Customer Reviews

L'Equip 221 Juice/Pulp Extractor

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wish I had listened to E.Buhkman of Ohio's review, instead I went with the others. I have owned at least four other brands of juicers, for the money this is probably the worst. It produces very little juice and it stopped the second time I used it, while only juicing carrots and cabbage. I was really looking forward to the extra large chute(BAA HUM BUG!!!) it is only slightly larger than the Juiceman juicer. I had to clean it after two carrots to get it to start again. When I pushed the on button it hummed and gradually started again, only to give little juice,I found the rest of the juice when I squeezed the pulp. It was medium as far as sound. The basket takes a little extra to remove. I gave it two stars because it looks cute. If you still want to purchase one of these, I'll gladly sell mine.

Update: August 23, 2004

More than two years after my initial review (see below from June, 2002), this juicer is still going strong and I still love it. I'm at a loss to explain the problems that other people have had with theirs because they just haven't happened with mine. A few times the blades made some louder than normal sounds but I just pressed down on the dome a bit and that took care of that. No one has mentioned any other brand that they like better so for my money I'm sticking with my L'Equip!

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I've been using the L'Equip 221 for several months now, and I just love it. While doing research on juicers I heard rumors that it tended to break more often than it's chief rival, the Omega 4000, but it has worked perfectly right out of the box without any problems at all.

It has the most powerful motor of any home juicer on the market, and with its extra-wide feeder slot I can juice two or even three carrots at the same time without even slowing it down. The twelve year warranty is only a bit less than the Omega, and far more than that offered by the Juiceman line at one year or the Jack Lalanne Power Juicer which doesn't mention any warranty at all that I can find.

The juice it produces is fantastic, left over pulp goes right out the back into the disposal basket. You can use the pulp for cooking other things so nothing goes to waste. And it is so easy to clean I can't believe it. Two minutes and it's done. Hear me now and believe me later, it's that easy, folks.

There are only two reasons I might not have given it the five stars of total perfection: 1) It is not totally silent, although the muscular sound of the motor comes across as merely a pleasant hum to me and would not be considered a drawback to most people, and 2) when I first started using it, it tended to move around the counter a little but that has since settled down and with a piece of non-skid material underneath it's been rock-steady ever since.

Otherwise it is about as good a piece of kitchen engineering as I've ever seen. And as they say, "The bottom line is the juice!" By the way, for very large quantities of really tasty juice, try a nice fresh cantalope. The juice is as good as a milk shake and with hardly any pulp left over at all.

Happy juicing!! :)

The main selling point of this juicer was the pulp extractor and the option to attach a catch bag for the pulp. This made for extended use without having to stop and change a filter or empty the main compartment. The very first day I had this I juiced 25 lbs of beets, 25 lbs of golden beets, 8 lbs of parsley, 6 lbs of cilantro and 11 lbs of red peppers. I did not have one problem and the whole list only took about an hour from start to finish. That is professional endurance that I am looking for. This efficient machine is now a permanent fixture in my kitchen. As the Chef des Cuisine for The Dining Room at the Inn on Biltmore Estate, I would highly recommend this brand and model to other professional chefs and serious home juicers.

With a hand-shake in mind,
Charles "Chet" Thompson, CCC MAT
Inn on Biltmore Estate

I've been using mine daily for 5 months and have been very pleased. It is fast and quiet with hard veggies like carrots and broccoli. I find it easier to juice parseley with a carrot, because shoving parseley into the feeder and trying to push the mass into the blade tends to jam the unit. That is why I deduct a star, though I don't know a general purpose unit that juices parsley without jamming.

I use the plastic bag pulp holder, to have the pulp ejected directly into a bag, so I can take it to the compost bin without having to wash the pulp container. That wasn't mentioned in the editorial review, so it was a nice surprise when I figured out what it was.

This unit is heavy and well-engineered, as one would expect with a 12 year warranty. It is quiet enough for me to make juice at night, without fear of waking my daughter.

