Juices Well, but there's room for improvement

I had been diagnosed with cancer last year & after doing my research determined that this may in part be related to my dietary habits. I'd been diagnosed when I was younger with something called "Orthostatic Hypotension". Basically, a condition which causes my blood sugar to change relative to my body's position & needs to treated like a more commonly occurring illness, hypoglycemia. What this meant is that I don't handle sugar or sweets very well, including the store bough 100% natural juices as they often contain large amounts of sucralose or fructose. Basically, sugar in other forms.

I had seen this product on an infomercial a few years back, but thought that it was too overpriced to purchase at the time. I think it was selling for something like $200 or so. Over the summer I saw the same item selling for $100 & decided to try it.

I believe that what I purchased wasn't quite this model, but was the Pro version. In any case, as soon as it arrived I read through the accompanying recipe booklet & was intrigued by the varying flavor combinations & went to the market stand to purchase some fresh fruits & vegetables. My first attempt was a ginger, apple, carrot concoction. It was obvious after one sip that I had used too much ginger. Oops! At least I knew it was getting juice from the ginger! *LOL*

I waited to see how the juice would affect my blood sugar, miraculously, without the added artifical sugars, my blood sugar stayed even & I knew that this was exactly what I needed to be able to broaden my dietary habits & enjoy juice.

As advertised, I hadn't had to cut the ginger or the carrot to fit it the chute. I did cut the apple in half, but I left the seeds & stem, also advertised, the juicer didn't seem to have a problem getting through these bits.

I set about cleaning my juicer for the next use & let me tell you, this was a pain & a half, if you hadn't already guessed, I hate cleaning. Juice had spilled on my countertops making them sticky, the pulp catcher had somehow detached as it had "juiced" other items & the pulp that it throws off isn't as dry as they claim. After taking apart the aparatus I had to basically hose off the chute part. Thank goodness I have a big enough sink to spray it off in the sink otherwise I might have had to take it outside & hose it off. The hardest part to clean was the part with all the "teeth". I found it very difficult to get all the food particles off of this piece.

Not willing to give up after one use & having realized the benefit of being able to enjoy fruit juice without passing out, I re-read the directions & discovered that they recommend placing a plastic bag in the pulp catcher.

Deciding to try again with my newfound knowledge, my next few attempts were juicing several fruits for a fruit smoothie. I began by juicing an orange & a pineapple, after finding that a gallon size plastic ziploc bag just wasn't quite big enough I found that a plastic grocery bag was much easier. The plastic bag allowed me to juice several items & either transfer the pulp to a ziploc bag or toss it with much less cleanup as I no longer have to wash the pulp catcher, a quick rinse of this item after using the bag (if at all seems to suffice).

After juicing various concoctions for smoothies & the like & enjoying them, I found that juicing single items like oranges & peaches to be absolutely wonderful. The taste is absolutely amazing if you drink it within a few seconds of being juiced. I also found that I prefer using the juicer when juice is called for in a recipe such as a sorbet, smoothie, or marinade instead of using the store bought sugar laden versions.

Cleaning the "teeth" & the compartment attached to the chute is still a pain, but I've become much more proficient at it as I've used it more.

All in all I think that this type of juicer is a great idea & would be welcomed by many a health conscious individual, but I think that there is room for improvement.

I believe that if the manufacturer were to make it more durable by changing the material it is made from(as I'm not sure how long the plastic parts will hold up under constant use) & to make it easier to clean I think it would have a much better track record.

What I can't be sure of is if different material were used if it would be more expensive than it already is as the point would be to make a good enough product inexpensive enough to be brought to the masses.