Omega Nutrition Center Juicer (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

First of all it is important to understand there are a couple of different types of juicers available to consumers and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. However if you want to be able to juice ALL fruits and vegetables and do so efficiently and economically then you will need more than one type of juicer. There are the centrifugal type juicers that work by forcing the juicing item onto a set of spinning blades centrally located which instantly grates the item and is then thrown out by centrifugal force onto a large spinning screen where the juice is separated by passing through the screen and the pulp slides up the screen and into a bin. Then there are the masticating type juicers (this Omega 8005 for example) in which the juicing item is forced into a barrel with a rotating screw which essentially conveys it forward and subsequently crushes (chews it up or "masticates" the item) and then forces it against a screen where the juice passes through it and out the bottom while the pulp continues to be pushed forward and out the front. There's the hydraulic press where the items are placed in a strong fine mesh bag and is then literally crushed in a hydraulic press forcing the juice to flow through the mesh bag while the pulp remains inside. There's also the citrus reamers and finally the common kitchen blender.The kitchen blender does a nice job with soft pulpy fruits that do not release juice, such as bananas and blueberries... you take the blended mush and just add it to other extracted juices. However for most other types of fruits and vegetables there's just too much pulp, seeds and skins to make blender juicing drinkable.The citrus juicer is really the best way to juice any citrus fruit as the other methods involve peeling the citrus first and end up being too time consuming to properly prepare the fruit for juicing everytime.The centrifugal juicers are fast and can juice a very wide range of firm and soft fruits and vegetables, however small and pulpy items don't juice efficiently and these juicers can't really juice the leafy greens. Also they can produce quite a bit of foam.The hydraulic press might be a good process for juice extraction... in fact, it darn well better be because those things cost upward of $2500!!! Also they appear to be very messy and complex in operation... however I don't know for sure as I would never spend that much money on any juicer and so have never tried on personally but I have watched all those videos.Finally, this brings us to the masticating juicer... these are virtually the only juicer type that can realistically juice the leafy greens properly. And these juicers will also do quite well with most firm fruits and vegetables but can quickly become an effort in frustration when trying to juice the softer fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, melons and berries because the small screen gets plugged up to easily. In fact any of the fruits with a high soluble fiber content will very quickly plug up a masticating juicer.We actually own all the juicer types described above (with the obvious exception of the hydraulic pre$$ type juicer), with the Omega 8005 as our masticating juicer. It is indispensable for juicing leafy greens and consuming those 'greens' is really key to many of the major health benefits derived from juicing. These greens included all types of lettuce, kale, swiss chard, parsley, dandelions, beet greens, kohlrabi greens, turnip greens, collards, spinach, various mild cabbages... however with some cabbages, mustard greens, endive, and other strong flavored greens a little bit goes a long way and too much can make the juice undrinkable. Other items we commonly juice with the Omega are asparagus, carrots, cucumber, squash, celery, beets, kohlrabi, turnips, radishes, mushrooms, sprouts, broccoli/cauliflower, (careful with these last five items as they too can contribute very strong or musty/earthy flavors). We have also run through apples, pears, tomatoes and such but they have a tendency to clog-up the screen too easily and since we also have a centrifugal juicer, that is where we more typically juice those pulpier items.The Omega specifically has been an extremely durable juicer for us. Since the extraction process is rather slow going, I typically will run it straight for a half hour or more while extracting a gallon or more of 'green' juice. It has no problem crushing the hard stuff (beets, kohlrabi, carrots) steadily for 10 or 15 minutes straight and as long as I alternate the firmer items with the softer items the screen doesn't plug up during a session. This thing has a 10-year warranty and I believe it as the motor is very powerful and everything appears to be built to withstand hard use for years. After almost 7 months of heavy usage (3X a week @ 30min-1hr each) this Omega has performed flawless and effortlessly the whole time, the chrome plated (over plastic) finish doesn't stain and still looks like new. The plastic barrel and components are very quick and easy to assemble/disassemble and are of high quality... however they do stain, though its to be expected its not really noticeable since the barrel is tinted a 'smoky' see-thru. The design is intelligent and functional. Cleaning is a breeze with just a fast rinse for most parts and a simple, quick brush (included) of the screen. By the way, slicing up the juicing items is no big deal if you have a sharp knife and a cutting board, just a quick length-wise slicing of the larger items is all that's necessary. Tip: don't be afraid to ram that plunger down into the chute when leafy items jam, as that will happen... I actually pound the palm of my hand on it on occasion to get stuff through, the Omega can take it, it is built tank-tough... be aware as this is no light-weight.So far we haven't attempted to use any of the other features as we bought this thing just for juicing. The bottomline here is, you need the 'greens' to get most of the major benefits of juicing and only a masticating juicer will do the leafy greens. When it comes to masticating juicers this Omega is probably as good as it gets... its powerful, well-built, high-quality, easy to operate and clean and though it is expensive, if you stop to amortize it over the 10-years life span you can expect out of it, I think it well worth it.Find more at juices4life.com

