 5 bucks. That really adds up over time!