LOW JUICER VS FAST JUICER - WHICH IS BEST?

Does speed really matter? Well, sort of but perhaps not in the way you might have been led to think. Especially if you’ve read ​some of the ​nonsense that we see masquerading as facts on some websites. We prefer to take a rational look at the relevance of juicer speed and make sure we don’t insult our customers with the kind of unsupportable ​fibs published on other juicer sites.

If enough people start repeating a seemingly plausible ‘fact’ about juicer speeds, pretty soon they have a following that has accepted the claim to be true.

Slow Juicer You might see other websites promoting vertical slow juicers implying that the lower the RPM of the machine, the better the juice. Some try to convince you that a rotational speed of say 40RPM gives more nutritious juice than a speed of 80RPM, while others are still propagating the fantasy that high speed centrifugal juicers destroy enzymes and other nutrients with heat and friction. Both of these concepts are misleading, with not one shred of scientific evidence to suggest that they hold any merit whatsoever.

​Some sellers will support claims with numbers like 70% more nutrition or 30% more juice. These are also meaningless statements unless they are qualified by evidence and comparisons that can be verified. Some manufacturers who have jumped on the bandwagon making false claims about slow juicers versus fast juicers have already paid the price in out of court settlements, because they were unable to substantiate either their claims against high speed centrifugal juicers.

So Are We Saying That Low Speed Juicers Are No Better Than Centrifugal Juicers?

No, we are definitely not saying that. But what is best for one person is not necessarily best for another. Juice yield and juice quality are important considerations for most people when choosing a juicer, but when researching online its easy for them to be convinced that slow=better and fast=worse. It’s not that simple. The nutritional quality and yield of juice is determined by two factors - how well the plant fibres are broken down and how much force is used to separate the juice from the pulp. Yield varies between types of juicer and types of ingredients. For example you wouldn’t want to juicer berries in a centrifugal juicer because its too wasteful. But that same centrifugal juicer might outperform many masticating juicers for carrot juice yield.

The juice quality is actually determined by the process and not the speed. Generally speaking, all masticating juicers are believed to offer more nutrients in the juice, because of the grinding and chewing action they have on the produce, which does a more thorough job of breaking down the plant cells. But the differences may not be as great as we are sometimes led to believe and it appears to vary from one ingredient to another. ​For some people the argument revolves around juice quality vs convenience and ease of use. Slow juicers have the edge for juice quality and for juicing a wider range of produce, Centrifugals win for convenience.

Slow juicers are slow because of the design limitations of the process by which they juice. Centrifugal juicers are fast because they need to spin the juice out through a filter with centrifugal force, which takes a lot of speed - from 3000RPM and upwards. Slow juicers are slow because they need to use a pressing force to get the juice through the filter without creating too much heat and friction. A low speed induction motor is needed for that pressing force. The speed is simply a necessary aspect of the juicing process in each case.

​Juicer brands are ​mainly concerned with market share and sales, and because they can sometimes get away with making ​bizarre claims, suddenly we are getting hundreds of calls from people who want to know the exact RPM of our juicers, believing that the slowest model will be better. This just doesn’t work in practice. For example, Twin Gear Juicers are widely believed to offer the best quality juice you can get at home, unless you want to go to the extra trouble of using a hydraulic press as well. But the RPM of a twin gear juicer can be over four times faster than our slowest slow juicer. This completely contradicts the idea that slower = better since most people accept that ​a twin gear juicer will release more nutrients. This is because the produce has to pass through tinier gaps between two stainless steel gears during the juicing process. So we’d simply advise that the precise RPM is not as important as the juicing method itself, and different methods have different advantages.

Centrifugal juicers are a fast way to get nutrients into your body and they are great if you have a busy lifestyle and your main priority is to get the job done quickly. Heat can destroy nutrients and the false claim most commonly made against centrifugal juicers is that they heat up juice and destroy nutrients. They categorically do not. Their speed doesn’t create significant warming and there is good evidence that they produce highly nutritious juice with good enzyme activity.

One thing that centrifugal juicers don’t do quite as well as masticating juicers (all slow juicers are also masticating juicers) is achieve a more efficient breakdown of the plant fibres. In a masticating juicer the fibres and cells are chewed and ground together, which is believed to help in releasing more of the ‘sticky’ nutrients in the plant cells and membranes. In a centrifugal juicer the cell walls are broken open very quickly and the liquid content is released by the centrifugal force of ​a fast spinning filter basket. There is very little time or opportunity for the cells to be broken down completely, so the juice is visibly a bit less rich and colourful from a centrifugal. Centrifugals also incorporate air, so the juice will discolour more quickly due to oxidation. That’s not a problem if you are drinking your juice when you make it, but slow juicers do give a longer shelf life.

From the limited research available out there, it’s clear that centrifugal juicers give a highly nutritious juice. Claims made online often wildly exaggerate the difference in quality between a centrifugal and a masticating juicer but the limited research available doesn’t support such claims. There is a difference, but depending on the nutrient tested, the percentages of difference can drop into single figures. Juice yield from a centrifugal juicer is comparable with masticating juicers on most ingredients, but they do give significantly less juice with leafy greens, wheatgrass and soft juicy fruits. Nevertheless, a centrifugal juicer with a large feed chute and a powerful motor will be very easy to live with compared to some masticating juicers, and the speed and convenience can be a good pay off compared to a small loss of juice quality. The more you actually use your juicer - the more you will benefit.