Centrifugal Juice Extractors and Masticating Juice Extractors - What?

KevinSimons | Sep 23, 2010 |

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Of the many electric juicer machines available at the store there are, in reality, a few different kinds - centrifugal juice extractors and masticating juice extractors. To make things simpler we can investigate the differences between the two.

Centrifugal Juice Extractors
Centrifugal juice extractors became the first style of electric juicers offered in the store. The Jack LaLanne power juicer is a fine instance of a centrifugal juicer. Centrifugal juice extractors are "upright juicers" that you load your produce into from the top. The fruits and vegetables then come into contact with the centrifugal designed blade. This, just to clarify, is a spinning disc with lots of small pointed blades (usually between 75 - 125) that grind and break down fruits and veggies - it looks akin to a circular cheese grater!

Just as produce is minced into tiny piece by the blade, the centrifugal force (which means moving away from the center) 'ejects' them outwards and into the filter which encompasses the blade. This force aids the extraction of additional juice from the miniscule pieces of produce in excess of what the blade has juiced so far.

To generate this dynamic centrifugal force, centrifugal juice extractors need hearty motors to rotate the blade rapidly. There are several advantages and disadvantages to this. The main advantage is that you can make juice rapidly. Some designs can even produce a glass of juice in 10 seconds or less. The cons of all this power is that it creates heat that kills a certain amount of the nutrients (but only some).

Masticating Juice Extractors
Masticating juice extractors, in the main, are more horizontal in design compared to the upright centrifugal juice extractors. They extract juice by virtue of a very slow method. In place of using a blade, masticating juice extractors have a "single gear" mechanism that rotates inside a tube. This gear looks like a screw. Produce, which is first chopped into smaller sections, is moved through this tube, and as it goes past the slow rotating gear it gets the juice rung out of it.

The upside of masticating juice extractors is that the slow speed at which they create fresh juice causes next to no heat and retains all the antioxidants. The cons are that the actually act of juicing takes a lot longer compared to a centrifugal juicer machine. Preparation takes longer too, because produce needs chopping up into smaller sections than with centrifugal juice extractors which are roomy enough to fit some produce whole.