Buy Manual Wheatgrass Juicer

Review by Anon E. Mouse:
Pros:

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1. Very compact: It takes less counter/table space than a small plate. Most of the electrics (except the L’Equip mini and the Waring JEX 328) are major space hogs.

2. Very efficient: Masticating juicers extract more juice than the centrifugal models. Perhaps more importantly, they do a better job of crushing tough plant cell walls and releasing enzymes – think minced garlic versus chopped garlic. (Whether or how much added health benefits this results in, depends on what you juice. It’s hard to get good info on this, but plant enzymes typically help in breakdown and better absorption of nutrients.)

3. Cheap (Check out their Ebay listing – it’s cheaper over there.) If you don’t want to drop upwards of 0 on an electric masticating juicer, or aren’t sure whether you’ll stick to it, this one’s worth a try.

4. Easy to clean

Cons:

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1. The hopper’s a bit small, which means you’ll be reloading frequently. This seems to be the trouble with masticating juicers in general (including the electrics), but the Z-star manual juicer (also available on amazon, though at twice the cost) has a somewhat bigger hopper.

UPDATE: see effort section below.

2. As I haven’t used this long enough, I can’t say how durable it is, though it seems very tough and well-made. (The auger tip and the surface it crushes against are both stainless steel, and all the rest is polycarbonate.)

Juicing effort:

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Turning the handle: Effortless for leafy veggies, very little effort for carrots and firm veggies, provided you cut them into smaller pieces first. Don’t expect to be able to throw a whole carrot or radish in. The reviewer that claims that you need to be a weightlifter to turn this thing was funny, but wildly off the mark.

UPDATE: Curiously enough, on trying red cabbage, the juicer groans, esp. with largish pieces. I noticed that the juicing effort is quite sensitive to the size of the pieces – with smallish pieces, not only is less turning effort required, but the produce doesn’t need pushing either. This lets you feed and crank the handle at the same time, making the process faster.

All in all, though, this idiosyncracy counts as a negative point, and I’m lowering my rating to 4 stars.

UPDATE 2: When juicing cabbage, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the chopped cabbage – this completely eliminates the groaning (which happens due to friction between the rubbery leaves and the juicer body).

Cleaning: better than the electrics in this department because of fewer parts and simpler design. Cleanup is a major part of juicing effort, so I count this as a pro.

Cutting: For firm veggies, you’ll have to cut them into smaller parts (no perfect julienne required; just a quick, sloppy chop would do.) Even so, this adds a little bit to the effort, so if you primarily want to juice firm veggies, you should look at an electric.

Setup: Very easy (again, from the simpler design).

Review by Joseph A. Young:
I just bought one of these and have to say that my expectations were pretty low. This is the second manual juicer I have bought and the first one was useless.

A few things I really like about this juicer:

1. It’s manual, which alot of people seem to be saying is a “con” of the juicer, but I think it’s awsome. You use no electricity, you can take it anywhere, and you even get a little arm excersize while using it. SO to those whimps who are complaining about the hand crank I say to you go out and spend your 0 on an electric one and quit bashing this great little unit! I mean seriously, it’s not like the company advertized that the juicer would crank ITSELF.

2. The juicer came with several extra parts. I was pleased to see that the juicer came with extra of the items most likely to wear out or break, such as bushings etc. I am an auto mechanic, so I don’t guess I am really qualified to say that it was “easy” to put together, but I had not trouble at all. There are instructions, as well as a dvd that DEMONSTRATES exactly how to put the thing together (not that I needed to use either of those). Pause it…slow motion…whatever you have to do to get this thing put together because I assure you it will be worth it.

3. Juice yield. I have to say that I just recently bought a hydraulic press juicer, which is supposed to have the highest yield of any juicer type, and when compared to this little unit I can guarantee I will be using my “healthyjuicer” more than I will that juice press. The amount of juice that this little thing extracts is amazing to me…my mom has one of the green power TWIN GEAR juicers, which are supposed to be the best all around electric juicer you can buy and I think that this little manual one has dryer pulp than what comes out of her 0+ juicer! I was also afraid that it would ONLY be good for wheatgrass and lettuce and stuff, but the first thing I did when I got it was run some carrots through there and it did great! Most other juicers are either good at leafy vegetables and not so good at harder vegetables or vice versa…this one seems to excel at both!

I just can’t say enough about this little juicer…the price, the weight, the ease of use and ease of cleaning are enough to offset ANY drawback that anyone has listed in these reviews. My motive for writing this review: I want LOTS of people to go out and buy these things so that the company continues to make them so that down the road when mine finally DOES wear out I will be able to get another one.

