Read First Before Buy Omega VRT350S Dual Stage Vertical Single
I've been into the whole raw health thing for years, and I love researching the subject in my free time.
I initially was introduced to juicing in the process of doing a juice fast my acupuncture professor got me to try out, and juicing had such a positive effect on my body it became a gateway to following a mostly raw highly health conscious diet. Regardless of how far you want to take that dogma though, regular good juicing will single handedly bestow many of the positive effects obtained with a full time raw diet.
However, while juicing is wonderful, there are a few issues with how one goes about juicing. Typically, every juicer on the market suffers from some combination of the following issues:
a) The nutritional quality of the juice gets destroyed in the process of it being juiced.
b) The juicer lacks the ability to juice certain items.
c) The juicer will break overtime.
d) The entire juicing process is surprisingly time intensive.
Succinctly, the omega vert is the only juicer I know of that solves those 4, and as a bonus can make sorbets and nut butters! (you can google it, there are lots of youtube videos).
I'll try to explain why the vert addressed those 4 points.
First off, it has an amazing warrantee. Unconditional life time. I was stupid and damaged my juicer by dropping a bread knife in it. I called them (having long lost my receipt), and they told me to send in the damaged part or a picture of it and they'd replace it for free. In addition they let me get a replacement part I'd lost for 7 dollars no questions asked. That's pretty good service.
Anyways, the big thing that differentiates the omega vert from most juicers on the market is that it's a masticating rather than centrifuge juicer.
There are two ways you can juice things. The first is to press the vegatables (or fruits) into a shredding blade which purees them, then spin them in a centrifuge that squeezes the juice out from the puree. The second is to grind them down with a mortar and let the juice naturally separate.
The former comprise most juicers on the market, and nearly every one in commercial juice establishments. They have 2 huge advantages. The first is that they're cheaper to make, the second is that they juice things faster (almost instantaneously).
The latter on the other hand, slow press or masticating juicers have two distinct advantages. The first is that they can juice certain things that don't work in the centrifuge design (wheatgrass being the classic example), and the second in my opinion more important one is that they maintain the quality of the juice.
Plant "guts" are extremely sensitive to oxygen and heat, with the nutrients quickly breaking down and the juices becoming vulnerable to mold and other afflictions (as some of those destroyed nutrients are essentially the plants immune system that protects it from foreign invaders or anti oxidants) . The centrifuge process exposes the veggies/fruit to a large amount of heat through the friction of the blades pureeing the plant matter, then as it flys out the centrifuge, the juice exits as particulates which contact oxygen from every angle, partially oxidizing before they collect at the bottom. Neither of these apply to the slow press method, and hence there is a large difference in the quality of the juice.
After I'd used my first juicer, it became crystal clear to me i'd be juicing for a while, so while a masticating juicer was a bit expensive, the investment was worth is since id eat a lot of juice, and the added nutrients would add up over the years. Once I actually got the vert I noticed a few big differences in the juice that came out.
First off, it tasted completely different. You can use words like healthy, alive, tasty, vibrant but regardless it was clearly better quality than a centrifuge.
Secondly, more came out. From a mechanics standpoint it makes sense (we'd often run the pulp from the centrifuge juicer through a few times to extract more of the juice still stuck in it whereas the masticating juicer design facilitates a complete extraction).
Thirdly, the juice took much longer to go bad or mold. Many people (ie. dr. mercola) state you have to drink juice immediately after making it or you lose the nutritional quality, unless you do something complicated like seal it in a light proof air tight contrainer in the fridge. I think this assumption was incorrectly derived from working with centrifuge rather than masticating juicers. To further illustrate this point, pulp being left in my juicer was always an issue (pain to clean out, and molded very quickly). When id leave pulp in the vert and forget to clean it, it would either not mold or take days to do so rather than a few hours.
Beyond getting more juice for your time, the vert has a few other time saving measures. It's designed to be self cleaning (meaning a brush runs around the strainer in it as it runs cleaning stuff off) and it has an exit spout that ejects the pulp. This saves a lot of time, and you don't really appreciate it until you've had to spend hours completely cleaning a juicer out after each usage.
Then as a final minor point, the masticating juicer puts a lot less strain or damage on the parts, so it will last longer. For instance, in the centrifuge juicers, the blade normally dulls, creating progressivley more friction and heat on the stuff it has to puree until it has to be replaced.
Anyhow, thanks for reading this. I rarely write reviews but I was really impressed by this juicer.
Oh ya after I got it, a good female friend decided to buy one too. She told me she felt amazing after her first few juices and had a sense of vitality she'd never experienced before, and that it made her look a lot more attractive (which suprised me given that she was already very hot). So ya, good juicer!
My husband researched juicers for a couple of years (no exaggeration) before finally deciding on this one. The reviews of other juicer owners, both good and bad, helped to finalize his decision. So I thought my review would be helpful. First of all I wasn't the one that wanted a new juicer but I am now the primary user (making juice for the both of us). I won't blast our previous juicer which was a lovely gift from my parents years ago but the Omega beats that one ten times over. #1 no filter papers, and no separate attachments needed for juicing citrus fruits. Additionally the clean up is SO simple. This really was my main concern. If it was going to be hard to take apart, clean and put back together then I wouldn't be motivated to use it. It is also sleek enough not to be an eye sore as a permanent countertop fixture. My husband and I drink two different kinds of juices and all that needs to be done is to empty the pulp container to make room for more. I was amazed at how dry the pulp was which means we are getting the most juice out of each fruit and vegetable. The only thing that I have had trouble with was the strings from celery. It was no big deal but it was enough fuss that I can do without using celery. As for every other thing we have juiced so far: carrots, spinach, apples, ginger root, blackberries, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, pears (hard ones), and even clementines it has all worked perfectly. I was happiest to discover juicing the clementines which are like tangerines without seeds. I got a nice juice from it which wasn't pulpy at all. All of the juices are smooth I am very happy with my husbands purchase.
