Ikon BJE510XL Breville Juice Fountain Review

Breville Juicer Ikon Review

BREVILLE JUICE FOUNTAIN IKON BJE510XL REVIEW

MSRP: $199
PRICE RANGE: $169-$199
Best Prices: Amazon, Ebay, Bizrate
Measurements: 16"x9"x16"
Type: Centrifugal
Colors: Stainless Steel
Weight: 11 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 Veggies
+ Hard Veggies
x Wheatgrass
+ Greens

PROS AND CONS

PROS:
Motor: A strong 900 watt motor
5 Speeds: For juicing a variety of produce
Huge Chute: 3 inch chute for less time spent chopping
Looks: Sexy stainless steel for the modern kitchen
Reliability: Company established in 1932
Speed: Get an 8 ounce glass of juice in only 5 seconds!!!

CONS:
Customer Service: People report slow customer service response time
Replacement Parts: Replacement parts are a bit pricey
Juice Yield: It's a centrifugal juicer so it's yield is lower than some

WHAT YOU GET WITH THE BREVILLE JUICE FOUNTAIN IKON BJE510XL JUICER

* Metal body casing in Stainless Steel
* Stainless steel cutting disc
* Stainless Steel micromesh filter
* 3" circular feed chute
* Centered dual knife blade assembly
* Stabilizing knife
* 5 speeds
* Childproof safety mechanism
* 1 liter juice jug with froth separator
* Cleaning brush
* User's manual

Ease of Use

Like all of the other Breville juicer reviews we've done, the BJE510XL Ikon Juice Fountain features innovative features. Like it's counterparts it features an oversized 3 inch wide feed chute which translates to much less time chopping and prepping produce in the kitchen. Many items can be popped in whole, and it can even take 2 to 3 carrots at a time! Those oversized fruits and veggies need much less chopping to fit in the 3 inch chute, compared to 1 inch and 1 1/2 inch chutes found on many other juicer brands.

The five speed setting switch is another innovative design feature. Now it's easy to switch between the right power and rpms for soft fruits like berries straight over to the hardest root vegetables like ginger and beets.

With a 900 watt motor, the Ikon can handle anything you throw at it, chopping and cutting it's way to the perfect glass of juice. This oversized motor gets the job done without strain.

Like all of the other Breville juicers in their line, it boasts a rapid-fire speed of 5 seconds to produce a full 8 ounce glass of juice. For busy modern households this savings in time can be the difference between juicing every day, or relegating the juicer to the cobwebbed back corner of a pantry.

So what about clean-up time? The design of this juicer has been carefully planned. There are four parts to clean and each one is easily and quickly removed from the main body of the juicer. Clean up time is done in a flash, under five minutes. Each part is also dishwasher safe for convenience. A brush is included for cleaning the stainless steel micro-mesh filter.

It's stainless steel casing, a sleek shape for modern kitchen counters, is easy to wipe clean and won't turn into the typical carrot juice stained behemoth like many white plastic juicers.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (we've given each Breville Fountain Juicer a top rating in the ease of use category) we're giving the Breville Ikon BJE510XL a 5 lime review rating out of 5 limes possible.

Juicing Performance

So, does performance match up? With the Ikon it does. What Breville bungled in the next model down, the Juice Fountain Plus, they easily made up for with this high end juicer.

Want a carrot-beet-ginger-zuchinni juice with a splash of lime, mango and spinach? No problem. For serious juice enthusiasts they know this combo could wreak havoc on a juicer. Carrots and beets are hard. Ginger is beyond hard, it's practically iron. Zuchinni is soft. Limes and mangos are squishy, juicy, pulpy things. Spinach is a leafy green.

If you are new to juicing this might not sound like a big deal, but for a juicer to handle all of these ingredients with panache is a feat of engineering.

Many juicers, even the lower end models in the Breville line, simply can't tackle soft fruits. Don't even think about citrus. Then on the other end of the spectrum there are tons of juicer models that weep at the sight of a ginger root, or pass out at the thought of squeezing juice out of a dry leafy green.

So how does the Ikon Breville Juice Fountain do it? Like the models above it, the Breville Juice Fountain Elite and the professional grade Breville Dual Disc Juice Processor, the powerful motor and multi-speed settings are designed for diversity.

