What’s the Best Juicer for Leafy Greens of 2018?

Leafy greens are less willing to give up the goods than other vegetables. Because of this, the best juicer for leafy greens uses a special mechanism to wring out every last drop of juice.

The best juicer for greens is a masticating juicer (also known as a slow juicer or a cold juicer ). These are juicers which use a very slow spinning auger to powerfully grind and ‘chew’ produce, before ejecting dry pulp.

In fact, the best masticating juicers will yield more than twice as much juice from leafy green vegetables, such as kale, collard greens, spinach, and Swiss chard.

And if you, like me, enjoy a daily green juice, this will save you money everyday. Your days of throwing money in the bin as wet pulp will soon be over!

(Don’t worry – masticating juicers are equally good for ‘hard’ fruits and vegetables, such as apples and carrots, too.)

Masticating juicers also have a couple more advantages when compared to the popular ‘centrifugal’ juicers you’re used to seeing:

1. They’re very quiet: While centrifugal juicers can sound like a jet engine in your kitchen, masticating juicers make a quiet ‘humming’ sound during use. Perfect if you love juicing early morning or late at night.
2. They last forever: Centrifugal juicers have high speed motors which burn out quickly (this is why they’re only guaranteed for one year). On the other hand, masticating juicers have slow, powerful motors which last much longer. As such, they’re guaranteed for up to 15 years.

The following will help you find the juicing machine for your needs and budget.

If you’re (cold 😉 ) pressed for time, here are our picks:

1. Best inexpensive juicer for greens (reliable, sturdy, good amount of juice)
2. Best mid-range slow juicer (more juice, drier pulp)
3. Best professional juicer for the home (most juice, driest pulp)

And if you have a little more time, read on…

Here are the best juicer for leafy greens 2018 categories (click to jump straight to them):

• Best Value
• Space Saving
• Space Saving & Easy Clean
• Maximum Yield
• Maximum Yield & ‘Rolls Royce’ Looks

Starting our best juicer for greens list is…

Best Cheap Masticating Juicer

Omega 8006

Value / Quick to Clean / Longest Warranty / Makes Nut Butters & Sorbets

Masticating juicers are more expensive than centrifugal juicers. The Omega 8006 is an exceptional entry-level masticating juicer.

It uses a powerful ‘auger’ (screw) to squeeze produce dry, yielding twice as much juice from leafy green vegetables as you’d get from a regular centrifugal juicer.

It’s also…

Quick to Clean: Produce goes down the feeding chute, along the auger, and out. It doesn’t go anywhere near the main part of the juicer, which means there are only a few parts to clean. It takes only a few minutes to wash thoroughly, which means you’re likely to use it more often.

Simple to Operate: After cutting your vegetables and fruit to size, switch your brain off. Throw your produce in and plunge it down.

Versatile: It supports a healthy lifestyle by instantly making healthy seed and nut butters to snack on. You can also replace your ice cream cravings with instant frozen fruit sorbets.

These are done by using the included homogenizing attachment - you simply drop your seeds / nuts / frozen fruit into it, and out comes your healthy treat.

You can also use it to grind coffee, crush garlic, chop peppers, extrude pasta, and mince herbs, and most other foods, making it a handy food processor.

15 Year Warranty: This gives you peace of mind and protects your investment in the long run.

Unlike many juicing companies who seem to pop up overnight, Omega are an industry leading brand who’ve been around forever. This means that you can trust they’ll still be here if you ever need to use the warranty.

Well Liked: The Omega 8006 has thousands or reviews on Amazon, averaging an impressive 4.5 stars out of 5.

Although Omega have made a couple of models since the 8006 first appeared, they haven’t surpassed the 8006 in terms of performance. The 8006 is still the top juicer in this class for kale, spinach, hard vegetables and whatever else you want to juice with it.

• Save money on the Omega 8006 here.

Money Saving Tip: The Omega 8004 is exactly the same as the 8006, but in white. It is cheaper than the 8006 here. In both machines, the housing is plastic - the color is the only difference. So if the color doesn’t matter to you, the Omega 8004 is the best cheap masticating juicer.