Review by Tina V.:
I purchased the Jack Lalanne Juicer from a major retailer and was thoroughly disappointed with its “inability” to juice much more than an apple so forget about wheatgrass (it went back that same day)! While the Hurricane does take some elbow grease (manual labor), it’s SO worth it! This thing can get juice out of darn near anything!

In comparison, the Lalanne Juicer took about 20 minutes to properly clean-up, while the Hurricane is less than a 3 minute clean-up! Its Stainless Steel construction is awesome and I know it will last a lifetime!

As usual…delivery was FAST!

Review by Lincoln Gergar:
This is my favorite juicer to date. I use it solely for wheatgrass – about 5 oz per day at one time. It is not tiring on the arm and I prefer it to the electric kind that pollutes the juice and the environment with the noice and vibrations.

This is the newest model by Hurricane. Their previous juicer has great reviews, but this model is a step foward and nearly perfect. It is by far the best maunual juicer available.

The clean up takes about 1 minute. Just unscrew the end cap; pull off the handle; pull out the gear; and rinse the cap, gear, and body under the sink. Simple with no mess.

Plus the pulp is very dry – meaning you get nearly 100% of the juice from the grass!

The best part is the price. You can’t go wrong. This is the dedicated wheatgrass juicer to have!

P.S. Just make sure that you have adequate depth to your counter top to clamp the juicer on…

Review by Em Bhoo:
It’s a good juicer. It’s heavy, but it’s cast iron so it’s expected. I use it in my dorm for wheatgrass that I grow and it’s great. Just make sure you wash it immediately, you wouldn’t want it to get rusty, right?

All the parts work well. It even has an attachable rubber “foot” so you don’t scratch things or maybe it’s for better grip. I’m a 19 year old girl and I can crank it just fine.

It’s not beautiful but it gets the job done.

I’m going to try apples and celery and other fruits and veggies sometime.

Review by J.Saint:
I wanted a wheat grass juicer/ masticating grinder, made of metal.I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars. Here it is, and i received it quickly.I’m happy with the product and price. Be advised it is cast iron[tin plated?] so it’s about 5 pounds; but should last a few lifetimes. Also, you will need to find an edge to clamp it to. Sprout and grow your own wheat grass ! It is very very easy to do and you should be able to find whole wheat berries for less than a pound. Be good, jason

Review by J. S. Carr:
I am partial to the masticating (rather than spinning centrifugal) juicers for reasons I won’t go into here, so I went nuts shopping trying to fit my budget. I looked over this model quite a few times thinking it wouldn’t be suitable for more than wheatgrass, or assuming it would be a lot of extra work.

Turns out that it is so easy to use I can’t hardly believe more reviewers don’t talk about it. Granted I chop the veggies, but to give you a frame of reference it’s less effort to turn the handle than to tamp the veggies down the chute, and you have to do that even with an electric (not that either is hard). I could liken the manual/electric usage to driving manual/automatic transmission. I actually prefer this manual over the electric masticating I have used most days. Staying actively engaged makes it go by faster or something.

It is also extremely efficient. I have also used an Omega 8005 and feel like I not only saved money up front, but am spending less on veggies. As a daily juicer, that adds up. It’s also lower pulp in the juice and less froth, the first a matter of taste the second a matter of shelf life. If you like the pulp, you can obviously add it back in.

As others have mentioned the pulp wants to drop into the juice container. There are about a hundred ways to easily work around this. My personal favorite is to put something under the container to raise it up a bit, allowing it to slide “out of range.” Complaining about that seems to me about as petty as complaining you need an outlet for your toaster. It’s really no big deal.

I have been extremely pleased with what it is able to juice. I am growing wheatgrass, but so far have fed it mainly apples, celery, and carrots.

I suspect this is the Green Star or Solo Star or whatever it’s called these days with a crank instead of a motor. That is just a guess, based somewhat on the available “conversion kit” for electric model owners. Either way it is a terrific juicer and I’m glad I didn’t fork over triple the price for an electric motor.

Update 11 1/2 months after buying:

I finally had something go wrong with this juicer. I was making peanut butter with the plug in the cap and it broke. I jumped on the Tribest web site, found a toll-free number, and in less than a minute I had someone from the company on the phone who replaced the part free of charge. They honored the 1 year warranty with no hassles even though I was pushing the thing pretty hard (I think the rep was surprised I had successfully made as much PB as I had with the plug in). BTW – the peanut butter this makes is amazing. It’s actually capable of making creamy peanut butter, just leave the plug out of the front cap.

