If you're going to try juicing, this is the juicer you want.
Written: Feb 09 '06
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Pros: High-quality juice including leafy greens, and easy to clean.
Cons: Not a good grain grinder...
The Bottom Line: This juicer will give you juice that is storable for ~24hrs. without major nutrient loss (unlike most which must be consumed ASAP), without being impossible to use or clean.
OK, most everyone’s heard of freshly squeezed orange juice, and those who’ve tried it will likely agree that it scarcely resembles the frozen reconstituted stuff. But what about freshly squeezed apple juice? Can you even imagine apple juice that isn’t brownish?
Welcome to the world of juicing. Though it started as a health trend among purists--as an alternative to drug therapy for disease--it is becoming more popular everyday. They’re even selling organic carrots by the 25 pound bag now, especially for juicers. (25 pounds of carrots? That’s just crazy!)
And now that we’ve jumped on the healthy eating bandwagon, the question kept coming up: to juice or not to juice?For whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of eating oodles of veggies and fruits whole, or to take arms against a sea of vegetables and by golly, juice them…aye, there’s the rub. Because I am incurably curious (and a friend of mine was selling hers), I decided to jump in and try the water…er…juice.
Now, as curious as I am, I am also a bit obsessive about finding the best possible make and model for my money (as readers of my other reviews will attest), so I was rather lucky that the juicer my friend was selling was exactly the one I’d been looking for…the Omega 8000 model (the one I have is an 8002, the predecessor to the current 8003). Why this one?
Yes, you guessed it, as with every other appliance (except microwaves, I guess?) not all juicers are created equal. To make it more confusing, price is not necessarily the key factor. If you’re going to juice, you need to consider the following:
* How long will it take to make the juice? (How small will the pieces need to be, how slowly does the juicer extract the juice, etc.)
* How long will it take to clean up afterwards? This is a tricky one, because with most centrifugal juicers, you have to clean out the pulp during juicing just to keep it working, or else it gets clogged up. Also, some of the better juicers are reported to be an absolute bear to clean, taking up to 15 minutes or more. Let’s face it, if it’s going to be a hassle to clean, you’re not going to use it.
* What do you want to juice? If all you really want is freshly squeezed orange juice, you’re reading the wrong review. See food processors. But if you want to juice wheatgrass, the centrifugal juicers just won’t do it. (And if you don’t know what wheatgrass is/that reminds you of cows chewing their cuds, then skip to the bottom, click ‘very helpful’ and have a nice day. Just kidding.)
* Do you want your juicer to be like a set of Ginsu knives? Do you want it to slice, dice, chop and double as a flour mill/meat grinder/vegetable mincer/pasta maker/sorbet maker? (Again, get a food processor…no, really, some juicers actually can do this…or are supposed to, at least.)
* How important to you is the quality of the juice? Here’s the kicker. Part of the benefit of juicing is to be able to get the most vitamins and minerals in raw form as possible. Unfortunately, heat and oxygen are your enemies in this process. So any juicer that heats up while juicing (the less expensive ones usually) or introduces a lot of air (any of the centrifugal ones) is going to seriously impact the benefits you will get from all your trouble (not to mention expense).
So after all my research into the subject, it became clear that the masticating-type juicers were clearly the best for the money; of course, they usually cost the most, too.
But the Omega was consistently recommended as the best bang for the buck. At $200-$300, it’s not chump change, but since I got mine secondhand, it was less buck for the bang. If I hadn’t gotten it secondhand, I probably would have eventually forked over that amount, and it would be worth it.
The minute I got this baby home, I couldn’t wait to try it. I cut up some carrots and fired it up (after reading the directions, of course). Ah, the beauty! Quietly and efficiently, in no time flat, I had one container of juice and another of dry pulp. I couldn’t believe how it just chewed up those carrots as matter-of-factly as a horse eating clover. Chomp, chomp, chomp, done. (They don’t call them “masticating-types” for nothing, apparently.)
Now, I’d never had carrot juice before, so there was nothing to compare it to…it was pretty good, I guess. It’s not likely to replace freshly-squeezed orange juice.
But now the moment of truth arrived: how hard would it be to clean up?
It probably took 2 or 3 minutes (OK, I didn’t time myself, but it was quick): I disassembled it, rinsed it under the sink, brushed out the filter with the brush provided (a toothbrush would work fine too) and it was done, lickety-split. Now that was cool! In addition, the parts are dishwasher-safe.
Since then, I’ve tried all sorts of stuff and it seems to be as cheerful in chewing up carrots as with beets, garlic, ginger, horseradish, parsley, you name it. I even decided to try juicing the unused parts of an artichoke that I was cutting up for stuffing: I used the tenderest leaves, but they were still too fibrous—I don’t recommend this. It heated up quite a bit and got very angry. I ended up having to back up the motor and remove the dry, stringy pulp by hand. The next time I tried artichoke leaves, I limited it to just a few and fed them in one at a time, in between other, softer vegetables. That worked much better, but it still got a bit warm.
But the test for the ages was to see whether this thing could really grind grain like they say it can. I assembled it and set out to try it. I tried pouring in a tablespoon. It convulsed like it was dying, then it did. I had to reverse the motor and restart it, and then it began to grind, albeit begrudgingly. So I added the grain at a trickle. This was going to take forever. Not only that, but feeding it in so slowly meant that what I was getting looked more like Cream of Wheat than flour. In order to work most efficiently, it needed more grain to bind up against itself. But every time I added more grain, it sounded just awful. I finally got it to a point where it seemed to be going efficiently, giving me a very coarse flour. I had no warning of what was about to happen. The flour was not backing up; it was coming out at about the pace I was putting it the grain.
Suddenly, POP! It sounded like an air gun. Why do these things always seem to happen in slow motion? The whole grinding assembly had popped out of the drum that holds it, and took a nice large chunk of the drum with it. My new juicer was broken beyond repair. Unbeknownst to me, the nozzle had gotten clogged with the flour and the pressure built up until it just popped. I was ready to bang my head on the floor. How could I have been so stupid? I should have stopped at the first sign of trouble! But I had actually called the company before even trying it, and they assured me it could indeed grind grain—even corn. (I didn’t believe it then, and I believe it even less now.)
Desperate, I called the company and explained what had happened. I didn’t know what they’d say. Would they tell me, ‘sorry, you’re not the original owner and it’s past the warranty period?’ (AAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!) Would they sell me replacement parts? (Stupid! Stupid!) I tried to be as nice as I could, but I couldn’t figure out whether I was more angry or terrified that my new purchase was sunk.
The person I spoke to was kind, patient and helpful and told me very simply to mail the broken pieces to them for replacement. No further questions asked. No proof of purchase, no warranty certificate. Mail them the broken pieces, and get new ones.
I fairly did a jig, I was so happy.
I dropped it in the mail the very next day, Priority Mail. (Okay, I’m only a little hooked—I needed these back soon or all the juicing veggies in my fridge were going to go bad!) (And no, I didn’t go for the 25 lb. bag of carrots.) A little over a week later, the brand new pieces were in my hands.
Now that’s customer service.
So I won’t even think about trying to grind flour with this thing anymore, but I still give it two thumbs up.
And as for whether juicing is all it’s cracked up to be…well, that’s a topic for another review, but fresh blond apple juice…well, you’ve just gotta try it.
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