Hi, I have the possiblity to buy a greenstar for 200 most likely + shipping, but before they called it that, and without the warranty as it's from 2004, it was only used for 6 months.

I mainly juice greens right now as my gut is healing, I would prefer to make green smoothies or eat salads when I can, though it might take me a bit for gut and quantity. I have a jack la lane out in storage, need to get, I also have access to a warner pro here that my grandma left me. So is it worth for the green star? No warranty is the only thing...

Also, I have some osterizer blender in storage, but just an old kitchen one now, haven't tested it for green smoothies but it makes good banana, date, blueberrie, even frozen berrie smoothies with some tamping and water.

I was told to check out costco during demo time for a good deal on a vitamix, will my 50$ osterizer make green smoothies that are creamy in consistency or not likely? I can't quite remember but think it worked pretty well with romaine, I even made kale at one point, and one crazy night I made Kale avocado smoothies ! those were actually with my even older blender, so if these cheaper models make a green smoothie, what else do I need a vitamix for?

I heard they are 300 or 400, not sure, I know re-furbished with warranty are 379 but I bet I can find cheaper.

Any suggestions for me? Whether I have the money to even spend is debatable, to begin with, as I owe quite a bit, but if I get alot of use out of the items (I juice and blend daily at the moment usually), then it's all good. I know the green star can do alot of processing to.

Thanks,

Eric

Oh yeah, also, will the green star get much more and much higher qualityy juice out of greens like ROMAINE or COS than the jack la lane / centrifugal? Or not a huge difference like with things like kale/collards, etc?

Hmm, it appears I can maybe get a good deal on a not too old omega 8003 as well, and it looks some of these are around 200$ (single auger) type as well, but with the warranty, so the question...
Why is the green star so much more? is one only used for 6 months, but probably used quite a bit for a recovering surgery patient, going to outlast it's warranty anyways?
is it worth it enough to forego a warranty on a similarly priced omega 8003?

I usually think things out myself, so same here I suppose.

It sounds like a good deal for the greenstar but I would find out if you can send it back for money return if you are not happy with hwat you get .. sadly buying used is buyer beware and 200$ is a good chunk to lose.

What are you juicing greens in right now? If you prefer smoothies then a vitamix would be my choice over the greenstar as smoothies and juices are 2 different things and a the greenstar is a juicer and the vitamix is a blender.
the jack la lane is a decent juicer but not super high quality. not sure what a warner pro is

if you have a blender already and a juicer already why not just dust off what you have and see what you use more? then decide where you want to put your money

sure an cheap blender will blend but a vitamix will do it better .. same as with cheap juicer .. the better ones will give you more juice for your buck.

the greenstar is great for all those leafy greens .. the jack la lane type juicers are not so good for leafy greens .. the flat surface of leaves dont ever seem to work well with most cheaper centrifugal type juicers .. i find you go through too much greens for too little juice out of them compared to greenstar type of juicer which seems just made for greens !

anyhoo thats my thoughts !

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2009 06:21AM by Jgunn.

I don't think a new kitchen tool is going to make you any more patient.

Try meditation or yoga.

Jodi, thanks for the reply, yes I am aware of those facts, just wanted personal opinions, but thank you. Yes, buyer beware....

Lee, I had to give a preliminary answer to someone by the morning time, so I was stating that I had to figure it out my self, since no had replied yet, that is all.

Your passive aggressive statement, while perhaps attempted to be disguised as helpful, is not.

I do practice meditations and yogas, and you have no idea of my knowledge or practice or levels of patience or motivations behind statements so it may behoove you to kindly watch your words.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2009 06:44PM by Ebhak.

Oh, and here are responses / thoughts to your thoughts.

I used the blender I had in storage, not the older one here, to make a few romaine or spinach blended smoothies, and they seemed smooth, but not enough or recently enough to recall if it was very smooth consistency, it was drinkable, don't think any chunks or big sections.

As far as the juicer, the romaine is "wet", and as I stated above, I DO plan to be eating it whole more often in the future, but being as my body has it's own timeframe for healing, I can not say just how long I will be juicing greens, either in whole or part, as my green intake. Since I can make fruit ice-creams (though anyting cold, or hot, is a shock to the system) and there are other uses, I will go with it. I do get the sense that it is in good working order, and have been told that it has only been used 6 months or so.

Good points for anyone wishing to purchase a machine, these things can be pricey.

1 ejection centrifugal juicer, 1 centrifugal, my parents can keep the better one, and I will keep mine in the future, and my brother if he wishes can have the other for use sometime.