BalasHapusThis is our 4th juicer since 1991, and I grin with amazement every time I use it! The design of this vertical, single-auger juicer is superb. It's as quiet and cool as a juicer can be, while it chews our greens for us. It does a fine job of juicing wheat grass, yet can also handle an over-ripe pineapple, which is what burned out our Breville last month. The daily carrot, apple, celery, kale, spinach, parsley, cilantro and ginger drinks are a breeze, and produce less pulp than I've ever seen from any juicer. I've fed it large amounts of grapefruit, oranges, and lemons, and it handles it all without the slightest problem. I've even made my own almond milk from soaked almonds. The quality of the juice from this machine is as close to Norwalk as you'll get from a juicer that's this convenient in every way. It even pulls the produce into the auger by itself when you drop the pieces into the feeder shoot. I've used a Juiceman Juicer (for which I am forever grateful), a Norwalk Juicer that produced the finest juice ever but with a lot of work, and a powerful Breville, but would put them all aside for this small, quiet, well designed, efficient, convenient, and easy-to-clean Omega VRT350HD. And, on top of all that, the 10-year warranty must be best in class. I feel very fortunate to own this machine; it allows me to prepare several jars of juices every morning before work with minimal time and effort. Kudos and thank you to the designers of this machine!
BalasHapusMy girlfriend and I got hooked on fresh juice after frequenting a juice truck in NY. Since the winter is here and we got tired of shelling out almost $10 a cup for fresh juice, we decided to take the plunge. Admittedly this is an expensive item but you get what you pay for. We watched the videos on youtube and read reviews of machines on amazon and other sites. This is by far the best we came across at this price point.
BalasHapusWe have used the juicer almost every day since our purchase and this thing can handle almost anything you throw at it - including leafy greens. We both feel more healthy and we are able to customize our juices with the fresh produce available. Cleanup it pretty easy too, another reason we went with this model.
I highly recommend it, and would definitely purchase again.
BalasHapusI've owned three juicers before buying the Omega Vert 350. And finally I've found the perfect juicer. It doesn't take up much counter space. It looks good. It's quiet when it's juicing. It produces colorful juice and very dry extracted pulp. It can handle all fruits and vegetables, even wheatgrass which I've begun growing and juicing. It's simple to clean, with no sharp parts. And reassemlbes in a snap.
BalasHapusI gave away two of my other juicers (a Champion and Juiceman) and put my one year old Brevelle Elite in the basement, thinking I might use it again some day. But with each passing week, I don't think I will ever use the noisy, inefficient thing again--although it is a beautiful looking stainless steel machine. Anyway, I am happy now everytime I juice and hear the comforting slow whir of the Vert and see the dark, rich juice spill into my cup.
i decided on this model after watching john kohler's videos of it on youtube.
BalasHapusit was between this one and the 8006 model, and i chose this one because it is more self feeding, takes up less space, and in my opinion looks a lot better. based on videos, it seems quicker. you just drop the food in and don't even have to push it down, compared to the 8006 where you have to stick each piece in 1 at a time and push it down with the plunger.
it's very quiet, sounds kind of like a battery operated child's toy, like a whir of gears. compared to regular style juicers, that sound like loud blenders.
it's super easy to use and clean. assembly is easy, just line up the dots and twist. during cleanup, the only thing that doesn't just rinse clean is the small section of the screen. so you just use the included toothbrush thing and give it a few scrubs. took maybe 2 minutes. sometimes if pulp is really stuck on there, i use the vegetable brush to clean it because the bristles are shorter and firmer.
celery fibers can be difficult to pull out of the pulp port, and the solution is to just cut the celery up into 1" pieces. but i don't cut it up.
the most time consuming part was just preparing the vegetables and fruits, and that takes about 5 minutes. all that makes it easy to use every single day.
edit: i've been using this juicer for a year now, and it's still going strong. nothing has broken yet. every few months i'll put the pieces in the dishwasher to get residue buildup off. the main thing i make in it is a celery/carrot/apple juice. but sometimes i'll do other things like greens or oranges. instead of juicing daily, i make a bunch and store the juice in glass baby bottles for a few days.
take a look at some of the pictures i posted of the various parts.
This is an excellent juicer and thankfully came in one piece. The seller that mailed it packaged it very poorly so that the juicer box was able to shift around in the outer box. The outer box was also damaged, which might be UPS. But the juicer survived and is working fine.
BalasHapusThis is my 4th upgrade in a juicer, and I am happy with my choice. Here's the HOWEVER! The Korean company seems a bit minimalistic on instructions. You have no idea whether the silicon plug is supposed to be kept in or out to juice. And after a very chewable first try, we realized it is supposed to be IN! But is there ever an occasion for it to be out. We assume it is pulled out only to facilitate cleaning. There are no recipes or instructions for juicing other than assembly. I hope they are paying the rather enthusiastic guy on Youtube, because without his demos and a couple of others, the buyer would be stumbling around in the dark.
So yes, buy the juicer, and watch YOUTUBE!