Breville JE95XL Two-Speed Juice Fountain Plus
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List Price: Our Price: $80.00 You Save: $119.99 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Breville JE95XL Two-Speed Juice Fountain Plus
Customer Review: A definite Plus in my life
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned a JE95XL Juice Fountain for a couple years now. I have my standard vegetable juice that I like - 3 stalks of celery, 3 carrots, and a red or orange bell pepper. I found that apples and carrots tend to discolor/stain the plastic. It seems to be a micro-particulate issue as I can take a paper towel and rub the stain off. I've taken care of much of the cleaning issue by lining the pulp bucket with a plastic produce bag, juicing the carrots last (celery and pepper pulp form a protective layer), and rinsing the foam off the juice jug / froth seperator asap. Most times I just scrape the pulp sticking to the inside of the top part into the bag in the bucket, toss the plastic bag in the trash, and rinse the seperator top and bottom parts, scrub the seperator screen under running water (I watch the water sheeting off the screen to see if there are fibers still on the screen), and then re-assemble the whole thing right away. I toss the scrub brush in the pulp bucket before I line it with a fresh plastic bag. About every fourth or fifth time I use some dish soap and give it a little more attention.
The large feeder tube and the froth seperator are definately big selling points for this juicer. I can put all three stocks of celery in at once, a de-stemmed and halved bell pepper (both halves at once), and then all three carrots at once. The motor on high has no problems - I'll only use the motor on low for soft/wet stuff like a tomatoe to aid the extraction process (a lot of wet pulp still ends up hitting the bucket on soft stuff).
I've found that the vegetable foam tends to taste nasty and stain everything - leave it in the juice jug, add a little water to rinse it down and pour it gently down the drain - minimize the splash in the sink and you won't have to clean the sink.
I leave my Juice Fountain out on the counter top and it is convienent enough to use every day. I enjoy having my glass of fresh vegetable juice in the morning - the whole process take me 10-15 minutes and is a delicious and healthful part of my diet.
Customer Review: Good for its type - but are you sure you want this type?
Summary: 4 Stars
On the whole this is a very good juicer, especially for hard fruits and vegetables. It is terrific with apples. However, by nature of its type, it is not good at soft fruits.
The way this juicer works is that it shreds food quickly and relies on centrifugal force to separate the pulp from the juice. You are supposed to feed food in while it is running, and it goes very fast - so fast that there is no opportunity to put any squeezing action on by the plunger. Even on the slow speed, it's really too fast.
I have a large number of fruit trees and have tried a variety of foods in it. For stone fruits, you must remove the stone first. Through trial and error, I found that it worked better to just juice peaches in a blender instead. Grapes and berries did not work well at all - half of the juice went into the pulp. I do not use this juicer for them. Apples and pears work brilliantly. That pulp comes out very dry, and I usually make a tasty apple bread with it.
You can put whole (non-stone) fruit in, but if you have any worries that the fruit has bugs or decay you might want to take the time to cut them out and keep them out of your juice (or pulp). Similarly, if your food has a bitter skin or other bitter parts, take the time to cut it away before juicing.
It is very fast. I always spent more time washing and/or prepping fruit than juicing. It comes with a handy brush for cleaning. It is perfect for making one or two glasses at a time. You can feed assorted fruits in willy-nilly and end up with a tasty blend every time. My toddler loves the juice from the machine, and also begs for the popsicles I make from the leftovers.
If you want to make larger quantities (more than a small pitcher), or if you are working with soft fruit, you should investigate other types of juicers that use a pressing action. Look for a cider press or for another pressing type juicer intstead of one of these centrifugal types.
Customer Review: Unit failed under light to moderate use... read on to discover the failed part.
Summary: 1 Stars
I had the Breville JE95XL juicer for a few months and was quite pleased with it. When my daughter visited from college she loved it and so, it went back to school with her.
After a couple of weeks, she called to say that the unit simply stopped working. (Recently she visited again and brought the unit to me.)
The first thing I did was a web search to see if there might be some helpful hints posted somewhere. I found nothing.