It all comes down to the 5 speed feature. Put it on 1 and it handles all of your soft fruits, berries and greens. Put it on 2 or 3 and it's gobbling up soft but firm veggies like zuchinni. Carrots take it up to the 4th speed. And those pesky ginger roots head up to the maximum speed of 5.

So it's got a lockdown on performance when it comes to varieties of produce. Another important factor to consider is juice yield. Let's talk about that now.

Juice yield is an important consideration when it comes to a juicer purchase. It equates out to how much produce it takes to make a glass of juice. Not all juicers are created equal. The cheap $30-$50 juice extractors leave more juice in the pulp than higher end juicers do. So how does the Ikon Breville Juice Fountain measure up?

Like all of the Breville juicers, it has a centrifugal design. Centrifugal juicers always get a little less juice yield than slow, bulky single gear and twin gear juicers.

While the Breville Juice Fountain Ikon's juice yield doesn't match up to a gear style juicer, it makes up for it in speed and convenience. It all depends on your priorities whether this is a downfall that can or can't be lived with.

If you're looking for maximum juice yield with minimum heating, you need to check out the single gears and twin gears. If you're a casual juicing enthusiast with a busy lifestyle, the Breville Ikon juicer is a good match. It's quick to set up, quick to make a glass of juice, and quick to clean up afterwards.

To get a slightly higher juice yield, you can run your pulp through the juice fountain one time. It will extract typically 20% more juice out of our produce and only takes a few seconds to do it.

The final verdict on performance? We're giving this one 5 limes out 5! The juice yield is a small factor that almost dropped it a lime, but really, a juicer for $200 that can handle soft fruits, citrus and greens? It deserves a 5 lime review rating!

Durability

With stainless steel components and a 900 watt motor, the Ikon Breville Juice Fountain is a treasure that will be around for many years. Unlike most juicers on the market, the housing on the higher end Breville juicers incuding this one are stainless steel instead of plastic.

That equals an end to decades of ugly stained juicers hiding in kitchen cabinets across the world. This beauty can proudly sit in stainless steel glory alongside the fanciest appliances and fit right in. The housing is durable and long-term for aesthetics, but what about the rest of the juice fountain?

What Breville did wrong with the model just down from this one, the Breville Juice Fountain Plus, it made up for with this one, the Ikon BJE510XL. While just $50 less, the Juice Fountain Plus has serious motor issues stemming from a tendency to overheat.

Then here we are with the next model up, the Ikon BJE510XL, and the motor is solid as a racehorse. There are a lot of engineering changes that appear with the Ikon, and evidently it appears the motor must be of a completely different design as well. Reports of burned out motors on this model are extremely minimal in comparison to the Juice Fountain Plus.

The difference between the two models is a 700 watt motor and a 900 watt motor. The extra 200 watts evidently makes a tremendous difference in it's ability to handle hard root vegetables.

Additionally it also boasts 5 speeds instead of 2 speeds, and a very safety-conscious childproof locking system to prevent accidents.

With stainless steel cutting blades, housing and filter system, the parts are designed to last. The only thing not designed to last? The warranty. Breville offers a shamefully short 1 year warranty compared to 5 and 10 year warranties often found in the industry.

The most common items that wear out on the Breville Juice Fountain Ikon BJE510XL are the filter basket and the cutting disc. Since these two items commonly wear out after use with other juicer brands as well, we don't consider it a downfall.

Replacement parts can be pricey though, and rumor has it customer service leaves a little to be desired. They do offer replacement parts, which is more than can be said about cheap $30 juicers, however the cost can be an unpleasant surprise.

Overall we give the Breville Juice Fountain Ikon BJE510XL four limes out of five when it comes to durability. Points were given for the sturdy design, stainless steel upgrades and durable motor. They lost 1 lime for the shameful warranty and high cost of replacement parts.

Who should Buy It

The Breville Juice Fountain Ikon BJE510XL is one of our favorites for busy people on the go. It fits in to the modern aesthetics of a kitchen beautifully. It assembles, juices and cleans in record time and it has a track record for durability. Our final say? 4 1/2 limes out of 5!

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