Centrifugal Juicer vs. Cold Press Juicer: A Detailed Guide

Juicing is one of the popular and easiest ways to introduce a variety of fruits and vegetables into your daily diet. It provides an instant nutrient hit, helps detoxify the body, and boosts immunity among other incredible health benefits. However, juicers aren’t created equal. Most juicing machines fall into one of these two basic categories: centrifugal and cold press.

So which juicer should you invest in? It can be quite overwhelming and confusing trying to figure out the best type of juicer to purchase to meet your needs. To add to the confusion, manufacturers of both juicers often make exaggerated claims about the benefits of their products. We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to help you gain clarity about the type of juicer to buy.

How Does a Centrifugal Juicer Work?

A centrifugal juicer uses a spinning metal blade that rotates fast against a sieve or mesh filter to separate the juice from the flesh of the produce. The liquid content then exits the unit into a container while the pulp is channeled into a different container. The fast spinning blades can cut into large pieces of produce.

Distinctive features

Quick operation — Centrifugal juicers have fast juicing speeds, making them ideal for people with busy lifestyles. They can pulverize an entire apple, stem and core included, in a matter of seconds. The fast spinning motion of their blades quickly breaks up the food fed into them and extracts juice. The juicers usually come with a variety of speed variance settings to allow for customization.

Low price point — Centrifugal juicing machines are the cheapest types of juicers. It’s possible to get a good entry-level juicer valued at $100. They are, therefore, ideal for people who want to juice at home without spending too much money. The low price point may also make them suitable for beginners or people who just juice fruits and vegetables for fun.

Ease of operation — Some juicers require you to cut down fruits and vegetables into a smaller size before juicing them. With a centrifugal juicer, you can skip on that potentially tedious process. Thanks to the wide mouth and strong blades, you can feed large chunks of produce into the juicer. This is another big plus for busy people who would love to have a quick fruit or vegetable treat.

Common — Centrifugal juicers are the most widely available juicers on the market. Many home appliance stores stock them due to their low price point. The wide availability extends to their different components as well, meaning you can easily find any replacement parts you may need. Due to the range of these juicers available, anybody can get a centrifugal machine that matches his or her budget.

Heat generation — The spinning action generates heat.

Noisy — A feature of the centrifugal juicer that can’t be ignored is the noise it produces while it works. This is as a result of the fast-spinning blades that cut and grind food, generating a lot of loud vibrations and noise. The motor also runs at a fast speed to process your produce, contributing to the noise created.

How Does a Cold Press Juicer Work?

Cold press juicers use slow-turning screws or gears to crush fruits and vegetables gently against a screen before pressing them to squeeze the juice out. The lower operating speeds result in less production of foam in the juice. You’ll need to chop fruits and vegetables into smaller pieces before juicing them with a cold press juicer.

Distinctive Features

Versatility — Cold press juicers are renowned for their versatility. They can juice a wide variety of produce efficiently, including leafy greens, sprouts, grasses, herbs, and nuts. They’re fantastic for creating dense leafy green juices and nut milk, providing excellent value for money. As if that’s not enough, some models can do more than juicing and milking nuts, making other foods like pasta and baby food and grinding coffee.

Quiet operation — The pressing action of cold press juicers on fruits and vegetables doesn’t create as much noise as conventional juicers. Therefore, these juicers are quiet to operate. They’re an ideal match for people in need of near silent juicing operation, for example, families with very young children.

Fiber and pulp retention — A cold press juicer produces juice through crushing and pressing fruits. Therefore, the juice extracted retains more pulps and fiber. That can be advantageous to health enthusiasts, as pulp helps reduce cholesterol and increase antioxidants while fiber helps prevent constipation and control blood sugar levels. However, it’s important to note that juicers, in general, don’t retain fiber well.

Slow juicing process — When it comes to using a cold press juicer, patience is a necessity. You have to wait for the appliance to slowly smash and press the produce into juice. It can take thrice the time that a centrifugal juicer takes to extract juice. And keep in mind you have to cut down the produce into finer bits before you juice them because large chunks tend to clog the juicer.

High juice yield — The reward for its long operating time is a more thorough extraction rate and high juice output.

Low heat generation — The slow and gentle cold press juicing process results in less heat production.