Mostly, I am an advocate for an 80 10 10 style diet using whole fresh ripe raw unprocessed foods, but blending is ok, esp green smoothies, which I should try to make some more see how I digest it, again, the quantity of greens/celery I wish to consume is likely too much for my gut but a little may be ok, and build up. It may even help the digestion movement and digestive capacity. Juicing helps get more in, and although an extended water fast is what I am building up to, supervised, some juicing may have it's place too, beyond the green juices...

Just a quick surmise.

I figured with the juice "experts" who had been doing this for many years, the ones I really wanted a response from, would be able to tell me the subjective difference between juice from a centrifugal and twin-gear / single auger, i.e is it evident in the taste / feeling / effects, or more subtle.

Same with the green smoothies, is vitamix going to blend it on a finer level that, while maybe not visible, can be experienced in the texture of the smoothie?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2009 07:08PM by Ebhak.

the vitamix is gonna blend it better for sure absolutely .. i have noticed extreme differences since the breakage of my vitamix and having to use our old store bought oster cheapie blender for the time being .. its like night and day .. in comparison to texture , i also find i need to use alot more liquid in the blender because it really does a poor job of pulverising the contents in compared to the vitamix, which means my smoothies are more watered down which is not what i want at all

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Ebhak,

Relax! Deep breath time... in... out... in... out...

Sometimes it takes a few days for all the regulars to check in, sometimes people need time to think about their responses. Be patient and you will find that most of the time people here provide great information on very specific equipment purchases (some of which involve major investments of money).

I love this food! And, I'm grateful for the guidance I have gotten here on my equipment purchases... some of which took a few days or so to be posted. It was worth the wait!

Sorry to hear your lost your vitamix Jodi, a powerful lesson in non-attachment? lol...


Lee, thanks for the breathing advice, yes I see good advice here, my situation was kind of random I just someone holding a greenstar for me amidst other offers on craigslist, and had 2 days to make my decision, I had read about it before but was finding hundreds of articles and read many, most seemed straightforward, putting it up there with a juice press almost, except for blindguru who makes outlandish claims of all sorts and his site is so filled you have to sift through it, it touches upon many interesting points, most of which I've studied myself but some products ideas are fun to play with further, though I don't agree with much there.

I went with the juicer, for 220 total, so we shall see, it has mild wear on one end of the wooden tamper, and the plastic, from resting on the gears at times, so hope this didn't damage and was only short.
Was used for 6 months during a surgery.

As far as a blender, yeah, a vitamix with BPA free or another high powered blender Blender BPA free would be optimal, now I have a cheaper one with glass carafe, I realize for 360 I could of gotten a new green star with the warranty, which is limited they say but it depends how persistent you are and what the problem is eh? Also, a new vitamix probably for around the same if I kept trying, but some say to get a higher HP then that one? BUt th en no BPA free carafe less it fits and you buy it seperately? Anyways, figured I am wasting juice at the moment and can make some fruit ice cream and other treats that might tear up my cheaper blender(s) whereas I am not wasting anything in my blender, though the test will be a green smoothie to see how smooth it is. The juicer I have now is cheap and spending 8 bucks a day on greens/celery I figure I might as well get the most out of it, whereas I been just drinking plain banana smoothies mostly, sometimes blueberries and other stuffs. Work my way up to green smoothies.

hehe yep indeed Ebhak but i had that machine for soooooooo many years lol .. im not even sure if the new models would have the lifespan of the old stuff .. that seems to be the trend in our throw away society .. nothings built to last !

so is that the omega juicer you bought then or the greenstar?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

A used green-star (maybe the old name) from 2004 which was used mainly during 6 months, is what I am told. Some wear on the tampers, but other then that should be all good. Not sure if it has the coarse screen.

I have some generic blender here but it does it's job on high.

I have to wear shooting ear muffs for using my equipment due to ears healing, so maybe the green star will be quiet enough not too, we shall see.
That means I'd only need them for blending.

I do want a great blender sometime, would have to be BPA free, and high powered, maybe I'll wait it out a bit more, as far as juicing, I went with it cause it seemed like a good deal and I the greenstar people said it should last many years if it was treated well during it's use and is taken care of from here on out.

Don't know how good the vitamix warranty is, or green star for that matter.

I went with this over a new omega due to the reviews I read, though they hadn't tried the omega 8006 which I could of gotten for 30-40$ more with the 15yr warranty.

My green star died after doing a 110 day juice fast. It was a great machine. I bought in 2002. Used it for 3 years then put it away. Took it out again in march 2008. Juiced anywhere from 1/2 gallon to 1 gallon of juice a day for 110 days. It had this ticking noise when in use and finally died. I have been using 26 year old vitamix ever since. it has it's problems but I use it to make smoothies and I am blessed to have it. Would like to buy a blendtec. Have been thinking about it and trying to figure it out. Husband has lost his job since Dec.31st so who knows if and when I will get one.