A Great Compact Juicer

As I stated on another juicer review, the reader should always question the qualifications of the reviewer. Far too many reviews are written by people new to juicing, perhaps with their first juicer. Juicing is not as intuitive as mixing or blending, for example. The TV infomercials are quite misleading in their demonstrations, as they are only trying to sell juicers to newbies! I do have 30 years' experience with various juicers; I've used all types and have given away a bunch of them that I didn't like!

As I travel with my work, I wanted to purchase a juicer that was easy to use in hotel rooms. I purchased a L'Equip Mini (reviewed separately). It has been a very good little travel juicer. However, being the appliance addict that I am, I discovered a while back that Omega had introduced a compact juicer, the O2. I purchased mine online.

When Acme, one of the oldest makers of juicers, was sold to Waring many years ago, some of the Acme people broke off and developed their own centrifugal juicer, quite similar in design and with a few differences. These juicers were initially called Olympic and then the name was changed to Omega. Actually, when the Omega company decided to outsource their juicers to South Korea, the actual manufacturer of their juicers started manufacturing THEIR own juicers, which are sold under the Moline name now. Gets complicated, doesn't it? South Korea makes many brands of juicers, including top-line masticating juicers, and please don't confuse their manufacturing with Chinese-made. No resemblance. The Omega O2 is made in Korea, as is the L'Equip Mini.

If one looks at the photos of this juicer it closely resembles their other juicers. A very 'traditional' look. The early O2's had white tops and now they are smoked plastic. Mine is the smoked top. The Omega juicers originated the locking arm system on the sides that has been extensively copied. The plastic body is of high-grade plastic, good and thick, as is the smoked top.

There is one distinguishing characteristic of this little juicer as opposed to the L'Equip and discount store models. Like its big brothers, the cutting wheel is separate from the basket. Why? If one uses a centrifugal juicer daily, in 1-2 years the cutting wheel will dull just like a knife. On this Omega, one simply buys a new cutting wheel. On lesser machines, one must replace the wheel/basket integrated assembly at greater cost. That is, if one can even buy one! It is a comfort to me to know that, unlike some of the discount and TV brands, Omega will be around to supply parts when I need them. The cutting wheel attaches to the basket mechanism with a handscrew, easy to do and easy to undo.

Cleanup, as with other juicers, is largely a matter of rinsing the top, basket, bowl, and pulp container. Many users will keep their grocery store bags and line the pulp container, thereby simply dumping bag and pulp when completed. As juicing generates no grease or cooked-on surfaces, a simple rinse and wipe with soap and water cleans almost everything. I keep a toothbrush by my sink and a few seconds with it cleans any imbedded pulp in the basket. All done in five minutes or less. Don't ask me whether the washable parts are dishwasher safe; I've never seen any need to do that with any juicer.
In operation, this juicer excels at what all juicers of this type excel at: hard produce such as carrots, beets, radishes, apples, pears, etc. This juicer underperforms with leafy greens, as do all centrifugal juicers. One needs a masticating juicer that chews greens to extract a lot of juice from them. This is what they don't show on TV infomercials. If leafy green juice is your priority, buy a masticator. Trouble is, they aren't lightweight and they aren't as compact. I usually wait until I get home to do these in my excellent Champion. This little juicer doesn't bog down, it ejects pulp quite well, and performs as I would expect: certainly much better than the discount store juicers, though not with the speed or efficiency of machines costing 2-5 times as much. But that's not fair, anyway. This little juicer travels very well in a gym bag. I have used it for dozens of juicings without a complaint. It has a small footprint on the counter. It is somewhat easier to clean than the L'Equip Mini because there aren't as much stylish crevices to trap pulp. At around $100, I would certainly purchase this over to the TV brands. Keep in mind, those infomercials are very expensive to produce and buy TV time! If one is buying a TV juicer in the $100-200 price range, there is only one place they can be cutting costs: in the juicers themselves. There are manufacturers who only make juicers--they are the ones to shop.