Best Review on Kuvings NJE 3580U Masticating Juicer Silver
Our centrifugal juicer had too many fast moving parts make for a short life for any machine, and in time, ours was broken beyond repair, so we had looked to upgrade to a single auger, masticating juicer. This type of juicer usually costs a bit more, but we judged the touted strengths of "slow juicing", and the longer warrantees we saw on most masticating machines would outweigh the cost. Before we had the chance to buy one, we had the wonderful luck to be gifted a Kuvings NJE 3580.
Firstly, this was not a brand that came up when doing my juicer-research, so I had no preconceptions about Kuvings, this particular machine or the price. This left us free to use it (and maybe unknowingly abuse it) as we saw fit. On top of that, I didn't know if slow juicing would fit into our nutrition routine, so we felt free to experiment.
The NJE 3580 came out of the box complete, with all the necessary attachments to begin juicing right away. It also came with a variety of extruder tips, and a solid auger screen to use for making pasta or dough. As someone who usually loses loose part things, I was grateful for the extra pulp extruder, since I knew the machine would be primarily for juicing.
My first impression was that the 100% plastic construction of the machine, outside of the motor, might not hold up to the abuse of the slow crushing pressure of constant juicing, especially the semi-transparent plastic of the masticating cylinder where the all the crushing and pressure takes place. The hard ceramic-like plastic of the auger seemed to me what they should have made the cylinder out of too, as the auger was heavy and obviously quite dense and stout enough to hold up to the daily abuse of crushing and pulping of our fruits and veggies.
That aside, I was very happy with the small size of the unit and the fitment of the parts. Even without the instructions, in less than 5 minutes I had washed and assembled the unit, ready to make my first juice. I had read that masticating juicers are laborious to clean and this can hamper integrating them into an efficient, useful routine. I found this was not the case at all with the Kuvings. I juiced just carrots for my first go-round and found the Kuvings to be quiet, efficient and produced great juice in what I judged to be a good quantity, given the amount of carrots I used. The cleanup was very easy--a quarter turn on the lock that holds the cylinder and auger/masticator to the motor and I could lift all the parts out as a whole to take over to the sink. Once in the sink, a half turn on the front cap of the cylinder, and the auger and screen come right out and with a rinse and a light scrub on the screen with the included brush, I was back juicing again.
I tried some leafy greens with apples and ginger next, and the result was even better than I had expected, nice dry pulp, a good juice yield and a tasty product. After that, I juiced some celery, which seemed the most difficult for the machine to juice as the celery ribs would cling to the plastic of the auger cylinder, but it ended up doing a fine job after some help from the pusher. I didn't want to use a lot of force, pushing vegetables and fruit down into the auger cylinder, and that should be a general rule. In fact the instructions ask that you keep use the pusher very sparingly and only when necessary. After a few days of productive juicing, and feeling like the Kuvings was finding a good place in our kitchen, we began to be less concerned with the size of the chunks we put down the chute, and caused a few jams, some that were easy to clear by using the reverse option on the motor. At times, I used, what I would consider too much force on the pusher to move some stuck chunks through, and I found that the Kuvings withstood the abuse. I knew I was doing something that I shouldn't normally do, but I said to myself, if I'm going to juice regularly, I need to trust that I'm not going to break something, even if I'm a little heavy handed every now and then. The heavy base never moved, and I never felt that I was going to break the plastic of the auger chamber, and I noticed that there was a bit of flex, which I judge to be a good thing considering the pressure the auger needs to exert in order to crush dense leafy vegetable stems and the like against the screen and the cylinder.
Again, clean-up is easy, even without the included brush. My hand or a well placed sponge fits in all nooks and crannies of all the parts, and everything comes clean quickly. All in all after using the unit for almost a month, I judge the Kuvings to be a well-made machine, and could well be the first and last juicer a casual user might ever buy. Someone who juices 4 or 5 times a day, or one who uses their machine to make baby food, nut butters and dough (all of which the Kuvings can do) on a daily basis, might find a machine with more bells and whistles, but I found the Kuvings well up to the task of everyday juicing, even with some rough handling.
