Customer Reviews

Weston Fruit and Wine Press

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

 

 

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 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.

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. It came on time and was in good condition. It had all the parts needed to get started right away. The only thing we had to go looking for is the Food Grade Silicon spray which is needed to lubricate the moving parts. We found that at our local restaurant supply company. You will need to use this spray on the ratcheting head because it is coated iron and appears to rust easily if not treated. We filled it with grapes and got great juice. One thing we found though was that we could not get it pressed really dry because we had tossed in the whole fruit and stems. So we have ordered the matching Weston crusher for next year. I believe with that it will crush much better (drier). Unless you bolt the base down, it is a two person operation. The ratcheting action works well. Although they provide you with several pressing blocks, we did have to cut a couple of additional pressing blocks to get the press all the way down. I just cut an untreated 2x4 that I had laying around.

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 fruit being placed in one bag. I didn't feel as if the fruit was completely pressed (all juice removed). I'll keep a look out for a fruit press with two screw rods, one on each side of the press and outside of the area where the fruit bags are placed. If anyone wants to buy a once-used Weston Fruit and Wine Press please let me know. (509) 335-6294

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.

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 order yield reasonable quantities of cider.

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 pressed from apples that have been frozen and thawed). The press work very well (granted it is a slow process racheting back and forth- but that does allow for the juice to maxiumized!). It is a little hard to for one person to keep the blocks in position until the pressure builds up (I said hard- not impossible). I also had some pulp that squeezed up past the round pressure block (no biggie). Another reviewer talked about some metal shavings coming off the rachet device- and this did happen to me too- but they only fell on the spacer blocks and in no way came in contact with the pulp. A little food grade grease should take care of that problem. All in all this works very well and will see many years of duty in my personal apple orchard (and I imagine I'll be pressing for my son and daughter-in-law too as they have some nice trees also)

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. I cranked it down, the handle ratchets back and forth. The ratchet palls don't always want to drop into their holes on each stroke so some times you end up pushing a bit extra at the end of each stroke to settle them in. I think this problem will improve as the palls deform to fit the hole better.

The deformation to the ratchet palls and friction between the screw and nut cause the plating to chip off. This would not really be a big issue except it is right above all of your fruit and even with it in the pressing bag still gets through and contaminates your juice and the fruit pulp. I pulled the bag right up around the screw but the dust falls right around the screw and still got in. Who knows what metals are in that plating, mostly chromium, but could be many others. The juice was blackened some what by the metal dust and tasted metallic, I did not drink the juice.

Lastly the metal bands around the cage have a loop in their ends that a pin passes through. The loop has a tiny tack weld keeping it closed. That weld broke on two of the bands allowing the ends to bend open. The press is now useless unless I re-weld the ends up with a proper weld.
Final thoughts:
It is a lot of work to use, but that was not unexpected.
I beleive it will quit flaking off significant amounts of junk with more use.
Minor modifications could make it a decent (not broken) product.

Pressing plums did not yield much juice by the way. They might if ground but you would need to pit them to grind them. A steam juicer works very well though.

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 of force it doesn't work as smoothly tends to bind up a little. The second is finding mesh bags for the press that fit right. You have to cut a hole in your mesh bags to get over shaft. This weakens the bag and doesn't last very long. I don't know if there is one but a bag with the hole cut and re-enforced stitching around the hole would work great.

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. It cannot fit into the shaft. I have called to the office (they give a red paper with their number on it), but all I get is an answering machine - on all different lines. I have emailed them, nothing. I haven't used any different rod to try to turn the press. Have waited for the company response. Meanwhile the apples wait.