If you're new to the whole juicing-at-home situation, you may well be daunted by all the gadgets and techie names scattered through the market. As complicated as some juicers may look, once you get to know them they're actually really simple to use. I say some, as others are downright complex and time-consuming to use and clean.
We have found the best juicers for beginners in terms of usage, cleaning, and assembly. We have chosen a variety of styles (masticating, centrifugal, and citrus) and have taken budgets into consideration too. Keep reading to find a solid lineup of juicers worthy of your time, cash, and tastebuds.
Why Juicing?
Juicing is an awesome way to get a wide range of nutrients from various fresh produce. Of course, the ideal way to fill yourself with nutrients is to eat whole, fresh fruits and veggies but we won't get into that now. And the truth is, in this day and age we all need a bit of help in that department, especially during busy, frantic times. Juicing allows you to get the benefits of fruits and greens in one hit, and can even reduce waste.
What do I Need to Consider Before Buying my First Juicer?
Budget: this is a no-brainer, but it's important to have your budget in mind before you start searching. Be aware that many of the more affordable models are centrifugal as opposed to masticating. This just means you're likely getting slightly less nutrient extraction and wetter pulp.
Time: how much time do you want to put into juicing? If you're super busy and rushed then a centrifugal juicer may be best for you because the extraction takes the least amount of time.
Cleaning: if you can't face the idea of a juicer which is fiddly to clean, keep that in mind and search the review sections for the truth about the cleaning process. Some juicers are easier than others, depending on how many parts there are and if they're dishwasher friendly or not. We've made sure to tell you in each mini-review below if a juicer is easy to clean, so keep an eye out for that.
Ingredients: think about what kind of juice you want to make. Not all ingredients are equal and some are better for different kinds of juicers. For example, masticating juicers tend to be better for leafy greens and root veggies while centrifugal juicers are fine for wetter, juicer ingredients like citrus.
What Are The Main Juicer Types?
Masticating Juicer (also known as cold press or slow press)
A masticating juicer, also known as a cold press, or slow juicer uses an auger (either single or twin gear) to crush and mash the ingredients. This crushing action presses and squeezes the juice from the produce, without creating any heat. A popular brand that you might have seen in this category is the Omega Juicer with models like their NC800.
These kinds of juicers are the most popular because they preserve the nutrients in the juice better than any other juicer. You see, when any heat is added to raw nutrients they can be depleted. Masticating juicers are also the more expensive ones, and they also take longer to produce the juice. They're the best choice for drier ingredients such as leafy greens, hard veggies, and ginger.
Centrifugal
Centrifugal juicers spin the ingredients at a super-fast rate while chopping them at the same time. The fast motion forces the juice out of the ingredients. Because of the rapid spinning, centrifugal juicers tend to produce a small amount of heat. The heat can be harmful to some of the enzymes in the ingredients, making it slightly less nutritious than juice from a cold press juicer. Centrifugal juicers tend to be the cheaper option.
Which of These are Good for a Beginner and Why?
To be annoyingly indecisive...they're all great, depending on what you want and need. If you need something fast and easy which will produce juice for you in a flash, go for a centrifugal juicer. If nutrients are the top priority and you don't mind waiting longer for the juice, go for a masticating or slow juicer.
What are the Key Features to Look for?
Dry pulp: juicers produce both juice and pulp. The pulp is the leftover flesh, fibers, and skins from the produce once the juice has been extracted. You want a juicer which produces dry pulp, as "the drier the pulp the more the juice".
Yield: this refers to how much juice the juicer is able to extract. Take a look through the customer reviews as they often provide great insight into how much juice is produced, as it's a sore spot with customers when the juice is measly. The product will most often provide a percentage or a general indication of the yield in the marketing materials. There's no true way to know until you take it home, but a high-quality construction and a slow grind (for masticating juicers) usually indicate a high, juicy yield.
Ease of use: take a look at the parts included in the juicer. Are there many? Do they look cumbersome to assemble and disassemble? Have a read of the instructions if a manual is available online, this is a great way to get a feel for what a juicer requires to function. If it sounds complicated and fiddly, it will be. Again, the customer review sections are a great place to find out how a machine fares with users in terms of ease and convenience. We've aimed to pick the juicers with the least complicated processes and the least amount of fiddly parts.
