Buying a juicer

Over the past month, I’ve been getting to grips with my Breville Pro Juicer that came from the wonderful folks at Argos. I’ve been posting my juicing photos on instagram and a few of you popped up to ask which juicer to buy. A month ago I was asking the exact same thing.

Now, I’m no expert on this but I’ve done my research and I’m more than happy with my choice so I thought I’d share a few pointers with you and hopefully help some of you out.

The most important thing about juicing is obviously the machine. The easier your juicer is to use, the more you’ll be inclined to use it. This means that making a bit of an investment really pays off. Mine was £99.99 but if the features it has means I’ll use it daily, I think that’s justified.

The key feature when choosing a juicer is the motor. Mine is 1000 watt which is the strongest of all that Argos sell. It flies through even the hardest fruit and veg with no chopping or pushing required. It also makes sure we get as much juice as possible out of whatever we choose to put in it, which saves us money in the long term.

Powerful motors do however mean these things can ‘jump’ off the work top. I read a few reviews on Amazon about this happening with other models so I went for one with suction pads on the bottom to make sure it doesn’t budge an inch. That leaves both hands free to put the ingredients in.

You also need to think about the width of the shoot, that changes the amount of prep work involved. As soon as something needs cutting up there’s more things to wash and more time involved. I can throw whole oranges in to mine and the machine doesn’t even blink. Go for something that will let you do that too.

If cleaning your juicer is hard work, you’re going to tire of using it pretty quickly. Ideally, all the bits that are going to come in contact with the juice and pulp need to be removable, that way you can throw them all in the sink for a rinse through. Mine came with a special brush to scrub the blade basket which is particularly handy if you’re going to be hand washing. You don’t want to get your fingers anywhere near that bad boy, it’s sharp!

The last thing to think about is the size of the juicer. Will it live on the work top or will you need to find the storage room? The Breville juicer that I chose is quite bulky but that was a feature we forfeited for the stronger motor and I’m happy we made that choice. I guess that’s always the way when choosing appliances.

Do you have a juicer? I’d love to know if you have any more advice to add. Look out for another post next week where I’ll be sharing my favourite juices and a few tips when picking ingredients.