Buying Guides - Juicers

We are always hearing about how we need to have five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Having a glass of freshly squeezed juice is a perfect way to help get to that target. Fresh juice made at home contains more nutrients than the processed, pasteurised and concentrated juices you find in the supermarket. Making your own juice can also be great fun! You can choose exactly the ingredients, and the quantity you want.

Electricshopping.com sells juicers starting at around £20 right the way up to £250, so lets spend a moment looking at the various types and the difference between them.

There are three main types of juicer. The first is Citrus juicers, which look and work like old fashioned twist-hand juicers. These can be electric or manual. Citrus juicers are also often the cheapest, as they are only designed to deal with soft citrus fruits like oranges and lemons.

Centrifugal juicers use a shredding disc, and a strainer. They work by spinning very fast, thereby pushing the fruit to the side of the machine, and squeezing the juice out this way. They will often also eject the pulp from the fruit into a waste container, but you may find that juicers that do not eject the pulp may produce more juice then ones that do. The pulp can then be disposed of, or can be used to make the base for sauces and dips.

Single gear or Masticating juicers crush the fruit or vegetables to the side walls using a turning auger and then pass it through a filtering screen. This type of juicer often produces the most juice and with the least foam. However, they are harder to come by and few manufacturers make them for domestic use; they are also the most expensive.

Other juicer facts...

If you would like to juice hard vegetables, you need to select a juicer that is capable of doing this. As they often have to have a sturdy build and also have a high power motor. Lookout for this in our product description. Also, do you like bits in your juice? If so, look for one that does not remove the pulp.

A relatively new feature for some of the top end models is a large chute. This means that you don't have to cut the fruit as you place them into the machine. For example, you could just put a whole apple in, pips and all! At the time of writing, juicers like the Breville JE4, Kenwood Vita Pro and Jack La Lanne juicers all have this feature.

Finally, consider how easy it is to clean the juicer once you have finished. If it takes a long time, you are more likely not to use the juicer often. Most will have around 5 parts that need washing in warm water and a few models are dishwasher safe.