If you’re looking to buy a cold press slow juicer, it’s worth knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each type to make sure you buy a suitable model. Therefore, if you’re a juicing beginner or even a seasoned expert, it’s probably worth scanning through this breakdown to make sure your preferred juicer style matches your needs.
At a Glance
If you’re short on time, let’s start with a quick summary of some key points.
Firstly, if you plan to juice a lot of celery or leafy greens we recommend picking a horizontal or twin gear juicer to avoid unnecessary hassle. Vertical juicers can struggle with juicing these ingredients as they are very fibrous and and can block the small pulp outlet, preventing further juicing until the blockage is cleared.
However, if you plan to juice soft fruits such as berries, then it is important that you mix with hard fruits like carrots or beetroots as these soft ingredients typically form a large backlog with all juicers including horizontal and twin gear juicers if juiced on their own due to the soft texture.
Now, let’s go into a bit more detail on the 3 most common types of slow juicer.
Vertical Slow Juicers
An incredibly popular juicer style, vertical juicers are a type of masticating juicer renowned for their compact builds, sleek designs and easy to use juicing mechanism. However, like any juicer, they do have some drawbacks, and some may surprise you.
Strengths:
- Hard Fruits
- Root Vegetables
- Soft fruits mixed with hard fruits
Weaknesses:
- Celery
- Kiwi
- Grapefruit
- Leafy Greens (On their own)
- Pineapple
- Passion Fruit
- Cucumber
- Mango
- Soft Fruits (On their own)
Yes, you read that correctly, much to the surprise of many, vertical juicers are not ideal when juicing celery. This issue arises as a result of the firm fibres found within celery sticks clogging the juicer, preventing correct pulp discharge and causing issues ranging from jamming to the extreme of parts cracking.
Generally, if you plan on juicing large quantities of celery, it’s best to not choose a vertical juicer. However, if you’re still interested in a vertical model or have already purchased one, then our best advice is to juice celery along with other ingredients, cut each stick into small chunks and remove any pulp build-up inside the juicer manually every 5 to 10 minutes or when a notable blockage has formed.
Additionally, vertical juicers are not best suited to juicing leafy greens. However, as you may have noticed, this only applies if leafy greens are the only ingredient type being juiced. As part of a wider juice containing other ingredients such as root vegetables, vertical juicers can process leafy greens to an acceptable standard.
Although, as with celery, if you’re planning to juice a lot of them, a different style of juicer will probably suit you better.
Finally, vertical juicers, like all juicers, struggle with soft apples like bramley apples, pineapple, kiwi, grapefruit and oranges as they are notoriously challenging ingredients. Their unique combination of thick fibres surrounded by soft juice-rich flesh makes them prone to mashing and clogging, and even the best of juicers have a tough time extracting worthwhile yields from them.
Horizontal Slow Juicers
Matching vertical juicers for popularity, horizontal juicers are best known for their expansive accessory selections and ability to extract good yields from tough ingredients. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that they succeed where their vertical counterparts struggle. However, that doesn’t mean they are without any flaws.
Strengths:
- Celery
- Leafy Greens
- Hard Fruits
- Root Vegetables
- Soft fruits mixed with hard fruits
Weaknesses:
- Soft Fruits (On their own)
- Passion Fruit
- Kiwi
- Pineapple
- Oranges
- Grapefruit
- Cucumber
As a mirror of vertical juicers, horizontal juicers shine with ingredients such as celery and leafy greens. However, instead, they fall victim to soft fruits. An ingredient type that most assume any juicer should be able to handle with ease.
Alas with horizontal juicers this is not the case, and they tend to struggle with shifting pulp build-up from any soft ingredients, but ripe apples, oranges, pineapples, kiwi, grapefruit and passion fruit pose the greatest threat and typically result in a large mushy backlog that the juicer is unable to clear without assistance.
Twin Gear Slow Juicers
Rounding out the 3 most common slow juicer styles are the twin gear juicers, which work in a similar method to horizontal juicers but use 2 gears to crush ingredients instead of a single augur. Therefore, as you’d expect, they share the same strengths and weaknesses as their horizontal siblings.
Strengths:
- Celery
- Leafy Greens
- Hard Fruits
- Root Vegetables
Weaknesses:
- Soft Fruits
- Pineapple
- Passion Fruit
- Kiwi
- Oranges
- Grapefruit
Effectively, twin gear juicers suffer in the same way as horizontal juicers with soft fruits, although the backlog is somewhat mitigated in comparison. The greatest difference between both types instead lies within their strengths, as twin gear models can extract larger yields and press juice more effectively, increasing its quality.
Finding Your Fit
Now, if you’ve read to this point you may feel unsure as to which juicer type is most suitable for your needs. Therefore, to find the juicer that’s best for you, it’s very important to prioritise the ingredients that matter the most.
If you plan to use your juicer for juice fasts and cleanses, then it’s likely that you’ll have a focus on ingredients such as celery, ginger & spinach as they offer a variety of health benefits. As a result, a horizontal or twin gear juicer is much more likely to help you in your journey.
However, if you’re planning on juicing a wider variety of ingredients and are willing to steer clear of celery, then the easy to use vertical style is more likely to fit your needs.
Quick Recommendations
Hopefully, by this point, you’ve been able to find a juicer style that meets your needs. However, that is only the first step, as you’ll need to select a single model of that style and there are many different models to choose from.
It’s tough to recommend any single model that is perfect for every individual situation. However, to provide a solid starting point here are some models you can consider for each style.
Vertical Juicers
Horizontal Juicers
Twin Gear Juicers
Ingredients to Watch out For
Now, before you go ahead and buy a juicer it is worth noting that there are some ingredients we advise being wary of or avoiding altogether.
The first, and often most surprising of these, is pineapple. This ingredient can be a pain for all juicers to deal with, and while it can be juiced with reasonable success it is important to be careful, or the tough fibres can cause problems and damage parts.
Alongside pineapple, turmeric is another ingredient to be wary of, as it is very dense and if an overly large chunk of it is dropped into the juicer it can lock the parts and possibly break them. So, we advise taking extra care when juicing it.
We also advise to be careful if juicing soft apples, passion fruit, kiwi, oranges and grapefruit as their internal core is very soft so all juicers struggle to extract juice efficiently from these produce and often the result is a mush of pulp with juice mixed together inside the juicing bowl/drum or extracted out of the juice/pulp outlet.
Finally, it should be noted that some ingredients can’t be juiced at all, as they don’t have any juice within them. This includes banana and avocado, and if you try juicing them, you’ll quickly find your juicer struggling with a heavy backlog that will have to be removed manually.