Best Juicer - It's Not A Breville

Since the Breville Elite costs 400% more than the Juiceman, shouldn't it be a better value in the long run? Not in this case: Breville Juicers will pour out about 20% of your money with wasted juice.

Before deciding if a cheaper juicer is actually better, let's look closer at the Breville "Juice Fountain Elite"...

Why do Breville juicers make less juice? The "mesh filter" design inside them is made to produce pulp-free juice. But, a lot of juice is wasted in the process.

The mesh filter from the Breville Elite is basically a plain wire-mesh similar to a household window screen. Have a close look at the mesh at the link below. It's frayed at the top and sides where the spot-welds don't seamlessly bind it to the steel ring frame.

This makes the filter very hard to clean. That's big thumbs down for any juicer, no matter the price.

I happen to be a mechanical engineer, and this mesh filter looks like it's designed to fail. That's not surprising since a replacement filter costs over $60. That's the same price as the entire Juiceman JM300 unit.

How it works is, this mesh is so fine that it only allows the free-flowing juice through and pushes about 20% of the juice out with the pulp instead of squeezing it into your glass.

Here's the test: finish juicing and while you empty out the pulp basket, grab a handful of the stuff and witeness the wetness. Your expensive Breville juicer let that juice get away.

The Breville's super-fine wire-screen mesh produces juice that has very little pulp in it. The pulp is the fiber of fruit and vegetables.

A "no pulp" juice might suit your taste buds, but did you know there's a synergistic benefit between juice and the broken-up fiber of vegetables that the human stomach doesn't do well at breaking down to metabolize on its own? Unless we chew each bite for 20 minutes...

This is a very big deal for juicing. Let's look into this more, in my article, "What kind of juice is good for you?"

All Breville juicers use this design of mesh filter. You might like juice without pulp, but it's no where near as healthy as the pulpy alternative, and Breville juicers will pour out a lot of your money to get that pulp-free juice.

Let's look at the Juiceman - a less expensive juicer with the same basic design. The mesh filter of the Juiceman JM300 and JM400 is very durable (see pics at the links that follow). It's made of smooth, perforated sheet metal that's basically indestructible for use with fruit and veggies.

Juiceman juicers leave a lot of small pulp particles in the juice. This is why you get more juice with Juiceman machines, and you can verify this by feeling how dry the pulp is compared to a Breville juicer.

My last Juiceman had a similar "mesh filter" design and never failed, after 6 years, and I just moved on to the newer model, the JM300, because it's so much easier to clean, has a more powerful motor, and a 3-inch wide mouth so I can just drop in apples, carrots, lemons, etc. with little or no cutting -- a giant leap forward!

So yeah, juicing vegetables with a little fruit and a lemon or two thrown in to improve taste, is a healthy thing to do. But I think it's good to see juicing is just another way of eating more vegetables than you'd get otherwise.

Go with a Juiceman, instead pouring money into a Breville juicer. Then you can spend the rest of that cash on what really matters: high-quality organic fruits and veggies.


The Breville Elite has a high-end price tag, but a low-end health value.

Let's look more at what I think is the best juicer.....