Review by Donovan88:
I just bought this model and it is far and away the best value I have seen. I have been using a Juiceman 410 for about 6 months, a centrifugal model, and I wanted to try one of the masticating/auger types. The Z-star manual juicer is a single auger juicer without the motor, and cranking the handle was a breeze. I performed a test with it and my Juiceman, where I juiced an apple, lemon, kiwi, 4 strawberries, and 1/8 honeydew, all unpeeled, in each machine, and the Z-star produced more juice. The Juiceman juice was smoother and had a whipped texture, but the Z-star made more and all the pulp was bone dry. In my opinion, there is no reason to buy a motorized single auger juicer as long as they make this one.

Review by MacGuffin:
I’m the besotted owner of a Norwalk 275 which by definition means that I’m lucky enough to own the best, most versatile juicer on the planet (not to mention one of the most expensive). And yes, it can juice wheatgrass and the result is of superb quality. The only problem is that it requires quite a lot of grass in order to do a good job, which isn’t always practical. Given that I wanted to incorporate wheatgrass into my daily routine (actually, I find that Kamut produces a much nicer juice) and that the 00 Wheateena of my dreams is beyond my means, I decided to go for something manual. After extensive research, I settled on the Miracle MJ-445.

For the record, this juicer, with the exception of its finish, is identical to one marketed by Tribest called the “Hurricane” (also available through Amazon). The difference is that this one has a satin finish and the Hurricane’s is high-polish. I went for this one because I happened to find it used (seemed brand new to me) and so saved quite a bit. For what it’s worth, I read online that the Hurricane is Czech-made; this one’s from Taiwan.

I really hated the Miracle MJ-445 when I first got it. I fed in the grass, turned the crank ad infinitum, and nothing happened. I then broke down the unit, removed the impacted mat of wet grass, fed it through again, and finally got juice. After repeating this nonsense over the course of a few days, it occurred to me to wad up the grass instead of following my usual procedure and this produced MUCH better results.

My only valid complaints (as opposed to mere kvetching) are that 1) the first pulp ejected is very wet (regardless of how slowly I crank–there’s no screw at the end) and 2) it’s necessary to feed the pulp through several times in order to wring everything out of it; I understand, though, that this is pretty much SOP with manual wheatgrass juicers. Other than that, I’m as satisfied as someone who’d prefer a top-of-the-line electric model can be given the circumstances. Because it’s stainless steel, it’s very solid and will never rust, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to assemble, break down, and clean. The handle is also easy to turn–I mention this because I’ve read many complaints about the amount of elbow grease necessary for manual juicing. It’s not a factor here.

If you’re considering the purchase of this or the Hurricane, be advised that the surface to which you’re clamping it must be 1.5″ thick AT MOST and I believe you need a depth of at least 2.5″ from the edge in order to seat it properly. It comes with a tamper and a plastic wrench for disassembly should the cap be difficult to unscrew. All in all, I think I made a good choice. I’d prefer to rate 4.5 stars but since I can’t, its quality and robustness bump it up to a perfect score.

The instruction sheet included claims, in “interesting” English, that the Miracle MJ-445 can also be used for fruits and vegetables. As someone who’s been juicing since 1988, my hunch is that this is nonsense. Get yourself a Champion for everything else and use this for what it’ll do best–grasses.

Review by Twilight:
The first juicer I purchased was a disaster so I was a bit leary about purchasing another manual juicer. I wanted a reasonably priced juicer that would be durable and easy to use.I am very happy with my purchase. This juicer is made totally out of stainless steel, every part is very good quality. It is easy to assemble and that was important to me since I use it daily. It is a manual juicer so I was a bit concerned but it is very easy to crank. The juice flows from below and the pulp is discharged from the end of the unit which makes cleanup so easy.It has a deep base so it will fit easily on a thick counter edge.

Review by Jaclyn Collins:
Weston 36-3701-W Wheat Grass Juicer Heavy Duty Manual Cast Iron

This manual wheat grass juicer is heavy duty, but has many down falls. You must assemble and re-assemble each time you juice. It must be cleaned and dried or it will rust,(this takes a lot of time). The paint is coming off after only a week. The bolts don’t tighten well, and the juice leaks everywhere. It creates a huge mess and too much work for less than an oz of juice. It also seems to take tons of grass to get anything out of it. I regret buying this product.

Review by M. Mccullough:
I’ve been an amazon customer for years but this is the first time I’ve been compelled to write a review.

The juicer is just plain awful. It leaked profusely from the auger retainer in the back. The feature for controlling the rate of juicing actually just blocks the pulp passage and encourages leaking. The finish of the juicer is prone to rusting, mine started to rust in just the first few weeks. I tried juicing leafy greens (kale, chard, beet leaves) as well and found that I often hand to put my hand inside (not turning the crank of course) to push the greens down in order for them catch the auger and be juiced.

I returned mine but hopefully I can save you the trouble.