After an exhaustive search on juicers and reading many misguided and useless reviews, I decided to go with the Omega J8005 Juicer. Most of the reviews I found seemed to be very misleading and some were complete lies. Here is what I found to be true about this juicer.-This is a "nutrition center" which means that it comes with additional pieces for dough, pasta and other such needs. I did not try these out yet, but it at least offers additional functions.-It is very heavy and solid. The auger is a heavy duty plastic and is sturdy. The feeder, juice screen and end cap are a lighter plastic but not really needed to be any heavier. The housing around the auger and part of the feeder is lighter and clear which is useful when monitoring for juice/pulp. Overall, I do not get the impression that any of the plastic parts are cheaply made.-The manual recommends juicing for no more than 30 minutes at a time. This is to protect the motor. After about 20 minutes, you will feel motor housing get warm. This does not affect the juice in any way.-The feeder tube is small, but once you see how it juices, this is more understandable. The auger moves the vegetable/fruit through a smaller and smaller space to produce the juice. If the feeder tube were larger, then the auger would have to be much longer. I was able to cut pieces to about 1" and it worked with no problems. Anyone handy with a kitchen knife can do this in no time at all or you can use a mandolin slicer to aid in cutting the smaller pieces. At 1" I found that the pieces do not need to be pushed down through the tube (for carrots, celery, limes, etc). Even at 1", leafy greens still require pushing, but with moderate to light force only.-Juicing is slower than other types of juicers but it produces more juice with less product.-The noise is very minimal. I would compare it to the same level as an electric can opener.-When juicing firmer vegetables like carrots, you will notice the plastic "wiggle" a little bit. I actually found it useful. The slight give actually prevents the clogging of the auger which would lead to burning out the motor. The amount of "wiggle" was proportional to the size and amount of the item I was placing in the feeder tube. If I tried to put too much, you would see more "wiggle". I did not get the impression that the plastic was being strained in any way.-The pulp comes out dry but not completely dry. This is probably standard for most juicers. I did find that you could run some of the wetter pulp back through and get even more juice. For the most part, this was not required.-The pulp container is easy to dump and rinse while in the middle of juicing.-The juice container is a good size. I didn't measure it, but estimate it to be able to hold at least 20-24 ounces of juice at least.-It comes with a strainer to help with foam and pulp.-The resulting juice is of good quality. I found that there was hardly if any pulp still in the juice after straining in the included strainer. When drinking, I did not get a textured feel to the juice like I have with other products.-While juicing leafy greens and carrots, I did notice that the auger would hold onto some of the pulp (after 10-15 minutes of juicing). At the time, I think it was because I was not mixing vegetables like the manual recommends. I was juicing 1 type of vegetable at a time. It was fairly noticeable when this occured, as you will see a small amount of juice in the housing for the auger. Despite other reviewers comments, this juice never got back into the motor housing. To correct the issue, simply stop the machine, pull off the end cap, then slide out the juice strainer and auger. Knock off the pulp on the auger and rinse both pieces. Put the machine back together and you are back to juicing. It took me about 15-30 seconds to do this. I have only had to do it when juicing for an extended amount of time.-There are exactly 7 pieces to clean after normal juicing and it is very very easy to re-assemble. The only piece requiring additional effort is the juice strainer. Using the included brush made this an easier task. The other pieces come clean with just a light rinse. All told, a soap and water cleaning should take you about 2-3 minutes.-Juicing results so far: 1lb carrots = 8oz juice. 1 bunch of spinach = 6oz juice. 1 bunch of parsley = 2-3oz. 1 bunch of Turnip greens = 6oz juice. 1 bunch of celery = 8+oz juice (2 stalks = 2oz).-I did not witness any warming of the juice. I refrigerated the vegatables before juicing and the juice came out at about the same temperature. The juicing is slower so depending on how long the juicing session lasts, your juice may be warmer, but only because it has gotten closer to room temperature. You could prevent this by pre-cutting your vegetables and keeping them in serving size containers/plastic in the fridge.Overall, I would recommend this to anyone looking for good quality juice from a masticating juicer. The juicer is quiet (so good for early morning juicing). The juicer yields a good amount of juice for the amount of product. It is very easy to clean (I am really lazy so this is important). The need to have such small pieces is a negative in that it adds to juicing time. The occasional clogging of the auger is a negative, but not a big one since it is so easy to address. The additional functionality beyond juicing is a plus above comparably priced juicers.I would definitely buy this juicer again.

