When it comes to home juicing machines, there are two basic types: A centrifugal juicer uses spinning blades to slice fruits and veggies into little pieces, while a masticating juicer crushes them using an auger. The blades of a centrifugal juicer generate heat and more quickly oxidize the juice, which can damage the flavor and reduce the nutritional content. Masticating juicers turn at a much slower speed and keep heat and oxidation to a minimum, which is why they're also known as cold-press juicers.
In comparison to other styles, masticating juicers have higher juice yields, are better able to handle leafy greens and other fibrous ingredients, and operate more quietly. Some are even capable of processing ingredients beyond fruits and vegetables—they can make nut butters, non-dairy milks, ice cream, or even pasta, but they're also more expensive than their centrifugal counterparts.
To help choose the best masticating juicer for you, we tested the most popular, top-rated models on the market side-by-side. We juiced carrots, oranges, strawberries, pineapples, kale, cucumbers, lemons, and apples, then rated each model on ease of use, durability, performance, design, versatility, quality of juice, ease of cleaning, and overall value. Read on for the results and our picks for best masticating juicers.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall
Nama J1 Cold Press Juicer
Smooth juices
Easy to clean
Fast operation
Juicing chamber doesn't lock in to motor
Fairly expensive
While most of the juicers we tested did notably better with one juice test than the other two, the Nama 5800 produced excellent results across the board. Its carrot-orange, strawberry-pineapple, and green juices were all smooth, with minimal pulp and delicious flavor. The pulp coming out of the other spout was quite dry, a tell-tale sign that the juicer has extracted as much liquid as possible.
The parts of the Nama 5800 fit together tightly, which helps make the machine easier to clean as less stuff gets caught between them. Everything also comes pre-labeled in the package so it's simple to assemble the first time. One kind of annoying feature is that the juicing chamber doesn't lock into the motor: It sits on top and can rock back and forth a little in operation. This didn't really interfere with our juicing results but made pouring a bit more difficult.
The unit itself feels quite sturdy despite being just about average in weight. The motor base and juicing chamber are fairly compact, though the tall spout sticking up from the top makes it a bit taller.
Body Style: Vertical | Speed: 43 RPM | Power: 150 watts | Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.1 x 16 inches | Weight: 14.1 pounds
Best Budget
AMZCHEF Slow Masticating Juicer
Inexpensive
Makes excellent juice
Slow juicing
Underpowered
Most of our top-rated masticating juicers sell for several hundred dollars, so we were really pleased to see how well this more value-priced machine performed. It took a long time and a lot of effort to shove carrots, whole lemons, and other tough ingredients through, but the resulting juices were nicely strained and very tasty to drink. We also got some of the best yields in the whole set of testing from this machine—our tip is to overfill the chute and just keep holding down on the pusher.
When it comes to washing, the AMZCHEF doesn't score so high. It's easy enough to assemble and disassemble, but the parts feel somewhat cheap and flimsy, and the strainer needed a lot of scrubbing (especially using the not-stiff-enough cleaning brush included in the box).
A fun side benefit of this juicer is that it's available in a ton of different colors, unlike its more staid (and more expensive) competitors. If you're looking for a juicer to match your pink, mint-green, or neon-orange kitchen, it's the one for you.
Body Style: Horizontal | Power: 150 watts | Dimensions: 15.7 x 11.9 x 7.8 inches | Weight: 9.5 pounds
Best Splurge
Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer EVO820
Excellent performance
Wide feed tube
Easy to assemble and clean
Very expensive
Heavy
This beast of a juicer looks fancy and is fancy. It has an extra-wide feed tube and extra-powerful motor that chewed up whole citrus, carrots, and kale without even needing a push from the plunger. We also loved lots of its quality-of-life features, like a no-drip juice spout that kept counters spotless and an extra-wide pulp spout for easy cleanup. The parts have dots on them that line up to make assembly simple, and the included cleaning brushes are extremely effective at getting all the bits out of the screen and other parts. The streamlined design just looks nice in the kitchen, too.
