I would like a juicer for my Xmas, but there are soooooo many to choose from.   Can anyone recommend one, max. price of about £80.  Thanks.

Jax :)

I was thinking of buying a juicer but, fortunately, my daughter in Law told me to borrow hers to try first and I am so glad I did!!  Most of the 'good stuff' i.e. the fibre gets thrown away and you need just loads and loads of fruit to get a very small amount of juice, then it was nightmare to clean.  It has found its way into my loft as my DIL refused to take it back!! I'd buy one in a car boot sale first If I were you!! :)  :)  :)

I've juiced for years, vegetables as well as fruit, and love it.  The big ones that you see on shopping channels and in Argos are quick and easy to clean and use.  If that's what you think you might want, you can get them here http://www.tvshopping-solutions.co.uk/detail.asp?pid=191 for less that one of the "easy payments" on the shopping channels! :)

val is that the same juicer as you have?  is it similar to the jack lallane one where you can put wholefruit in?  I only ask as that seems really cheap in comparison!! might invest in one myself as it may help to get my son to have his '5 a day' rather than his 5 a week regime he seems to have taken on at the moment :rolleyes: :-(

Yep!  I don't pay full price for anything! ;) It says Jack LaLanne at the bottom!  Yes you can put in whole fruit.  As I said, it's less that the 1/3 'easy pay' payment that they ask for on the TV.  I know 3 other people using the same machine daily. :)

I have no problem cleaning it.  If you do it right away (before letting it dry) just run it under a cold tap and use a washing up brush on the metal sieve bit.  Then about once a week I put it in the dishwasher. :)

You'll be surprised how good many vegetable juices taste, especially if you add an apple too.

Thanks for that Val... I may onvest in one then as I really don't do the hassle of peeling chopping etc, but using whole fruit veg will suit me down to the ground

I agree with Oldilocks :) Mine is sitting in the cupboard as is such a pain to use :rolleyes: Perhaps I should have more staying power :D

We worked out the costings - cost/amount of fruit needed and factored in the cost of the juicer and decided that, for the use that we'd make of it, it was far cheaper to buy juice from the supermarket :D :D I suppose it might work out cheaper if you use a juicer a lot or have a source of cheap fruit :)

Daisy

It depends on the quality of the juice that you buy. :)  Freshly squeezed juice is vaguely comparable to home squeezed juice and is very expensive.  Juice made from concentrate is made from concentrated fruit juice that's diluted back to the original strength and pasteurised before packing. Pasteurisation is a heat treating process that removes natural micro-organisms (very good for you!) and maintains the quality of the juice.  This is usually cheaper and is what the majority of shoppers consider to be real fruit juice.

If you juice an apple and compare what you produce with what you buy in the supermarket, you'll see than it looks and tastes as different as chalk and cheese and there is no way that "real apple juice" is JUST juiced apples. :)

I buy very cheap, locally grown organic fruit and veg, but my local greengrocer also sells very reasonable fruit and veg if I want to ring the changes.  I NEVER buy fruit and veg from the supermarket. :(

We only buy a couple of cartons of juice a week - usually freshly squeezed, although I usually keep some long-life in for emergencies :) We have got an orange/lemon squeezer that came with our food processor and use this if we can get any cheap oranges - but were horrified at the cost when we worked it out :)

Daisy

AH, I understand what you mean.  You get loads more juice out of juicers. 
I can't bear the smell, let alone taste of tomato juice in a bottle or carton, but LOVE the home made stuff. :)  And I can't buy beetroot juice! :)

Celery and carrot juice is supposed to help lower blood pressure.  I reckon that I use mine every day and the first thing that regular visitors ask for is, "Can we have some juice please?" not "Put the kettle on!" like they do everywhere else.

It might be worth getting one from a car boot sale (some people don't like them:rolleyes:) to try.  That's where my first one came from many years ago and is still getting past around virgin juicers as we all move on to the bigger and better models! :) :D

And I also put the pulp on my dogs' dinner. :)

Thanks Val for the info and the link :D and the tip about giving the pulp to Barney - I'd never though about that!