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I'm all about healthy eating, especially since battling cancer 3 years ago. 2 years ago I bought a Vita-Mix blender and have been making green smoothies ever since. I ordered a book on juicing, but did not know whether to invest the money in one. They are rather expensive. I was thrilled to see this juicer on the Amazon Vine Program. The first thing I noticed when taking it out of the box is how heavy duty it is. It is also very nice looking and takes up little space on the kitchen counter. I was very nervous about the first juicing, but needn't have been! It was very easy. The manual gives very good directions. I also expected it to be loud like the Vita-Mix (which sounds like a jet airplane taking off in the kitchen) but what a pleasant surprise. It purrs like a kitten. The juice comes out one place and the pulp another. I had fresh juiced orange juice in a very short amount of time! I know virtually nothing about other juicers, but this one will definitely meet my needs. It does exactly what I want it to do with very little effort or clean-up. There are many other little attachments to make pasta and other stuff, but I am only interested in the juicing. Now I will vary my smoothies with fresh veggie juice.
BalasHapus
BalasHapusI juice frequently, but this is my first slow juicer. I have a Breville Juice Fountain Elite and another centrifugal juicer. I have to say that I was really impressed with this juicer. It was packed well, with a lot of cardboard cushioning. In spite of this, the pulp container was cracked. I called the customer service number on the instruction/recipe book and the representative said they would ship me a new one right away. So, Kuvings customer service gets an A+ for the prompt courteous service.
BalasHapusThe juicer itself is heavy and has a cool space age flip cover that flips to the back side when the juicer is in use and then can be flipped back when the juicer is not in use. This juicer was easy to disassemble and clean and put back together. The plastic parts just snap and screw into place, everything fit, and worked perfectly, and nothing had to be forced. My first juice was a kale, celery, lime, ginger, apple juice and it turned out perfectly.
I love the health benefits of juicing, but when you insist on using organic produce the cost can add up, especially with a centrifugal juicer. With this slow juicer, I was able to get a lot more juice out of my produce, so I'll be able to juice more and spend less. I also really liked how quiet this machine was, and I was able to run stuff through fairly fast. The self feeding tube does kind of pull the produce down, so there wasn't a lot of forcing and effort to get things to run through it.
Update: I purchased a flat of wheat grass and this juicer does an amazing job juicing it. The juice is very clear and the pulp is dry. One tip I discovered while making wheat grass juice is to run a mandarin or small orange through at the end to get all of the wheat grass juice pushed through. The mandarin also makes the wheat grass juice sweeter and more palatable. I also made mandarin/orange juice to drink after the wheat grass and it was a great combo.
I also think this juicer is easier to clean than my Breville, just because the parts are smaller and I don't have water splashed all over the kitchen afterwards. So far this juicer is great and I will update after I try out the other attachments.
This is an awesome juicer! First off, it's quiet, very very quiet. I can have it running and still talk to my kids without shouting. Even with hard foods like celery, carrots, nuts--even ice--it's still not too loud. If I leave the plunger in it while reaching for another handful of food to put in, that rattles, but I can set it aside.
BalasHapusWhen separating the juice from the pulp, it pushes the pulp out the front. If you were using this for juice only, there would be a lot of waste, but the pulp is good for making things like muffins or supplementing a pet's food.
It's versatile. It handles different textures with no problem. I tried blueberries, oranges, kale, strawberries. For softer foods such as strawberries, it doesn't seem to get all the juice; at least, the pulp is wetter than with harder foods, but it's still good for baking etc. I also tried putting several kinds of food in together, and that worked well.
Mincing turns the food almost into a paste; it's not the same as chopping in a food processor. The juicer turns ice into snow, which is neat. It's not crushed or shaved ice, it's actually the texture of snow. You could run frozen fruits through it to make sorbet.
This is not a super-fast process, like the ones where you just throw the food in and push a button. You do have to do some prep, peeling and cutting up the food, so it's better to do a bunch at once. You wouldn't just juice one orange for breakfast, for example.
