Among the different small kitchen appliances, juicersoffer an excellent way to introduce more fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet. Compared to standard kitchen blenders, the best juicers for your home extract nutritious liquid from produce while striking a balance between such factors as speed, noise level and ease of cleanup. It's confusing, however, to compare juicers and figure out the best one for your home needs. This guide features several things to consider when purchasing a juicer for your home.
Judge Your Juice Preferences
When choosing the best juicer machine for your kitchen, consider the kinds and quantities of juice that you and your family will drink.
- If you want to start mornings with a glass of fresh juice from various fruits or vegetables without a lot of waiting, try a centrifugal juicer.
- If you’re interested in the health benefits of wheatgrass, kale and other leafy greens, and want the nutritious green juice to stay fresh longer, consider a masticating or slow juicer.
- If you plan to make juice from grapefruit, oranges, lemons and limes, consider a citrus juicer.
Whichever type of juicer you choose, recycle the leftover fruit or vegetable pulp in recipes for broths, smoothies, muffins, dip and more.
Centrifugal Juicers
Centrifugal juicers extract liquid from produce by shredding pulp against a stainless steel juicing screen that spins at high rpms (revolutions per minute). The centrifugal force brings out the juice quickly, but the high-speed mechanism tends to make these devices noisy, comparable to coffee grinders. This is the most affordable type of juicer and a good choice if you're new to juicing.
- The best centrifugal juicers are effective at extracting juice from apples, carrots and celery while being less expensive than other styles.
- Centrifugal juicers are easy to assemble and take apart for cleaning.
- The high-speed process adds oxygen to the juice, which breaks down enzymes and nutrients (and makes the juice foamier). These juices are best when consumed within 15 minutes, and some juice fans find that the flavors do not keep as well overnight, even if refrigerated in a sealed container.
Centrifugal injection juicers offer a design variation with a larger capacity.
Masticating Juicers
Masticating juicers are also known as slow juicers or cold press juicers and use a single auger or gear to crush the produce and extract juice. They operate at much lower rpms (as low as 45, compared to hundreds of rpms for centrifugal juicers), causing less oxygenation and thus retaining more of the juice’s nutrients. The juice produced is less foamy and thicker than juice from a centrifugal juicer.
- The best slow juicers juice leafy greens and wheatgrass, making them very popular with those who want to find creative ways to incorporate green vegetables into their diet.
- The best masticating juicer may include options for making other items such as pasta, nut butter or baby food.
Triturating Juicers
Triturating or twin-gear juicers are a specialized kind of masticating juicer that can work even more slowly, using a pair of interlocking roller gears to extract the liquid. This means that you don't have to cut up and prep fruits and vegetables, saving you time. One of the best juicers for greens, it can have the highest yield of liquid, but tends to be the slowest and most expensive kind of extractor.
Citrus Juicers
A citrus juicer is designed for citrus fruits such as grapefruit, oranges, lemons and limes.
- Handheld citrus juicers are compact and particularly useful if your main goal is to make lemon or lime juice for recipes.
- Electric juicers or handheld juicers powered by handles are more efficient at squeezing greater volumes of juice.
Special Features
In seeking the perfect juicer for your tastes, consider these special features:
- Wide-mouthed juicers can accommodate larger pieces of produce in the feed tube, thus requiring less chopping of ingredients, and reduces prep time.
- A pulp selection feature allows the user to determine how much pulp the juice will contain.
- Speed controls tailor the operation for harder produce like apples (which may need faster juicing) or softer items like oranges (for slower juicing).
- Dishwasher safe parts that are easy to disassemble prove much easier than cleaning by hand.
- A high-capacity, built-in juice jug can contain more liquid, thus reducing the amount of produce you need to juice at a time.
As a specialized kind of food processor, shop The Home Depot Mobile App to determine the best juicerfor your kitchen based on your specific needs, whether you want a fresh glass of orange juice in the morning or to plan a regimen of regular juice cleanses. Both centrifugal or masticating juicers are available at The Home Depot,so you can compare which vegetables and fruits you want against speed, price, nutrition and other factors. Once you’ve selected the best juicer machine for your home, it won’t take you long to enjoy the fresh flavors and health benefits of juicing.