Why Buy A Juicer?
In this article I hope to help you decide the best juicer to buy for home use for your own priorities.
Deciding to implement juicing into your diet is a healthy step in the right direction. Drinking fruit and vegetable juices can greatly impact your overall health for the better, and tackle some specific health concerns. You can read about how juicing helps to improve health here.
Drinking juice daily can be expensive if you are buying it from a shop. A single juice can cost anywhere between $5 and $12, depending on the size. Plus there is the effort of having to go to the shop to buy the juice in the first place.
As a daily routine, it is not very cost or time effective. Having your own juicer at home is a great way to tackle these concerns. You can buy juicers at different price ranges and with different features.
It is a larger up front investment than buying juice from the shop, but in the long run it will save you lots of time and money.
Depending on the juicer that you end up purchasing, I recommend juicing once every 3 days. This way you only need to clean up once and you have juice ready for you in the fridge. If you are doing a juice cleanse, juicing once per day is a good way to go about it, as you will need to juice a few liters for that day.
What Is The Best Juicer To Buy?
So, what is the best juicer to buy for home use? There are different types of juicers that you have at home, and each one will suit different people with different priorities.
For instance, you may value juicing time more than you value the shelf life of your juice. Below are a list of the different types of juicers available.
The first step to choosing your perfect juicer is to decide the category of juicer that is best for you. Please read the descriptions below to get an idea of the style that you prefer.
Manual Juicer
A manual juicer is the simplest form of juicer that you can purchase. It is essentially a masticating juicer without the motor. It works by slowly crushing the ingredients and extracting the juice out of them. This means that there is minimal oxidization and you juice will last longer and have less bubbles than juice produced by other types of juicers.
Generally, a juice made with a manual juicer will stay fresh and have its nutrients in tact for up to 3 days. This is great if you want to juice in advance. This is also a good option if you need a portable juicer to take on the road with you.
The downside to a manual juicer is that it will a limited variety of produce. They are mainly designed to juice wheat grass. However they can normally also juice leafy greens, carrots, and other hard vegetables. The other downside to a manual juicer is that you have to crank the handle yourself, slowing down the juicing speed compared to a juicer with a motor. This means a lot more effort for not much juice.
If you are only juicing occasionally, need something that you can travel with and have a low budget, then this is the juicer for you.
Masticating Juicer
A masticating juicer is the motorized version of the manual juicer. It works by crushing the produce against a stainless steel mesh. This separates the pulp from the juice in a slow manner. In my opinion, this is the best juicer to buy as it doesn’t oxidize the juice, meaning that the vitamins in the juice are retained for 3 days.
Masticating juicers are quite a bit slower than centrifugal juicers, so if speed is what you are after, then this is not the best juicer for you. However, if getting the most juice and the most vitamins and minerals in your juice is your priority, then I highly recommend a masticating juicer.
In general, you can juice around 2 liters in 20 minutes using a masticating juicer. This is depending on what you are juicing but is a good indication of the speed.
Masticating juicers can juice just about anything, from leafy greens to hard vegetables and everything in between.
Centrifugal Juicer
Centrifugal juicers are the the fastest types of juicers on the market. They have a sharp blade with quickly chops up the produce, hence extracting juice. A centrifugal juicer is a cheaper option compared to a masticating or hydraulic juicer, so if your budget only allows for this then it is better than not juicing. However, this is the type of juicer that I would least likely recommend if you want to get the best quality juice out of your produce.
The motor in the juicer spins very fast chopping up the ingredients, meaning that there is a high level of oxidization in your juice. This results in a watery juice with lots of froth not much in the way of nutrients. It also means that you cannot store the juice, so you must drink it immediately after juicing.
Another downside to the centrifugal juicer is that because the produce is chopped rather than crushed, you don’t get as much juice out of it as other types of juicers. You will notice when using this type of juicer that the pulp is relatively wet compared to the pulp from a masticating juicer. Plus, a centrifugal juicer is not very effective on leafy greens.
It is not all bad though. If you are after a very fast juicer at a low cost, then the centrifugal juicer is for you.
Hydraulic Juicer
A hydraulic juicer is often overlooked when thinking about purchasing a juicer for home use. This is possibly because they are slow and expensive. However, they produce the best juice out of all the types of juicers on the market. They work in a two step sequence.
Firstly, the produce must be crushed into a wet pulp. This pulp is then wrapped into a linen cloth and the cloth is then pressed between two steel plates. The pressure created between the plates extracts the juice.
The whole process is very slow compared to a centrifugal juice and slow even compared to a masticating juicer. Plus, the two step process and manual hydraulic pressing makes it more complicated to use that its motorized counterparts.
The benefit to using a hydraulic juicer over a masticating juicer is that more juice is extracted from your produce. So if getting the most juice out of your produce is your priority, then a hydraulic juice press is for you.
Juicer Reviews
You will find reviews of different juicers in each of these categories. I encourage you to decide the type of juicer that you prefer first, and then read the reviews of the juicer range in that category. I have done my best to provide reviews of juicers in different price ranges as well.
As I research and test more juicers, I will be able to provide a greater range of juicer reviews. For now, I have chosen what I believe to be the best juicers to buy in each category.
If you have any suggestions of juicers that you would like reviewed, or if you have a favorite that you think is the best juicer to buy, please comment below. I love hearing what you have to say about juicers and juicing for health.