Freshly squeezed fruit or vegetable juice is a real storehouse of vitamins and microelements. It is recommended to drink to people adhering to a healthy diet and therapeutic diets. It’s much easier for kids to offer a bright drink mug than to persuade them to eat a carrot or an apple. A glass of fresh with crispy toast or toast is the perfect breakfast for any family member. Alas, packaged nectar from an unknown concentrate often purchased in a store often contains more colors and flavors than vitamins. So everyone who wants to lead a healthy lifestyle should choose a good juicer and start preparing healthy fresh juices.
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The best manufacturers of juicers - which company to choose
It is not in vain that buyers prefer juicers of famous brands, noting their high quality and rich functionality.
The best manufacturers of the segment are the following companies:
1. Philips
2. Bosch
3. Panasonic
4. Polaris
5. Braun
More information about the flagship models of these firms can be found in ranking best juicers. In the meantime, let's see which juicer is right for your family.
The principle of operation and the device juicers
Juicer is a household kitchen appliance designed to produce juice from fruits, vegetables, nuts and herbs. The variety of these units on the market is quite large and they all work in their own way, but the general principle remains the same.
Each model has a curly nozzle or knives that destroy the pulp of the fruit, allowing the juice to flow freely into the container. They can be fixed (as, for example, in citrus juicers), set in motion manually or with the help of an electric motor.
As for the device device, then with some amendments to the design features in any juicer you will find the following elements:
• Case - in electric models an engine is additionally installed in it;
• Throat with a pusher or just a wide opening for loading fruit;
• Shredder;
• Capacity for collecting juice;
• Cake container (may be missing).
Depending on the force that drives the working elements of juicers in motion, they are usually divided into 3 main types:
1. Hand held
Manual models are simple to primitive, because here all the work is done by a person, and the device turns into an ordinary tool for squeezing juice. Most often in this version are citrus juicers.
2. Mechanical
Mechanical is a kind of press, which is again influenced by hands. Bright representatives of the devices of this type are the juicer for tomatoes, more like a manual meat grinder, as well as presses for pomegranates and grapes.
3. Electric
Electrical devices often work on the same principle as the screw mechanics, only the motor is connected to the shaft. However, among modern juicers there are a lot of rotor models, more similar to a hybrid of a grater and a centrifuge. In any case, the efficiency of electrical units is the highest, since they are able to extract from 70 to 95% of juice from the pulp.
Types of juicers
For citrus
The simplest type of technology, designed to get fresh juice from lemon, orange, lime, grapefruit and other types of citrus fruits. It is a kind of flat dish with a conical ribbed nozzle, on which you need to string half of the fruit.Then everything depends on the type of machine chosen: if it is an electrical model, it is enough to turn on the motor, and the rotating nozzle will squeeze all the juice out of the pulp into the container. With a manual squeezer, you have to scroll through the citrus yourself.
Pros:
- Compact size;
- Simple and reliable design;
- Economical power consumption even in electric models (20-60 W);
- Low price.
Minuses:
- Not suitable for processing other fruits.
Centrifugal (rotary)
Centrifugal juicers are the most popular and purchased. This type of device is suitable for processing all berries and vegetables (except fruits with stones). The principle of operation of the rotor technology is similar to the work of a washing machine centrifuge. Only here there is an iron basket-separator, and a grater disk, grinding fruits, rotates at a speed of 10,000 rpm.
Juicy pulp is separated from the meal in the separator, and the released liquid under the action of centrifugal force flies out of the basket and flows into the receiver. Alas, the high speed of the mechanisms leads to the heating of the inner bowl, which affects the nutritional value of the drink - some of the vitamins have time to collapse. Heats up the engine itself. This makes it impossible for his long work - you have to periodically stop the car for a rest.
Modern rotary juicers can come with 2 types of separators. Cylindrical can extract up to 90% of the juice from the pulp, but they do not provide a system for removing waste cake. You will have to periodically stop the device and remove the remnants of the fruit yourself. Juicers with a conical basket dump the cake in a special container in the process. But they have another drawback - a smaller juice yield than in cylindrical models (by about 20%).
Pros:
- High speed;
- Simple operation;
- Wide (up to 9 cm) throat for laying the whole product;
- Relatively low cost.
Minuses:
- The juice is heated, and some of the nutrients in it is destroyed;
- At high speed, the drink is made with foam;
- Due to the rapid oxidation, the juice is not suitable for any long-term storage.
Screw
In such models, the fruits are ground with one or two rotating augers, which are driven by a low-speed motor (the speed on the shaft does not exceed 50–80 revolutions per minute). Due to this, the device does not overheat and can continuously work for a long time.
Depending on the design and method of laying products, screw juicers are divided into vertical and horizontal. But those and others have the same high efficiency. Such devices are not only able to squeeze up to 95% juice from fruits with pits, vegetables and herbs - they are quite able to squeeze the oil out of the nuts, grind coffee or spices.
Pros:
- Effective spin, minimum waste;
- Silent engine operation;
- It does not heat the juice, keeping all the vitamins in it;
- Can process large amounts of products without interruption.