Cleaning features: sometimes, juicers can be a real pain to clean, especially if there are lots of nooks and crannies for pulp to get stuck in and juice to dry to a sticky mess. We've chosen the juicers which are easy to clean and come with cleaning-friendly parts you can throw in the dishwasher.
Best by Price Range
High-end Top Price
These models all belong to the high-end price category. They're all pretty popular and offer the best results for the money you hand over (and so they should, for crying out loud).
Kuvings BPA-free NJE3570U Masticating Slow Juicer
This model from Kuvings isn't crazy expensive but it's still worth a good chunk of cash. It has a nice and slow rpm of 80 which is great for extracting juice from a range of fruits and veggies (gristly greens included). But what's interesting about this model is that it can do much more than making juice. It has seven different nozzles for different functions like mincing and grinding, and it can even chop pasta.
The reason I've chosen this is that it's been designed to be easy to use as a juicer. You just chop the fruits and veggies into small-ish pieces and pop them down the chute. There's a "reverse" button to use if the chute gets a bit clogged, but apart from that, there is not much to get used to. The assembly is easy (as many reviewers have confirmed) and the clean-up is simple too. After you have mastered the juicing, you can move on to more uses like churning ice cream.
Top features
- Easy to use
- Easy to clean
- Reverse button for unclogging the chute
- 7 different nozzles for different functions (it's not just a juicer which is great for multitasking and saving space)
- Slow rotations for thorough nutrient extraction
Breville 800JEXL
This is a very popular model with many stellar reviews and for good reason. It is really easy to navigate because there are only two settings to choose from: high and low. All you need to remember is that the lower speed is best for softer, wetter produce and the higher speed is best for harder, less yielding produce. The chute is very generous so you can pop your fruits and veggies in without chopping them first, and push them down with the "pusher". It's got great safety features too, so there's not much you can do to ruin the machine or overheat the motor.
The clean-up is super easy too, you can even put some of the parts in the dishwasher. It is an expensive model (for a centrifugal juicer), but it does have a great yield. It's a good choice if you've got a big-budget and you want your juice fast.
Top features
- 2 speed options for hard and soft produce (low = 6,500 rpm, high = 13,000 rpm)
- Really easy to use and clean
- Large yield
- Really durable and high-quality
Omega Juicer NC900HDC Juicer Extractor and Nutrition Centre
This is a really expensive masticating juicer, but it is a very worthy purchase with a 15-year warranty. Like the Kuvings model, this is far more than just a juicer, which is why I think it deserves a spot on this list. It's really easy to use when extracting tasty, healthy juices at a slow rate of 80 rpm, yielding lots of juice and a dry pulp.
Happy customers rave about how easy it is to clean (some state it takes no more than 2 minutes) and how satisfyingly dry the pulp is. But back to the versatility. You can make nut butter, nut milk, grind coffee and spices, make pasta, and even make frozen desserts and baby foods. I think that if you're going to pay lots of money for an appliance, one which can come in handy for many different culinary needs is a smart choice.
And for beginners? Well, the juicing part is super simple, so you can conquer that first, then get into the other fun stuff.
Top features
- 15-year warranty
- 80 rpm slowly extracts nutrients without adding heat, keeping the enzymes intact
- Multi-tasking nutrition center for making nut butter, making pasta, and crushing spices
- Pulp ejects automatically
- Easy to clean
- Super dry pulp (which means lots of juice)
Middle Range
Argus Le Compact Design Masticating Slow Juicer
Customers love this masticating juicer, which is always a great sign...the best perhaps. It has a really high juice yield and a nice and slow rpm of 65. The clean-up is really easy and the juicing itself is simple too, which customers have confirmed. It's a well-made design, especially for a pretty decent price. If you're after a masticating juicer that is easy to clean and use but isn't overly expensive, this is a worthy choice.
Top features
- Comes with a sorbet filter so you can make frozen treats as well as juice
- 65 rpm for slow extraction and maximum nutrition
- Really easy to clean (Argus Le claims it takes only 3 minutes to disassemble and clean)
- Handles all kinds of produce including celery and wheatgrass.
Cuisinart CJE-100 Die Cast Juicer
A centrifugal juicer designed to be easy to use, and to be versatile with many different ingredients. It has a dial with 5 different speeds for different foods. The lowest speed is for the softest of foods and the highest is for the hardest (i.e. carrots). As it is a centrifugal juicer, the yield and nutrients may not be as great as that of an expensive, high-end masticating juicer, but it's certainly very good. If you need an easy model that can create juice in a flash with easy cleanup, then this is worth considering.
