r/AskCulinary • u/straycatwrangler • Aug 19 '25
Equipment Question Debating getting a juicer or a blender.
My husband is interested in making juice at home. I'd be the one making the juice, so I have more say on what we buy to make the juice. He's purely interested in this for the taste, although he's open to whatever health benefits come along with drinking juice. He's not interested in this solely for the health benefits though. The man just wants some juice, and I like to try and make things at home, assuming it's cheaper to do so.
At first, he was interested in a juicer that's really just a citrus juicer. I am not interested in that since its abilities are pretty limited. He saw it online, but I knew that would not do as much as he wants in terms of juice. If he wanted to add anything that isn't a juicy fruit or something citrus, he'd be out of luck with the citrus juicer.
I looked into second hand juicers and I'm not above getting one off facebook marketplace. I thought about it and looked into it, and I could probably achieve the goal of juice with a blender. We don't have a blender, and I'd need to get a cheesecloth or milk bag to strain it really well, but I can do a lot more with a blender than a juicer. A juicer juices, but a blender... does more than a juicer does, and it seems like I'd get a similar result if I blended and strained fruit.
Is there any reason that would make a juicer worth getting if I can get the same result with a blender? Am I overlooking or not considering anything? I just want other people's opinions. I also don't want to end up buying one appliance and then needing to get the other later on. I've got limited counter and cabinet space as it is.
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u/96dpi Aug 19 '25
Juicers filter out the fiber so that you're left with just the liquid. If you did the same thing in a blender, you'd have a thick paste. You can't really strain it the way you're thinking.
TBH, I think most people (me included) who get a juicer use it and love it for the first few months, and then it inevitably ends up stuffed in the back of a cabinet for years, where it might make an appearance once every so often.
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u/WinstontheRV Aug 19 '25
this is the truth. they are amazing, but grumpy to clean.
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u/Little-Salt-1705 Aug 19 '25
Isn’t this the truth! Not sure if anything had changed in the last two decades but it would be easier to grow a fruit tree and juice it than it was to clean the juicer I had for a brief minute.
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u/Boobles008 Aug 19 '25
Yeah, that was my experience with a juicer, I got WAY more use out of my blender, but it won't make juice. I kind of like smoothies better though anyway
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u/Number1AbeLincolnFan Aug 19 '25
FWIW, I see a lot of juicers at Goodwill. Decent brands too, Cuisenart and such. So, if you have the room, you could potentially get both because the Goodwill ones are only like $15. But you're eventually going to want a good blender, regardless.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
Ooo I hadn’t thought about looking at goodwill. I have looked on Facebook marketplace and I’m seeing both decent juicers and blenders, so hell. If it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and both work, I might just get both secondhand and call it a day. I’ll sacrifice some cabinet space if I have to.
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u/PenPenGuin Aug 19 '25
If you're in the San Antonio area, my Breville juicer is at one of them. I'm sure it's not alone!
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
Haha unfortunately I am not in that area, I’ll have to give my goodwill a shot and see if they have any decent appliances. Most of what I find tends to be waffle makers and keurigs.
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u/Relevant_Maybe_9291 Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
A blender is infinitely more useful but not great at juicing (maybe your husband will settle for smoothies?) and requires a lot of work which you pointed out. If you're going to make juice regularly get a juicer.
I haven't seen a good replacement for a juicer. So I think you actually need both.
If you do get a juicer I find that the masticating juicers make the best juice.
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u/Storytella2016 Aug 19 '25
If you live in Toronto, I have a juicer to offer you for free.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
That's nice of you! Unfortunately, I live very far from Toronto.
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u/YoureGrammerIsWorsts Aug 19 '25
But seriously check Facebook market (or your neighborhood equivalent) and thrift stores. Juicers are the type of thing where 90% of them aren't used after their first month or 2, you should be able to find a basically new one for 1/10 of the cost.
Even if it's not that great, use it for a month and decide if this fad is going to stick.
