Customer Reviews

Green Star GS-1000 Juice Extractor

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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I've been juicing since the early 1990s and more recently, as a certified raw foods associate chef, have been preparing a wider range of juicer recipes including pates and ice cream from frozen bananas. I have experience with Green Star, Champion, Juiceman, and several other juicers, and have read quite a bit about various models of juicers. If you are going to be juicing a lot of greens such as kale and parsley, the Green Star will give you a better and more nutritious yield than any juicer on the market. It far exceeds masticating juicers such as the Champion in this regard, as well as centrifugal juicers such as the Juiceman. A huge benefit of Green Star is that it juices wheat grass, so you will not need a dedicated wheat grass juicer. It's also amazingly quiet, far quieter (and a bit slower) than my Champion. And like the Champion, it does a great job with pates, frozen ice cream, and other recipes requiring a homogenizing blade, also known as a "blank." With a slower speed, the juice does not heat up as much as with a Champion and oxidizes slower.

So is there a catch? Yes. There are far more parts to assemble, disassemble, and clean than with a Champion. I'm reminded of the time when my brother was a child, he asked to borrow my father's watch, and my father said, "sure." A few days later, my father wanted his watch back, and entered my brothers room to find a bazillion little pieces on the floor: gears, springs, etc. My brother explained that he wanted the watch so he could take it apart, but not to worry he said, "I'll put it back together." My father said, "don't worry about it, you can keep the watch." When I take apart a Green Star juicer, I always think of this story because it has so many more parts than a Champion. (Although fortunately, the Green Star is far easier to assemble and disassemble than an analog watch.:-) At the Living Light Culinary Institute where I trained as a raw foods chef, when we made pates and banana ice cream, we always reached for the Champion, not the Green Star.

In deciding whether to purchase a Green Star juicer, consider whether you are going to be juicing a lot of greens and/or wheatgrass, and whether you're really going to take the time to disassemble, clean, and assemble about a dozen parts each time you use it. If you're not put off by that, then I highly recommend the Green Star. If you are mostly considering a juicer for carrot juice, fruit juices, banana ice cream and pates, then I would steer you towards the Champion. If you want to use a juicer for all of the above and can afford and have the space for both, then I enthusiastically recommend both.

Note that there are 3 models of Green Star juicers, of which the GS1000 is their most basic model. The GreenStar.com website explains the various accessories that come with or can be purchased with each. Accessories such as pasta makers and mochi makers are available for purchase with the GS1000, but are included with the GS3000.

I've been juicing for 20 years. My description of the Green Star 1000 is based on my experience with an old Champion, a new Champion, and an old Wheateena grass juicer. The Green Star spits pulp out the end so you can juice continuously just like the other juicers. The pulp discharged is always quite dry and completely shredded and it extracts a maximum amount of very high quality juice from everything it juices well. Exceptions are described below. It leaks a little juice into the pulp at the very start of juicing, like any juicer, which you can feed back through, of course. It has a nice glass pitcher. It didn't leak any juice onto the counter or spray carrot fiber out the discharge all over the counter like my Champion. It runs very quiet, unlike the Champion, and doesn't require any messy greasing before use like the other juicers. It has a convenient handle and storage compartment for the electrical cord. It never bogged down under load like my Champion does when juicing carrots. It has never gotten hot. Cold fruits and vegetables produced cool juice, unlike my other juicers. It is a refined juicer with a nice fit and finish. It has a five year warranty on the expensive motor and gears. It has a good reputation so I assume it will be very reliable like my Champion. They require the warranty to be received within 10 days of purchase, so if you purchase it online, you should use it and register it right away. You can register it online at their website.

I almost exclusively juice only four things (carrots, red bell peppers, cucumbers, and lettuce), so I'll describe those that matter to me first.

I get 2 1/4 cups of juice from 2 lbs of carrots, which is definitely better than my Champion. The juice is very high quality (as good as your carrots). The square chute is big enough for all but monster carrots. My only complaint is that carrots especially take a lot of downward force to push through the juicer. I don't really mind, but it could be a show stopper for some people. The off white plastic juicer parts stain very quickly from carrots, though this doesn't bother me. The Champion requires much less effort but doesn't extract as much juice. The Champion also is very noisy and leaks juice and sprays carrot fiber all over the counter. The Champion bogs down easily on carrots, but the commercial motor version probably fixes that problem.

The Green Star also does an excellent job on bell peppers. It takes a fair amount of pressure to push them through, too, but I get 2 cups of juice from 1 1/2 lbs of peppers with very dry, shredded pulp discharged. There is a little pulp in the juice, but that's ok with me. The Champion is not very efficient and produces quite a bit of foam. My grass juicer doesn't extract as much juice as the Green Star.