We found all three juices the Kuvings made to be delicious, with a little bit of very-even-textured pulp left in that gave them a rich mouthfeel. But in exchange for all that, you're going to pay a lot. If money is no object, this could be the right juicer for you.
Body Style: Vertical | Speed: 50 RPM | Power: 240 watts | Dimensions: 8 x 9.5 x 19 inches | Weight: 24.9 pounds
Best Quiet
Hurom H-AA Slow Juicer
High juice yields
Smooth juices
Very quiet
Expensive
Complicated to set up and clean
Slow juicing
The flagship model by Hurom is a pleasure to look at, thanks to its clean lines and stylish finishes (it comes in white, black, and rose gold), but it also performs beautifully at just 43 RPM. In testing, we found that this juicer is incredibly quiet as well as versatile: You can make traditional juices, various nut milks, and even frozen dessert. It comes with fine and coarse filters to control the amount of pulp in the final product as well as a special screen that can turn frozen fruit and dairy into smooth ice cream.
Using the fine filter, we were able to achieve smooth juices with very little pulp. The carrot-orange and strawberry-pineapple juices didn't separate at all, which was rare in our tests. The H-AA is extremely quiet, and it was in the top echelon for juice yields in all three of our tests. The pulp came out barely damp. However, the "slow juicer" name is no lie, as it took among the longest amounts of time to squeeze out that juice.
The biggest qualm we have with this machine is how complicated it is to assemble, take apart, and wash. There are a lot of parts, and you have to jump around in the manual to figure out how they all fit together. None of the parts are dishwasher-safe—you can't even use hot water on some of them—so there's a lot of brushing and scrubbing involved, plus there are small spaces within the machine itself that can be hard to get to. Once you get it put together, though, it's fairly space-efficient and not as bulky as most juicers. It's pricy, but all of Hurom's juicers are built to last, and this one's motor has a generous 10-year warranty.
Body Style: Vertical | Speed: 43 RPM | Power: 150 watts | Dimensions: 7.1 x 7.1 x 16 inches | Weight: 10.6 pounds
Best Basic
Omega Cold Press 365 Juicer
Easy to assemble and clean
Inexpensive
Handles greens well
Narrow feeding chute
No control over pulp level
Messy
We crowned the Omega 365 Juicer as being perfect for casual juice fans because this budget-priced, compact machine's juicing function is powerful and effective, but it doesn't have any extra attachments or features. Setup was extremely quick and easy: Not only is the design simple and intuitive, but the manual is also very clear, and the boxes the individual parts come in are even labeled for easy first assembly. After juicing, cleanup is easy, as the removable parts (except the filter drum) are dishwasher-safe.
We needed to chop some ingredients to fit them into the small feed tube, but this model handled everything we fed it beautifully, including thick-stemmed kale. It actually made one of the best green juices in all of our testing, a pulp-free texture, on the thinner side but not watery. Just don't rush the feeding process; trying to push anything into the tube with much pressure made juice and ingredients get hung up inside the machine. Reversing the motor for a few seconds cleared any clogs, but this also tended to make juice drip out of the machine and create a big mess.
All three test juices came out pretty well, with minimal pulp but a lot of foam. Because there's no foam separator or options to choose how pulpy you want your juice, you really have no control over the final texture. For a clearer juice, we pulled out a manual strainer to capture more of the pulp and foam.
Body Style: Horizontal | Speed: 90-110 RPM | Power: 150 watts | Dimensions: 17.8 x 12.5 x 11.4 inches | Weight: 9 pounds
Best Compact
Dash Deluxe Compact Masticating Slow Juicer
Inexpensive
Good performance with fruit
Takes up little counter space
Easiest to transport
Small capacity
Low yields
Struggled with vegetables
If there's a cold-press juicer you could realistically bring to the office or gym, this is it. The Dash Deluxe can only make about a single glass of juice between cleanings, but it can do a very good job with that single glass of juice. In our tests, it did well with soft fruit, making an excellent strawberry-pineapple juice. But it had trouble with tougher ingredients, struggling with kale stems and giving us a carrot-orange juice that tasted mostly like orange. Yields were also fairly low compared to competitors: We got only 10 ounces of green juice out of raw ingredients that made as much as 16 ounces in other models.
