We've tested over 50 juicer models in our Lab in the last decade alone.
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If your daily fresh-pressed green juice from the local cafe is starting to break the bank, you may want to invest in your own juicer. From adding more fresh fruit and veggies to your diet to elevating classic cocktail recipes with your own fresh-pressed juices, there are plenty of healthy benefits to be had.
In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, we've tested over 50 juicers in the last decade alone, evaluating them for performance and efficiency. In our testing, we juice pulpy apples that have a wide diameter and oxidize quickly, floppy kale which can often jam machines and hard and fibrous carrots. And we score each juicer for its output and the resulting juice's taste, texture and temperature.
There are two main juicer styles to choose from: masticating juicers (also known as slow juicers or cold press) and centrifugal juicers:
You can read more about how we evaluate juicers in our Lab — plus everything you need to know to shop for your perfect juicer — at the end of this guide. If you're considering buying a new blender instead, check out our guides to best personal blenders and blender-food processor combos.
If you hate prep work, the centrifugal Breville Juice Fountain Cold Plus is the juicer for you. It can fit a whole apple in its 3.5-inch-wide feed tube. Unique rivets on the top of the feed tube help easily position and guide ingredients into the juicer. In our tests, it juiced carrots and kale the fastest and was a top contender when it came to juicing apples. The resulting juices all tasted sweet and pulp-free.
This model features cold spin technology which Breville claims ensures an insignificant temperature increase while juicing, and we can attest that we found this model produced juice at similar temperatures to the masticating juicers we tested. The juicer’s dial is easy to use with helpful speed descriptors (slow for soft fruit, high for hard vegetables). The large, 70-ounce pitcher and heavy-duty lid were nice bonuses, perfect for serving extra-large batches or storing leftovers. The pitcher even has a froth separator!
This fuss-free juicer is just around $120, and it performed well in our Lab testing. It’s easy to assemble, easy to use, fast and makes smooth, pulp-free juice. The 3-inch feed tube fits larger pieces of fruit and veggies, and it comes with a large 40-ounce pitcher with a lid and froth separator.
Several parts are dishwasher-safe, and it also comes with an innovative cleaning tool that wipes away the pulp from the inside, outside and bottom of the cutting blade in one swipe, while protecting your fingers. Although the juicer was a little loud in our Lab tests, the price, speed and results make up for it.
The NutriBullet Slow Juicer comes with the basics you need at an entry-level price point. Accessories include a multi-purpose strainer, a juice container with visible volume markings, a pulp-collecting container and a scrub brush for easy cleaning.
The juicer is intuitive to assemble thanks to the design of the strainer that only allows you to insert it into the juicing chamber one way. The 3-inch wide chute can fit large pieces of fruits and veggies, and a smaller section accommodates thinner ingredients. The mechanism is also easier to clean than others which are typically narrower with more pieces and crevices.
Our initial tests yielded 1 cup of apple juice from three apples, which is the same impressive amount we juiced from the larger more powerful juicers we tested. It's relatively quiet and the no-drip spout lets you easily pour your juice when ready. An included recipe book provides tips on juicing and other fun options like using leftover pulp for cooking and baking.
Breville's Juice Fountain Elite is a top-notch juicer that powered through sturdy fruits and vegetables faster (and quieter!) than most juicers we tested. The resulting juice from our Lab test was smooth, creamy and pulp-free.
It comes with a 1.1-quart juice jug with a froth separator and a 3.2-quart pulp container allowing you to juice a larger amount of produce in one session. It has a large 3-inch feeding tube to fit bigger fruits and veggies, and the juicer runs at two speeds so you can juice both hard and soft ingredients.
The juicing mechanism contains a titanium-reinforced disc and an Italian-made micro mesh filter basket made out of stainless steel which Breville claims are both designed for optimum juice and nutrient extraction.
The Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer ranked highly in our cold press juicer testing with a very quick and easy juicing operation that yielded delicious pulp-free juice.
In our recent testing, we were impressed with how much juice was produced and that the apple and carrot juices were very sweet. We were able to fit whole apples in the 3.5-inch feed tube and whole carrots in the smaller 1.5-inch feed tube, which reduced prep time.
