Healthy Juicer - Manual Hand Powered Wheatgrass Juicer - Wheat grass juicer
by Lexen
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Our Price: $44.95 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $41.99 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Healthy Juicer - Manual Hand Powered Wheatgrass Juicer - Wheat grass juicer
Customer Review: the best
Summary: 5 Stars
i love it not because it was affordable but because of the end result...love it, love it, love it...Customer Review: great price
Summary: 5 Stars
fast shipping, thanks. got it in two days. also, it cranks out some juice.Customer Review: AWESOME JUICER!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Thanks guys! Saved me a ton of money. works like a charm...A+ bargain.Customer Review: Compact, efficient; hopper's a bit small (updated review)
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros:
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1. Very compact: It takes less counter/table space than a small plate. Most of the electrics (except the L'Equip mini and the Waring JEX 328) are major space hogs.
2. Very efficient: Masticating juicers extract more juice than the centrifugal models. Perhaps more importantly, they do a better job of crushing tough plant cell walls and releasing enzymes - think minced garlic versus chopped garlic. (Whether or how much added health benefits this results in, depends on what you juice. It's hard to get good info on this, but plant enzymes typically help in breakdown and better absorption of nutrients.)
3. Cheap (Check out their Ebay listing - it's $10 cheaper over there.) If you don't want to drop upwards of $250 on an electric masticating juicer, or aren't sure whether you'll stick to it, this one's worth a try.
4. Easy to clean
Cons:
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1. The hopper's a bit small, which means you'll be reloading frequently. This seems to be the trouble with masticating juicers in general (including the electrics), but the Z-star manual juicer (also available on amazon, though at twice the cost) has a somewhat bigger hopper.
UPDATE: see effort section below.
2. As I haven't used this long enough, I can't say how durable it is, though it seems very tough and well-made. (The auger tip and the surface it crushes against are both stainless steel, and all the rest is polycarbonate.)
Juicing effort:
Turning the handle: Effortless for leafy veggies, very little effort for carrots and firm veggies, provided you cut them into smaller pieces first. Don't expect to be able to throw a whole carrot or radish in. The reviewer that claims that you need to be a weightlifter to turn this thing was funny, but wildly off the mark.
UPDATE: Curiously enough, on trying red cabbage, the juicer groans, esp. with largish pieces. I noticed that the juicing effort is quite sensitive to the size of the pieces - with smallish pieces, not only is less turning effort required, but the produce doesn't need pushing either. This lets you feed and crank the handle at the same time, making the process faster.
All in all, though, this idiosyncracy counts as a negative point, and I'm lowering my rating to 4 stars.
UPDATE 2: When juicing cabbage, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the chopped cabbage - this completely eliminates the groaning (which happens due to friction between the rubbery leaves and the juicer body).
Cleaning: better than the electrics in this department because of fewer parts and simpler design. Cleanup is a major part of juicing effort, so I count this as a pro.
Cutting: For firm veggies, you'll have to cut them into smaller parts (no perfect julienne required; just a quick, sloppy chop would do.) Even so, this adds a little bit to the effort, so if you primarily want to juice firm veggies, you should look at an electric.
Setup: Very easy (again, from the simpler design).
Customer Review: This juicer is totally sweet and awesome.
Summary: 4 Stars
So, from what I gather, you've pretty much got two kinds of juicers: centrifugal, and macerating; with centrifugal juicers being generally of the high-rpm electric grating/spinning variety, and macerating juicers being generally of the low-rpm auger (think drill-bit)/press variety.
The important thing here (again, from what I gather), is that, due to the friction/heat inherent in how they operate, centrifugal juicers tend to destroy the beneficial enzymes normally found in fresh produce; whereas macerating juicers, due to their low rotational speed/temperatures, do not. Additionally, macerating juicers are not only more efficient than their centrifugal counterparts (thus, using less produce/producing more juice), but also extract juice from the nutrient-rich peel of your produce, yielding a 'healthier' juice overall.
With that, it's obvious that macerating juicers are totally sweet and awesome, while centrifugal juicers are pretty lame. Or at least, macerating juicers are totally sweet and awesome, if you're ready to drop ~$250+ on one.
This, of course, is where the 'Healthy Juicer' comes in. At less than 1/4 of the cost of most electrical macerating juicers, it certainly seems like a steal... but is it all just too good to be true?
As for that: I'm happy to say, while not 'a steal', per se, the 'Healthy Juicer' is certainly a good deal. There is some prep-work involved insofar as chopping your produce into the smaller pieces that this juicer can handle, but I've run thorough apples, carrots, beets, cucumbers, grapes, celery, lemons, oranges, and leafy greens; and the unit has worked wonderfully: the pulp comes out dry, the juice is delicious, and clean-up is quick and easy.
That said, my only complaints about the 'Healthy Juicer' are that it could stand to be a bit larger (allowing for larger bits of produce), and made of less plastic/more metal. All-and-all, this juicer deserves a solid 4-stars for being a great deal, and for working 100% as-advertized.
The end.