Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne : A Review

Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne Review

CLASSIC POWER JUICER BY JACK LALANNE

MSRP: $99
PRICE RANGE: $60-$99
Best Prices: Amazon, Ebay, Bizrate
Measurements: 16"x12"x15.5"
Type: Centrifugal
Motor: 250 watt
Colors: White
Weight: 15 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:
?

CONS:
Motor: 250 watts is inadequate
Durability: Plastic screw breaks
Durability: Motors burn out
Durability: Too many consumer complaints
Juice Yield: Average

WHAT YOU GET WITH THE CLASSIC POWER JUICER BY JACK LALANNE

* Surgical quality cutting blade
* Plastic mesh filter
* Pulp container
* Recipe book
* Owner's manual

Ease of Use

The Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne looks like a juicing dream come true on those t.v. infomercials. With claims of 30% more juice yield than other juicers and the ability to make a glass of fresh fruit or vegetable juice in seconds, many folks look no further and order one for their home.

But the important thing is, what's it like when the infomercial ends and the juicer arrives at your doorstep? This 1 speed juicer with a 250 watt motor just doesn't match up with centrifugal juicers in its price range.

The problem is that non-advertised tiny little motor. On the website you'll see fast rpm speeds mentioned, but no wattage. I called the company myself to get the low down scoop...

It's rare in this day and age to see a centrifugal style juice extractor with a motor that small. Others in its price range like the Breville Compact Juicer and Juiceman Jr, both also selling for $99, feature a full 700 watts.

Why do those extra watts matter so much? It has to do with the style of the juicer. See, a slow masticating or triturating juicer style works perfectly at 250 watts. But those systems rely on a slow single auger or twin gear to crush the produce into pulp and juice. A low wattage motor is actually a benefit for those juice extractor styles.

Centrifugal juicers on the other hand, operate on a cutting and slicing concept, and need fast speeds and high motor power to accomplish the task.

The end result of the Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne having such a tiny motor? It causes the juicer to strain with the introduction of any hard juicing vegetables (like carrots, beets and ginger).

Over time that strain will cause the motor to burn out. It really needs a bigger motor to be considered anything other than a fruit juicer!

It handles soft fruits, citrus, and berries quite well, but if you're looking for a juicer with the versatility to handle other types of produce like vegetables and leafy greens, then the Power Juicer Classic isn't the best choice of juicer.

As far as ease of use goes, it is fairly quick to assemble, juice, disassemble and clean. This is true of most centrifugal design juicers. One design issue that takes away from its effectiveness is the low positioning of the juice spout. Only short tumblers will fit underneath it, so if you want a full glass of juice you need to transfer from the smaller glass to a larger one, or use two small glasses per drink.

Another drawback is since there is no fitted juice catcher, the fresh juice has a tendency to spray out of the juice spout, making a mess on the countertops. Also, there is a design flaw within the filter basket than causes juice to sometimes drip down the outside of the juicer body. Customers have experienced motor burn-outs from the juice entering the motor housing after dripping down.

To its credit, it does have a large feed chute for less prepping of produce and it also has dishwasher safe parts. Since these features are available on most centrifugal models, we don't give the Classic Power Juicer much credit for these two features.

Our say? We give the Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne our lowest rating or ease of use, 1 lime out of 5 possible.Yikes!

Juicing Performance

So, how does the Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne stand as far as performance? Well, that 250 watt motor causes problems in this department as well.

It just doesn't have the vroom to do a lot. There is a lot of binding and seizing up that goes on with juicing anything with a bit of heft. Think carrots, even apples.

For soft items like berries, citrus, juicy fruits, even soft vegetables like squash and zuchinni it performs all right. But don't expect it to handle anything firm gracefully.

The lack of dual speeds on the motor is also partly to blame for this. If it had a higher speed setting (higher rpm's) it potentially would do a better job with hard veggies and fruits.

Instead the motor strains at the first sight of a carrot.

The cutting blade also has issues due to the low motor power. It strains to do its job, and many customers have found the plastic screw that connects the cutting blade to the juicer often breaks under that strain.

One little plastic screw goes... and the whole juicer goes. Not good!

What about that amazing juice yield claim? 30% more juice extracted than other juicers?

We go into the juice yield claim extensively on this page, Why we give the Jack Lalanne Power Juicer Line a Don't Buy Warning.

The short version is: Jack Lalanne and the marketing company (TriStar) backing this made in china infomercial juicer should be ashamed for such deceptive marketing practices.

Centrifugal juice designs (like the Jack Lalanne juicers) never match up to the juice yield of slower masticating, triturating, and hydraulic press juicers. They're just not designed that way. They're designed for quick juicing and easy use, not maximum yields.

So right off the bat, those claims are wrong. As far as yielding more juice than other centrifugal juicers? Definitely not. Here's what customer Annette Labate shared on Amazon, "When I first used this machine there was a lot of juice in the pulp. The pulp was more wet than my first Oster juicer, which only cost $30.00. I called them and told them immediately that I wanted to return it."

Performance? If we could, we'd hand out a zero. But we always do a minimum of 1 lime. So here it is, 1 lime juicer review rating out of 5 possible for the Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne.

Durability

Now we get to the crux of what's wrong with the Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne. Durability is non-existent in this juicer. It's on par with the "new to juicing" $30 models you can find at Wal-mart.

The biggest issue is that the interior of the juice extractor has many small plastic parts. One of the most frequent items that fails is a small plastic screw that connects the cutting blades to the juicer body. When the screw breaks, the whole juicer turns into an oversized paperweight. The screw just doesn't have the strength to handle the motor. Many people have experienced this issue, and here is one of them:

Another commonly broken piece is the filter basket. In the Classic Power Juicer, it is made of plastic instead of the industry wide standard, stainless steel. The basket often cracks or small pieces break off also rendering the juicer inoperable.

Last but not least, there is the general motor failure. People have experienced it with the first use up to two years of use. In fact, after looking hard and long, we couldn't find a single customer review that said they'd had their Jack Lalanne Power Juicer Classic longer than 2 years! That seems to be the extended shelf life of this inferior line.

That limited lifetime warranty on the motor doesn't help either. If the motor blows, it costs $60 in shipping costs (there and back) to replace your $99 juicer. Not such a good deal after all.

Durability is non-existent for the Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne. Our final tally is a sad 1 lime out of 5 limes total for the durability juicer reviews rating.

Who should Buy It

The Classic Power Juicer by Jack Lalanne goes into our hall of fame as a juicer that we don't recommend for anyone. We actually honor it with one of our rarely handed out The Best Juicer Reviews Don't Buy Warnings.

Our overall verdict? A paltry 1 lime out of 5!!!

Our recommendation? For the same $99, pick up a Juiceman Jr. instead. You'll get a 700 watt motor, stainless steel exterior, two speed dual operating system, huge variety of juicing capabilities, and a durable little juicer. Now the Juiceman Jr. won't last forever, that's true of any inexpensive juicer. But you can easily get a good 5 or 10 years of carefree juicing out of this little guy.