Customer Reviews

KitchenAid KJE500ER Juicer and Citrus Press, Empire Red

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have owned this juicer for 2 months - after gong through several others, like the juiceman and a low-end omega, I find this by far the best. Powerful motor, nice design, doesn't shake or move, quiet. Have juiced most everything, from carrots to parsley and pineapple - this machine doesn't even blink like most other do (juiceman's motor slows down dramatically on hard vegetables). Cleanup is extremely easy, with the special spatula that comes along. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent juicer. This is my third make, and by far it is the best. It goes through citrus with the citrus attachment very fast. With the juicing blade, I went through 4 pounds of grapes in not time. If you have read the other reviews and are confused, here is the skinny:
- The juicer does not normally vibrate or dance all around the counter as some have reported. It weighs a whopping 14lbs so MOST of the time it operates very smoothly, no vibrations or dancing. BUT, when you remove pulp from the juicing blade/ basket, then go back to juicing, it becomes a different machine. Until the pulp gets rebalanced, its Mr. Toad's Mad Ride!! I could barely keep the machine on the counter by wrapping my arm around the base (I am not kidding). The pulp should quickly rebalance itself and you will be back to normal, but its almost unbelievable the torque the machine has until it does and it wants to move.
- Is it hard to clean? YES....ALL JUICERS ARE HARD TO CLEAN!! You are dealing with wet, sticky, pulp stuck in a mesh screen, what do people expect? It comes with a ... plastic spatula looking thing that helps. I think they should have a contest to guess what the spatula thingee's other sides are for, but one side does fit the shape of the blade and helps to clean. Otherwise, get a dish brush and quit whinning about cleanup.

It also looks like that robot on Mystery Science Theater, so how can you go wrong?? If you want a juicer, buy this one!

When I took the unit out of the box I was impressed by the predictable stylings of the KitchenAid machine - until I used it. The feed chute is so small that it takes me 15 minutes to make my juice in the morning. My daughter in law bought the cheaper one from Amazon.com about a month ago called the Juice Fountain. Although I haven't heard of the brand, the unit is very nice looking and it is about 5 times faster to use. I am new to juicing, and don't know if other juicers are like the Kitchenaid, but this really seems to be very slow and labor intensive. It makes great juice and I feel better for drinking it, but I wish I had have bought the cheaper unit.

I still have my Kitchenaid mixer and love it dearly, but in my mind, they don't have what it takes in juicers.

Like a previous reviewer, I almost returned this juicer without even trying it. That would have been a mistake. I have been juicing carrots, apples, lemons, parsley, peaches etc. without a problem. Perhaps some of the previously reported problems come from trying to feed the fruits and vegetables into the tube too fast. This is not to say that making 4-5 oz. of juice should be time-consuming. It actually takes a minute or so once I turn the machine on. Finally, I do not find clean up to be a problem.

This was our first experience using a juicer. After reading some of the reviews, I was almost afraid to use it & considered exchanging it. Usually I am "in charge" of kitchen experiments, but I asked my husband to share this one since I felt a little intimidated. Together, we read directions, unpacked & washed the machine, and chose our first recipe.
What a nice surprise to find this so easy to use! We juiced carrots, broccoli, and onion and enjoyed two cups of juice after about 20 minutes. We were careful to watch for "shaking & moving" described by others. After a cup of juice, we saw just a little movement, so we emptied the extractor & began again with more veggies & got one more cup wihout any more movement.
Next time, I don't think it will take us as long to get two cups of juice, because we will be more confident that the juicer is safe to use & load it faster.
Also, it was not difficult to clean--used our kitchen sink sprayer with cold water to loosen the fibers, then warm soapy water to remove the oils.
Juicing has been recommended to us & I hope we will use this frequently!

What an amazing juicer... and what a fatal design flaw!

As the other reviewers have noticed, this juicer is overall great - it's 10x easier to clean than any other juicer I found, and it really extracts a lot of juice from whatever you're juicing.

Unfortunately, once you get it loaded up with pulp, it can become unruly. Remember the tazmanian devil cartoon? This thing is actually worse. Imagine a turbine spinning at many thousands of RPM, and then losing its footing. I am a 190lb man, and once it starts shaking, it's all I can do to keep it from going ballistic when holding it *with both hands*!

The shaking starts after 1 cup's worth of carrots, so while you could conceivably empty it when it starts shaking, you really don't want to, since you just started juicing. If you're just making juice for yourself, you'll *probably* get away unscathed, but if you're making more than one person's worth, you'll have problems. Worst of all, the shaking starts suddenly, without warning (and I have several broken glasses to prove it). I have seriously considered bolting the thing down to the countertop.

If you can live with the product's violent behavior (and as bad as it is, I *still* feel like its benefits outweigh this major design flaw), you'll love the machine. Now, kitchenaid just needs to design a version where the pulp is ejected so it never builds up to cause the shaking. - DROdio

I have many KitchenAid Appliances from a Dishwasher to the Stand Mixer and Food Processor. I have always been impressed by KitchenAid product's quality construction and exellent function, until now...

Upon receiving my KJE500, I tried juicing some carrots. I cut two fairly large carrots in half and started to feed them into the juicer. Fairly quickly (after 1 carrot), the shredded carrots got unbalanced and the machine started to shake a little bit. I decided that this wasn't too bad and continued with the second carrot. Whaoooo horsey!! Halfway into the second carrot, this machine developed a mind of its own started to vibrate wildly and spin around the countertop spilling juice out its spout.

Although this machine was well-built & cute I had to send it back. (Note: KitchenAide recommends emptying the basket if it gets out of balance. I didn't think I wanted to have to empty the basket after each and every carrot.)

I purchased this unit for myself on December 22 from my gold box. If I wanted to get it by December 24 I would have to select Next day shipping, but since it was for myself I elected the free super saver shipping. Then on December 24 it arrives and it is great. I especially like using the juice extractor for carrots, apples, grapes, peaches, tomatoes, etc. If all you want this for is the citrus attachment you can do just as good for much less, but the juice extractor alone makes the price worthwhile. When the fruit is bought in bulk the juice is cheaper than store bought and tastes better. I would recommend it to anyone. Great Product.

This is a great product. I bought it mostly because of the name and the fact that it had a citrus juicer attachment included. Boy am I glad I did. We have been making juice almost every day. We love OJ so this is the perfect juicer. We have also juiced carrots, apples, grapes, lemons and oranges. We have noticed that is does move alittle mostly due to the hi-power motor that they use. I find the product fairly easy to clean and of very high quality.

This is juicer #3 for our household, and by far the best. In addition, KitchenAid has the best customer support... period! They ALWAYS back up their products.