Hamilton Beach Juicer Review

So you want to start juicing, huh? If you are like me, you started looking at the price of juicers and got really discouraged, really fast.

"$300 for a juicer?" You thought. "I don't know if I am ready for that kind of commitment."

There are a few inexpensive juicers on the market but I was hesitant to buy one. How can a $40 juicer be any good at all if most cost hundreds of dollars? After a good deal of research, I chose the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor. It cost just $49.85 on Amazon.

After using it for several days, I would definitely recommend it as a great starter juicer. Here's why.

• It is affordable--At under $50, you cant beat the price, especially if you are just starting out juicing.
• It gets all the juice out of hard fruits and vegetables; the left over pulp is very dry.
• It takes just 5 minutes to clean.
• It has a wide mouth that can handle whole fruits and wide vegetables.
• It is compact enough to stay out on the counter.

After checking the pricing at my local stores, I ultimately found it cheapest on Amazon.com. Shipping took about a week, but it was free, so I'm not complaining.

Like with any kitchen item, you should take the Hamilton Beach Juicer apart and wash it before you use it for the first time. It was very easy to take apart and put back together. The large pulp container slides right out from underneath the overhang on the lid. Two locking latches on either side of the juicer hold the juicer cover in place. Once the lid was removed, the strainer basket and lift out with firm pressure. I was pleased that the unit came with a soft-bristled cleaning brush for the strainer basket.

My first juice was an apple-celery-lemon juice. So good! I cored and segmented the apples with my Pampered Chef Apple Segmenter, washed the celery stalks and peeled and halved the lemon before juicing. The Juicer's instruction guide says it can handle a whole apple, but why make the motor work any harder than it has too already? It is a $50 juicer, after all.

It expressed all the juice in seconds and the pulp it flung into the pulp basket was very dry. I was impressed.

It cleaned up in a matter of minutes. Five to be exact.

Make sure to clean your juicer immediately after juicing, before the pulp has a chance to dry, or it will be much more difficult to clean.

Cleaning the juicer was really easy. I just unlocked the latches on the sides of the juicer to release the lid and pulled up on the strainer bowl to remove the strainer bowl and basket. I rinsed all of the pieces (except for the base, of course) in warm running water and then washed in soapy water. The hardest piece to clean, obviously was the strainer basket. I used the cleaning brush that came with the juicer to gently scrub away the pulp that was stuck in the teeny tiny strainer holes. I found that scrubbing the strainer under running water helped. I had to inspect the strainer several times to make sure that I had gotten all the pulp out, but again, the whole process took just 5 minutes, so it really wasn't terrible.

Let me just reiterate: Wash or at least soak the pieces, especially the strainer basket immediately. Once it dries, the pulp is much, much harder to remove.

This juicer does have some limitation. It is a $50 juicer, right? You can't juice mushy produce like bananas and avacados, but then again, no juicer will do that unless you get one that acts as a blender as well. We have magic bullet blender that we use to turn our juices into smoothies. Just blend the juice with some ice and yogurt or banana and done.

It would be wise to easy on this juicer by cutting up whole fruits and veggies into smaller pieces, instead of juicing them whole and alternating between hard and softer veggies so as not to overwork the motor.

Finally, this juicer does not come with a cup for the juice, so you'll need to use your own. I have used regular dining cups as well as my Pampered Chef small batter bowl and both worked fine, with minimal to no mess.

I was not paid or endorsed in any way by Hamilton Beach for writing this review. I do however make a small commission on any Amazon orders placed through this article. These are my honest opinions about this product.

Thanks!

We have this juicer for about 6 months now and I am still happy with it. We use it several times a week and it is still juicing well.