Awesome juicer, hands down! My wife and I did a lot of research when we decided we wanted a juicer - we compared the high-speed, centrifugal ones like the Breville (which a friend has, and the low-speed, masticating style like this one. What we found was that the masticating style is better for juicing leafy greens like kale, spinach, collard, etc., and we really want to use a lot of that in our juicing. Even more importantly, the high-speed juicers create a lot of heat that can break down some of the enzymes and nutrients in the produce, and also reduces the shelf life of the juice. With the Omega, we can keep our juice in a jug in the fridge for up to 72 hours with no loss of quality or separation of the juice.Also love what a great job the Omega does of getting the maximum juice from the produce - as evidenced by how dry the pulp is coming out. That pulp, BTW, is excellent to save in the fridge and sprinkle on salads - heck, we even put some on our dog's food and he loves it. The Omega can also make pasta/noodles as well as sausages - not sure if we'll ever use that, but kinda cool. I also really likes the warranty - the product description reads 10 years, which is great, but the warranty card that came with it says 15, which is even better. Clean-up is super easy as well, no more than 5 minutes to completely clean it after use. It does call for a little more chopping and prep than the wide-mouth feed chute the Breville has, but that only adds a couple of minutes, so no big deal.We're loving the juice this creates - just enough pulp left to add taste and texture, and juicing takes no longer than a high-speed juicer.We've had it only about a month, so I'll try to come back and post a review after some more time has passed, but as of now I would recommend this to anyone.

Have used the unit for about a year now and overall I am very satisfied with the juicer. If you've done your research on juicers you know that people say masticating juicers are slow. I have never used a centrifugal juicer but this masticating juicer is not even really that slow. I can make a litre of juice (with already-cut-up veggies and fruits) in about 15 minutes.Clean up is a snap as many other reviews have said.THE BIG BAD: A significant chunk of the auger chipped off and got ground up in my juice. My wife was juicing washed and cut veggies (mostly carrots and parsley, cut and washed of course) in the other room and I heard an awful crunching sound. The chunk was about the size of 4-5 grains of rice and was along one of the large ridges midway through the auger. Perhaps I should've spent the extra $ and bought the next model up which comes with that "8x harder plastic" auger than this one!Since the auger chipping I have still used the juicer and it seems to still work the same as it did before.Try the frozen fruit sorbet!I hope the auger doesn't chip again!

This masticating juicer was one of the most expensive, but it also is a quality appliance. It runs powerfully but quietly. It extracts all the juice you can expect to get from veges. Veges do not have to be cut small, just long and narrowly (eg. a carrot with top cut lengthwise once, then again) It's easy and very quick to disassemble wash and reassemble so one never even thinks ' I'm not going to juice because I have having to clean it up' - It's easy as pie. The chrome finish on the body is better than I expected honestly, and it simply wipes clean just like the old days.Best of all, the juice is much better than I expected and I love it. It comes in as many different variations as you're taste buds can taste and the experimenting is one of the best parts.The only shortfall I have noticed, and manufacturers always cut corners somewhere, is the plastic juice and pulp catch vessels - they are poor quality and design and quite difficult to pour the juice from without a mess. A stupid oversight that only an engineer could come up with.

I have been a long time juicing girl and have been pondering buying a nice juicing machine for a while. After purchasing a manual travel juicer (by the way the ZStar Manual Juicer rocks!!), we moved to a more permanent home and I was super excited to have the opportunity to buy my dream home juicer.Well, price was definitely an obstacle, but when I found this one, I just had a feeling it would be the right one for me! I read reviews and loved the fact that it's a single-gear masticating juicer. This means less friction and heat as it's juicing, which translates to more nutrition in your juice!I placed the order and received it within 2 days!! woot. woot! I got it out of the box, put it together, then read the directions. :-) All good so far and started juicing right away. What a pleasure to use!! No problem with the celery, no problem with the kale and great job with the orange and cucumber. The juice was delicious, easy to make and the machine was super quick to clean.I love this juicer and would not hesitate to recommend it to friends and family!

I have used a Magic Bullet, and have friends who have various juicers in their kitchen arsenal, so when it was time for me to upgrade to a juicer of my own, I talked to other juicer owners, and read many other reviews before settling on this machine. I have been extremely happy with it for the following reasons:1. It is heavily weighted, and stays put on the counter.2.The pieces are so easy to wash and reassemble.3. It is quiet - family members in the next room aren't even aware that I'm using it.4. It works quickly.5. It separates the fiber out into a plastic bin that I can store in the fridge and then add this fiber to our salads throughout the day.I liked it so well, that I purchased one for my daughter and her family and she is thrilled with it too.The only drawback is that I wish the chute was a little bit wider, so that I didn't have to chop my vegetable pieces up quite so slender. (It still takes 1" to 1 1/2" wide pieces, however, so this is not a big issue).