So, I read a number of the low ratings on Amazon for this make and model and found many stories that matched my daughter's experience.
Breville does not make it easy to service this, but it is servicable with a little bit of effort... here's how.
Poor Design, Inexcusable.
For an appliance like a juicer, a manufacturer should expect that users might overtax the motor from time to time. So, the solution they should have employed is a simple "reset" button on the bottom of the unit that will reset the circuit breaker, just like you might have in a garbage disposal.
But no, Breville decides to solder a fuse (the circuit breaker) onto the main board... so, once that fuse is overtaxed and is "blown," the unit, for most owners is useless, and having read some of the reviews here on Amazon, it also seems that Breville's customer service is virtually non-existent.
If you are moderately handy, you can do what I did:
Cut out the old fuse from the circuit board, and onto the wire leads of the old fuse, simply solder the wire leads to a fuse holder.
After that is done, when, and if, the fuse blows again, you can simply open the fuse holder, and replace the fuse after simply removing the bottom of the unit. It's not as good as a "reset" switch on the bottom of the unit, but it works just fine.
All this trouble and customer disappointment for a 35¢ part.
Customer Review: OK Juicer, Excellent amazon.com customer service
Summary: 3 Stars
Here is my purchase history: I bought the new version of the Breville, only to be sent the old version...I contacted amazon and the customer rep quickly sent me the new version (the 2-speed model) and I returned the old one.
I then bought my father one, and he left it unopened for awhile. When he decided to finally use the juicer, he realized it was dead upon arrival. I contacted customer service again, letting them know that Breville customer service was impossible to get through, let alone get a response...so amazon's customer rep Rebecca decided to send us out a new one...The strange thing is that I was sent two different emails with 2 different replacement orders. However, when both boxes arrived, one contained the Breville juicer replacement, the other was a Rival skillet!!! I contacted cust. service and again, got Rebecca, who deducted that she must have mistakenly clicked the "reorder/replacement" button twice, but that amazon.com sent me one replacement and an incorrect item--the Rival skillet rather than the "2nd replacement". She gave me clear instructions on how to return both the original broken Breville juicer and the Rival skillet so that I won't be mistakenly charged for the 2 "replacement orders." Of course, I quickly returned both to ensure that this won't happen...
This whole process was a nightmare and you would think that someone like me who experienced this would vow never to shop at an on-line store that makes these kinds of mistakes...But the truth is that amazon.com's customer service is so excellent that I would risk shopping here more so than other on-line places...Here's to excellent amazon customer service, but an OK juicer...I've read the reviews on here and it seems like I'm not the only one experiencing break-downs of this machine...Perhaps the older version was a more stable one?
Customer Review: Design can stand some improvements
Summary: 3 Stars
I have just received and operated the Breville JE95XL, selecting it over other brands of comparable price. Without the shadow of a doubt, it does have an excellent power output. As an engineer, however, there are some points that I'd like to point out about the design; those are summed as follows:
1) Juicer may benefit from a motor housing improved cooling air channels designs so as to prevent cooling air from carrying inducted motor smell into the juice. This is not a funny little problem, and should not have been overlooked.
2) Frumpy appearance far from being esthetically appealing especially in a modern kitchen setting.
3) Flimsy outer components put together in the most of flimsy configuration making it impossible to move the entire assembly freely. This can easily be remedied by adding a containment base in which components may be fittingly seated.
4) Rotating micro-mesh filter can benefit from an extended height above the rim of the plastic cover housing to prevent pulp from being thrown over the rim and into the juice.
5) A rubberized insulating ring between the base of the upper assembly and the top of the motor housing may add an incredible improvement to sound, vibration, stability and further insulating juicing from power plant.
6) Made in China with inferior plastic housing and sell for the same price as an American-made juicers is rather perplexing! One would expect the US importer and distributor to insist on better materials and better esthetically appealing design.
Apart from all that, it is a power bonanza compared to the available competing products, the quality of which, as far as I am concerned, can only be determined after a few months of usage.
With the exception of reliability since I have not had a chance to determine it, I rate the Breville JE95XL 3 on a scale from 1 to 5.