Good, and Attractive

I have become wary of reading juicer reviews. So many of them are written by people very new to juicing. They will buy a juicer without a proper understanding--usually having seen one of the notorious infomercials.

I have been juicing for 30 years. I bought my first juicer, a Braun, when I was in college. This was when vegetable juicers weren't available everywhere and certainly weren't popular with the general public. I have owned many juicers since then; a couple I have kept for more than 20 years, and I've given a bunch away!

I manage facilities for 6 states with my employer and I was looking for a juicer to take on the road with me. My old favorites, my big Acme and my Champion, are far too heavy to do this! I discovered the L'Equip online and it had received very good ratings. I purchased it roughly 3 years ago, when the full-sized model was making the rounds and the Mini had just been introduced.

This is a pulp-ejection model. The pulp ejector juicers are, at least for now, the most popular type. This is a centrifugal juicer with a basket turning at several thousand rpm, with angled sides. When one feeds produce through the feed tube, a sharp cutting surface in the bottom of the basket shreds the produce, which is thrown against the angled sides of the basket. The juice travels through tiny holes in the sides, the pulp is ejected over the top into a reservoir on the side. I won't get into the finer points of centrifugal vs. masticating juicers; there are plenty of websites on the web for that. Suffice it to say that there are no lightweight masticating juicers, including my beloved Champion. This little L'Equip fits quite easily in a gym bag with its various parts.

This little juicer has quite a high-tech appearance and one doesn't mistake a L'Equip for any other brand. Whether this is of importance to the buyer is for them to decide. Since I bought mine it now comes in a gray or white plastic finish; when I bought mine gray was the only choice. The plastic is of good grade and I have had no issues with staining with carrot or beet juice.

On a practical basis, this is certainly one of the quietest centrifugal juicers I've ever used. Some models sound like a jet engine taking off and one can wake a household! As with all centrifugal juicers, this one is designed more for hard produce (carrots, beets, apples, pears, radishes). The Achilles' heel is, as with all juicers of this type, leafy greens. I do like my spinach/kale/collards, etc. The only way to juice these at all is to roll up the leaves into a ball and then push the ball down the chute. There is some juice produced, but nothing like one can get from a masticating juicer. If leafy greens or wheatgrass is a priority, none of these centrifugal juicers is for you. Again, I was looking at travel so this wasn't my priority.

This little juicer does a very good job at juicing hard produce. My favorite juice on the road is carrot/beet/radish with maybe a little parsley thrown in. The mechanism is sufficiently durable and stable on the counter that it doesn't 'walk' and it doesn't bog down. Of course, I don't cram things down the tube--time has taught me better. I cringe when I see some of the people on TV handle their juicers this way. If one wants a juicer to last, one doesn't do this.

The mania now is to have huge feed tubes sufficiently large to toss whole apples and pears down the tube. This L'Equip doesn't have that, and doesn't need it. Remember, I began juicing back when all feed tubes required manicuring the produce. What's the big deal? I keep a very sharp knife, and cutting such things as apples and even beets gives me the opportunity to examine my produce at the same time. No problem. It is certainly a larger feed tube than a lot of other juicers I've used, including the Acme centrifugal that I use almost daily.

Another way we can tell newbie juicers is by how much they complain about cleaning. Have you ever cooked, much less grilled? Any juicer I've ever seen is a dream compared to baked-on lasagna or scrubbing a grill with a wire brush. As there is no grease involved, virtually everything left in the juicer rinses off immediately in the sink. There is the bowl, the blade/basket, the smoked plastic lid, and if one didn't line it with a plastic bag, the pulp container. A quick wipe with a little soapy water cleans virtually everything. I keep a toothbrush by my sink; 30 seconds running that over the inner and outer perforated basked surface cleans that also. I have no idea whether all the parts are dishwasher safe; I've never needed to run any juicer parts through my dishwasher.

Drawbacks? The basket and blade assembly are one. As those who know juicers know, the cutting blades will get dull after 1-2 years with daily juicing and will need replacement. They don't tell you that on the infomercials! Higher-end juicers like my Acme have a separate basket so one just purchases the cutting wheel.

There are some crevices designed into this machine that can catch pulp and juice (on the removable parts). However, it's not really an extra bother and certainly doesn't require extra time or effort.

This has been a very durable little machine and I don't regret purchasing it. Omega has introduced a compact machine, the O2, that is the closest competition to this machine. I purchased one of those a while back and will review it separately. For a first-time juicer, this is an excellent choice and I would recommend it over the TV brands. Let's face it, those infomercials are expensive to make and guess where they cut costs? In the juicers!