Idiot's Guide to Buying a New Juicer

NOTE: This was my first post about juicers.  I wrote a second juicing post, Idiot's Guide to Buying a New Juicer Part 2, an updated, more "informed" (thanks to further research) guide on juicer-buying. 

For my 34^th birthday, my husband bought me a new juicer. We found a (seemingly) good buy at SM North Appliance Department store (Quezon City, Philippines):

It’s called The Jumpstart Juicer, a product tie-up between juicer-maker John Mills Limited (JML) of London and juicing advocate Brendan Mccarthy’s Jumpstart 7-Day Weight Loss Program. It was on sale at PhP 3,500 (regular price: 7k plus), and it’s a 3-in-1—the juicer comes with a blender and a food chopper (a mini-food processor of sorts, as they claim it can crush ice, grind whole cookies into bits, and the like).

It also comes with a BOOK about Mccarthy’s 7-day juice only diet, complete with very informative stuff on fruits, vegetables, and how consuming just juices made of these will keep us full for an entire 7 days, PLUS  recipes of juices targeted at whatever effect you want to achieve (detox? Stressbuster? Kidney / Liver Helth? Colon cleanse? It’s all here) and diet-friendly recipes for soups, smoothies, and even baby food. (I will share a few of these recipes in the future)

But wait, there’s more. The salesguy says, the buyer has lifetime warranty on the juicer’s motor, including whatever spare parts that require changing. You can come back anytime to their booth in SM to avail of free service AND parts.

Sounds like a very good buy, right? It’s a centrifugal turbo juicer, it’s not Matsone or Breville or Hurom, but for the price of 3,500, the whole package was very appealing. And the fact that it’s not made in China is a plus for me (no offense to the Chinese, but based on my numerous past experiences, stuff made in China break down faster than you can say "Kung hei fat choi"). So I jumped in and picked this one. And I’ve been using it quite successfully for two consecutive days.

But it’s too early to tell if this juicer will indeed do the job well. For now I can only say that I wish it had a bigger and more securely locked juice container. Compared to my old juicer, Fuji Tech,  Jumpstart’s juice container is not as sturdy.  

Then, on the third day I encountered a slight problem—all of a sudden the juicer seemed… very rattly. So much so that the loosely-locked juice container just toppled over and the juice spilled out! Now I’m not sure if this is my fault, if I hadn’t assembled the darn thing right, but I checked everything and all parts seemed to be in their proper place. The voltage was also correct—I plugged it on a 220v power source. So I’m not quite sure what happened. But I plan to go back to JML at SM North to consult the problem. I really hope that the fault is on my part—otherwise I’d feel really bad that I had allowed myself to get swayed by salestalk into buying something unworthy of our hard-earned money. I will post more updates on this juicer as I go along. Hoping that this juicer won’t let me down. As I was scouring around for JML Jumpstart feedback, I encountered this very insightful article about the benefits of buying a slow juicer. According to the article i mentioned, these are the things we should look for when buying a juicer: - able to juice all greens, herbs, and grasses (with high yield) - good to juice fruits, including soft varieties - cold pressed, to produce superior juice (because heat can kill enzymes in fruits and veggies, we don't get the maximum nutrient potential from fruits and veggies when we use high speed juicers) -  low speed (rpm or rotations per minute), to minimize oxidation and produce more long-lasting juice - able to make nut milks (um, i haven't explored that one yet) - easy to clean (amen!) - low noise   Just when we think that we're saving money from purchasing a more affordable centrifugal juicer, the article contends that we actually are spending more-- because slow juicers make more juice, and more juice means you spend less on fruits and vegetables. So if you're planning on making juicing a lifelong habit, I think investing in a cold press slow-juicer would be a smart move. (Sigh. I haven't even evaluated my new juicer's performance yet and I already feel stupid, not doing my research first before buying).  So maybe, just maybe, a really good windfall comes this way (so that I wouldn't feel too guilty making a dent on my savings), I will buy myself a reputable (albeit pricey) slow juicer. Because I want to be a juicer for life. We spend so much on junk food everyday, anyway. Why not invest on something that will make us healthier? In case my Jumpstart Juicer fails me, I'm setting my sights on this one: Hurom Slow Juicer DA 1000      And in case you’re also interested in buying your own juicer, I have compiled a list of what users on the worldwide web think are the best juicer brands and models  in the Philippines: 1. Matstone 8-in-1 Slow Juicer Combo - Retail price (on sale now) PhP 12,600  2. Hurom DA1000 Slow Juicer - Retail price PhP 11,000 3. Hurom  HU100 - Vertical slow masticating juicer - Retail price PhP 12,975 4. Breville Juce Fountain Max- Centrifugal high-speed juicer - Retail price (on sale now) PhP 8,370  5. Black & Decker JE55 - Centrifugal high-speed juicer - Retail price PhP 6,061 6. Koii Power Juicer HXT 168 - Centrifugal high-speed juicer - Retail price PhP 5,700 7. Geepas Juice Extractor GJE 3255 - Centrifugal high-speed juicer - Retail price (on sale) PhP 2699 Lesson learned: In this day and age when information is so easily accessible, do your RESEARCH first, before you buy.  Oh well. At least I have a brand new inspiring book and a whole new catalog of juice and soup recipes to try. Will post a few recipes from the Jumpstart Program as soon as I have sampled them. And yes, I AM thinking about taking on that 7-Day Weight Loss (Juices Only) Program. And give a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account. Who knows? I just might succeed. (Here's hoping!!!)