I juice lettuce because it is thirst quenching and is a nice milk substitute with meals and for taking vitamins. Lettuce is also somewhat hard to push through with the Green Star, but chopped chunks and leaves, that are awkward on the other juicers, feed through conveniently and without spilling into the juice pitcher and counter. It spits dry, shredded pulp out the discharge and puts very little foam in the juice. It is superior to my grass juicer and far superior to the Champion.

The Green Star was extremely impressive on cucumbers. Both my Champion and grass juicer backup very quickly, becoming unusable, and spitting out very wet pulp. Cucumbers had to be quartered lengthwise like the other juicers but pushed through easily and juiced with very little foam and produced very dry, finely ground pulp out the discharge.

The Green Star does an outstanding job on these juices which I make all the time, but I have found it to be significantly worse than my other juicers on other fruits and vegetables.

It is usable for celery and juices it easily and doesn't wind the fibers around the cutter and clog up like my Champion, but it does produce some foam. I would use a dedicated grass/greens juicer for celery.

It produces lots of foam and very little juice from spinach. I would stick with a dedicated grass juicer for spinach and other leafy greens. Wheatgrass would also probably juice very badly on the Green Star.

It backed up, becoming unusable, after only a couple of oranges. The grass juicer was almost as bad. The Champion is excellent for citrus, especially if you like the rich, heavy Orange Julius type juice.

Grapes backed up even worse than oranges. My grass juicer is very efficient with grapes, spitting fairly dry pulp out the discharge.

The Green Star was usable for apples but is significantly worse than the Champion. The feed chutes is obviously small in the case of apples. Even medium size apples will have to be cut into six pieces. Foam isn't too bad if you juice very slowly and start juicing the apples before anything else, like carrots, that will start clogging the filter. There is lots of pulp in the juice (probably more than you want) and apples are hard to push through.

For my juices the Green Star wins easily. It works equally well on hard carrots and soft cucumbers, bell peppers, and lettuce. I don't have to compromise juicing ability by using the wrong juicer for some juices or use and clean two juicers at the same time. The Green Star is easy to assemble, but it is a real chore to clean up all the parts, especially scrubbing the semi cylindrical filter screen inside and outside. I drink juices daily so I make all my juices about twice a week, which keep very well in the frig. The Champion is significantly better for most fruits and is much easier to clean. A grass juicer will be far better for spinach, other leafy greens, and grasses.

Which juicer you choose will depend on which kinds of fruits and vegetables you will be juicing. You may have to buy more than one.

Green Life juicers are about the only models recommended by my nutritionist. He shuns centrifugal juicers that use air in the extraction process, which he says leads to oxidation. Instead, the Green Star has a "close-case-crush-press" system, which crushes your food between two counter-rotating steel gears. You're left with juice that zings.

But nice has a price. My biggest let-down with this juicer was finding out that it doesn't go through veggies as fast as my garbage disposal. At its fastest, the Green Star gives you a thin stream of juice that takes quite a while to fill the collection bowl.

The other let-down in versatility. It does all right with flaccid, stringy, leafy foods like parsley and cilantro. But if there's any firmness to them--anything from cucumbers to celery to lemons--the juicer needs help. So before using the juicer I do a lot of pre-chopping.

The clean-up is bearable. After making juice, there are about seven parts that disassemble easily. You don't need to reach into crevices in the main unit. All the parts clean easily but one small screen, which needs some serious scrubbing. The specialty brush supplied with the juicer helps out.

Although this is my first juicer, I'm sure there are faster models out there. But I'm health-conscious too, and the twin gear system seems to leave a small "oxygen footprint." Plus my body craves the juice!

This is my first juicer and I did a lot of research. All of my raw food books say Green Star is the best and I bought it mainly for that reason. I heard so many criticisms on the cleaning, but it is not that bad if you have a little tub of soapy water set aside and put the parts in right away. Also, I can tell that once I get the hang of it, assembly/parts are not that bad. The juice is yummy but a little foamy, although I don't care. I was a bit concerned that the remains that come out are still pretty moist. Not sure that matters. By the way, I juice kale, apple, ginger and lemons. The two things that really bothered me was the amount of time it takes to actually juice and the muscle it requires. I spend a LOT of time pushing the ingredients through, even after chopping them up. Pushing too hard with the tools worried me because I feel I'm shredding them a bit. I just visited a friend who had an Omega Vert and I now wish I bought that one. It readily accepted everything you fed it and the remains were really dry. I did not notice a difference in taste and there wasn't much foam if any. Being inexperienced, I don't really know the difference between twin gears and masticating. If there isn't a huge difference, I would go with the Omega Vert.

