Juicers

When I get asked the question of what juicer is the best to buy? I usually respond with, “it all depends on what you want to do with it!” There are a lot of juicers out there and there is not just one juicer that is perfect for everyone. I actually did quite a bit of research when deciding on the juicers that we have in our kitchen and I came up with what I think are high quality, versatile machines, with reasonable prices and great warranties.

Yes, you did read correct, I said “JUICERS” (plural) and that is because I actually have four. A friend said it best when she said, “some women buy shoes…I happen to buy kitchen appliances.” Well I would have to agree with that statement, but not just any kitchen appliances and not frivolously; Each new addition to our kitchen has been well thought out and purchased to fill a desire for more effective and efficient whole foods, plant based cooking. The juicers that we have serve multiple purposes and so they get used very frequently and that to me, means at least 3 or 4 times a week.

At the end of this page, I make reference to some places where you can go for more information on different types of juicers but for now, I would like to share with you the juicers we have and why I am grateful for each of them and the services they provide.

OMEGA VRT 350HD

This was our first juicer and here are some of my favourite features/uses:

• SLOW TURNING: This juicer is a great all around vertical, masticating juicer that spins at 80 RPM. This slow turning feature is nice because it makes it a quiet juicer that will not wake up the whole household first thing in the morning and because there is no risk of denaturing or destroying the living elements of raw juices due to heat that can be generated by other centrifugal, fast spinning, high impact juicers. I must say that quiet is somewhat relative in this case as you will hear a squeaking noise if you are juicing a lot of greens, but in comparison to a centrifugal juicer which sounds like an airplane taking flight, this thing is quiet as a mouse.

• NUT MILKS: It is especially great for making nut milks such as almond milk and coconut milk (which was one of the selling features for me).

• WIDE MOUTH OPENING: It does a great job of fruits & vegetables with less preparation necessary as the feeding shoot is larger than most juicers which means less cutting & preparation of the vegetables before feeding them through.

• EASY TO CLEAN & EASY TO USE: It really doesn’t take much effort and time to clean this juicer and with some parental supervision, even my little chefs can help making juices.

• GREAT WARRANTY: It has a 10 year warranty which you don’t see on most products these days.

• FRUITS & VEGETABLES: The Omega VRT 350HD does a great job on both fruits & vegetables with very little waste.

Although I love this juicer and would recommend it to many, there are a few things that you should know for full disclosure.

• PULP: The 350 HD, although not as bad as many, does create a slightly pulpy juice so if you don’t like any pulp in your juices, you will need to strain your juice with a fine mesh strainer or nut milk bag after juicing. My kids and I don’t like a lot of pulp but my husband does, so this really is a personal preference.

• FOAM: This juicer is less foamy than some, but more foamy than others. I find that although it can do the job, it is not my favorite juicer for doing lots of greens such as wheat grass as I don’t like too much foam when drinking them.

A few tips for using this juicer:

• It works best to alternate soft and hard fruits and vegetables as the softer fruits can have a tendency to back up if pushed through too quickly. This is minor though.
• Celery strands tends to clog up the pulp discard shoot and although this doesn’t much affect the juice, this is preventable by cutting it into smaller pieces before feeding through. (This is one time, it’s worth the prep)
• If you accidentally push things through too quickly and the machine stalls, just simply press the main switch into reverse for a few seconds and then switch it back to normal and it should push through. (It may take a few times before it continues forward).

• *There is now a newer version called the VRT 400 HDS Juicer with a stirring & mixing feature. I’ve never used or reviewed the newer version so I can’t comment but I’m very happy with the 350HD so i’d imagine it’s great as well. You can however still buy the 350HD and it’s a bit cheaper than the 400HDS.

OMEGA 8006 NUTRITION CENTER JUICER

If I absolutely had to pick only one juicer, it would be a hard decision but I would probably go with this one because of its versatility and multi-functionality. The more I use it, the more I fall in love. Here are some of my favorite features/uses:

• GREAT for GREENS: I love using this juicer when I’m doing a lot of greens, especially for wheat grass juice as it extracts very well and does not produce a lot of pulp and/or foam.

