How to choose Juice Extractor?

Juice extractors (juicers) can cost from under $100, to over $700.

What fruits and vegetables do you want to use to extract juice?

There are basically four categories with four different answers

1. Citrus fruits

Orange, Lemon, Grapefruit

You can cut the fruit in half. You can turn the fruit on a fixed reamer to extract juice. You can put the fruit on a electric reamer where the reamer rotates by a motor to extract juice.

Lastly, you can peel the fruit, cut it up and use Hard Food Juicer.

2. Dense, low liquid content soft fruits

Avocado, Papaya, Banana

These fruits are low in liquid content. Primary objective is to make a puree or a smoothie. You need to use either an electric blender or a food processor.

3. Hard foods, and Citrus fruits

Apples, Apricots, Carrots, Cucumbers, Mangoes, Pineapples Watermelons, Orange, Lemon Grape fruit.

Peel fruits, remove pits stones seeds

Use Centrifugal Juice Extractors

Centrifugal Juice Extractor

The food enter through a feeding chute.

It has a flat round disc that shreds up the food just like in most of the food processors. It enters a chamber with tiny holes and spins at high speed ( 3,000 to 7,500 RPM) to separate the solids and the juice. The juice is collected in a chamber on the bottom stationary part.

Some of the models come with 'pulp ejector', where the solids are automatically ejected out of the unit when full.

Pulp ejector reduces the time to make large amount of juice. However, it may waste away up to 20% of the juice.

4. Hard foods, Citrus fruits, and Leafy vegetables

Apples, Apricots, Carrots, Cucumbers, Mangoes, Pineapples Watermelons, Orange, Lemon Grape fruit, Wheat grass, Peppermint leaves

Use Masticating Juice Extractors, or Triturating juice extractors

Masticating Juice Extractors

Price: Medium Range

These are also called single gear juicers.

When you put food in your mouth, you masticate (chew) food. Instead of masticating between your teeth, a worm like gear pushes the food against a stainless steel screen. The gear rotates at about 80 to 120 RPM.

Triturating juice extractors

Price: High end

These are also called Twin-gear juicers.

The food enters a rather small feeding chute, to slow down from over stuffing it. It has two gears that rotate at about 80 to 160 RPM, inward about 0.1 mm apart. The gears basically crush (grind) the food into fine particles. The low speed does not cause oxidation , or loss of enzymes. The crushing to fine particles allows the juice to be extracted from even leaves.

Comparison of Centrifugal, Masticating and Triturating juice extractors

1. Centrifugal juice extractors are cheaper than either Masticating or Triturating juice extractors.

2. Centrifugal juicers are noisy, must have powerful motor (400 Watts minimum) to effectively spin the chamber.

The high speed causes oxidation. Nutritionists believe that oxidation destroys enzyme. The shredding disc, does not chop the food fine enough to extract juice from leaves.

The yield is less when compared to masticating or triturating juice extractors

3. The centrifugal juice extractors do not chop up the food fine enough to extract juice from herbs or leaves.

4. The Masticating juice extractors utilize slow speed results in lesser loss to the enzymes and nutrients than the centrifugal extractors.

The yield is about 20% higher than the centrifugal juicers, with almost no loss to natural nutrients.

5. The Triturating juice extractors are most efficient with no loss to enzymes and nutrients.

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