This juicer features nesting juice and pulp cups for easy storage and a wider pulp gasket (the area where pulp is pushed out of) for easier cleaning. We are excited to test out this model's citrus attachment which can turn this cold press juicer into a citrus juicer as well. While this juicer is on the pricier side, Kuvings offers a 15-year limited warranty on this product.
This sleek cold press juicer model from Nama looks attractive on your countertop and offers high-performance juicing. For less prep, instead of manually feeding ingredients one at a time, add all of your fruit and veggies (most whole!) into the top and let the juicer self-feed simply by turning it on.
In testing, we found our carrot and apple juice to be sweet with minimal foam on top. Compared to other models, we found that the Nama produced more juice and less pulp, as it crushes out every last drop from fruits and veggies.
Take note that there are safety mechanisms included in this juicer that require you to assemble the juicer perfectly before it can operate, which we found a little tricky initially. When you're finished juicing, the juicer comes with a dual-ended cleaning tool which we used a lot during testing, as this was one of the harder models to clean because of its intricate mesh pulp strainer.
This new masticating juicer model from Omega makes batch juicing even easier thanks to the extra large, 68-ounce hopper that requires minimal fruit and veggie prep.
You simply fill the hopper with a bunch of fruit and veggies (most of them can be whole) and then let the juicer self-feed and juice all by itself. There is also a 60-second memory feature that helps the model remember the rotation and operation that was last used. There is also a safety mechanism where the juicer makes a noise when the lid is open, and it automatically shuts off so you don't hurt your fingers when refilling the hopper.
In our testing, we found the juicing operation to be a bit slower than other cold press models tested. The carrot juice it produced was sweet and earthy with only a little bit of pulp. We also appreciated how easy this juicer was to put together and that it comes with minimal pieces for easy storage.
It also features an all-in-one auger that crushes and separates the juice from its pulp. There is no fine mesh juicing screen, which are usually the hardest piece to clean in a juicer, making this one of the easiest juicers to hand wash. Keep in mind that parts aren't dishwasher-safe.
In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, we have tested more than 50 juicers, including masticating juicers (also known as cold-press or slow juicers) and centrifugal juicers.
When we test them, we juice carrots, which are hard and can sometimes yield bitter juice; kale, a popular leafy vegetable that's hard to juice and can jam the machine; and apples which are pulpy with a large diameter and oxidize quickly. We weigh and measure how much juice each juicer extracts as well as how much pulp is created as a byproduct.
The time that a cold press juicer takes to juice apples, carrots and kale is recorded to see how quickly the operation occurs. We take the temperature of each juice after it is extracted, taste and evaluate how smooth and sweet each juice is and we monitor the juice for three days to see if it separates as it sits.
✔️ Price: Cold-press or masticating juicers tend to be more expensive than their centrifugal counterparts because their machinery usually has more parts and is a little more involved to ensure that juice doesn't get heated during the juicing operation. While there are some affordable options, expect to spend a couple hundred dollars to get a juicer that’s designed to last — and make good juice. Conveniently, most cold-press juicers on this list have a long warranty as well.
✔️ Style: There are two different styles of juicers: vertical and horizontal – which refers to the way you feed in fruits and veggies. With a vertical juicer, you feed ingredients at the top, and juice is collected from the bottom. With a horizontal juicer, you feed fruits and vegetables into the left side and juice is extracted from the right. Vertical juicers typically have fewer pieces and a more intuitive design, making setup, juicing and cleanup a bit simpler than the slightly more cumbersome horizontal models.
✔️ Size of feed tube: The larger the tube, the less prep work — i.e., chopping — you’ll have to do. Some juicers, like the Nutribullet Slow Masticating Juicer Machine, even have one section large enough for an entire apple and another section that's designed to accommodate thin items like celery and kale for maximum efficiency. Juicers like the Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer are self-feeding, where you put all of your fruits and veggies in a large hopper at once and the juicer handles them automatically.
