What a wonderful juicer. (Moulinex Juice Master Charcoal BKA342)

Member Name: pilchierox

Product:	Moulinex Juice Master Charcoal BKA342
Date:	18/11/08 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Don't have to spend ages preparing fruit.

Disadvantages: Mesh spinner is bit hard to clean.

I bought this juicer in the middle of a health food kick and to replace my cheap one, which was fiddly and took a lot of work in terms of preparation.
This juicer looks a bit fiddly at first but it's easy to use. It has non slip feet at the bottom and a long lead. It has a large pulp collector at the side where the pulp from the fruit or veg goes. It can be quite messy but I've found it a lot easier if, when you buy fruit etc at the supermarket you pick up a few extra plastic bags and place one of these in the container to collect pulp. It's then just a case of taking it out and throwing the bag away.

At the top is the plastic presser that you use to push the fruit down to the centrifuge. This is really easy to clean. The lid can be used curved side up (as in the picture) but I find it easier to turn it upside down and place it over the feeder hole. That way you can be a lot more fruit down at once and it saves you keep turning the machine on and off while you get more fruit. This is also really easy to clean.This juicer has a mesh spinner which juices the fruit but is fine enough to stop the pips getting through (very useful with strawberries, kiwi fruit etc). This can be a bit hard to clean if, like me you don't have a dish washer, but just keep going at it. There is an inner part which collects a lot of the pulp while the machine is spinning but that's easy to clean. Lastly there is the jug that collects the juice. Again this is easy to clean. I would advise people, though not to be tempted to make the juice and leave the machine planning to wash it later as it would be tough to get fruit off then. In total there are 6 parts that need washing.
The excellent thing about this juicer is that you don't have to peel the fruit to within an inch of it's life and chop it into tiny pieces. I cut apples and pears into big chunks and remove the seeds but that's my preference. I have found, though, that if you leave the peel on oranges it can make the juice a bit sour but that's down to personal preference. I've used it for the soft fruits, including raspberries and strawberries but also hard fruits including apples and unripe pears. There are 2 speeds on this juicer but I never vary between them as I've never noticed any difference in the machine's action. The machine came with a book full of recipes but I prefer to experiment with different fruits so never used it, seemd useful, though. I haven't used this juicer with vegetables but it's brilliant when juicing fruit and I'd expect the same with veg. The operating manual was easy to understand, which is always a bonus!!

The plus side of this product includes
- the fact that most of it is easy to clean
- the fruit can just be chopped up roughly, not necessarily into small pieces and it doesn't need peeling (some machines require small, peeled pieces of fruit!)
- it's easy to take apart and put together again
The negative side includes
- the mesh spinner is a bit hard to clean if you don't have a dishwasher as the seeds and bits of pulp collect in it. If washing it by hand use a washing up brush or baby's bottle brush. (NEVER leave it to wash up later as it is a nightmare)
- the machine is a bit bulky in size.
I paid £40 for it on offer but that was a while ago. Having checked shopping sites I've seen it for £30 so it is competitively priced.

Overall a good buy.

Summary: Well worth considering if you're looking to buy a juicer.

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