Juicing Machines – The Centrifugal Juicer
In the mid 90′s, Jack Lalanne started promoting his Power Juicer centrifugal juicing machine. This started a wave of juicing mania. More recently, Joe Cross’ documentary, “Fat, Sick, And Nearly Dead” promoted Breville juicers and added fire to the juicing flame. Today, the centrifugal juicing machine is the best selling type of juicer on the market. You can walk into any department store and pick up a centrifugal juicer. Some are much better than others, but they all work off of the same physical force. This is called centrifugal force.
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How Does A Centrifugal Juicing Machine Work?
So what exactly is centrifugal force? As defined in Wikipedia, “Centrifugal force (from Latin centrum, meaning “center”, and fugere, meaning “to flee”) represents the effects of inertia that arise in connection with rotation and which are experienced as an outward force away from the center of rotation.” In other words, the faster the rotation, the stronger the force. The name of the juicer actually describes the method by which the juicing machine extracts the juice.
A centrifuge works in the exact same manner. Blood samples, or any other mixture a test tube can hold, are placed into the centrifuge resting at a predesignated angle. These test tubes are centered around a fixed axis. An electric motor then rotates this axis, accelerating to a predetermined point. The mixture in the test tubes then begin to separate. The heavier particles in the mixture are effected by the centrifugal force to a higher degree than the lighter particles. The centrifugal force pulls the heavier particles to the bottom of the tube, leaving the lighter particles at the top.
This is exactly the same genius behind centrifugal juicing machines. Inside the machine is a basket that acts like a sieve. At the bottom of this basket are sharp, stainless steel grating blades. When the juicer is turned on, an electric motor rotates the basket and it’s blades at a high rpm. As produce is fed into the machine, these blades shred the produce down to almost nothing. The resulting pulp flies to the sides of the basket, and the juice gets strained right through.
Types Of Centrifugal Juicing Machines
Do all centrifugal juicing machines work the same way? Well, yes and no. There are actually two different kinds of centrifugal juicers. Ejection and non ejection. Both juicers use the same application of centrifugal force to separate the juice from the pulp. They also shred the produce in the exact same manner. The only difference is that in non ejection centrifugal juicers, the basket has straight walls. As the juice is strained, the pulp sticks to the sides of the basket and stays in the machine. The pulp needs to be removed manually. A clothes washer’s spin cycle works in the exact same manner, only on a much larger scale.
The beauty of the ejection centrifugal juicing machine is in it’s simplicity. This juicer uses the same type of basket to strain out the juice, but with a slight variation. The mouth of the basket is wider than it’s base. This makes the basket tapered. As the basket spins the shredded pulp gets strained of all it’s nutritious juice and starts to work its way up the sides of the basket. The pulp continues to move up and gets ejected out of the machine into its own container.
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The Ease Of A Centrifugal Juicing Machine
The centrifugal juicer has given us the ability to juice fresh fruits and vegetables right in our own kitchens. No longer are we limited to citrus juicers which are only able to juice oranges and other citrus fruits. The centrifugal juicing machine can handle just about any produce on the market. It’s only limitation is creamy produce. For example, bananas and avocados will just turn to paste. These machines are also not the best at juicing wheat grass. The wheat grass fibers are too small to be effectively shredded by the centrifugal juicer.
Despite these few limitations, produce once thought impossible to juice is now in our grasp. From hard produce like carrots, apples, and ginger to soft produce like grapes, peaches, and strawberries. All are now able to be juiced. Even leafy greens! Just chunk up the produce so it will fit through the shoot, drop them in and let gravity do the work. It’s that simple. These juicing machines have changed they way we as a society view raw fruits and vegetables. Sometimes, change can be good.
Written by Tom Webb+
