Hi all,

I'm very new to juicing! In fact, so new that I don't even have a juicer as yet!

Have been trying to decide on which juicer to buy and (like others on this forum) have become a little confused. The debate of juicing versus blending has me somewhat baffled, but I think I'm going to start with a juicer (most probably the Hippocrates/Kempo, as it's available where I live - South Africa - and seems to be rated quite highly by many owners). However, from what I've read, I definitely think I would like to purchase one of the high-powered blenders that several sites are promoting. I plan to juice wheatgrass and veggies, but now assume that I will have to blend my fruits.

One such blender is the "Vita Prep 3", which is touted on a couple of sites as being far superior to all others. However, I've not seem any feedback from owners of this blender anywhere else. Can anyone shed any light on this subject regarding pricing/performance etc?

Coober



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2007 02:17PM by Coober.

Hi,
Yeah for juicing wheatgrass and vegetables go with the Twin Gear Green Star or Kempo type juicer.

For blenders.. Seems to be a tie between the Vitamix and Total Blender. I think the Vitamix is more popular just because it's been around longer. RawGuru has a comparison chart on his site and if you do some google searches you should easily find some videos on each blender..
[www.rawguru.com]

I'm very surprised that only two blender manufacturers are mentioned with any regularity; Blendtec & Vitamix. How come Waring blenders are not mentioned? I ask because they are available in South Africa, in particular the model MX1000 which can be seen at [www.waringproducts.com]

This model seems to be everything I need; 3hp, 2 litre (½ gallon) capacity. It does only have 2 speeds, so I'm not sure if that is a drawback. However, I can't imagine that I need to be able to program blending recipes into my machine. Again, perhaps someone can point me in the right direction.

I would really appreciate any information about this blender, or about Waring in particular.

Thanks,

Coober

Hi Coober

I have the Blendtec/Ktec blender and I love it.

The Waring looks like a great blender too. It looks like it is a power blender from the description on their web site. There was very little other information like can it handle ice? There also was no picture of the blades.

Fruit and veg smoothies are usually no problem to a blender but if you will be making nut butters and the like you might want to get more info from Waring. Is the jug glass or plastic? Does it have a tamper?? Can it grind up grains?? or do you need a seperate jug? Whats the warrantee on the machine and what does it cover? Are the blades covered??

There is a lot of info missing from their web site and as its a substantional purchase the info should be there. You may want to contact them and see if they can snail mail you a product info sheet.

I am in a somewhat different situation to most in that I live in South Africa. For starters, not all manufacturers are represented here, resulting in much reduced options. Secondly, those that are available are much more expensive than in the USA and even the UK.

For example, the Vita Mix 5000 is available here, but costs ± US$800 (probably about double the cost in the US).
The Waring MX 1000 costs ± US$650 (again double that of US prices).

From the reviews I've found, the Waring seems to be a great blender. The only negative comments I've come across are:

The jug does not lock in place, but has to be held whilst blending. I'm not sure how much of a disadvantage this will be.
Noise - Although there is a safety/sound enclosure available as an optional extra. As the jug does not lock, I'm not sure how the enclosure will work though - any ideas?
Only 2 speeds (21,500 & 30,000 rpm). Again, I'm not sure if this is a disadvantage or not.

Another, totally unrelated question: Does anyone use a blender with a sound enclosure? I ask because obviously this prevents feeding of ingredients into the blender during the process. Just wondered if this is a problem.

Thanks,

Coober