• HOMOGENIZING or BLANK PLATE: Because of the homogenizing plate, this machine can go beyond just juicing, to shredding, mincing, grinding and blending. Some of our favourite alternative uses are:

• SHREDDED COCONUT: We love making our very own full fat, shredded coconut free from added preservatives.

• NUT FLOURS & BUTTERS: This omega will turn nuts into nut flour/meal with one pass through and then eventually nut butters with multiple passes.

• RAW COCONUT BUTTER, CREAM & OIL: This machine combined with a dehydrator or oven, is great for making your own homemade raw coconut butter, cream and oil. It is not however, the best tool for coconut & almond milk, but can still do them. (The Omega Vrt 350 HD is better for milks.)

• PASTA: With the included multiple endplates, you can make a variety of different shaped, extruded home made pasta’s with very little effort.

• BABY FOOD: Great for blending up baby food from fresh or cooked fruits & vegetables in minutes.

• HEALTHY FROZEN SORBETS & ICECREAMS: Our favorite is Banana Cherry Ice Cream

• FRUITS & VEGETABLES: This machine does both fruit & vegetables very well, however the feed shoot is smaller so more prep time is required to prepare fruit & vegetable juices. (We love doing carrot juice in the Omega 8006 for adding to soups or just drinking straight. Even the kids will drink it straight.)

• EASY TO CLEAN: This machine is very quick and easy to clean (about two minutes or less)

• EASY TO STORE: The 8000 series is smaller and lighter in weight than other popular juicers.

• GREAT WARRANTY: This machine comes with a 15-year warranty.

The Omega 8006 and 8004 are the same juicer but different colors. The 8006 is chrome colored and the 8004 is white. The Omega 8005 and 8003 are the older versions of this same machine. We have the Omega 8006 and love it.

ORANGE X now called OLYMPUS CITRUS PRESS JUICER

I also really enjoy having this juicer in the kitchen because it makes a relatively quick job of doing fresh squeezed orange, grapefruit, lemon or lime juice. Although it is a manual press and requires a small amount of elbow grease, because the only prepping involved is cutting the citrus in half, a lot of times we will choose this over the electric juicers for citrus fruits. I haven’t tried pomegranates with it yet but I bet it would work great (but I’d be sure to have an apron on for splatter control). One secret to using this press is to not get citrus that is overly big. This machine works most efficiently with moderately sized citrus; so don’t go choosing the biggest grapefruit & oranges you can find.

The HEALTHY JUICER

This is our fourth and last juicer which is a manual masticating juicer and actually does a very good job of juicing wheatgrass and other greens. I am an advocate of having food storage & being prepared for emergencies, so this to me is considered part of our food storage since sprouting seeds & growing micro greens would be an excellent way of getting essential vitamins, minerals & other nutrients in lean times without the need for electricity. This has a mechanism that clamps and suctions to counter tops so that it stays stable while turning and works like a charm. It is also very easy to clean and is very reasonably priced.

So there you have it, our favourite juicers. If you would like to read more about Juicing in general, please see Smoothies and Juicing or check out some of our Juicing Recipes HERE.

You can purchase all 4 juicers in Canada at:

Upaya Naturals -online raw food store (a great resource) with free shipping in Canada for orders over $100.00

Raw Nutrition -online store with free shipping in Canada for orders over $100.00.

Or you can Purchase all 4 juicers within the USA from AMAZON or DISCOUNT JUICERS.COM 

If you would like to learn more about all the different types of juicers available, a good place to start would be to read this article by John Coler from Discount Juicers Dot Com. It’s perhaps a little dated as to the most current models, but it explains vary well about the different types.

Here is one of Johns many videos comparing various juicers, that talks about the different kinds and would be a great place to start researching if you are interested in purchasing a juicer.