The Differences between a Centrifugal Juicer and a Cold Press Juicer

Now that you have a better understanding of what a centrifugal juicer and cold press juicer is, you certainly have a good idea of the differences between the two juicer types. The table below summarizes their main differences.

	Centrifugal	Cold-press
Speed	Fast (1650-15,000 RPM)	Slow (around 70-80 RPM)
What it can juice	Several fruits and vegetables, but not leafy greens or nuts	Most fruits and vegetables, including nuts and leafy greens
Price	Affordable	Costlier
Prep work	You can feed large chunks into the feeding tube for processing	You have to cut produce into small pieces
Noise level	Loud	Quiet
Maintenance	Easy to clean	Comes with more intricate parts, hence takes longer to clean

Nutritional Content

The fast-spinning blade of a centrifugal juicer generates heat, which destroys some enzymes in the ingredients you’re juicing and oxidizes nutrients thus degrading their quality. A cold press juicer operates at lower speeds than a centrifugal juicer. The lower speed keeps the generation of heat to a minimum, preserving more nutrients and beneficial enzymes. Several nutritional tests have been conducted to verify the higher nutritional value of cold pressed juice.

Good Nature, a juicing equipment company, carried out lab tests on different vegetable juices extracted by a centrifugal juicer and cold press juicer. They tested for the vitamin A content in carrot juice, vitamin B9 in beet juice, and vitamin C in kale juice.

Carrot test — The cold press juicer yielded carrot juice with 10,000 IU of vitamin C per 100 grams as opposed to 8,500 IU/100g in the centrifugal carrot juice. The vitamin A content in the cold-pressed juice was 15% higher than that of the centrifugal juice.
Beet test — The cold-pressed beet juice had 31mcg of vitamin B9 per 100g compared to the 26mcg/100g in the juice obtained from the centrifugal juicer, which was 16.2% less vitamin B9 than its cold pressed counterpart.
Kale test — The vitamin C in cold-pressed kale juice was 23mg/100g, representing 13.1% more vitamin C than the 20mg/100g found in centrifugal kale juice.

The cold-pressed juicer yielded higher nutritional content than the centrifugal juicer across all the three tests. That shows cold press juicing is more effective at preserving the nutritional value of produce.

How Long the Juice Keeps For

Many variables affect the shelf life of fresh juice, such as the type of produce used and the method of storage. However, centrifugal juicers incorporate air into the juice, so the juice discolors faster because of oxidation. It’s best to drink juice made by centrifugal models as soon as possible. Cold press juices tend to have a longer shelf life hence can be refrigerated. Cold pressed vegetable juices can last from 12-24 hours whereas fruit juices can last for 24-48 hours.

Juice Yield

The juice output from centrifugal juicers is comparable to that from cold press models on most hard produce. However, centrifugal models produce significantly less juice with soft juicy fruits, wheatgrass, and leafy greens. For instance, when you juice berries with a centrifugal juicer, most of the juice will remain in the leftover pulp.

So Should You Buy a Centrifugal Juicer or Cold Press Juicer?

With all the information you’ve gained about centrifugal and cold press juicers, you may be wondering about which juicer to pick. The best type of juicer to invest in is the one that fits your lifestyle best.

A centrifugal juicer will be your best if:

You want an inexpensive and low-maintenance appliance
You want to incorporate more fruits and veggies into your diet but aren’t overly concerned about obtaining maximum nutrients
You use the extracted juice mostly in baking and cooking, meaning there’s no need to retain the maximum amount of nutrients because heat will be applied in any case
Your priority is juicing and downing the cup of fresh juice quickly

A cold press juicer will suit you perfectly if:

You’re into detoxing and giving your body as many nutrients as possible from your juice recipes
You’re juicing for ailments or health conditions
You’re willing to spend a little more
You’re a fan of homemade nut milk
You love juicing leafy vegetables
You have the time to chop fruits and vegetables into tiny bits before juicing

As you’ve realized, centrifugal juicers and cold press juicers each have their pros and cons. The juicer you should select depends on your personal preference, lifestyle needs, and budget. Whatever the type of juicer you choose, you’ll be making a positive difference to your health provided you keep up with your new juicing habit. So let’s get juicing!