My review of the Samson Ultra (Green Power) Twin-Gear vs Breville Juice Fountain Elite Juicer!

Okay, so I've been using the following Breville for over a year now:
http://www.brevilleusa.com/products/800jexl/

It has treated me very well and I absolutely love it, but admittingly I've always wanted a Twin-Gear juicer to go with it (or to possibly even replace). I've only had experience with one other cheap Braun juicer that I received long ago as a present, and the Breville was definitely a breath of fresh air! The old Braun had completely turned me off from juicers due to the inconvenience factor (it used to take me half an hour to an hour just to make a cup of juice including prep and clean-up!). The huge shute of the Breville Juice Fountain and easy-to-clean design made it so much easier to use!

Now enter in the Samson Ultra KPE-1301 (virtually identical to the Green Power Kempo and similar to the Green Star). I got it hoping for better vegetable output, and for the ability to make nut-butters. First thing I did when I got it was prepare the following!:

4 Medium-Large sized Carrots
1/2 bunch Parsley
1/2 bunch Spinach
1 Medium sized Beet
1/2 Lemon

I prepared all the above just as I would with my Breville... only this time I realized that I couldn't just toss them in the Samson like I could with the Breville (The Breville can take an entire beet, possibly 2 or 3 uncut all at once!), as the chute is MUCH MUCH smaller. As I cut and separated the vegetables then started putting them down the chute, I realized the nature of these low-rpm masticating gears made for an entirely different juicing experience... I was not very used to it to say the least! I had to apply quite a bit of pressure to push down some of the vegetables compared to what I'm used to with the Breville, and the whole process took a LOT more time to say the least. I really did not like the fact that the chute was a lot smaller which forced me to cut up and separate everything into small bunches.

Overall I was not very impressed. The Samson created A LOT of froth/foam, especially for leafy greens and beet, and the amount of juice was pretty identical to that of the Breville. I wasn't expecting the whole process to take that much longer, but it did. Clean up and preparation time was about twice that of with the Breville (which should hopefully go down some w/ more experience).


A Few things to Note:
Juice Output: Again, about the Same for both. It's hard to measure given the large amount of froth I've gotten with the Samson.

Pulp: I noticed that the Breville produces relatively drier pulp, but the Samson's pulp isn't exactly wet and I'm sure I could adjust it even further in the future w/ the pulp adjuster knob.

Taste: I have to give this to the Samson; the quality of the juice seemed a little bit higher, and it definitely tasted a bit sweeter and stronger. I could REALLY taste the beet in this drink, more so than I do when making the same juice in the Breville.


Now here are the Pros and the Cons of the Samson Twin-Gear:

Pros: More Versatile. Has the ability to juice just about anything, including wheatgrass which would be far superior to centrifugal juicers such as the Breville... also the ability to make Nut Butters, which I have yet to test (but plan on)

Low-RPMs - Theoretically should produce less heat and oxidation, although I do not find this to be necessarily true. Even though the gears of the masticating Samson are spinning much slower, the time spent crushing vegetables seem to create just as much heat (if not more) from the motor as a high speed Centrifugal juicer. The Samson also seemed to create MUCH more froth than the Breville.


Cons: Time spent on operating is a lot greater than the Breville. With the large chute of the Breville, you don't need cut-up produce into pieces nearly as much and it just simply processes more produce a lot quicker. To give you an idea, one could probably process 3, maybe 4 times the fruits/vegetables in the same amount of time w/ the Breville than the Samson, not even including clean-up.

Cleaning - a lot of more small pieces to dismantle and clean. The Breville just has a few large pieces that are easy to clean.


To be honest I think the Operating and Cleaning times on the Samson really detracted from all it's features and advantages. It reminded me of my old Braun that took forever to prepare and clean which ultimately ended up turning me off from juicing. I couldn't even imagine making juice for more than one person w/ this! In the time it would probably take to juice for 2 people w/ a Masticating juicer, you can probably juice for 6-8 w/ the Breville! For this reason I think I will stick with the Breville for juicing most things, and leaving the Samson for wheatgrass and raw nut butters. Honestly, it's a good unit, just not very easy and convenient to use. As far as Centrifugal juicers go, I would definitely highly recommend the Breville Juice Fountain Elite, for all the reasons above (huge chute, easy to use & clean), although I hear their other, cheaper models are also excellent. For Masticating twin-gear juicers you have a few choices, but I've come to find after a lot of research that they are all VERY similar in design (some in fact are the same exact models only advertised under different names) and you really can't go wrong with any of them including Green Star, Green Power, Samson or Twin Health. As far as efficiency, they all rate pretty much the same, the main differences being in warrantee and price. I just went with the cheapest one (purchased mine slightly used).

For experienced (and patient) juicers I wouldn't hestitate to recommend the Samson or any other twin-gear juicer, however for most users, especially those just getting into juicing, I would definitely suggest going with a cheaper, more convenient centrifugal juicer. In my experience, and from what I've heard from others, if you find yourself getting turned off by the amount of time spent preparing and cleaning, you will probably soon find yourself no longer juicing in no time! This is exactly why I suspect the person I bought the Samson from sold it to me! He said he's used it only maybe a handful of times before he stopped using it. This was exactly what happened to me with my first juicer (the Braun). Having owned a couple of juicers while salivating at these twin-gear juicers for some time, I'm sure there are plenty of others out there that are also curious about the difference between Centrifugal juicers and Masticating twin-gear juicers. I just would like to say, don't expect a twin-gear juicer to be everything that your centrifugal juicer is not! While they have their benefits, they certainly are not without their shortcomings. No matter what you pick, keep having those greens!!


Blessings,
Mike Tweet