Juicing My Way to Clean Health : Philips HR1855 Viva Juicer

After somewhat long deliberation on whether to get a centrifugal juicer or a slow juicer, I’ve finally decided to make this purchase on Philips Viva Juicer HR1855 at Harvey Norman. About a few months  ago, I bought the u-like blender thinking that it could work well as a blender-cum-juicer but the juicing ability of the U-like blender is weak. Juicing carrots with the u-like blender and filter provided can get really messy. Rather, the u-Like blender works best as a blender for making smoothies and a food processor for chopping up food into small pieces. I could make green smoothies with the blender but I can’t juice vegetables or fruits with U-Like. Enough said that’s when I was pretty sure I needed to get a juicer.

The purchasing process wasn’t easy when the price for me is one of the main consideration factors. At first, I wanted to get those really cheap juicers that cost me less than a hundred dollars but I was swayed by a salesperson at Courts when he persuaded me to get a more powerful juicer which costs more but exact more juice than low-cost conventional juicers. I was introduced to Philips HR 1871 which costs about $249 at Courts but it was way too big and the thought of it taking up so much space in the kitchenette had left me contemplating if I should purchase this really big but worthy juicer home. ” Okay, let me think about it.”

I went home to do some research on juicers and discover about slow juicers which extract even much more juice, vitamins and enzymes than centrifugal or conventional juicers. But such slow juicers, like the popular models from Hurom or Omega, can cost up to $700. These slow or masticating juicers ‘chews’  the fruits and vegetables, retaining the enzymes,vitamins and minerals in the extracted juice. Unlike slow juicers, centrifugal juicers work with a high motor speed which produces heat that can denature the enzymes or damage vitamins. Health cafes, like The Real food and Balanced living cafe, use either the slow or cold-compressed juicers to serve you that green power juice which costs about SGD5 to SGD8 per glass. I totally understand why a cup of fresh vegetable juice could be so costly now. Sadly, good health do comes with a cost.

But going through all the options, I decided that there’s no way I could invest in a good slow juicer at this point even if it means buying a cheaper option of a slow juicer like Naturai. This cheaper slow juicer alternative costs SGD249 at Tangs but the sales person said that the quality of the machine can’t be compared to Hurom juicers which are more durable. So I thought I should get Philips Advance juicer HR 1871 at Courts since it was also highly recommended by Juice master, Jason Vale, who endorse for Philips.

I was little reluctant to be carrying such a huge juicer home but I was convinced that Philips Advance juicer was a better option since it is also very easy to clean and maintain. But maybe luck helped me out a little with this ‘juicer hunt’ when I spotted the Philips Viva juicer HR1855, a smaller version of the Philips Advance HR1871. Same functions and power but different in size and materials used. Otherwise, everything else is the same. What’s more, according to the salesperson at Harvey Norman, this Philips Viva juicer came out only a month ago and right now, it costs SGD199. I guess I am really fated to buy this juicer. It’s not only smaller but cheaper than the Advance juicer.

I carried this juicer back from the mall! It isn’t very heavy and big.

The main reasons why I’m drawn to Philips HR1855 Viva Juicer:

1) Juicing can be done quickly with a high speed and powerful 700 W motor. The whole fruit with the peels could also be toss into this machine.

2) No cutting needed with the XL feeding tube which allows the whole apple or orange to be inserted into the machine for juicing.

3) QuickClean technology with an electropolished sieve that could be cleaned easily with a sponge.

The metal sieve of the juicer is usually the most difficult part of the juicer to be cleaned. The pulp and fibre of the fruit and vegetables usually get trapped here and you would need a brush to scrape off the pulp fibres. But with this juicer is equipped with an electropolished sieve which is smooth on both the outer and inner surface of the filter. This smooth surface allows the sponge to glide smooth across the surface while removing the pulp fibres. True enough, it’s so much easily to be cleaning with a sponge but sometimes I myself grabbing for a brush to thoroughly scrape off the fibres of the celery stalks which  got caught at the sides of the filter.

All the pulp and fibres get collected in this container which could be easily scraped off with your fingers into the rubbish chute. The whole cleaning process for me takes about 3 to 5 minutes and that depends on how fast my hands and brain were moving and coordinating but nevertheless, it’s so much easier to clean as compared to the other conventional juicers which require a brush to clean the sieve. I would believe that this machine is thus far the easiest juicer to clean though the quality and amount of juice extracted is nothing as compared to slow juicers.

When I run through my fingers to retrieve out the fibre, the pulp felt pretty dry. To extract the maximum amount of juice, it’s actually best to cut the fruits into smaller parts for the filter to squeeze out all the juice from the fruit pulp efficiently. Sometimes when I chuck the whole fruit into the feeding tube, the machine would take some time to break up and juice the fruit. In fact, juicing the whole fruit can be quite taxing on the machine especially if the skin or pith attached to the fruit is rather thick.

But at least, as of right now, I could juice fresh vegetables and fruits every day and concoct juicing recipes in the kitchen. In fact, I’m currently on a juice fast just as I am writing this blog post and it’s only my second day but I’m feeling the withdrawal symptoms of eating solid foods.

Bonne Chance to me.

Stay healthy!