Omega VRT350HD Vertical Juicer Update #2

My father had a saying: "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all."  If I were to adhere to his advice, this would be a mighty short post.

As you may have read in previous posts, I am displeased with my new Omega VRT350HD vertical juicer.  I have seen dozens of videos of happy people using their VRTs on youTube.  Rarely does one jam or overflow.  Rarely does anyone mention the pulp content.  I have even seen folks juice several whole stalks of celery, whole bunches of kale, bunches of chard, parsley, medium size carrots, and wheatgrass.  I, on the other hand, have been cutting my celery into bite size pieces, slimming my carrots so as not to jam the machine, and cut my leafy greens into 2 inch lengths.  If the juicer jams, and I put it into reverse to clear the jam, huge amounts of pulp come out of the juice port.  I finally tried placing a metal strainer over the juice collection container and the strainer clogged because the "juice" was so thick!  I finally resorted to taking the smallest strainer I had, about 2 inches diameter, and repeatedly skimmed the juice for pulp.  Then I mashed the pulp in the strainer to extract all the juice I could, and although this system is far from perfect, I extracted a few ounces of pulp this way, and the juice was still pulpy.  There were strings of celery, up to 2.5 inches in length in the juice!  Unacceptable.

I finally phoned Omega and told them I needed a replacement juicer.  Cleaning the overflow juice off the motor cover, straining huge quantities of pulp, and drinking celery strings was not making me happy.  They agreed and sent UPS to pick up the juicer.  Luckily, I still had the shipping box.  I packed the juicer, instruction manual, and all, and it is on it's way to Omega.

I juice daily.  I weighed the pulp extracted from the Omega on my last day of juicing.  I generally juice 2 pints of mixed vegetable juice daily.  The pulp weighed, conservatively, 12 ounces.  Now, while my Omega is on it's way to headquarters, I am again using my trusty, 16 year old Juiceman Jr.  It is louder, but it does a good job.  I have figured out how to juice greens with it.  It juices much more quickly than the Omega.  I had hoped to get higher yield from the Omega.  The Omega boasts its pulp is dry.

I weighed the pulp from 2 pints of my old juicer's juice.  There was considerably less waste than the Omega; plus, 16 year old juicer porduces a smooth, pulp-free juice with no leaks, no drips, no jams, and no strings in the juice.  The old juicer has less parts to clean.  Clean up does not take any longer than the Omega VRT.  Assuming the Omega replacement juicer works well, with a tolerable amount of pulp in the juice, the only 2 reasons I can come up with to keep the Omega are: 1.  it is quieter, and 2.  supposedly the juice has more nutritional value because it is a slow juicer, thus less oxidation takes place.

Again, this is a pricey juicer and the fact that it performs worse, so far, than a 16 year old centrifugal juicer is disappointing.  I told Omega I want to be happy with this juicer.  Lots of folks are happy with it.  We are assuming my first Omega had a factory defect or two.  But honestly, I am enjoying the pulp free juice from my old juicer so much that I am not sure I want to spend big bucks for anything less than perfection from Omega.  Stay tuned for the arrival of the replacement Omega Vert.

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May all your juice be sweet,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011
P.S.  Howdy to the blog readers from Russia.  Do you juice?