The Breville Juice Fountain Compact Review

COMPACT BJE200XL
BREVILLE JUICE EXTRACTOR

MSRP: $99
PRICE RANGE: $79-$99
Best Prices: Amazon, Ebay, Bizrate
Measurements: 9"x9"x16"
Type: Centrifugal
Motor: 700 Watt
Colors: Silver Satin
Weight: 8 pounds

RATINGS

1-5 Limes possible
1 is the lowest
5 is the highest

Overall Rating:


How we rated different factors:

Ease of Use Rating:


Juicing Performance Rating:


Durability Rating:

JUICING CAPABILITIES

+ = Yes
x = No
* = with difficulty

* Citrus
+ Fruits
* Soft Fruits
+ Soft Veggies
+ Hard Veggies
x Wheatgrass
x Greens

PROS AND CONS

PROS:
Huge Chute: Large 3 inch chute means less chopping and prep time
Looks: Modern design and silver color
Speed: Get an 8 ounce glass of juice in 5 seconds!!!
Price: At $99 it's one of the best deals in its price range

CONS:
Pulp Container: Seal is weak and may trap pulp
Customer Service: Reports of slow customer service
Replacement Parts: Replacement parts are pricey

WHAT YOU GET WITH THE COMPACT BJE200XL BREVILLE JUICE EXTRACTOR

* Plastic housing in silver color
* Stainless steel cutters
* Stainless Steel micromesh filter
* 3" circular feed chute
* Centered dual knife blade assembly
* Stabilizing knife
* 1 liter juice jug with froth separator
* Cleaning brush
* Owners manual

Ease of Use

As we've found in all the Breville juicer reviews we've done, The Compact BJE200XL Breville Juice Extractor juice fountain, is a quick, easy and convenient juicer. How quick and easy? How does a glass of fresh juice in five seconds sound? It's 700 watt motor and extra large three inch feed chute means you get a full 8 ounces every five seconds.

Compared to most other juicers, and especially juice extractors in the $100 price range, that's amazingly quick! The 3 inch feed chute is also the largest currently on the market, with only two other brands boasting the same size, Jack Lalanne and Lequip.

The large feed chute equates to less time chopping and prepping produce. Small apples fit with no cutting at all and it can handle two to three carrots at a time.

Clean up? As will all the other Breville juicers we've reviewed, clean up is a delight with the BJE200XL. Compared to the time-consuming cleaning frustration found with many other brands of juicers, the easy-breezy clean up time is a true joy. All of the removable parts are dishwasher safe and a handy brush is included for cleaning the micro-pore filter.

For ease of use and clean up time, the Compact BJE200XL Breville Juice Extractor deserves our maximum of a 5 lime rating.

Juicing Performance

Does the performance measure up? For an inexpensive $100 juice extractor, we say yes. It will easily handle all of the hard veggies you can throw its way. Carrots, beets, even ginger get processed and juiced with speed and efficiency.

Softer veggies like yellow squash, zuchinni, peppers and eggplant (if you're feeling creative) are also handled with ease. It handles hard fruits with similar efficiency. No problem with pineapple, apples and pears.

So is all perfect with the Breville Compact Juice Fountain? It depends on what you plan to juice. Soft fruits and berries are problematic to say the least. Almost downright impossible with this one speed Breville juice extractor.

When juiced in this juicer, soft berries and fruit end up mostly in your pulp container as a wet and sloggy mess.

The Compact BJE200XL Breville Juice Extractor, being the baby in the Breville line, only has one speed, unlike it's grown up and more pricey counterparts. That speed limitation makes it a little more difficult to control appropriate juicing speeds for different produce items. That's the reason why it doesn't handle soft fruits gracefully. Greens such as spinach, kale and chard are also a difficulty for it. Let's not even mention wheatgrass...

Is this a deal-breaking downfall? That depends on your requirements for a juice extractor. If you want a juicer that can handle oranges, lemons, limes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes or grapefruit... you better keep looking.

Keep in mind though, most juicers in this price range will also have difficulties with soft fruits, greens and wheatgrass. If you plan on doing a lot of fruit juicing, you're going to need a more capable juicer in a higher price range.

So let's mention another performance standard, juice yield. As with all of the other Breville juicer reviews we've done, the Compact BJE200XL Breville Juice Extractor has a slightly lower juice yield than one would get with a single gear or twin gear model. It's centrifugal design is the main reason for this. All centrifugal juicers leave the pulp a little "wetter" than the slower gear juicers. Compared to other juicers in its price range though, the Breville extracts nicely, and it definately beats out the cheaper $30 juicers when it comes to juice yield.

A little trick to get more juice is to run your pulp through the Compact BJE200XL at least one time. You'll typically raise your juice yield by 20% and it only takes a few seconds to do it!

Overall, we give this baby a 4 lime review rating out of 5 limes possible for performance.

Durability

The Compact BJE200XL Breville Juice Extractor is an amazingly durable little machine. The motor, even though it only has a 1 year warranty, is long lasting and strong.

The housing and other components are made of durable materials, and the cutting blades are solid stainless steel. The one detractor we found is with the in-house pulp container. It appears that the inner seal on the container sometimes gets pulp particles trapped inside of it, which becomes very difficult to clean.

Other than that minor design flaw, the Compact Breville is a well-crafted little beauty with style and elegance in addition to efficient juicing capabilities. Compared to the next model up, the Breville Juice Fountain Plus which has major motor issues, the Compact is by far the sweeter deal.

Breville, in business since 1932, has done it again with an inexpensive and carefully crafted juice extractor. We give the Compact BJE200XL Breville Juice Extractor a 4 lime review rating out of five for durability, dropping 1 lime due to the embarassingly short warranty period.

Who should Buy It

The Compact Breville Juice Fountain stands out in the crowd of $100 juicers. You get a 700 watt motor (compared to around 400 watts on other units). You get a massive 3 inch feed tube. You get a glass of juice in 5 seconds. You get quick prep time, quick juice time and quick clean up time.

This juicer is perfect for folks who want an inexpensive, small juicer for occaisonal usage. It's pretty, it's efficient, and it's compact for easy storage. Best of all, it's only $99!

However, it's not the right juicer for someone looking to juice greens, wheatgrass or soft fruits. That's a decision for you to make. In the long run, this little beauty is priced right and offers more bells and whistles than others in its price range. If you only have $100 to spend on a juice extractor, this is a great choice.

Our final verdict? After a thorough review we're going with 4 and a half limes out of five. Not too shabby!

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User Reviews

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