Green Star Elite GSE-5000 Juicer Review

The Green Star GSE-5000 Elite Juicer is seen as a step up from the Omega 8006, the best in its price range. But is it really worth the extra money? I take a closer look in my Green Star Elite Juicer review.

Note: The Green Star GSE-5000 Elite is the Green Star Elite. For the purposes of my Green Star Elite Juicer review, I will be using these two terms interchangeably.

Click here for complete Green Star GSE-5000 Elite specs.

Advantages:

The first stop in my Green Star Elite Juicer review is its…

+ Maximum Yield on Leafy Greens

It manages this through its twin gear (or titruating) system. Once you push produce into the top, it goes through three stages to extract the juice - crushing, mixing and squeezing. While most masticating juicers will only squeeze the produce using its auger (the plastic ‘screw’), the GSE-5000 saves squeezing for the very last step.

This makes it one of the most efficient juicers on the market, yielding more juice and producing drier pulp than the Omega 8006, and most others.

You can also tweak the machine to get the most juice out, using the outlet adjusting knob (at the very left of the picture above). Make it tighter for harder vegetables, and looser for softer fruits.

The Green Star Elite is optimized for leafy greens. To maximize juice yield for soft fruits too, the inexpensive soft fruit knob (sold separately) gives you equally good results for citrus fruits and soft vegetables.

+ Quicker to Prepare

Celery has thick fiber strands which are as long as the length of the celery stick. On masticating juicers which use one auger (e.g. Omega’s 8006), these fiber strands can wrap around the auger as it spins, clogging it up. You therefore need to chop up your produce before feeding it in.

This is not an issue for the GSE-5000. You can put the whole celery stick or other vegetable or fruit into the top. With its twin gear system, the first stage crushes the produce. It has its own cutting system, which means you don’t need to.

You’re only restricted by the diameter of the feed chute - and the feed chute on the GSE-5000 is square shaped and about 1.5 inches across. Because of this square shape, it is wider than the Omega 8006’s feed chute.

+ Quick to Clean

This machine takes about 2 minutes to clean. As a comparison, the Omega 8006 takes a minute and a half. So it’s still very quick to clean, but not the quickest.

As I’ve mentioned earlier in my Green Star Elite Juicer review, this has a Twin Gear system which forces produce through three stages along its length. This ensures the maximum amount of juice is extracted as it moves down its length. It also explains the slightly longer cleaning time.

+ Long Warranty

The GSE-5000 has a 12 year warranty, which is the longest warranty for any juicer with a dual gear system. This is a solidly built machine, and Green Star stand by it.

Disadvantages:

Next in my Green Star Elite Juicer review, I want to highlight the disadvantages brought about by its higher yielding mechanism.

- Needs Some Force

Just like the Omega 8006, most produce need pushing into the machine. The GSE-5000, however, requires you to push harder. This is due to its twin gear system.

Whereas the Omega 8006’s single auger will ‘chomp’ produce once you put pressure on it, you need to push produce harder to force it into the Green Star GSE-5000 Elite’s gears. It’s a necessary trade-off for the higher yield.

- Green Froth

During my Green Star Elite Juicer review, I noticed more froth being produced from this than from the Omega 8006. And what’s interesting is that, looking at the reviews on Amazon, there are some who’ve returned it because of this. To those people I say - boo hoo.

This has been a source of agitation for some because they’ve been told that oxygenation reduces nutritional value. What they’re probably not aware of is that this is speculation. There is no science to back this claim up.

Another thing is that plants contain saponin. And saponin has a foaming characteristic when agitated. There aren’t many juicers out there which ‘agitate’ produce more completely than the GSE-5000 does, so of course it’s going to produce more foam. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Green Star Elite Juicer Review: Summary

Now the burning question in my Green Star Elite Juicer review: should you buy the GSE-5000?

If you have arthritis, you might struggle with the extra effort involved in pushing produce into the machine. In this case, I recommend the Omega VRT-350, which is a masticating juicer (i.e. high yield) which requires almost no pushing. See the specshere, and my review here.

If time’s your main concern, you might be put off by the extra time involved in cleaning it. But once you factor in the time you’ll save by not having to cut everything in advance, this turns out to be even quicker to use. Plus, the twin gear mechanism juices faster than the Omega 8006, making it easily the quickest of the two.

If the money’s your main concern, the higher initial price can be very off putting. But because of the extra yield, it will pay for itself within the first few months of using it.

Kale is expensive. Organic vegetables are expensive (which you should be using for juicing because of the high levels of toxic pesticides found on them). Even regular vegetables are expensive.

This is one of the most efficient juicers on the market, more so than the Omega 8006, and produces drier pulp. With less expensive machines, you’re throwing money away every day.

If you have the extra money lying around, spend it now. It will save you thousands of dollars over the coming years.

• You can buy the Green Star Elite at a huge discount here.