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Note: Omega have brought out a new model since the Omega 8006 / 8004 - the Omega NC800.

Compared to the Omega 8006 / 8004, the Omega NC800 has:

A wider feeding chute: Produce won’t need to be pre-cut as small as it would for the 8006 / 8004.

An adjustable end cap: This lets you control the efficiency of juice extraction. Set it to 1 to get the most juice from citrus and soft fruits, and 5 to get the most from dry leafs like kale and collard greens. This also controls the amount of pulp in your juice.

These are useful improvements, but…

It’s not as easy to use as the 8006 / 8004: There’s a learning curve with the adjustable end cap. While you’re getting used to it, you might find your juice backing up and spilling out of the feed chute.

You also won’t be able to switch off your brain and juice like you can with the 8006 / 8004.

It’s not as cheap as the 8004: The 8004 can be bought for up to $100 cheaper than the NC800.

Because of these, and the fact that the Omega 8006 / 8004 have proven themselves to be reliable workhorses, I recommend these Omegas over the NC800.

However, if you want to have the ultimate control over your juice and don’t mind the extra money, the NC800 would be the better green juicer for you.

• Save money on the the Omega NC800 here.

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Best Juicer for Greens: Space Saving

Omega VRT350 HD

Space-Saving / Less Effort

The Omega VRT350 HD is a masticating juicer with the same great performance as the Omega 8006, but with an upright design. This will save you space on your counter, making it the best masticating juicer for smaller kitchens.

Note: Vertical juicers (like this one and the two below this) are not ideal for juicing leafy greens alone. This is due to their mechanism - vertical juicers have a flap on the ‘pulp ejection’ chute. This keeps pulp inside the juicer for longer, making sure every last drop of juice is squeezed out. When enough pulp builds up, it forces the flap open, and dry pulp is ejected.

Leafy greens alone aren’t thick enough to push the flap open so it can end up staying inside and clog the auger, needing you to stop it and clear the jam. Juicing your leafy greens with other fruits and vegetables (such as an apple, or a few carrots, etc.) will add some weight to the pulp.

Personally I never juice leafy greens alone, and I don’t know anyone who does - the taste is incredibly bitter. Using an apple, carrots or other hard vegetables as a base is more common and delicious, plus it helps push pulp through an upright juicer.

This upright vertical juicer comes with a couple of additional benefits:

Less Effort: Because of the way the auger is positioned, a lot of produce is pulled in on its own (longer items like cucumber, carrots, large leaves etc. which you can ‘aim’ into the mechanism). Even smaller items (like cherry tomatoes) will go through on their own.

You won’t need to use the plastic plunger often. This makes it ideal if you have arthritis, or any physical condition.

Less Preparation: The Omega VRT350 HD has a slightly wider feeding chute than the Omega 8006, meaning you can spend less time preparing produce before juicing. Long fibers (like celery) still need cutting though, otherwise they will wrap around and clog the rotating auger.

10 Year Warranty: The warranty is nice and long, giving you peace of mind.

This model comes with the tough ‘heavy duty’ pulp screen - previous models had a weaker screen which cracked under daily use. Thankfully the fault has been completely fixed in this model, and the screen is covered by the 10 year warranty for peace of mind.

Also included is a second pulp screen with larger holes. When used, this screen will give you a pulpier juice. It also gives better juicing performance for fruits. The Omega VRT350 HD is the best juicer for leafy greens and hard vegetables if kitchen space is your main concern.

• The best savings on the Omega VRT350 HD can be found here.

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Easy Clean & Space Saving

Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer

Space Saving / Quick Preparation / Quick to Clean

The Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer is an upright vertical juicer, like the Omega VRT-350 HD and the Hurom Slow Juicer.

The major difference between this juicer and any other leafy green juicer is its feed chute - the Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer has a full sized 3″ feed chute, big enough to juice larger fruits and vegetables without needing to be cut to size.

It also has a more powerful motor - 240W, versus the 150W motors of the Omega VRT-350 HD and the Hurom HU-100 Slow Juicer. The single auger doesn’t rotate any faster - the extra power gives it the torque necessary to crush larger produce.

The Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer has some nice advantages:

Quick to Prepare: The full sized feed chute means a lot of things won’t need pre-cutting. This saves you time, since you can throw whole apples, pears, bell peppers etc. into the juicer.

There are some limitations though - this is still a single auger juicer, so produce with long fibres (such as celery) can still wind around the auger and clog it. Produce with long fibers still need to be pre-cut.

Quick to Clean: Speed was definitely on the minds of the engineers when they designed the Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer. The ‘juicing bowl’ has no awkward nooks and crannies, which means cleaning is a breeze.

Not only this, but it comes with some special cleaning tools - two brushes and a screen cleaning ‘frame’:

Simply push the screen into the green ‘frame’ and spin it to clean the outside of the pulp screen. Then take it out and clean the inside of the screen with the big brush. The ‘juicing bowl / chamber’ is easy to rinse since there are no nooks and crannies which become clogged up, and the small brush acts as a ‘pipe cleaner’ to clean the bowl’s juice chute and pulp ejection chute.

Altogether clean-up takes less than 2 minutes.

(Somewhat) Versatile: Like the Omega 8006, the Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer also comes with a homogenizing attachment to make seed / nut butters and frozen fruit sorbets.

Unlike the Omega 8006 though, this is all it can do. It can’t grind coffee, crush garlic, chop peppers, extrude pasta, or mince herbs, and trying to can break your juicer and invalidate your warranty.

10 Year Warranty: To protect your investment and give you peace of mind.

The Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer is the best juicer for leafy greens in terms of saving you kitchen space, time and effort.

Note: Unlike the vertical juicers above, the Kuvings isn’t suitable for people with arthritis - the feed chute isn’t directly above the auger, and there is a blade within the chute which ‘pre-cuts’ whole fruits like apples when you push it in with the plunger.

• The best savings on the Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer can be found here.

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Higher Yield

Green Star GSE-5000 Elite Juicer

Very High Yield / Quick Preparation / Quick to Clean

The Green Star GSE-5000 Elite Juicer is a step up in terms of both price and performance.

The thing which gives the GSE-5000 its boost is its ‘twin-gear’ (or triturating, if you want to be fancy) mechanism:

Produce starts at the metal end of the twin gears, and as it travels along its length it is squeezed without mercy.

This happens in three stages - crushing, mixing, and then pressing. In contrast, single auger juicers only ‘press’. This is why you get more juice using the Green Star Elite, and why the pulp is drier.

Other benefits are…

Quickest Preparation: The GSE-5000 crushes produce in its first step. This means you can put items with long fibers (like celery) straight into it without cutting, which saves you time.

Quick to Clean: Despite the additional size of the juicing mechanism, it’s still quick to clean. It doesn’t take much longer to clean than the Omega 8006.

12 Year Warranty: Twin gear juicers are more expensive. But this cost is offset by the savings you’ll make by not throwing money away daily as wet pulp. The long warranty protects your investment long into the future.

The Green Star Elite GSE-5000 is one of the best juicers for green juice when you consider performance, price and prep time.

• Buy the Green Star Elite GSE-5000 at a discount here.

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Maximum Yield

Super Angel Deluxe

Unbeatable Performance / Maximum Yield / Unbeatable Looks

The Super Angel Deluxe is an all stainless steel wonder, the ‘Rolls Royce’ of juicers. It’s the best juicer for greens, bar none.

Like the Green Star Elite, this also uses a twin gear system:

Maximum Yield: The twin gears are longer and stronger than the Green Star GSE-5000’s twin gears. This gives you the highest possible yield, and ejects the driest pulp.

Quick Preparation: Because it’s a twin gear juicer, there’s no need to pre-dice produce with long fibers.

Centrepiece: Not only is its all stainless steel build practical, durable, and almost impossible to crack, it also makes it the focal point of a kitchen. A true conversation starter.

Long Warranty: At 10 years, it will give you peace of mind and help you to enjoy your juicer for a long time to come.

The Angel Star Deluxe is without exception, the best juicer for leafy greens in 2018, and replaces the outdated Angel Star 5500. It’s not often discounted, but the best price for this professional juicer can be found below.

• The best savings on the Super Angel 5500, can be found here.

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