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Product Description
Make healthy fresh fruit juices at home!
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
After reading the positive and negative reviews, I decided to go ahead and buy the Weston press and grinder from Amazon this fall to juice apples from our trees. I found it worked very well, and in fact can't wait until next year to do it all again! Many of the issues in the negative reviews are not that big of a deal. In fact many of the complaints are simply not well founded. Yes, the ratchet only advances a quarter inch per pull, but this means you're getting that much more torque as well. Yes, the wood blocks tend to move a little, especially when starting a new press batch, but a little steadying as the ratchet decends keeps them in line until the pressure is sufficient to hold them in place. I found that when pressing our ground apples (I also used the Weston grinder), I got the best results by only loading the press to about 50% capacity. This is the equivalent of about a five gallon bucket of whole apples before grinding. By only loading it to 50%, the pressure per square inch on the fruit is increased by at least double when compared to the pressure on a full press. I got about 20% more juice per press by only loading it to half. I did not press the fruit twice as per the directions, simply due to time constraints as I wanted to get through all of our apples.
I was worried that I would need to make some pressing bags, but did not find that necessary for apples. The design of the press keeps the apple flesh in place during compaction, and I used a simple kitchen strainer as I poured the juice into the jugs for freezing to remove any larger pieces. A friend came by to juice some pears, and I wished I had lined the inside of the wooden pess barrel with a flour sack, or made some simple bags to retain the pear flesh, as it was kind of a mess. I haven't tried grapes or any other soft fruits, as we can't grow them where I live. I would imagine based on the experience with the pears that you would want to use something.
It seems to me that those who had negative experiences expected too much and weren't willing to put forth a little extra elbow grease and patience to make it successful. It's not rocket science, and there is no "on/off" switch. It's a well-built and sturdy version of technology that is thousands of years old. My only criticism is that I wish the mouth of the spout dropped a little lower. Sometimes the juice did not pour cleanly out of the spout, but tracked back on the bottom of the pan before dripping. No big deal, but seems like a simple design fix.
I would highly recommend the press and grinder. I got more than 25 gallons of fresh juice/cider in about six or seven hours of work. We'll enjoy it all winter now!
I was worried that I would need to make some pressing bags, but did not find that necessary for apples. The design of the press keeps the apple flesh in place during compaction, and I used a simple kitchen strainer as I poured the juice into the jugs for freezing to remove any larger pieces. A friend came by to juice some pears, and I wished I had lined the inside of the wooden pess barrel with a flour sack, or made some simple bags to retain the pear flesh, as it was kind of a mess. I haven't tried grapes or any other soft fruits, as we can't grow them where I live. I would imagine based on the experience with the pears that you would want to use something.
It seems to me that those who had negative experiences expected too much and weren't willing to put forth a little extra elbow grease and patience to make it successful. It's not rocket science, and there is no "on/off" switch. It's a well-built and sturdy version of technology that is thousands of years old. My only criticism is that I wish the mouth of the spout dropped a little lower. Sometimes the juice did not pour cleanly out of the spout, but tracked back on the bottom of the pan before dripping. No big deal, but seems like a simple design fix.
I would highly recommend the press and grinder. I got more than 25 gallons of fresh juice/cider in about six or seven hours of work. We'll enjoy it all winter now!
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
I purchased the Weston fruit press an was not impressed with the design. The ratchet mechanism only advances 1/4 inch per ratchet. (Does not work like the ratchet in wrenches). The stacking blocks skews when the ratchet comes in contact with stacking blocks. Having a second round wood disk that sets atop the stacking block would eliminates the skewing. If your are doing a small batch you will need additional blocks to efficiency squeeze the juice out.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
It seems sound and works fine. It's a little strange to have to put in all of the wood blocks to push down the follower but the threads on the center acme screw only go down to the top of the basket.
Other reviewers have commented that it does not get fruit dry at the first press, having worked at wineries myself, not even the big professional presses get the must dry in one pressing. you must pull out the cake, stir, and re-press. This is called the hard press. Some keep this stuff seperated from the main juice/wine.
Pretty solid and sound for the price.
Other reviewers have commented that it does not get fruit dry at the first press, having worked at wineries myself, not even the big professional presses get the must dry in one pressing. you must pull out the cake, stir, and re-press. This is called the hard press. Some keep this stuff seperated from the main juice/wine.
Pretty solid and sound for the price.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
It works well
I got this at the very end of apple season (along with the Weston Fruit Crusher). I had about 4 useable buckets of apples still remaining so I decided to make ice cider (cider... Read more
Published 4 months ago by stefanj
Cannot get response from company
For the moment,I have to give 1 star. The cider press came and when I tried to attach the rod, screw it in to the shaft to press the apples - the shaft is too large. Read more
Published 7 months ago by pema drolma
Cheap, not worth your cash
Lot's of parts that are easy to lose. The technique of using the blocks is a pain to say the least. The bolts on the rings holding the wood come out easily, the whole contraption... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Maya Laura
could use improvements
This press works good for crushing grapes but have two issues. The first one is the ratchet assembly could use some tightening up or better ratchet design for when there is a lot... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Richard B Smith
Mediocre quality
I finally got a chance to use this product with fall fruit ripening. I bolted it to a concrete slab and filled it with plums as an experiment as the apples had not ripened yet. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Court
Worked quite well
The press worked quite well, highly recommend it. Only recommendation, we discovered the hard way that the apples have to be cut in extremely small pieces (almost applesauce) in... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mona K. Campbell
Hard to use!
Tried to press muscadine grapes that were very ripe. Lots of cranking without much juice. Might work ok if fruit were completly crushed before hand.
Published on October 20, 2009 by B. Little
I wish I could return it.
I did not fully understand the limitations of a fruit press with a single screw rod in the center. The fruit must be put in 2-3 bags and placed around the rod rather than all the... Read more
Published on October 15, 2009 by David Gunderson
We like it
We had tried to make a homemade press last year and found it lacking. So we decided to try a real press and bought the Weston Fruit and wine press. Read more
Published on October 10, 2009 by Utah Dad
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