Breville Dual-Disc Juice Extractor Review

Okay.  This is my final juicer review for a while.  The next post about a kitchen appliance will be directed towards blenders and man, do I have a lot to say about blenders.  Not surprising, you’re probably thinking to yourself.  Yeah, I talk alot but it is just my nature. Back to the issue at hand.  After working through the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Classic and the Champion Juicer (both reviews you will find in earlier blog posts) I set out on a search for a juicer which would combine good qualities from both juicers and eliminate most of the bad. 

I researched through at least a dozen different juicers from the very inexpensive to the extremely expensive.  It is perplexing to me that at one point my “make or break” feature was that the machine needed to be able to juice wheat grass.  Wheat grass?  Yes, wheat grass.  Here’s a newsflash people, I have had 1 shot of wheat grass in my entire life and didn’t really enjoy it that much.   Perhaps it was a touch of my OCD shining through, but for a couple days all other juicers were eliminated from the field.

Once my good sense returned, I began to really knock the competition out of the field.  After twelve days of painful deliberation my wife finally chose for me.  She said simply “I’m going to Williams-Sonoma today to get that juicer.  Do you want to come?”  Do I want to come?  Woman, I am master of my domain.  I am man.  I am a man who  has spent twelve days waffling between four juicers.  OK, I said.  When are you going and I’ll meet you there.  **Sigh.**  Although I didn’t check, apparently my balls were still carefully packed up in her purse.

Needless to say, when we arrived at Williams-Sonoma I was like a moth drawn to a flame.  The fabled Breville Dual-Disc Juice Extractor.  Even the name is cool.  Nothing wimpy like the Champion Juicer.  This is a juice extractor.  Yes.  I had visions of airbrushing flames and skulls on this bad mo-fo.  That’s normal for someone to think about with a juicer- right?

So here’s the deal.  This unit is pretty heavy-duty.  Unlike the Power Juicer Classic, the bulk of the parts are made of metal.  Metal just cleans up easier.  This unit also has a dial that allows the user to change the speed of the blade to accommodate different types of produce.  Slower for the more fleshy produce like oranges, medium speed for things like pears and the high speed for hard foods such as carrots.  For a guy who really likes shiny flashy, this is a big draw.  Some of the key components which makes it stand apart from the Champion Juicer begin with being a self contained unit.  The pulp collector feels like it is part of the entire unit.  The produce chute is also very large compared to the teeny-tiny chute found on the Champion Juicer.  Saves an incredible amount of time on prep.  And this unit just absolutely crushes through the produce every morning.

Let’s get into the nuts and bolts of this machine.  It is heavy and appears to be made with quality craftsmanship.  Attention has been spent on the little details, like where the pulp collector connects to the main body of the unit.  It is a perfect fit.  The maceration basket is easy to get in and out of the machine with no tools necessary.  It has enough power to grind a cinder block, I am sure.  I love the fact that the produce chute is giant.  Although I can’t fit an entire apple down the chute like they show in the advertisement, I can fit a half an apple or an entire peeled orange which is nice. It isn’t the first time an advertisement has lied to me, so I don’t feel despondent or put off by the false advertisement.

Here are the pros and cons of this unit, straight from the hip:

Pros:
1. The unit is heavy duty and I think will last a very long time making quality juice.
2. There is enough power to juice just about anything you can think of.
3. The Breville Juice Extractor is well put together with many of the details thought through carefully.
4. Juicing quickly is the name of the game. Nothing stands a chance.
5. Easy clean up. The juicer comes with a brush to clean out the maceration basket and it works great. The other pieces clean up really quickly with warm water. The juice collector can go in the dishwasher for a quick cleanup as well.
6. Huge produce chute makes prep time super fast.
7. Dual-disc setup allows for pulping of softer items like raspberries, prunes, blueberries etc without the bulk of the product going to waste. This is important if you plan on juicing a lot to allow for greater variety. I juiced a banana the other day! No joking. A banana.
8. Multi-speed setup. Although this feature is somewhat of a waste, it is cool to use and in my mind it extracts more juice from the produce. Who knows really- but I tend to follow the directions and my juice is pretty good.
9. The quality of the juice is very good. It has the right mouth-feel and consistency. It is exactly like what you would get from a commercial grade machine at a juice bar. Tasty delicious.
10. I like the foam skimming lip on the juice collector. It allows for the pure juice to get into my glass. At first I thought it was stupid, but the more I use it, the more I like it. Particularly if you get brown foam which is just unappealing.

Cons:

1. The juice chute doesn’t move. When you are done juicing, you have to put a cloth down or it will drip all over your countertop. I have a tile countertop, so it is an issue when I am juicing beets or carrots as the juice will stain the grout if left on long enough.
2. Sometimes I feel that the machine is just too powerful. At the end of a carrot or an apple it shoots the last piece so forcefully through the machine that it makes an incredibly loud smacking sound. BANG! Not sure if that is a smacking sound, but it gets the point across.
3. The maceration basket spins so fast that sometimes when you remove the produce plunger or pusher (whatever you want to call it) some bits of whatever you just juiced come flying up the chute. In my kitchen, these bits deposit themselves on the white cabinets. We don’t need no stinking bits on our cabinets.
4. The Breville Juice Fountainhas most of the same features as the Breville Dual-Disc Juice Extractor and is much less expensive. Although it has no dial to change speeds, it has a high and a low. That’s probably good enough for just about anyone who likes to juice. The same goes for the dual-disc option. Although I rate this as a pro above, it also works as a con here. I like the option of using it, but have only done so three times in about four months. Are these two features worth the extra expense? You be the judge. If I had it to do over, I could probably live without these.
5. This unit is loud. It’s a cool loud, kind of like the Blue Angels flying over your house, but once the cool factor wears off it is just plain loud.

Overall, I really do like the Breville Dual-Disc Juice Extractor. The $400 price tag is very high, but I have juiced enough in it so far that it covers my expense if I had gone to a juice bar every day. The Breville Juice Extractor is just a really cool, well designed unit. It has good looks and should last me a lifetime if I keep juicing for that long. Let’s just say that I am happy that I am no longer using the Power Juicer Classic and really happy that I didn’t purchase the Champion Juicer. When juicing for two, the big chute and power just rock through the produce. I save huge amounts of time and get a really quality juice out of it.

Juice, juice baby.