PROS / The covered pitcher helps keep everything tidy.
CONS / This juicer cannot do any other food processing tasks.
VERDICT / The Breville Juice Fountain Plus is the best juicer we reviewed because it’s compact, quiet and capable of extracting a lot of juice from a lot of different produce.
The Breville Juice Fountain Plus, our Top Ten Reviews winner, represents the perfect intersection of all the features we value most in a juicer – high juice yields, easy assembly, quiet operation and an economical price point. Some competitors produced slightly more juice than the Juice Fountain Plus, but they were missing other features we valued, like easy cleanup. There were competitors that were slightly quieter, but they were oversized or overpriced. This juice maker is easy to use because you can drop whole apples, pears and other fruit into its oversized chute. Pulp-free, chemical-free, delicious juice comes out the spout in seconds.
Juicing Capabilities
This juicer makes a good first impression because of its sturdy metal construction. This is especially noticeable in the locking arm. So many competitors have part- or all-plastic clips that hold the lid onto the juice catcher. The Juice Fountain Plus has a metal locking arm that clicks into place and stays there. This unit also comes with a large covered pitcher that captures all the juice in a tidy manner – and you get a lot of juice.
We ran three recipes through each juicer, and the Juice Fountain Plus performed well on all of them. The first recipe was a combination of romaine lettuce, lemons, cucumber, kale, ginger and two apples. This centrifugal juicer was able to extract over three cups of super-smooth juice. It had the lowest amount of pulp of all units in our juicer reviews. Not everyone hates pulp, but we assume that most folks are expecting juice from a juicer and not a frothy and foamy smoothie. This unit works beautifully for smooth juice.
When tested on the tough stuff, the Juice Fountain Plus continued to perform well, powering through beets and carrots to produce a very respectable yield of juice, with the least amount of pulp of all of the units. This machine was perfect on citrus fruits, too, producing excellent quantity and quality from the same amount of produce we put through every machine.
Prep & Cleanup
Centrifugal juicers are inherently difficult to clean because of the spinning blade with the screen that is designed to sift out the solids and send the juice on. When it is all over you have to clean that screen, but Breville makes it as easy as possible with an included brush. There are mostly rounded edges on the juice collector and top cover, so the food comes off easily under running water. We cannot say that about every competitor. Some have tiny nooks and crannies to clean. This one makes it easy to get the pulp out and get on with your day. We were not testing near a dishwasher, but that is an option with this juice machine, for all parts but the motorized base. This shaves time off of the cleaning process.
Assembly time is a snap – literally. Once you have the cutting blade and top in place, you just snap the metal locking bar into two grooves and you are ready to juice. This unit could never be quite as easy as a juicer blender that you just put the pitcher on and start, but it’s pretty close.
Design
There are juicers that sound like a jet engine or louder, but the Juice Fountain Plus stays pretty quiet. Blow-dryers produce about 100 dB of sound, but this juicer got to only about 73 dB at its loudest. Noise fluctuates depending on what you are juicing: soft citrus fruits juice very quietly, while carrots and beets are louder. None were very loud with the Juice Fountain Plus. That makes this nice for a family household if you like to make juice early. You will not ruin anyone’s morning.
The Juice Fountain Plus is relatively compact, especially for a centrifugal juicer. It is only about 12 inches at its widest point, even with its spacious pulp collector attached.
Help & Support
Breville stands by this product with a one-year warranty, which is pretty standard. If you have questions at any point, you can contact customer service representatives by telephone or email. A live chat option would be nice for immediate answers, but Breville’s people do pick up the phone during normal business hours.
Summary
If you are looking for a juicer that can double as a food processor, this is not the one for you. We were considering the best source for fresh juice, though, and this is it. This is the best juicer for anyone who wants to incorporate more fruit and vegetables into their diet but cannot get motivated to eat half a plate of them at every meal or invest $3,000 in a triturating juicer. The Breville Juice Fountain Plus is compact, quiet and built to last. Most importantly, it gets a large quantity of quality juice from any type of produce you drop down its chute.