Minuses:
- Works slower centrifugal juicer;
- In the finished juice a lot of pulp;
- Not suitable for processing too soft fruits (bananas, ripe kiwi) - turns them into mashed potatoes;
- Narrow neck - to bookmark products have to be cut.
Juicer selection options
Before going to the store for a juicer, decide which fruits and vegetables she will have to work with most often, and what amounts of juice your family consumes. Will you use a new device for cooking other dishes? Having defined the tasks that you set for the juicer, you can already choose the optimal design. And then everything will decide the technical characteristics of the device.
Manufacturing material
The body of the mechanism can be plastic, aluminum or steel. The first option is lighter, but short-lived. In addition, increased environmental safety requirements are imposed on it, therefore, only food grade plastic is used for the production of juice extractors.
Aluminum and steel are stronger, but more expensive.Nevertheless, all internal parts of the device (separator, screws, strainer) should be made only of stainless steel, which does not react even with acidic products.
Power
It all depends on the type of device and the fruits processed in it:
- A citrus juicer has 50 watts to do the job;
- To process soft fruits, such as peaches and bananas, an output of 250-500 W will be required;
- Squeezing juice from solid fruits (apples, pears) will require at least 800–1200 watts.
Power, though indirectly, largely determines the speed of rotation of the working elements of the juicer. And the more it is, the faster and more efficiently the juice from the fruit will be squeezed. One "but": the drink obtained at high speeds will be cloudy due to the excess content of the crushed pulp. In general, for obtaining high-quality juice from a rotary type juicer, rotational intensity of about 10,000 rpm is sufficient.
Speed modes
Different hardness products require their spin technology. Therefore, pay attention to the number of speeds and the possibility of their switching. This will allow you to expose more power for fruits with dense pulp or choose a gentle mode for processing delicate fruits.
Modern juicers can have up to 9 speeds, although 3-4 is enough for home use. The presence of pulsed and reverse modes is also welcomed - they will make the processing of solid products more efficient.
Noise performance
For home juicers, this figure is not standardized, but some devices emit a very strong noise in the process. Moreover, it can come not only from the engine, but also be the result of poorly fixed and rattling structural elements. The most "quiet" juicers are augers, but even we recommend checking them in the store for the level of noise that they produce when working at full speed.
Design features
Some of the nuances that the designers of household juicers have thought of are capable of making the work with the device more comfortable and convenient.
Pay attention to such details:
1. The diameter of the loading neck should be as large as possible (8–9 cm) - this will allow you to immediately lay the whole fruit in the unit, without cutting them.
2. The mode of discharge of waste oil will provide an opportunity to process large volumes of fruits almost without interruption. It is very convenient if for this purpose a separate removable container is provided in the juicer.
3. Separator for foam removal will provide a clean, clear drink, which even capricious children will not refuse.
4. Rubberized legs will provide stability to the device on the table.
5. The anti-drip system is a useful feature that prevents you from staining the tablecloth after you fill a glass with ready-made juice.
Availability of juice
Here, the owners have to weigh the pros and cons, because the designs with a complete glass and without it have approximately equal advantages and disadvantages.
The presence of a built-in juice tank helps to protect the contents from accidental spilling, and the scale on the transparent container will show the amount of the finished drink. The volume of the built-in capacity is usually small, but it will definitely be enough for a couple of bookmarks.
The absence of the receiving container indicates that the juicer has a system for direct juice supply directly to the substituted mug or glass. Excellent reason not to wash the extra dishes.
Which juicer to choose
1. Connoisseurs of lemonades, oranjad, as well as fans of the use of citrus juices in cooking will have enough of an inexpensive manual squeezer just for processing citrus fruits. If you need to twist a large number of fruits, take an electric model with a capacity of about 25-50 watts.
2. For a family of 2-3 people who drink juices from a variety of products, a centrifugal machine with a cylindrical separator will do. The optimal power of the device - within 700 watts.
3. For a large family of 4–5 people and lovers of “eco-mats”, a rotary squeezer will also fit, only this time with a tapered separator and with a capacity of at least 1 kW.
4. The avid gardeners, who have a large garden plot and have the opportunity to drink free natural juices every day, need a juicer capable of processing large volumes of various products. Here it is better to sacrifice speed and choose a screw model. Power is not particularly important - 200–300 watts will suffice.
How much are juicers
1. The simplest manual citrus juicer will cost you from 100 to 400 rubles.
2. For an electric model in a cheap plastic, you will have to pay at least 350-800 rubles. Prices for more functional equipment with direct juice supply and additional options like “drop-stop” start from 1000 and are lost in transcendental heights, skipping the mark of 40,000 rubles.
3. The cost of rotary juicers without dumping pulp ranges from 1.5-40 thousand. If, however, add a system for removing the cake, a stainless steel body and a full range of useful functions to such devices, the price can take off up to 90-110 thousand rubles.
4. Screw squeezers in a vertical version can be bought at prices ranging from 3 to 35 thousand rubles, although there are super-expensive models costing 85-100 thousand. Horizontal ones are in the same price category, only their ceiling does not exceed 70,000 rubles.
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