Omega Juicer
While I do eat fruit and vegetables, from everything I've read, I feel the health benefits of juicing are too great to pass up. Unless you are an impatient person, the Omega 8003 is great for a beginning juicer who wants a machine that not only handles apples, oranges and carrots, but won't get bogged down with wheatgrass, spinach and other leafy greens (wheatgrass is one of the harder plants to juice). Unlike a centrifugal juicer, which violently shreds what you put in it, the Omega 8003 uses what is known as a dual-screen, single auger to process produce into juice. That means it doesn't cut or chew as much as it mashes pulp forward into the end of a cone using the pressure of a spinning auger. The juice yield definitely trumps my old Braun centrifugal juicer, which can't handle wheatgrass. The pulp I get from the Omega is drier and if need be, I can easily put it back through for a tiny bit more juice. I put the pulp from the Braun into the Omega and actually got several extra tablespoons of juice!
Of all the machines I’ve researched, tested and used, the Omega 8003 just crushes every piece of machinery, especially at this price. After eight months, I still use the juicer almost every other day and nothing has broken or malfunctioned. Juice extractors in general can be jet-engine loud. While the Omega’s motor is strong and hums with authority, I feel it’s killer quiet. I can easily juice in the early morning or night without waking the neighbors or my wife. It’s also not too large in size and the folding handle on top makes moving the machine around much easier than other machines. The construction is solid and Omega backs it up with 10-year warranty. Juicing itself is relatively subjective. Some people want to process lots of fruit and fast. While the Omega isn't as fast as some centrifugal juicers and while it can’t handle soft fruit (like bananas, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, etc) as well as other juicers, it does get the job done over and over. Plus, I really feel the juice quality is better. The only other juicer I think is in the same realm is the Green Star, which is harder to clean, bigger and almost twice the price!
If you want the benefits of juicing, there is no way around having to spend some time cleaning the parts. Since the 8003 has only a few parts, it is by far the easiest and fastest juicer I’ve seen and tried to clean. Once you understand how the parts fit together, too, it's really a breeze to work with. You can also use the Omega as a food processor and grind coffee beans, flour, garlic, etc. There are also several attachments that come with the machine if you wish to make nut butters, baby food, frozen desserts, pasta and other things. I personally didn't buy it for any of that but maybe I'll end up using it for that later.
For those who are concerned about heat destruction of enzymes, the Omega’s auger turns slowly and doesn't appear to generate much noticeable heat. Granted the process of crushing and squeezing the vegetable matter through a small screen will cause friction, but I just don't feel it's as big a deal for the average user. That goes for oxidation as well. All juicers introduce some oxygen into the juice simply because of the mechanical process of extraction. With some fruits and vegetables, however, this machine does a noticeable job of reducing the amount of foam. Using carrots from the same bag, I juiced one in a centrifugal juicer and one in the Omega. There was a lot less foam with the Omega and the color of the juice was also darker and richer.
One caveat: the feeder chute is small in diameter, so it is best to cut up anything large to make it fit or be more manageable. Carrots are dense and I feel the machine fights with whole ones, but if you cut them up, it will do just fine, juice faster and put less stress on the machine.
Overall I'm thrilled with my purchase of the Omega 8003 juicer. I paid about $229 for mine, plus shipping. I felt that was a very reasonable price to start changing my life and health. The Omega 8005 juicer is the exact same machine as the 8003, but comes in a chrome finish.
-- Jim Rubel
Omega Juicer - 8003
$230
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Omega
Favorite (15)
josh
i think this is a little expensive for a starter juicer. omega's do have an excellent reputation for build quality. they are also known to be time consuming to clean. i would recommend a breville juice fountain compact juicer. it's under $100 has a small footprint and is very easy to clean. it's not as heavy duty as the omega because it's mostly plastic but it is well made with a very strong motor. it's very easy to clean. i also recommend using a toothbrush to clean the screen.
Frank Patrick
I've seen a boardwalk business at the Jersey shore based on what looks like this machine. Putting frozen bananas through it results in what can only be identified as a non-fat, natural soft serve "banana whip" - just like a soft serve ice cream or yogurt.
Balu
Interesting. I have a centrifugal model and it really sounds like a jet engine and cleaning it is way too difficult. So I'm not using it at all :-(.
I 'll probably have a look at those models.
Kim Price
Please also consider a Panasonic juicer. http://www.brandsretail.com/panmjjuicexf.html They are a little hard to find, but about half the price and there is no way you could get any juice out of the left over pulp. Consumer Reports rated them tops about 20 years ago and one of the things they did better then any other Juicer was get more juice out of the stuff they put in.
I don't use it real often, but I have had mine for 20 years and it is still going strong. I think when I got mine in pre-internet days I had to call Japan and then travel to another city to a Japanese importer (the only place in western Washington or Oregon it could be found) to get mine.
The current models appear to be about the same and I have yet to find a juicer that gives you a higher percentage of juice and lower percentage of pulp, except the Vita-Mix. However, I like to just wash my fruits and vegies (and maybe hack them into a few hunks depending on the size) before I pop mine in and don't want things like apple seed pulverized into my juice.
Tracey
We have this juicer. It's awwwwwesome. AND quiet. I can juice stuff and while it does make sound it doesn't make a giant racket like our old juicer did. I can carry on a conversation with some one whilst grinding up what ever I'm grinding. It does a very good job too, the pulp that's left over always seems very dry.
I have made nut butter by running nuts through it, I did the frozen fruit through it to make instant sorbet before too. We've made all manner of veggie juices and it is AWESOME for wheat grass. We also use it to crush garlic when we want a whole bunch. Instead of the time it takes to mince it all up I throw about 7 cloves down the chute and it mashes them up great.
WAY easier to clean than our old style juicer too. The only trick is rinse all your parts RIGHT away, under running water with a little soap and if you have a dish drainer you can let it all dry on it's own.
Anyways, blah blah blah, it's a great juicer and worth the money.
Jojo
The problem I have with standard juicers is that they are often a pain to clean and the pulp, a wonderful source of fiber and vitamins, is often thrown away.
After trying a couple of these type of juicers, I brought a Vita-Mix at Costco a couple of years back. Yes, it is loud and expensive at around $400 but it has not given me any problems in the time I have owned it. It is also very easy to clean.
Best of all, I can thrown most anything into it without peeling or removing seeds and it will pulverize everything into a nice smoothy. Nothing is wasted, including the pulp.
My current favorite breakfast drink 3 or 4 days a week is:
- a scoop of protein (25gm)
- 1 banana
- Pineapple chunks
- Strawberry's
- a handful of walnuts
- Honey
- 14oz H2O
lied 2
Jim, you SOB. You mentioned that this juicer will break down even other machinery; I used my brand new Omega Juicer to dispose of an old motorcycle chain... Do you know what happened next? Let's just say I am still shaking and you owe me $230.