All juicers are not created equal

While on vacation a couple weeks ago, I worried about maintaining my juicing/blood pressure/nutrition away from home. Fortunately I was staying in a rented house with a kitchen, so I just needed to find a juicer. There wasn't much selection in local stores and I ended up with a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Express:



It really made me appreciate the money I spent on my Breville. Here's why:

• Although this juicer worked, it was mostly white plastic and the first carrot that went through it stained it.


• The spout was mounted very low and I could only fit a very short 8-ounce container under it. The juicer did not come with a pitcher or other juice receptacle. I usually make at least 16 ounces at a time. This meant that in the middle of juicing I'd have to empty the small container into a larger one, which was inconvenient and messy.


• It was underpowered. Sure, the packaging touted it as "whisper quiet" which of course it was not, though it was certainly quieter than my Breville. But less noise meant it also took four to five times longer to juice the same amount of vegetables I can put through my Breville in under a minute. (Total juicing plus clean-up time averaged 30 minutes, versus 20 or less with my Breville model.)


• It did not come with a cleaning brush, and the design of the centrifugal basket makes it very difficult to clean without one.


• Hard items like beets caused juice to splatter rather than flow from the pour spout, which made a big mess and required extra clean-up.

On the plus side, at $100 it costs a third what my Breville did, so if you don't plan to juice more than once a day, and you don't mind extra clean-up, fewer accessories, and extra time spent juicing due to less power, it's not a bad juicer.

That said, it was nice to come home to my juicer.