With that said, price and portability are both big positives for the Dash Deluxe. It weighs just over 3 pounds and comes apart simply after use. We found that some pulp got stuck in the screen and needed scrubbing, but it still ranked among the easiest to clean.
Body Style: Vertical | Power: 150 watts | Dimensions: 4.9 x 3.9 x 14.2 inches | Weight: 3.4 pounds
Best for Greens
Tribest Greenstar Elite Masticating Juicer
Powerful
Made great green juice
Multifunctional
Very expensive
Complicated to use and clean
Low juice yield
While many masticating juicers rely only on a crushing action, the Greenstar Elite’s dual-gear, double-auger design was made to crush, cut, and grind at the same time, but slowly and gently enough that it doesn't heat up and damage the flavor and nutrients in the juice. It's great for hard carrots, fibrous greens, and even notoriously difficult-to-juice wheatgrass. The green juice we got out of the Greenstar was the best of our tests—smooth, pulp-free, homogenized, and delicious.
With its high price, this is definitely a juicer for someone who's going to use it all the time, but it does come with lots of accessories that expand its abilities. It can make nut butters, sorbets, pâté, and perfectly smooth sauces, and it comes with pasta nozzles that let it (kind of) replace a pasta machine. The Greenstar Elite made great juices in all of our tests, but its yields were quite low and it left behind pretty wet pulp and foamy juice, which is especially disappointing for such an expensive machine.
When it comes to cleaning, this juicer has lots of parts that all have to be washed by hand. Everything is simple to take apart and the kit includes a brush and scraper that are really effective in removing debris, but the whole process is time-consuming. One other small but annoying issue is that despite all those other accessories, the Greenstar Elite doesn't include a cup to hold pulp. (It's easy enough to put your own measuring cup under the chute, but what gives?)
Body Style: Horizontal | Speed: 110 RPM | Power: 200 watts | Dimensions: 18.6 x 6.8 x 12.4 inches | Weight: 17.2 pounds
Easiest to Clean
Hurom H101 Slow Juicer
Very easy to clean
Excellent fruit juices
Quiet
Expensive
Had trouble with green juice
Heavy
Masticating juicers tend to be pretty tough to clean. Tiny bits of food get stuck in the screens, strainers, and augers, which all have to be scrubbed gently and carefully after each use. Hurom's H101 is cleverly designed to solve that problem, thanks to a grooved juice separator that removes pulp without any filter screens. All the pieces come apart to be rinsed out in the sink, and we didn't even need a sponge to completely clean everything. (The parts aren't dishwasher-safe, but washing by hand is so easy that it doesn't matter.)
So how does that groove filter work in practice? Pretty well, mostly. Our carrot-orange and strawberry-pineapple juices were both quite delicious, with a fine pulp that added some texture without being chewy. But it had more trouble with the green juice, leaving behind some unpleasant chunks of kale. All in all, the H101 could be a great choice if you make many different juices frequently—it saves a lot of time and effort on cleaning, but it's also quite pricy.
Body Style: Vertical | Speed: 43 RPM | Power: 150 watts | Dimensions: 15.5 x 14 x 14 inches | Weight: 22.9 pounds
Final Verdict
The Nama Vitality 5800 Slow Juicer is our No. 1 choice thanks to its outstanding performance: It operates at an ultra-slow speed of 43 RPM and produces high juice yields with very dry pulp. If you don't want to spend a ton of money, we recommend the AMZCHEF Masticating Juicer, which is affordably priced and delivers impressive performance.
How We Tested Masticating Juicers
Based on the results of previous juicer testing and extensive research, we purchased a total of 19 juicers for head-to-head testing in our Lab. This included models of many different sizes, shapes, powers, and price points, each used to make the same set of juices.
