I bought a JE95xl Breville juicer earlier this year and shot some video of it.  Still haven’t gotten down to editing the video and rewriting the review.  I have to say I really like this machine even though it is a centrifugal.  The juice quality and juice yield might be less but for carrot juice it saves a lot of time.  I’ve been using it to quickly buzz through carrots, apples and ginger.  It is very fast and loud.  Kind of fun because of that.  One really nice simple feature is the splash-proof juice container that comes with it.  the spout loads into the container that has a lid.  It works great.  When I used just a glass and had the spout empty into that, juice drops spattered my kitchen counter.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the workmanship and materials used in this juicer.  The blades and filter basket are solid.  The sound of the juicing machine is solid.  It will probably last a very long time.  I can’t believe anyone after trying one of these Breville juicers out would even consider a Jack Lalanne power juicer of Juiceman juicer.  Those just don’t even compare to this and this machine is just a couple bucks more.

Full video and review coming soon!

The je95xl Breville is a good inexpensive centrifugal juicer.

The Breville je95xl juicer is sturdy and well made.

The filter basket is well made and not filmsy like the Jack Lalanne power juicer's basket is.

The spout empties into a juice container with a splash proof lid.

I bought a magic bullet juicer a couple weeks ago because people kept asking me about it and I was curious.  I’m in the process of doing a full review but I slapped this quick video together  Magic Bullet Juicer

This device is actually a little blender and not a true juicer.  I truly thought it was going to suck but I’m actually really liking it.  So far I’ve only made smoothies and ground some coffee with it.  I plan to cut up some carrots and try to juice those but I’m not expecting that to be too successful.

Some people prefer blending fruits and vegetables instead of juicing them.  They feel the fiber you get blending the produce is too valuable to waste.  I get that and sometimes I do blend instead of juice.  But the nutrition you get from juicing gets absorbed much faster into your body because there is not fiber to slow down the digestion.  Most of the time that is what I want.  I’ll eat a couple bites of fruit or vegetables to start the enzymes flowing into my stomach and to get some of the fiber.  Then I’ll drink the juice and that seems to work great for me.

This little blender juicer might be fine for getting a quick little glass of blended juice.  But I’ll have to review it further to find out if it works well for that.  It definitely does a fine job of making smoothies and grinding coffee.  Check out my quick video review to see Magic Bullet in action.

I started quest for the best juice extractor and website initially because I knew I needed to take better care of my health.  I needed a way to get more fruit and vegetables into my diet since I knew I wasn’t eating enough of them.  Unfortunately, as it turns out, I waited a bit too long to do this.

In a 5 month period I had several healthy scares or instances of unpleasantness.

I started losing weight quickly and my abdomen hurt when I ate.  In November of 2008 I first had my appendix removed.  It was done laparoscopically for which they filled my abdomen up with gas which is why it is so bloated. I don’t normally look like this.  In addition, they saved off all my stomach hair which was weird.

About December 2008 I started to feel crappy again and I was having the same kind of pain I had before the appendix was removed.  And the pain was in the same area. Plus the weight loss was still happening.   After about a month and a half of testing I finally had a colonoscopy done.  A tumor about the size of a ping-pong ball was found in my colon at the hepatic flexure.  Three days later on February 15, 2009 I found myself in the emergency room where I had a third of my colon removed.  The surgery is called a right hemicolectomy.  It seems that not only did I have the tumor but I also had intussusception happening.  This is where the colon actually was growing over itself or sleeving itself.  At this point I had dropped from 172 lbs to about 145 lbs.

Within another month I started to feel that something was wrong again.  After a couple of days where I felt like I had a fever and my lower back hurt, one evening I ended up dropping to the floor in pain.  I passed out for a couple hours but when I awoke I felt odd.  Every time I went to the bathroom things just didn’t feel right.  I started a whole new array of testing.  It took about a month and I finally passed a kidney stone that was about ¼ inch long.