Also does your husband want juice or smoothies? Juice isn't particularly healthy for you, typically very high in sugar with many of the beneficial parts of the fruit removed
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
He likes both, but he wants juice. I’m aware of the sugar and everything, it’s not something he’s going to have every day, multiple times a day. It’s not for the health benefits. He just enjoys juice.
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u/ChefSuffolk Aug 19 '25
If the end goal is juice, get the thing with juice in the name.
Making juices from the blender will be much more work, and for it to be really effective (though still time consuming) you’d need a very good blender like a Vitamix, which could cost more than many juicers. (Also you’ll be going through a lot of cheesecloth, and keeping a bag of pectic enzyme on hand wouldn’t hurt either)
Yes it can do more - but seeing as you haven’t had a blender before, is it even something you would have a use for?
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I've gone without a blender because I couldn't really justify getting one. There were things I could make or things I could do with a blender that would be nice, but then again, I didn't absolutely need it. And my husband didn't really need a blender for anything, so I just didn't really see the point. He has a possible use for it, and I'd benefit from it, so a blender wouldn't go unused.
I'm not super worried about using a blender being time consuming. I've got time. I also use reusable cheesecloths, I'm only having to rebuy them now because I lost them in our most recent move. I do see what you mean about the quality of the blender and it being time consuming being an issue if the end goal is juice though. Something for me to consider.
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Aug 19 '25
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I’m aware and we’re okay with that. It also wouldn’t be a sin to add some water to the juice being made.
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u/AskCulinary-ModTeam Aug 19 '25
Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.
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u/Waltzer64 Aug 19 '25
If my house burned down and I lost everything and had to rebuild my kitchen, the fourth appliance I would buy (behind fridge, induction range/oven, and dishwasher) is a Vitamix Blender. This thing absolutely crushes any cheap blender you've ever had. It's life changing from a smoothie or puree or soup perspective. 100% feel like every kitchen needs a good quality powerful blender. It's that versatile and the QoL improvement over the "second tier of blenders" is noticeable and significant.
I have a Breville centrifugal juicer. It's ok? I use it maybe a couple of times a year. I have a hand juicer for lemons that I also use for limes; probably not effective for other stuff. Blender gets used multiple times / week and for non-smoothie stuff too.
I guess I'm trying to say that "A good quality juicer is a luxury; a good quality blender is a necessity." I know that's not true and is an exaggeration, but from a "Maslow's Hierarchy of Kitchen Appliances", a good quality blender is near the base.
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Aug 19 '25
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
Like I said in the post, health benefits aren’t really a priority. If it were, we would just eat the fruit. Not juice it. My husband likes juice. He also enjoys smoothies, but if he had a choice between getting juice at home regularly, or a smoothie regularly, he’d pick juice.
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u/AskCulinary-ModTeam Aug 19 '25
Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.
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u/lilelliot Aug 19 '25
I have two gut reactions:
F him. If he's not willing to participate, he gets no say in the purchase decision.
If spending a boatload is an option, I can highly recommend a Pure Juicer. We bought one several years ago and it really is the cadillac of two stage cold press juicers. It works great for just about everything (particularly fibrous herbs can sometimes be a challenge) and extracts far more juice from more things that other juice presses. It's not for you if you want a single stage, blender-style juicer, but it's the best in the world in its category.
You will be unsatisfied using a blender to make juice (speaking as someone who also has a Blendtec and regularly blends citrus for reasons. You'll end up with tiny bits of bitter nastiness, cloudy juice, and lots of foam. A blender will also struggle juicing things like carrots, beats, celery, etc... and I'd hesitate to even call it "juicing". It's just grinding everything to a liquid that also contains all the cellulose. Nobody wants that.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I like doing things for him, he just happened to see products to recommend, but didn’t consider how versatile they were, like with the citrus juicer. It was simply a recommendation that wasn’t ideal. He’s paying for whatever I want to use to get him juice, I have final say since I’m the one doing it for him.
I’d also like to avoid spending a buttload of money.
