There are 3 things that influenced my decision:
- Cleaning the Juicer
- How Powerful the Juicer Was
- What Kind of Things Could I Juice
Cleaning the Juicer
Most of these juicer infomercials make things look simple...even the cleaning process. Is it as simple as soaking it in water or spraying it off? Nope. For the most part, many of these juice machines don't allow you to clean them with ease. For many, there's a screen that separates the pulp fiber from the juice. That screen is was creates the hassle.
Some people I know don't clean their machines at all. They juice daily or throughout the day and don't have the time to clean it after each use.
Juice Power
As you might imagine, various juicers have different levels of power. Most of the entry level juice machines aren't worth it in my opinion unless you're just doing soft fruits like the citrus variety. Once you get into juicing fruits like apples and carrots, you'll need power. Some machines claim they can juice these, but what happens is that the smaller motors have the tendency to fail over a short period of time. The more powerful the motor, the more you'll be likely to spend.
What Can You Juice?
A couple years back, I was temped to buy directly from an infomercial. I ended up doing some research before ordering and I discovered that the machine had a tiny feed which meant that only small fruits or sliced up fruits could be inserted into the machine.
I wanted things to be easy. I've seen some commercials where they just stick a whole apple into the machine. However, could you do this with huge Fuji apples? For most...you can't. How about the seeds...do you have to remove them before juicing? Can the machine handle that well? So do, some don't.
Why Juice Anyways?
After running across the Vita-Mix 5200, I asked myself...why juice? I love carrot juice...but how many carrots do you have to go through. I ended up going to a local smoothie shop that offered carrot juice. They loaded a bucket with a few pounds of carrots just to make a tall glass of juice for me (that's without adding a water and diluting it). After that experience, I realized that there wasn't much cost savings of me making it, nor did I get the full nutritional value of the carrot.
What was missing? The fiber! A lot of us don't get enough fiber in our diets. In other fruits, even the seeds provide fiber and other nutrients.
So I decided to not juice after all.
