Climate Pledge Friendly
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This unit was recommended to me by a friend, and with the additional coupon, found its way to my front door quickly and under a hundred bucks!
First impressions: the unit seems well-designed and well put together, with a number of thoughtful features. The touch/feel of the body of the unit is kind of a slightly-rubberized soft touch, which was a good feel for it vs. a glossy finish. At this price point, I don't expect a unit that has a high number of stainless steel parts or anything of the sort, but the mesh is metal and seems to be stainless, and should last a long time. The rotating screw is plastic, but a heavy-duty THICK plastic and truth be told, I've dropped it a couple times already while cleaning with no apparent ill effects. The junction of the screw and motor is metal as well, so there's no real chance for deformation like if the whole thing were plastic.
Operation: this is pretty simple and straightforward to operation. Since it's a slow-masticating unit, you can continue to add fruits and veggies after the cup is full the first time, as it won't really generate any heat to be concerned with. At least with what I've used so far (carrots, apples, kale, spinach, ginger, lime, orange) there's been very little foaming to note. The reverse switch is a nice touch in case anything gets jammed anywhere. I had a couple small pieces of lime peel that I backed out, and it worked well. I wouldn't necessarily call it loud, but it's not quiet either. The motor has to be powerful enough to chew through everything you throw at it, and it reflects that. The unit goes together and comes apart easily enough, with a couple tips I'll note below to help out.
Results: honestly, fantastic! The juice is a high quality and does include some pulp due to the slow-masticating operation, so you don't totally lose all the fiber and nutrients that could be contained in the "meat" of the fruits/veggies, which is a downside to the high-speed centrifugal units. The pulp output I haven't figured out what I'm doing with quite yet, although it's likely to be used in some dog treats or something soon.
Cleaning: okay, so here's where I'll add a couple thoughts and couple helpful tips if you happen to sometimes be a little slow like me in figuring this stuff out. Overall, the unit disassembles easily in enough parts to easily rinse it out without a lot of scrubbing. I've been using hot water alone and it cleans the unit thoroughly enough that I don't feel the need to do any more. The included brush/poker is super-helpful for getting everything out of the nooks and crannies, so don't be afraid to use it! Also - here's my big tip - I didn't realize at first that the screw actually comes out of the bottom unit with a little tug. It was in there firmly originally and I couldn't quite figure out how to clean the crud that was obviously under there...once I figured it just pulled out, it was like the clouds parted and the sun was shining a spotlight on it! A quick rinse and air-dry and it's ready to go again.
Tips:
-Pull the screw out when cleaning!
-Use the brush/scraper thingy included with it
-Read the instructions and cut the fruits/veggies into smaller parts
-Not "needed" but removing the rind from citrus fruits avoids any clogging the tougher ones could cause
-Since the unit works by rotating the screw, anything that has longer fiber threads should be chopped a little finer (and, ideally, across the fibers); note - I have had zero issues with kale, spinach, ginger so far...
