Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a young daughter and it was a desire to be a good parent that drove me to buy this juicer. Why I bought a Juicer: I have a young daughter and as a parent I want the absolute best for her. Looking through the supermarket looking for good juices for her I found so many interesting things: a) Labels at the supermarkets are confusing: sometimes mango juice is 98% apple juice with 1% mango and has all kinds of things like sugar, corn syrup, stabilizers etc. b) You have to be very careful and become knowledgeable on what "from concentrate," "not from concentrate," "pasteurized," "stabilized," "5% real juice," "10% real juice," "no sugar added," "etc," means. After a couple of months of reading labels and books, I became a learned shopper for juices. I only buy 100% natural orange juice, not from concentrate, without additives etc. Beyond orange juice though, things become very complicated: Just try to find 100% mango juice with no sugar, high fructose corn syrup, stabilizers etc added to it ---- I found it pretty much impossible and you can't get watermelon juice, cantaloupe juice, guava juice (well really hard), strawberry juice etc -- and if you happen to find something decent it was probably packaged in South Africa and shipped here with no clear markings on when it was packaged. So, in order to get my daughter a greater variety of juices...made from more than just orange juice in a 100% natural fashion drove me to buy a juicer. Why I bought this Juicer: I looked at so many juicers and the basic principle on 99% of them work in pretty much the same way: a) you have a spinning cone shaped cup with a very fine mesh on the outside. b) a blade at the bottom of the cone tears up the fruit c) the centripetal force smashes the ground up material against the mesh sides -- juice flows through the wall of the strainer while the fibrous leftovers stay in the spinning mesh cup d) the juice makes it through and dry fibers get pushed up due to the cone shape of the container and finally out of the top of the cup onto a receptacle on the side e) Viola! -- Juice!....oh, and Messy leftovers! Given that the basic principles are the same for most juicers, I started looking for a few things: a) The best constructed product out there b) Ease of cleaning c) Versatility -- Construction This Breville product is indeed very durable. Its rock solid. I can't say enough about how tough this product is. Bear in mind there are quite a few plastic products on it which are crystal clear. Yes they could break but seems unlikely that they will unless I bang them against something pretty hard. -- Ease of Cleaning The clear pastic parts have a plus that it makes it easy to clean and see that everything is clean. The mesh is much easier to clean than I thought --Versatility The motor has several speeds to help get the most juice out of different fruits. Speed is important. If the speed is too fast, juicy fruits will be spun out of the juicing cone leaving precious juice in the fibrous remains. So I really like the 5speed variable speed. What I have found: a) Juicing is Hard -- -- Depending on the fruit it can take a lot of fruit to make little juice -- Cantalope, Watermelon make lots of juice from each -- Oranges make medium amounts of juice from each -- Pineapples, Mangos, Peachers make little juice from each -- You have to prepare the fruits before you go down the road of juicing and this takes time -- Once you have all of your ingredients prepared, its almost heartbreaking to see the Breville turn them into juice in about 30 seconds --- literally 30 minutes preparing fruits sometimes so that the juicer can crush them in 30 seconds and then to make half a pitcher that you drink in 3 minutes....hmmm b) Juicing is Expensive -- You have to buy fruits that are in season and cheap otherwise juicing is a prohibitively expensive proposition -- No matter what type of fruit you use save watermelon and cantalope, it will always seem that you're throwing tons of fruit into the hungry beast to make very little juice. -- It is amazing how much fruit this machine will consume and all that fruit is pricey -- So, unless you're a millionaire and have all the time in the world, you're going to be relegated to making juice only from things that are in season. c) Juicing is Great -- Ok now you're probably saying, "oh, I don't know about this whole juicing thing after this crazy guy points out all the negatives." Not quite, there are a ton of positives to juicing. The Opportunist Blender -- I'm blending all kinds of different fruits, especially all the marginal fruit in my refrigerator (I used to buy lots of fruit, and still do, and don't consume it all) As that fruit gets ripe and just before it goes to waste, before I would just throw it out, but now I just bring out my juicer and throw it all into the machine. It makes short work of blueberries, strawberries, all berries and then I throw in a few oranges (oranges have become my defacto base for my juices) and viola! I've saved my old fruits that would've gone to waste and I've created a healthy concoction that I could never get at the store....don't ask me to recreate it but all and I mean all my blends taste great with the Breville. The Health Nut -- I make it a point to blend at least 1 to 2 times a week for my daughter and I absolutely know 100% that she's getting 100% fresh and pure juice and she loves the juices I make! She looks forward to juicing. She's 2 and she just sits there on a highchair while I juice -- such wonderful times. Overall: a) The Juicer has NOT replaced supermarket juices. I still buy 100%orange juice, not from concentrate b) I don't buy other juices like mango juice etc c) I still buy Motts for Tots kindof juices (go figure) d) The Juicer has allowed me to supplement our diet with 100% natural juices a few times a week e) The juicer has allowed me to use fruit that I would otherwise throw away. What I Learned After Owning the Breville: -- Juicing is not the glorious thing that its made out to be in the infomercials, its tedious, dirty, expensive, and you get little juice -- Its very healthy and if you do it right (with in season, juicy fruits), you can make some wonderful and very healthy juices....You know exactly what you're putting into it -- If you're going to buy a juicer, buy this a fantastic choice.