Updated 4/14/10

I received information from Tristar, who is the manufacturer of the Jack LaLanne juicer. The call was from their customer service.

My concern was the fragmentation of the spinning member that supports and holds the blade and sieve assembly to the motor shaft. This member was radially cracked in such a manner that the "pie slices" appeared that they could be ejected by centrifugal forces. That appears not to be the case...

a) She indicated that the failure like this does occur and is usually the result of overtightening the blade and sieve assembly onto the motor shaft.

b) She also indicated that these failures, whenever they occur, are not covered by warranty. The warranty was not the issue, but whether the spinning member would fly apart.

c) Further, she said that such a failure would make the machine inoperable, which is my situation.

I am satisfied with her answer. That is, such severe cracking weakened the stud to the point of breaking. From this perspective, the broken stud makes the unit unusuable. This may have been a chicken little warning.

I will leave this in Epinions for the time being.

Regards,

Larry O
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Original 3/11/10

I will not add to the fine words already spoken about this machine. I do want to add a note of caution.

We juice occaisionally. Purchased the Jack LaLanne from Costco a couple years ago. During a normal juicing of carrots and apples, I noticed upon cleanup the blade & sieve assembly came off when loosening. The plastic stud to that it was attached was cracked and consequently broke.

What was more of a concern was the reason. The flat rotating circular surface had three radial cracks from the end to the stud. The stud broke because of one of these radial cracks.

Because I considered this to be safety hazard... this surface rotates at 3,600 RPM, a "slice" of the assembly could fly off the unit, possibly shattering the juicer body, and harm the user. I filed reports with consumer protection and they acknowledged this situation. I also provided pictures and documentation to the distributor twice, and did not receive acknowledgement. And I provide duplicate files to Costco, and they did acknowledge.

My purpose for this review was to bring an awareness of of this cracking. I have had a number of juicers and this is the first time this has occurred; it was completely unexpected. I have marked this poor solely for this reason. Otherwise, I have enjoyed using this machine with the pros and cons that others have described.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 129