We Observed
- Juice yield: We used each juicer to make three separate batches of juice, starting with about a pound and a half of raw ingredients each time: carrot-orange, pineapple-strawberry, and a green juice with kale, cucumber, apple, and lemon. The carrots, oranges, pineapples, and cucumbers were peeled, but we included the pineapple cores and juiced the strawberries and lemons whole. For each batch, we measured the amount of juice collected and noted the dryness level of the pulp that was separated out.
- Juice quality: We performed a blind tasting of the juices produced by each machine, taking into account flavor as well as texture, density, and mouthfeel. We took special note of any seeds, pulp, foam, or other solids left behind in the juice.
- Ease of use: As we fed ingredients through each machine’s chute, we noted if anything required extra elbow grease to push into the juicer and if ingredients had to be pre-cut into smaller pieces to fit. We also took into account whether the model included multiple settings for different purposes, whether the controls were easy to figure out, and if anything else about using the juicer was confusing or difficult.
We Rated
- Design: Our overall design scores for the juicers included factors like shape, size, and weight for ease of storage, plus the overall capacity of their feed chutes, juice collectors, pulp containers, and other parts. We also noted if the juicers were especially quiet or loud in operation, and if there were any leaks.
- Ease of cleaning: After making each test juice, we disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled each machine following the included directions. It can be tough to get every last bit of pulp out of a juicer, so we paid close attention to any nooks and crannies that held on to solids. Some models include special scrapers or brushes for cleaning, which were sometimes but not always helpful.
- Value: Only after completing all of our other tests did we reveal the prices of the juicers and consider cost. We compared retail prices to the overall average, keeping in mind that larger, more powerful, and more full-featured models are generally more expensive.
Others We Tested
- Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer: The big brother of the Nama Vitality 5800 we named our best overall juicer, this machine also made really good juices in testing. It just didn't perform any better than the Vitality 5800 and costs $150 more. Nama's juicers are all great, but the J2 doesn't offer very useful extras for its higher price.
- Jocuu Slow Masticator Juicer Extractor: A value-priced juicer, the Jocuu required a lot of force to get the ingredients down the small feed tube, and its juices came out pretty pulpy and smoothie-like. It has some nice features, including measurement markings on the juice container and two different motor speeds, but its performance wasn't the best.
- Omega Ultimate Juicer and Nutrition System: Omega's lower-level 365 unit made our list of top picks, but this more expensive machine turned out to be our least favorite in the entire test. It just didn't do a good job of separating juice from pulp; all the test batches turned out thick and chunky.
What to Look for in a Masticating Juicer
Shape
Masticating juicers come in two basic formats: vertical and horizontal. The first feeds food into the auger from above, and the second from the side. We didn't find any consistent differences in performance or price between the two orientations, so this is all down to esthetic preference and where you plan to store the juicer. Horizontal units take up more counter space, but vertical ones might be too tall to fit in or under kitchen cabinets.
Chute Size
A larger chute will let you add whole fruits and vegetables (or at least larger pieces of them) to the juicer all at once, so there’s less slicing and chopping required for pre-juice prep. However, larger chutes tend to be attached to larger, more expensive machines. They can also be potentially dangerous for curious children, whose fingers won't fit in smaller chutes.
Extras & Accessories
Obviously, every item in this roundup can turn fruits and vegetables into juice and pulp, but some machines offer more control and more expansive capabilities. Many juicers come with separate fine and coarse strainer screens to adjust the pulp level to your liking, and some have multiple motor speeds and other settings that help control the texture of the finished juice. The masticating process can also be used to crush nuts and seeds, and several of the machines we tested include recipes and settings for nut butters and non-dairy milks. There's also a special ultra-fine strainer included with a few machines that can make ice cream and sorbet from frozen fruit and dairy. These alternate functions are cool, but if you don't plan to use them often, they might just mean increased cost and additional parts to keep track of.
In addition, most juicers include specially sized and shaped cleaning tools like brushes and scrapers. The usefulness of these varies from brand to brand, but some are extremely helpful and make the process super-simple.