The machine is not perfect obviously, and if you overload it or try to put soft fruit into it through the fine screen it will ooze pulp through the cracks of the gear housing, but when you run it properly and clean it properly this juicer works like a champ. It's not as fragile as I was afraid it would be and it has juiced 40 lb bags of carrots at a shot just taking a single break in the middle as recommended in the user's guide.

I would recommend that if you plan to juice soft fruits like pineapple, to get a coarse screen (which doesn't come with the GS-1000). The fine screen backs up and while the blank works okay, you get all the pulp with the juice as well (which I don't mind but some people might not like that). For wheat grass and hard vegetables, this juicer is ideal with the fine screen.

I have quite the opposite of buyer's remorse here, and I'm very glad I made this purchase. I've been able to make my own juices, saving money on store-bought juice and getting better quality juice as well since it's made fresh. I think in a few more months this juicer will have paid for itself.

I wanted a juicer that would not break my budget along with not damaging the juice being made.
This juicer has the twin gear juice extractor system.
Absolutely the best juicer we have owned. Does not even compare to others we have had.
This juicer also does all kinds of grains and butters, along with any veggie.
I also wanted a juicer that would not take a few hours to clean and reassemble. This one is very easy to clean and put back together again, my children do it all the time. The only thing you have to remember is to line up the three dots to make sure it runs true, and you are ready to go again. Definitely a top of the line juicer with a competitive price.
So if you are looking for an overall Premium juicer definitely give this one a chance.

As a suburban microfarmer who produces for self sufficiency rather than for the market, this is ideal. It has given me a better way to process my bumper crops of apples and pears which in prior years just fell on the ground and rotted or were mixed with incredible quanties of sugar to make/can jam for the winter months.Now we consume more of our fruit fresh.

Nobody in our family feels anymore the need to make an effort to stuff themselves full of fruit they do not want to eat in order not to waste food. We just drink our pears/apples in the morning in the form of a delicious, nutrient dense juice.

I cannot compare my juicer to others as it is the only one I know. I just tried to get the one closest to the Gerson philosophy but that was within my budget.

I am always looking for techniques which allow me to bring another aspect of food processing from the market to the home and to produce somethiing that the consumer market cannot usually produce.So my Greenstar juicer now has a place of honor next to my solar oven (which, like my juicer, also allows me to produce/process in a way that the mass market cannot).

Great juicer, have no problems with it. Had to learn at first how to properly juice items. The machine can run up to half hour at a time, so I've learned to just take that time and it gets much less messy because it gives more time for the juices to come out. It juices wheatgrass without the slightest problem. Spinach leaves, or other leafy greens just need to be cut up a little and put in a little at a time. Works like a charm - very happy with it!

I've had 2 of the Green Life juicers and recently tried the Omega 4000. Wow, what an incredible difference! I get nearly TWICE the carrot juice with the Omega than the GL. Also it's a breeze cleaning the Omega 4000, takes less than 2 minutes from start to finish....SOOO much less hassle than with the GL. Now the GL is VERY well made and you can feel the quality, no doubt about that but the Omega has either a 10 or 15 year motor warranty which is nice. It's not made as sturdy as the GL but for everyday use for carrots and apple juice, I much rather have the Omega.

This is a great juicer--simple to use and easy to clean. When I make myself green drinks (e.g., kale, ginger, an apple, and 1/2 lemon), they give me such a "buzz" of energy and feeling of well-being that I'm tempted to consume junk food to bring me back to earth.

TIPS:
(1) There's a trick to using twin-gear juicers like this one without having to use so much muscle. Instead of stuffing in a lot of greens and trying to force them through, let the gears "suck" the greens in one at a time (Yes, it does take time to do this, but there's no muscle required because the gears pull the greens in and grind them up).
(2) Make sure to remove the heavy stems from kale, turnip greens, and beet greens to reduce bitterness;
(3) Vary the greens you juice; according to one author and expert on juicing, greens contain tiny amounts of toxins to keep animals from overgrazing a single plant until they kill it off. To avoid a build-up of these toxins, animals consume a broad and varied diet of greens--and we should do the same. Beet greens, cabbage, kale, lettuce, turnip greens, spinach, dandelion and watercress are some of the greens I use--ALL ORGANIC of course.
(4) Wash your greens (and fruits) before using in a mild solution of vinegar and water. Don't force your body to have to fight extra bacteria--especially if you're ill and juicing to heal yourself.