✔️ Accessories: Some juicers come with different-sized strainers that allow for different amounts of pulp in juices — and even smoothies. A very fine strainer would reduce the amount of pulp for a silky smooth finish while a strainer with larger holes will allow some pulp to go through giving a more viscous juice with added fiber. Some juicers can be used to make sauces, purees, nut butter and sorbets, depending on the sizing of the strainers that are provided — use finer strainers for sorbets and larger strainers for thick nut butter. If you choose a machine with these types of accessories, look for included cleaning brushes to keep things sanitary.
✔️ Power: It's worth considering the wattage for centrifugal juicers, particularly if you juice tougher items like celery or greens. Look for models upwards of 1,000 watts to juice tough ingredients. Weaker motors may stop working mid-juice because they get overheated and need to cool down. When it comes to masticating juicers, the force that is exerted is more important than the wattage (which tends to be low), since fruits and veggies are crushed and pressed to separate the juice from the pulp.
✔️ Ease of cleaning: Juicers, by design, have numerous parts, and they can be cumbersome to clean. Look for models with dishwasher-safe parts and models that come with cleaning brushes to ensure that you don’t spend more time cleaning than juicing.
✔️ Warranty: There’s no question about it — juicers are pricey appliances. If you’re investing in one that is more expensive, it’s worth checking warranty information to ensure you’ll be satisfied for years to come.
✔️ Centrifugal juicers juice faster than slow juicers. Whole ingredients are typically dropped into the wider feed tube and pulverized at a very high speed. For example, in our leafy greens test, 100 grams of kale juiced in as quickly as 7 seconds in a centrifugal juicer, while it took upwards of 1 minute in the slow juicers. The juice from centrifugal juicers tends to come out a little foamy but most come with lidded pitchers and built-in strainers to get rid of the foam.
✔️ Slow juicers or masticating juicers typically have a narrow vertical chute that guides ingredients into a chamber where they are pressed by a rotating auger. The fresh juice is squeezed out through a strainer and into a pitcher, while the pulp is dispensed from a second spout. The process is a little slow — it’s called a slow juicer for a reason! — but this is considered a good thing. The slow, gentle process is believed to preserve nutrients better than high-speed juicers that generate heat which can affect the taste of the final product. Masticating juicers do tend to be more expensive than centrifugal juicers though.
There is no difference between a cold press juicer and a masticating juicer. Cold press juicers also go by the name of slow juicers and masticating juicers. Masticating refers to the process by which cold press juicers break up whole fruits and veggies before they are juiced.
Through our testing, we found that cold press juicers produce less pulp than centrifugal models. If you're looking to reduce waste with any juicer, you can compost pulp or freeze it in ice cube trays and add it to smoothies whenever you want to blend up a smoothie with extra fiber and nutrients.
As director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab, Nicole Papantoniou oversees all content and testing related to kitchen appliances, tools, gadgets and gear. She's been testing kitchen appliances professionally since 2013 and has worked at kitchen appliance companies where she helped develop some popular air fryers as well as many recipes for them. She is trained in classic culinary arts and is a professional recipe developer. Nicole has tested many of the juicers included in this story.
Eva Bleyer has professionally tested all kinds of kitchen equipment, from oven ranges to kitchen scales to blenders. In fact, in the past two years alone, Eva has tested almost 15 different juicers in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab. As a trained chef with a background in health-supportive cooking, she also has years of experience using juicers for everything from making beet-juice-infused pasta dough to spicy ginger turmeric shots.
Nicole (she/her) is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, where she has overseen content and testing related to kitchen and cooking appliances, tools and gear since 2019. She’s an experienced product tester and recipe creator, trained in classic culinary arts and culinary nutrition. She has worked in test kitchens for small kitchen appliance brands and national magazines, including Family Circle and Ladies’ Home Journal.
Eva (she/her) is a reviews analyst in the Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, where she tests kitchen gear, home appliances and culinary innovations. She graduated from NYU with a bachelor of science in food studies, nutrition and public health and is a trained chef through the Natural Gourmet Institute. Eva has more than 10 years of experience in the food industry, working as a food stylist, personal chef and marketing manager.
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