FAQs
How does a masticating juicer work?
"Masticating" means "chewing," and that's basically what a masticating juicer does to fruits and veggies. Also known as a cold-press or slow juicer, a masticating juicer uses a rotating screw-shaped auger to mash ingredients into a fine pulp and then separate out the liquid from the solids. The slow pace and thorough crushing of a masticating juicer extract a lot of liquid, and it doesn't heat up the juice or whip air into it like the fast-moving blade of a centrifugal model. This makes for juice that tastes fresher and may even retain more nutrients.
What is the difference between centrifugal and masticating juicers?
In place of a slow-rotating auger to break up ingredients, centrifugal juicers have a very fast-spinning blade—we're talking about many thousands of rotations per minute versus fewer than 100. This process is quick but loud, and the high speeds create heat that can destroy certain nutrients for certain fruits. While that isn't always the case, a masticating juicer ensures the quality of the juice (and a fuller extraction) by crushing and pressing instead of shredding.
Centrifugal juicers also cause more oxidation by whipping lots of air into the juice, creating some discoloration and a shorter shelf life—about 24 hours in an airtight container in the fridge. That happens at a much lower level with masticating juicers, allowing for more vibrant juice that lasts longer: up to 72 hours. Centrifugal juicers are generally cheaper and easier to clean, but pricier masticating juicers squeeze out more, higher-quality juice and can handle almost anything, including leafy greens and soft fruits.
Storage Tip
Most juice tastes best when consumed right away, but it can be stored in the refrigerator for two to three days. Sharon Lehman, RDN, recommends filling storage containers as completely as possible and sealing them tightly, so that minimal air will come into contact with the juice. Exposure to oxygen makes fruit and vegetable juice taste less fresh over time.
How do you clean a masticating juicer?
First, you read the manual. Even the easiest-to-clean models we tested have a lot of pieces to take apart and differing rules about what can and can't go in the dishwasher. In general, you'll have to disassemble the whole machine and clean out all the pulp and sticky gunk between every batch of juice. Most parts simply rinse clean under running water, but things like screens and pulp containers that get clogged with food bits need gentle scrubbing with soap and a sponge or brush. If your juicer came with a special brush or scraper to help clean the parts, try it out; it may or may not be helpful.
It's also a good idea to wipe down any surfaces on and inside the motor base. Like all electrical parts, this should not go under running water or be submerged in any way, so just use a damp cloth or sponge, and follow the manual's directions for getting into any hard-to-reach crevices.
No matter what, make sure to wash your juicer soon after using it. It's much more difficult to scrub off bits of pulp after they've dried in place for hours or overnight.
Are all masticating juicers cold-press?
Yes. Masticating juicer and cold-press juicer are two different terms for the same machine. What makes a masticating juicer a masticating juicer is that it crushes the ingredients without creating heat—in other words, cold-pressing them.
Do masticating juicers retain fiber?
With any type of juicer, most of the insoluble fiber is removed with the pulp. A small amount of soluble fiber remains in the finished product, but fruit juice will always have less fiber than whole fruit, no matter how you make it. The more pulp that's retained, the more fiber the juice will have, and some masticating juicers have settings that let you adjust pulpiness. That being said, fresh fruit and vegetable juices are still incredibly nutrient-rich and are a great way to include more produce in your diet. You'll just have to get enough fiber from other sources.
Why Trust The Spruce Eats?
The author of this roundup, Bernadette Machard de Gramont, specializes in global food and wine content. She owns a Hurom H-AA juicer and can attest to its excellent performance. The roundup was updated by Katya Weiss-Andersson, a writer and professional chef who loves a good green juice, and Sharon Lehman, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist.
It was further updated with testing data by The Spruce Eats writer Jason Horn, who's been writing about cooking for almost 20 years but honestly has only a hand juicer in his kitchen. He's happy to pay someone else to do the squeezing for anything more complicated than citrus juice for cocktails.