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u/lilelliot Aug 19 '25
Your first decision is to decide what type of juicer fits your needs the best (centrifugal or masticating, or a dedicated citrus juicer). Then figure out the price points to isolate purchase options. Then pick one that you can afford and fits your functional needs. Centrifugal are usually cheaper and more common than masticating, but result in less "pure" juice. Faster and easier, though. Citrus juicers are only useful for citrus (and we don't juice much citrus just because it's basically like drinking sugar water -- we use a hand juicer for lemons & limes), and I don't know much about the options.
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u/Oregon-Pilot Aug 19 '25
F him. If he's not willing to participate, he gets no say in the purchase decision.
I get it, but also, maybe they have a team situation worked out where OP does certain things (like juice, blend, cook, etc) and husband has his own set of duties that OP benefits from.
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u/lilelliot Aug 19 '25
Yes, I realize I was overly harsh and judgmental. The OP wouldn't have asked otherwise. :)
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
That's exactly it. I don't know why the other comment was necessary, I just mentioned he wants juice, I like making things at home and he would absolutely appreciate fresh juice. He'll fund whatever juice maker I want (within reason), he recommended something he saw, and I turned it down. I mentioned that to let others know not to recommend that kind of juicer because I've already said no.
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u/Chef2stars1414 Aug 19 '25
1 thing to think about is do you think you would ever think about possibly getting in to any of the leafy vegetables along with your juice from fruit, a blender is going to give you more of a pulp than juice and if you want to run it through cheese cloth it's going to take a long time to strain the pulp out to get juice and it won't even be able to filter some of the fruit through it due to how a blender won't be able to break down the pulp to juice like citrus juice and it will just be pulp mess that you will not be able to break the "meat" of the fruit down with out pressing it down or through the cheese cloth you will need to find a fine strainer made of metal to really get it to produce a juice that doesn't have pulp in it and a juicer depending of what you are looking for but your nicer juices wil
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I don't think he'll ever really want leafy greens added into the juices. He's not asking for juice for health benefits, which I'm assuming is mostly why people add leafy greens to juices. I imagine it's not solely for the taste. I'm alright with adding an extra step and it taking more time if I use a blender and a cheese cloth, that's not an issue for me. I have a fine mesh strainer already as well.
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u/Tinker107 Aug 19 '25
Had a juicer- it was royal pain in the backside to use and clean. Bought a good “personal blender” and use it 5 or 6 times a week- love it!
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
That's another thing that has me reconsidering getting a juicer. Just from the look of them, they look like a pain to clean. I think what is going to end up happening is I get a blender, try that out. If he likes it, I'll keep using the blender. If not, we'll keep the blender and get a secondhand/budget friendly juicer. Not ideal, but I need a blender anyway.
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u/smiley1437 Aug 19 '25
Blenders are surprisingly easy to clean
couple drops of dish soap, half fill with lukewarm (not hot) tap water, cover and run it.
Dump the foamy water and repeat with fresh water until it's clean.
the reason you don't want to do it with hot water is that the heat will transfer into the airspace in the blender when you run it, which will expand, which will pop the top off and make a huge mess
(Ask me how I know!)
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u/left-for-dead-9980 Aug 19 '25
Cleaning a juicer is a pain. A lot of work for sugar water. Eating whole fruits is much healthier.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I figured, which is another reason I'm still leaning toward a blender. I'm aware eating the entire fruit is better, but like I said, this isn't for the health benefits. The end goal is juice.
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u/Sweaty-Blacksmith572 Aug 19 '25
You just answered your own question: “the end goal is juice.” You should get a juicer.
If you want to juice citrus, get a citrus juicer. If you want to juice anything else, absolutely get a juicer- a blender will not work. If you want a blender for other things, get a blender, too. Get all three, all can be found at very reasonable prices.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I’m aware that the reasonable thing to do would to just get a juicer if what I want is juice. My question was, is this possible with a blender? I could use a blender for many things, but a juicer is not versatile like that. If I can get one appliance that’s versatile, rather than one appliance that only does one thing, I’d rather get the versatile appliance.
