About six months ago, I picked up a book called The Raw Food Detox Diet thinking that I would follow a detox plan with raw food. Over the last two summers, I have eaten about a 70%-30% raw to cooked food diet, so I thought that this plan would be right up my alley. As it turns out, I found that I was less interested in the plan and more interested in the fervent nature which Natalia Rose discusses the importance of juicing.
I had read in many other raw books about juicing and understand the differing opinions on whether to juice or not to juice. Some people are gung-ho about juicing while others are saying that there is a reason that fiber is attached to those juices- so we don’t intake too much of the nutrients and essentially overload ourselves. Natalia is so convinced that the Green Lemonade Juice is so good for you that she convinced me to give it a try. I was excited to do so, but found that I was without a juicer. My Vitamix just made a green sludge smoothie which was very unappealing.
About three days later, after calling some people who I thought might have a juicer I could borrow, my father offered up his Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Classic. Great- this is going to be a match made in heaven, I thought to myself. I mean, who hasn’t seen the commercials on TV at some point late night. Jack LaLanne is a household name. Now his juicer is in my house, so I put it to the test for about four months.
The good news is that the Green Lemonade juice tastes pretty good. Rock on Natalia. The not so good news is that the Power Juicer Classic proved pretty difficult to use, and I am a guy who can figure out just about anything pretty quickly. There are some good things about the juicer and some not so good things, so at this point you can decide. This is what I found about the juicer:
Pros:
1. The juicer is pretty heavy feeling, which was nice, indicating a quality product.
2. The base is large, providing a stable platform when you are juicing harder produce like carrots or beets.
3. You can save time in prep because the chute is pretty wide, allowing for most produce to be added with only 1 or 2 slices needed.
4. It really does put out a lot of juice- just like the site and manual claim.
5. The juice which is produced is clean, without a lot of pulp-feel to it. It’s hard to explain, but the juice feels like juice in your mouth rather than like sieved juice.
6. For the price, it does what it is supposed to do. I give this juicer one thumb up for the value. Keep in mind that more often than not, you get what you pay for.
Cons:
1. All parts with the exception of the juicing basket are white plastic. White plastic tends to stain easily when you are juicing carrots or beets. It also seems to buildup some type of residue on the plastic which is increasingly hard to clean. I followed the instructions to clean with a lemon juice solution and then scrubbed with dish soap after that didn’t work. Long story short, my elbow is sore and the juicer is still orange.
2. When I put some of the pieces in the dishwasher, they fell apart. The seal between the main juicing body and trim ring came unglued. I resealed these and it worked fine, but it was a pain. Also, when I put the produce pusher in the dishwasher, it filled up with water. No matter which way I shook it or propped it up, it would not drain out. If you have own the Power Juicer Classic, apparently you should never top shelf dish wash.
3. Pulp collector. Should be called the partial pulp collector that is hard to fit onto the machine. That name is just too long though. As you can tell, I found that there was not a good seal at all between the Power Juicer Classic and the pulp collector. Bits of pulp were flying out of the machine all over the counter. With more juicy pulping (oranges, ripe mango, grapes) the pulp collector would drip juice onto the counter. Not a huge issue, but it just didn’t fit right. This was prior to putting anything in the dishwasher- just as an FYI.
4. The automatic shutoff bar was a complete pain to manage. If it was chewing on a head of kale and then tried to juice some apples, the machine would start to vibrate across the counter and it would shut off. I wasn’t forcing the vegetables and fruit into the machine either- it was just a normal feed. It seems as though the kale would jam the maceration disk or something. This was a daily occurrence which would force me to stop juicing, take the machine apart, clean the disk and reassemble. It gets old after the third day.
5. After using the machine for about three months, it really started to feel underpowered. I juice for two people every day and the speed of processing the produce is just too slow, particularly if you are juicing fibrous foods. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to juice already when you take into account washing produce, chopping, juicing and washing the machine. Adding more time due to a slow machine just isn’t in the cards.
6. The Power Juicer Classic doesn’t juice all items very well. If you need to juice up some parsley or want to add some mint into one of your drinks, you need to wrap it in something else like a lettuce leaf. Juicing raspberries makes mush in the juice collector and forget something like prunes. The machine has a hard time with ginger as well- the fibers tend to clog the disk.
7. Cleaning the machine is somewhat of a pain. For some reason, the top housing piece comes in two pieces which slide together. The area they slide together can really pinch your fingers if you are not careful when you are cleaning and you really have to slide them apart to make sure that food isn’t stuck in that area. I know that juicers are messy in general, but the Power Juicer Classic just makes it downright tough to clean.
8. The need for a tool to disassemble the machine is a real stinker. Whenever the juicer would clog, using the key to remove the basket just added to the frustration. Not to mention that if you lose the key, you can’t clean the juicer! I would assume that if the key is lost you have to get another one from the manufacturer. Just doesn’t seem very user friendly to me, especially from Jack LaLanne, the household name.
All told, I have mixed emotions with regard to the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Classic. My reason for using it was to see if I was even interested in juicing in the long run, so it definitely served its purpose. There are some pros to this juicer, but it just seems as though the cons quickly outweigh the pros. If you are new to juicing or don’t know if you will be juicing for a long time to justify the cost of a more heavy-duty juicer, I would say that this unit is just right. If you are thinking more long term, I would turn your head toward a Breville or something along those lines.
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