During the testing for the what turned out to be the kidney stone it was discovered I had a hernia.  So the first week of June 2009 I went in for a hernia surgery.  This actually turned out to be the most painful for some reason.  The surgery didn’t hurt so much.  The recovery was rough though.  It was harder to move around due to the location of the wound from the hernia than the previous operations were.  And I made a bad mistake by not prepping properly before surgery.  I should have eaten nothing but vegetables and fibrous foods at least 3 days before surgery.  Reason being that everything needs to be able to pass through you easily after surgery.  I believe the anesthesia tends to clog you up and because you can’t push due to the location of the hernia wound, going to the bathroom is brutal.  Enough said.

So it has been an interesting year.  I guess I should have started using my Omega 8003 juicer sooner.

I was just looking at the Oscar Vital Max 900 and noticed that it seems to be almost the exact machine as the Omega 8003 and 8005 juicers.  (Which by the way are now the Omega 8004 and 8006 juicers.)  The motor bodies look the same.  The feeder assemblies look the same.  Even the majority of the accessories that come with the two models appear to be the same.

I know that the Omega VRT330 and the Hurom Slow Juicer are made in the same factory and are practically the same machine with just different brand names and different housings.   (If you haven’t seen one of these vertical juicers yet, you need to check them out.  They are very cool.  See my previous post for a photo.)  The Oscar Vital Max 900 and the Omega 8003/8004/8005/8006 juicers might also be made under similar conditions.  I haven’t been able to find out.

Either way, any of these juicers will work well for you.  My personal favorite the Omega 8003 juicer has now been upgraded to model number 8004.  The only real difference is a handle design change.  An auger that is 8 times stronger has been added and a 5 year extended warranty.  The warranty now runs a total of 15 years on the motor.  I’m not sure that the 8003 needed any of these adjustments.  I preferred the old handle more than the new one.  But in most cases things evolve for a reason.

In thinking about this further, I would probably still purchase an Omega over an Oscar for one main reason.  I can easily identify the Omega Company online.  I know where it is and know where I can get parts or help with a warranty.  The Oscar juicers seem to have some vagueness to who makes them.  At one point Samson was involved and took over the name.  However, when I go online and look up Oscar juicers or Oscar Vital Max 900 I get different sites that just seem to be selling them.  And the juicers look like they have different labels on them.  I’m not sure what to make of it but I personally would go with the Omega because of this unknown.

The Oscar Vital Max 900 seems to have fewer attachments. There are only two in this photo. All the other parts look identical to the Omega 8003 juicer. No brush or pulp strainer in this photo. Not sure if you get those or not with this model.

The Omega 8003 juicer comes with a pulp screen and the other four attachments for making pasta and other things.  I never use any of these attachments.  I’m strictly into the machine for the juicing.

There is an intriguing newer development in the single auger juicer. The vertical single auger juicer seems to be all the rage. Instead of the typical horizontal design the auger is set in a vertical position. The pulp is extracted and ejected right next to where the juice is released. It looks like a pretty cool design.

I’ve seen two brands on the market so far but there might be others. The Omega VRT330 juicer and the Hurom Slow Juicer both appear to have similar specifications. Both turn at about 80rpm and weigh about 20 pounds. But the Omega is a few bucks more than the Hurom. They both run about $100 more than the regular horizontal style juicers.

The biggest appeal to me with these juicers is the smaller area they take up on the counter. I do wonder if the pulp ejection tube is far enough away from the juice delivery tube. They seem awfully close.

Like all single auger juicers these new vertical juicers can juice wheatgrass and other leafy green vegetable very well. I’ve found some claims that they juice fruit much better than other auger juicers but I tend to doubt this. I’m sure they are about the same.

Anyway, I haven’t tried one out yet. It will probably be a while before I get a chance to. If I had to pick which one I’d get right now without knowing anything more about these juicers, I’d take the Omega. I am very impressed with Omega as a company. But I have to say Hurom does look pretty good and they have some excellent comparison videos to show off their machine. Yeah, that’s a hard call right now. I think either would be good. That’s my first take.