Top features
- 5 speeds for efficiently dealing with different kinds of ingredients according to hardness
- Die-cast stainless steel construction for long-lasting durability
- Easy to clean
- Produces juice fast
- Good yield (not the best in the world, but for an affordable centrifugal juicer it's great)
Cheap, Affordable Options
Now we get to one of the best parts, the juicers which are easiest on the wallet. These models are all affordable but still offer great features and beginner-friendly usage.
Hamilton Beach 67608A Juicer
Hamilton Beach has created a great, affordable centrifugal juicer that is fast and easy to use and clean. The large chute is big enough for whole fruits so you don't need to waste time chopping. The large pulp container is handy because you can make big batches of juice before having to empty the pulp. It's a great juicer for people who want their juice fast, and without spending more than you have to.
Top features
- 3-year warranty
- Large chute for fitting whole fruits
- Large pulp container for fewer trips to the compost or bin
- Most parts are dishwasher safe
- Comes with a cleaning brush for thorough, easy cleaning
- Stainless-steel cutter/strainer finely chops ingredients for a higher juice yield
- Can handle most ingredients including harder ones like ginger and carrot
- Really affordable
Cuisinart CCJ-500 Pulp Control Citrus Juicer
So, this one is slightly out of the blue. It's a citrus juicer. The reason I have included it is because it's incredibly easy to use, and extremely affordable. For some people, juicing is all about the OJ or the grapefruit juice, and not so much about the greens and multi-fruit mixes. I wanted to add a little something for all the citrus fanatics out there and this is a great choice. If you have citrus trees on your property you'll know the struggle of making the most of all the fruit during the abundant seasons.
This juicer is small enough and affordable enough to pop away into the cupboard during the "off-season" and bring out when the citrus comes piling into the fruit bowl. The pulp in citrus juice is a very personal thing, some love lots, some love none. As the name suggests, this juicer gives you options. You can choose how much pulp you want with a choice of high, medium, and low.
Top features
- Dishwasher-safe parts
- 3 pulp options (low, medium, and high)
- "Final spin" for extracting the most out of the pulp
- Brushed stainless steel construction
- Compact, neat, and easy to store away
- Great for all citrus, large and small
Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain
Here we have one of the most popular, most-reviewed juicers on the market. It's a centrifugal juicer with a really wide feed chute and super effective mesh cutting disks. It's really easy to use, you don't even need to chop the ingredients because the chute is big enough to pop them in whole. Customers have commented about how dry the pulp is and how rich and generous the juice is, which is what we want from a juicer, especially one with such an attractive price tag.
Top features
- Large feed chute for fitting whole produce
- Sharp and effective cutting disks for getting the maximum juice yield
- Dry pulp (which means lots of juice)
- Super affordable
Best Small Juicer You Can Travel With
If you want to take a juicer with you as you travel, you're not going to fit a centrifugal or slow juicer in your luggage or vehicle. However, what you can take is an appliance that borders on the line of blender...but still passes as a juicer with a little creativity. Take a look at what we've chosen and see what you think.
Juiceman JMB1000 Express Whole Juicer
This looks like a bullet blender at first glance. And yes, it can make awesome smoothies. But it can also blitz fruits and veggies to make a pretty great juice too. You can strain the juice if you like, but for convenience's sake, it's easier to drink it as is. You get two 24 oz BPA-free cups which are made of durable, sturdy Tritan plastic which can withstand rocky travels and multiple drops.
Top features
- Small, compact, and portable enough to take on trips
- Comes with sturdy cups and spill-free sip lids for drinking on the go
- Versatile: make juices or smoothies
- Really affordable
- Super easy to clean, just rinse the parts out or put them in the dishwasher
Conclusion
Hopefully, you've found yourself a few strong contenders to join your appliance family. Think about what kind of juice you want, how long you're willing to wait for it, and what you're prepared to pay. This will help you to narrow down the best models for you and your needs.
Before making the final choice, take a look at the customer reviews as you might find they confirm your choice or sway you to keep looking. But since we've chosen the best, chances are you won't come across any shockers from this list. Happy shopping and most of all, happy juicing.
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