I purchased this model in March 04. It vibrated badly upon arrival, and it took months to get a replacement. Then the replacement juicer vibrated badly, so I contacted the manufacturer, L'EQUIP. L'EQUIP forces you to pay to ship the juicer back to them to fix their problems, and you have to send a check for $10.00 to cover their "service fee". I recently recieved the juicer back unfixed, and vibrating badly. The company is still stalling, unwilling to correct this situation. Their warranty, and service are worthless.

I bought the L'Equip juicer because they are known for the quality. I was willing to spend more because they supposedly had this great Warranty. After just 3 uses, the housing cracked on my machine. I called the company and told them of the situation. They told me to ship it to them. I came to find that the warranty does not cover cracked parts. I now have a $200 juicer that can not be used with a worthless warranty.
Look to other names willing to stand behind there products

This little bugger is good to juice about a quart of juice before I have to empty the pulp recepticle - even though I use for this quart of my green juice a whole bunch of kale, a whole bunch of parsley, a whole cucumber, one apple and four or five stalks of celery and one lemon ...

It handles even sligthly welded kale and parsley - the toughest thing to handle even if fresh - as I was advised by several juice stores with professional-size juicers. Apparently, if you have a juicer with the mesh basket that holds the shredded left-overs, kale and parsley consistently jam that basket up because of their structure and the relatively large amount of 'waste' after juicing.

It handles even these with ease and never jammed up. The pulp ejector principle keeps the running smooth, no need to stop, disassemble and clean any part. If need be, just change or empty the recepticle at the back and keep juicing and juicing and juicing as I once did for a party for about 30 min. straight

Its compact design does not jam up your kitchen. Design-wise it looks nice, too - which is a lot to be said about a juicer ...

And the cleaning literally takes only about 2-3 minutes - mostly, running water will do the trick after I hand-clean the parts of green left-overs into the compost recycling. The mesh sieve will need a light rub (not even scrub) with a dish brush and that's it! Assembly and disassembly is quick and easy - even with wet or green left-over-covered hands. The pulp-ejector system does not throw or let stuff fly around in the kitchen either (I know so well, because my kitchen is all white).

And all that for a price that some people pay on a designer-citrus press aka 'juicer'

If I had to find a downside it would be that I have to cut apples in about six pieces, half cucumbers and feed kale one or two stalks at a time - but that would be unfair because, of course, such a samll machine cannot possibly handle whole cucumbers ans such like the four or five times bigger commercial-grade juicers ...

The L'Equip juicer is my second juicer. I started off with the Juiceman Jr and fell in love with juicing from my experience with it. I bought this juicer as a step up, but unfortunately, it's been a huge disappointment. I used to juice all the time, but now I rarely do because of this juicer's unacceptable amount of waste. Simply put, the amount of juice extracted by this juicer is woeful at best. I'm looking for juicer #3 and hopefully I have better luck.

I bought this for an elderly parent who is unable to disassemble the juicer for cleaning. This metal grating disk is very difficult to remove and reattach correctly. Unless this disk is correctly balanced when installed, it will bump against the sides. This is a bad choice for people who don't have the strength to force the grating disk off the motor.

I should say this is my first juicer so I don't have much to compare it to.
It's really not very loud compared to some i've heard in juice bars and cafes. And it's all stainless steel and plastic so it's pretty easy to clean. Overall it seems heavy duty and well-made, I've had only minor problems. It seems to wonder around a bit on the counter while it's running so I often have to hold onto it to keep it from vibrating over. Also the rubber tabs on the little feet fell off and got lost pretty quickly, the adhesive wasn't strong enough apparantly. And you'll want to tip the unit forward after you turn it off to get some juice that didn't make it out of the spout (maybe just a few tablespoons) It's only leaked once- I took it apart, cleaned it, and it hasn't since. For the price I think it's pretty good.