This is part 2 of my Omega 8003 juicer review on video.  In this video you witness the Omega 8003 juicing more vegetables of different densities.  You can see how well it juices leafy greens like spinach and parsley which most juicers don’t do well at all.  The slow moving auger of this juicer is perfect for this kind of stuff.  It crushes the produce gently and slowly into the juicing cone.  The video shows this process up close.  I just love this machine.  It is not a fast juicing machine and you do spend a little more time with prep but it is worth it because the juice yield is higher.  And the juice quality is better because the vegetables and fruit aren’t shredded to bits but instead are slowly crushed.  Many feel this process is better for extracting the juice from the vegetable walls and I tend to agree with that.

If you compare this juice extractor with the others I’ve done videos on, I think you’ll see why it is the best choice.

I’ve got a Jack Lalanne juicer, a Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95xl juicer and a Green Star gs1000 juicer videos

I finally finished my video review of the Omega 8003 juicer.  This is Part 1.  This is by far the best juicer I’ve come across so far.  It is able to juice everything well and especially leafy green vegetables like kale, spinach, parsley and beet greens.  I’m impressed with the workmanship, the 10 year warranty and how easy this juicer is to use.  As you can see in Part 2 (coming soon) of my juicer video reviews it is the fastest to clean as well.  Also I doubt there is a quieter juicer on the market. 

This is a juicer that will last forever and is priced just right for a serious machine.  It is a $100 more than a Jack Lalanne juicer and a lot better quality than those which don’t last and aren’t very well made.  The same price as a Champion juicer which would be a bad purchase to make in my opinion because the machine doesn’t work that well. (See my video reviews of that.  You’ll be shocked.  I was.)   And it is $200 less than a Green Star gs 1000 twin gear juicer and easier to clean.  (See my video on the Green Star juicer in a couple weeks.)

Here is the second half of the Champion Juicer 2000+ review that I did a while ago.  I haven’t been here for quite a while.  I had some serious health issues.  Turned out I had a colon tumor the size of a ping-pong ball.  I don’t know how long it had been there but it was almost completely blocking my colon off.  It did not feel good.  The pain was unbearable and put me into emergency about 6 weeks ago.  Surgery seemed to go pretty well although I’m still recovering.  The whole experience was bizarre and continues to be strange.  I’m in the process of writing about it on my www.jamesrubel.com blog.  It does again point to just how important it is to take care of ourselves.  I did almost everything right and I still got sick.  Juicing is becoming even more critical to keeping our bodies in good health.

Anyway, so I’m back and I’ve got videos for 3 new juicers coming soon.  I’m redoing the Omega 8003 juicer review because I didn’t like the footage very much.  I can do it better.  And I’ll be putting up videos for the Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95xl juicer and Jack Lalanne Power Juicer soon.  Both of these juicers are centrifugal juicers but even though they are similar in price, they had huge differences as to quality.  I’m surprised by the quality issues many American companies seem to be suffering.  I find it quite upsetting and in the videos I let it be know my true feelings.  Look for those soon.

I recently finished this video review of the Braun Mp80 juicer.  This juice extractor has been a great little machine and a good introductiion to juicing for me when I got it.  However, I don’t think Braun even makes it anymore and besides there are much better juicers available now.  Granted the better ones like the Omega 8003 or Breville juicers are more money, they just offer a much better quality juice and juicing experience. 

The reason I did the video was to show basically how a centrifugal juicer works and to let people compare it to other juicers like the Champion, Brevilles or Omegas.

I finally finished my Champion 2000+ juicer review video. This is Part 1 above. Part 2 will be up soon. Shortly I’ll be upgrading my Champion 2000+ juicer text review too to reflect what I discovered during my use of this household juicer. To be honest, I was not impressed by this machine. It works and you can get by with it but there are many juicers on the market that are just a lot better in my opinion. I’m a bit puzzled as to why everyone doing juicer reviews seems to pay lip service when they write reviews about it. The juicer design seems outdated and it isn’t very effective in it’s processing of fruit and vegetables when compared to the Omega 8003 or 8005 juicers, the Breville juicers or the Greenstar twin gear juicers. Check out the video(s) and see what you think.