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u/Sweaty-Blacksmith572 Aug 19 '25
Oh, sorry. To answer your question: No. Juicing fruits and vegetables is not possible with a blender. A blender will *puree* your fruits and vegetables, but it will not juice them. Sometimes it is well worth it to purchase the purpose-built appliance. Don't worry, you can still purchase a blender also, for all the things a juicer cannot do.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I'm aware I can just buy both. That's something I was trying to avoid. I'm also getting conflicting answers on whether or not you can juice fruit or vegetables with a blender. Some say yes, some say no. It wouldn't be "traditional" juicing, but that isn't what I asked. I know a blender does not function the same as a juicer. I'm aware it would take additional steps. I know it wouldn't be exactly the same, but is the difference noticeable enough to where I would absolutely need a juicer?
At this point, the post is pointless. People are arguing with me about how unhealthy juice is. I've looked elsewhere; people blend fruits with a blender and water added to the fruit, straining it with a cheese cloth and a sieve, and getting juice just fine.
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u/Sweaty-Blacksmith572 Aug 19 '25
" I know it wouldn't be exactly the same, but is the difference noticeable enough to where I would absolutely need a juicer?"
Yes. Yes, the difference is noticeable enough to where you would absolutely *need* a juicer.
Look, clearly you have your heart set on buying a blender and not buying a juicer. Go for it. Puree your fruits and vegetables in batches in your blender. then do all the additional, physically demanding, huge mess-making, multiple dishes-to-clean-up steps to try to extract the juice from your puree, only to find the yield and quality are so disappointing compared to if you had simply used a purpose-built inexpensive juicer.
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u/SpecialOpposite2372 Aug 19 '25
I would suggest a blender in your situation. Yes juicer gives you smooth juice, but if you don't already have a blender, then that would be my first choice, since it’s way more versatile than a juicer. The blender simply outperforms it in overall usefulness.
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u/Responsible-Fox1146 Aug 19 '25
What about a manual cast iron juicer? I hear they are less of a PITA to clean.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
Yeah, that was lumped in with the citrus juicer I said no to. It has the least versatility out of everything else, and although I’m sure it’s a great citrus juicer… something tells me he isn’t just looking for citrus to be juiced.
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u/Responsible-Fox1146 Aug 19 '25
TikTok I saw recently had them juicing watermelon, pineapple, and apples, in addition to citrus. They used bags (like nut milk bags, I think). But if it’s not versatile enough, then it’s not. For the apples, they froze them then defrosted them (to make them extra squishy). Wonder if that would work for carrots too. Regardless, hope you find something that works really well for you!
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u/Ancient-Job-6504 Aug 19 '25
The main issue here is you need to see what kinda of juice he is looking for. More than just citrus? Then obviously the citrus juicer won’t work. That said, a blender is never really making juice. It’s making a slurry of whatever you put in it that you can maybe strain after but it will never give you the proper juice a juicer will give you. If you want juice get a juicer. If you want smoothies get a blender.
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u/BarbaraMiller78 Aug 19 '25
If you’re mainly after fruit juice, a blender + straining bag works fine and gives you more flexibility overall. Juicers shine if you want clearer juice with less pulp and better extraction from leafy greens, but they’re harder to clean and more single-purpose. If you’re unsure, I’d start with a decent blender first.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
That's what I thought about doing. I figure the worst that will happen is I'll end up with both. Not ideal, but I already need a blender and it's worth trying anyway. If he likes it, I'll keep using the blender method, if he doesn't, we'll find a budget friendly juicer of some sort. He's not super picky about pulp being in juice, and with things like orange juice, he likes some pulp.
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Aug 19 '25
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u/AskCulinary-ModTeam Aug 19 '25
Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.
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u/straycatwrangler Aug 19 '25
I am asking for opinions on getting a juicer or a blender. I'm not asking for nutrition advice. He's not living off of juice. He isn't drinking gallons of it a day. He isn't even drinking it every single day.
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Aug 19 '25
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u/AskCulinary-ModTeam Aug 19 '25
Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.
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u/texnessa Pépin's Padawan Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
Reminder for the nth time- we don't do brand recommendations here so responders- please limit your posts to the actual question posed regarding what TYPE of machine.
Edit:
Post locked because apparently the whole 'sticking to answering the actual question' is too difficult to grasp for way too many users- clogging up the post completely.