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Overall Rating

Bargain Citrus Juicer
We have a Jack LaLanne Juicer which we have only used for juicing citrus. It works well, but cleaning it takes time. I bought the Black & Decker CJ625 to save time. The CJ625 automatically reverses direction to extract as much juice as possible. The CJ produces as much or more juice than the Jack LaLanne. The automatic reversing action on the CJ is spotty. Sometimes it reverses, and sometimes it does not(reliability?). It is also louder when turning one direction than the other. Both units are fairly loud when juicing. The Jack LaLane gets progressively louder as the blade starts to wear. The CJ requires hand strength to hold the citrus half against the reamer cone. It is easier to drop the halves into the Jack LaLanne shoot (You will need to quarter grapefruit or large oranges to get them into the shoot. It is best to juice one piece at a time and not try to fill the shoot). The CJ is a fraction of the price of the Jack LaLanne. The Jack LaLanne has much better construction. When you have a sharp new blade, the Jack LaLane is faster to juice but takes longer to clean up. The CJ does not have any sharp parts. With a sharp blade, the Jack LaLanne produces fantastic lime zest. You must remove the seeds from lemons or grapefruit if you want to use the zest. The CJ leaves you with the peels and pulp. You can put the peels or unwanted zest down the garbage disposal to leave it smelling “clean and fresh”. The unwanted zest from the Jack LaLanne is much easier on the disposal. The replacement blade for the Jack LaLanne costs more than I paid for the CJ. Six weeks after I ordered a replacement blade, I received a post card in the mail that said my order would be delayed for thirty days and that I could cancel the order by returning the card. About a week later, I received an email that the order had been shipped. The CJ has no sharp parts. The juice tastes different. I would describe the juice from the CJ as lighter with more pulp (I juice with the CJ stainer set to maximum pulp. This is not an option on the Jack LaLane). The juice from Jack LaLane seems fuller probably from tiny bits of zest. It is a personal preference, but I prefer the Jack LaLane juice for the fuller flavor. It is easy to assemble and use both units, but the CJ is easier, more intuitive, and faster to assemble and clean up. The CJ comes with the smaller cone nested inside the larger one. The easiest way to separate the two cones is to hold the smaller cone by the stirrer and pop the larger cone off of it. The larger cone seems small for grapefruit or large oranges. The pulp basket on the CJ fills up after juicing four or five lemons or limes. The stirrer then starts pushing the pulp over the edge of the basket onto the counter. The cord storage on the CJ is a nice touch. You can roll out just as much cord as you need to reach the nearest outlet. If you only juice citrus, the Jack LaLane is probably overkill unless you use a lot of zest in your recipes.