I can stretch a fiver further than most! ;)

You're very lucky Val if you can get cheap organic fruit and vegetables.  Round here, the supermarkets don't seem that much more expensive than the greengrocers.

I'm another one who has considered buying a juicer in the past but considered the price of fruit and veg would probably make it non-viable price wise.  Incidentally, do you just make enough juice for one day?

I make enough to be drunk immediately.  The older it is, the less valuable the vitamin content. :)  Maybe you could freeze?  Have you seen the Birds Eye advert?

I buy from a car boot sale on Sunday morning where local, small growers sell their produce direct.  I bought a large cauliflower for 40p, kilo of carrots for 50p, 25p a kilo for onions etc.  There is also a cheese maker (well it is Cheddar! :) ) and a couple of ladies who keep their own free range chickens,  I live very well, very cheaply. ;)

Having said that, the cost is a secondary benefit to me.  I like to know what I'm eating and drinking rather than the hidden stuff that the manufacturers put into food.  When I go out, then I eat whatever I choose, working on the asumption that if I used to put 10 ton of sh*t into my body and now put 2 ton, then it stands a better chance of coping with the hidden nasties. ;) :D

No, not seen the Birds Eye advert, what have I missed?  I was just thinking that if the machine was a pain to clean, it might be easier to make a larger quantity rather than lots of smaller ones!

I see now how you get your cheap fruit and veg etc, good thinking! :)  Very much doubt I would find owners of free range chickens in my area but maybe I should give the car boot sales a try! :D

Know exactly what you mean about wanting to know what you're eating.

I love my juicer!  It's only a little cheap one from Argos - which we thought we'd try out first rather than splashing out on anything major.

Yes, it's a faff as with the cheaper juicers you have to peel, core etc before putting the fruit/veg through the machine but it is worth it.

I have to dilute the fresh fruit juice as compared to supermarket boxed stuff it is quite rich.

oh and the left over bits of fibres get mixed with raw egg, cottage cheese, live yoghurt and given to the dogs as part of their diet - they love it!

I've got a jack lalanne power juicer and it is great.  It's a pain to wash as I don't have a dishwasher but it has a hug hole at the top and you put whole apples etc in it.  carrot and apple juice yum yum.

We have a juicer that is stuck in the cupboard, I find it cheaper to buy good quality juices from the supermarket.  Although it is great to make juices that you cant buy.  I agree with what others have said about cleaning them too, they are a pain.

I don't have a juicer but did hear a chef on the telly recently (sorry, can't remember which chef ;) ) saying that if you have a liquidiser already you don't need a juicer. A juicer is just another form of liquidiser. Any truth to this? Or is a juicer a much easier way of doing it? thinking of getting one for christmas

The liquidiser chops up everything that you put into it to a pulp and is great for smoothies when you use drier stuff like bananas.  The juicer removes all the liquid from any fruit or veg by centrifugal force (spinning) and produces a drink with no bits in.  I have both and use them very differently. :)

I wonder if he might have said "If you have a liquidiser, you don't need a smoothie maker"?  They're definitely the same thing. :)

Possibly, I wasn't really paying that much attention. :D

I was shocked to hear about the pasteurising though. I'd never really thought about it before. :) Oh well, off to look at some juicers so that I can pass on the info to the kids. Why buy one when it's that time of year :D ;) :D

I can't be bothered with electrickery gadgets :)  It's only really oranges I squeeze for breckers so I use my old mechanical contraption which is like a huge garlic press but you don't often see them in the shops.  You pop in half an orange and it juices it very efficiently and is very easy to clean, the whole lot just chucked in the washing up bowl. 

I used to have a smoothie maker with a tap at the bottom which was hard to clean and soon broke. I replaced it with a liquidizer which does exactly the same but without the tap-- just have to pour it out from the top.