Hi there! I'm interested in potentially buying a fruit juicer, however, I have no idea whether it would be worth the expense. Has anyone on this forum purchased a juicer? How have your experiences been? Do you find that you use it more or less often than you expected? In addition, I've thought about going on a juice cleanse (which is part of why I've been interested in making the juices myself), and if anyone has any previous experiences, recipe recommendations, tidbits, etc, I'd love to get some input! Thank you!
In the past year, I have used the Ninja with success. Whether you want a little or a lot, it will process fruits and vegetables so that it is edible and healthy. I had reservations at first as I was attached to my blender but it has changed my mind forever. And the Ninja is much easier to clean than a traditional blender.
I have an older model Hamilton Beach juicer and I use it fairly frequently for making vegetable juices. It does a good job extracting the juice but for fruit, I think you end up losing a lot of the good because there is very little pulp. Some juicers are just blenders that can keep all the fiber whereas ones like mine separate it. If you are thinking of mainly fruit, I would go with one that allows you to keep some of the pulp in the juice as it is healthier. The type like mine is a real pain to clean afterwards because it has many large parts and the blade/screen system requires a toothbrush to clean off the debris - it does not rinse out as claimed.
Thanks for your response! I will definitely do some research on the Ninja. Are the separate components machine washable? That would be oh-so-nice!
I would avoid the Jack LaLane juicer for a variety of reasons: - The plastic on it stains very easily, especially the white model, but also the pulp container on every model, which is a clear blue-ish plastic. Forget about juicing stuff like carrots or beets in it, they will permanently stain the plastic almost immediately. - It's a pain in the butt to clean. By the time you disassemble it, and rinse off all the parts and put them in your dish washer, they will take up about 2/3 of your dishwasher. Plus you need a separate attachment to remove the blade from the machine, which can get lost easily. The blade itself is very very sharp, making it hard to rinse off and clean without cutting yourself. - The drain spout is way too low on the device. You can only fit a short glass under it, but juicing an item or two will easily overflow a short glass. You either have to position it to point off your counter then hold a large glass in place with one hand while juicing stuff with the other - which will no doubt cause leakage all over your floor, or juice into a shallow container then pour it into a glass, which is more crap to clean. - The device is way too big and heavy for what it does. I mean, even a VitaMix isn't that big and has a more powerful motor.