The juicer has a lot of parts. It's not hard to assemble and disassemble, and it's easy to switch parts for different tasks (mincing, juicing, etc.). You can't store the pieces all together as a unit; it needs its own drawer or something. There are many disks for different kinds of food; these are small and could get lost easily if you don't figure out a way to store them together. I wish the unit came with a container for the disks.
Do not put this juicer in the dishwasher. It comes with its own toothbrush, which tells you something right there. After trying all the parts, it took me 15 minutes to clean all the pieces. It's not difficult, it's just that there are a lot of them. You probably wouldn't be using them all at the same time, like I was.
The juicer has a fairly big footprint when assembled; it took up more than a foot on my counter. It has a shield over the motor for protection, so the basic unit could be left out, but all the other parts are not stackable and need to be stored somewhere.
It arrived a month ago. Carrot juice is my primary use. I have been using this juicer for a month and I really love this juicer for juicing my carrots Every Day. It is super easy to use and clean.. it looks so great and durable with the silver finish. I highly recommend this juicer.
BalasHapus.I decided to try juicing a couple of years ago. After doing some research I decided on a masticating juicer after reading reviews on the many health benefits of this kind of juicer and also how quiet they are, and in general the less pulp and more juice they produce compared to regular juicers. I bought the Omega 8006 and have been very pleased with it.
BalasHapusThe Kuvings is very similar to the Omega. It is quiet, produces great tasting juice, is easy to operate and clean, has a number of nozzles for added value. The Omega has a great warranty and track record, but the Kuvings actually is more solid. The finish on the Kuvings is much nicer. The Omega has one of the worse finishes I have ever seen in a quality product. The Kuvings is also more compact, looks nicer, and has an attached cover for the front of the unit.
Peformance wise, very similar to the Omega. Look and finish: Kuvings hands down. In fact we had to send the first Omega back because the finish was coming off before the unit was even taken out of the box. Nozzles: similar. Size: Kuvings is more compact. Warranty and track record of the company: Omega. Pulp production: similar. From my experience with both of these I highly recommend either. And if you can afford it I would say get a masticating juicer. You will make up the cost with more juice and less pulp, it is nice and quiet, the juice tastes great, and all the research I have found says the juice is healthier with more enzymes than traditional juicers.
The Omega juicer I mention in the review:
Omega J8006 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer, Black and Chrome
Length:: 0:26 Mins
BalasHapusVideo is a demo of this juicer turning a carrot into delicious carroty juice in 20 seconds. I've had this juicer for a few months, and previously used the Omega J8004 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer, White. I would give a slight edge to this juicer for a few reasons:
1. Speed. It goes through hard veggies like carrots and celery in seconds with minimal need for human help (pushing down with the plunger thing). There are two streams of juice that come out of the spout thingy (see video for close up), which means more juice in the same amount of time as single stream models.
2. Hard plastic components are less prone to staining. The dark smoked look of the plastic also helps camouflage those unsightly green stains that we juice-lovers are familiar with.
3. Very dry pulp.
4. No sieve required. This juice container has a pour cap attachment that helps filter out the chunky bits that make it into the juice, so you don't have to use (and clean) a sieve. It's effective enough for me, but if you like "pulp-free" juice, you're going to want to use a real sieve.
5. Better on/off button placement than the Omega juicer. The switch is up by the top handle (vs on the back end on the Omega), which is a more convenient location. The body of the juicer also has a cover panel that you can slide on and off to keep gunk from getting into the switch -- a nice detail.
While I do think this is a 5-star juicer, there are a few trade-offs that you might care about:
1. The hard plastic, while easier to clean and less prone to staining, means that components are probably more vulnerable to cracking and/or shattering than the softer plastic on the Omega. I'm known to be a dropper of things, so I have to be careful whenever I clean the parts.
2. The pour cap attachment isn't a true substitute for a sieve. It's good enough to filter out big chunks, but you will definitely still have chunky style juice. I don't mind this and think it's worth the trade-off because I am lazy and hate cleaning out mesh sieves.
Happy juicing!