Sunbeam JE8900 Cafe Series Juice Extractor
The frequency at which you use (or plan to use) a juicer should probably play a part in deciding how much you’re going to spend. If you plan on juicing once a month, buy a $90 Tiffany and be happy with the fact that it’s lasted a year before it dies (only weeks after the warranty has expired). However, if you plan on juicing a little more often (for example – once a week, as I do) – then it’s worth spending a little extra to get something decent – it’ll last a good long while and will actually do good job at juicing your fruit & vegetables.
I bought a Sunbeam JE8900 Cafe Series Juice Extractor in early 2009 and haven’t had any issues with the unit- in fact it’s an impressive little beast. Let’s take a look…
Components
The first thing you’ll notice when you open and unpack the box is that there’s quite a few different parts – over 10, in fact. This sounds like a lot for a juicer, but it comes down to clever design. The unit’s 1200W stainless steel powerhouse only makes up about half the unit’s size when it’s ‘all together’ – which means that it’s easy to store, because the parts all break down into exactly that – lots of smaller parts.
Putting the juicer together is very easy – add the side pulp bucket, put the grinding disc into place, add the collection jug and clamp-on the top using the easy-click clamps and you’re done! The juicer also has a good safety feature where it won’t start (even if switched on) until the clamps are locked down! This is a great idea – particularly if you have kids, but I have some issues with the design of the actual on/off switch itself (see the ‘Future enhancements?’ section below).
As far as power goes, the unit itself has no problems tacking anything I throw (drop) at it – even beetroot is no issue.
Price
The Sunbeam JE8900 Cafe Series Juice Extractor retails for a shade under $300 – but if you’re into buying Sunbeam products, as I am, then it’s well worth getting the Cafe Series model over any of their cheaper models. It has the grunt you need for juicing those tough, dense vegetables such as carrot’s and beetroots, but it easy to setup yet still packs down into a small space for quick and easy storage.
Cleaning
Some juicers are a real pain to clean – and this alone is a reason for many not to bother using theirs after the first few goes (once the novelty has worn off). The Sunbeam JE8900 Cafe Series Juice Extractor, on the other hand, is very easy. Everything apart from the motor can be placed into the dishwasher (the motel itself is a heavy-duty stainless steel powerhouse – and wipes down very easily when required). If you prefer, you can rinse everything (again, apart from the motor) under hot water and you’re done. The juicing disc requires a little extra effort, but Sunbeam provide a handy cleaning brush which makes the job incredibly easy. You can literally have it cleaned under hot water in less than a minute.
Future enhancements?
Having used my JE8900 once a week for about 6 months now, I’ve found a find a few little things that I believe could be improved in future models. I’ve listed them below – hopefully someone from Sunbeam’s design department reads this one day…
- The chute, while advertised on the Sunbeam website as an “extra large 75mm diameter feed chute” to “…take whole fruit and vegetables” isn’t big enough for all fruit. Or maybe I just seem to get big fruit delivered? Green ‘granny smith’ style apples are fine, (as they’re generally small) but in a juice, red apples have more flavour – and red apples are often larger than 7.5cm in diameter. So some additional cutting is required.
- The on-off switch on the unit is an “up/down” style metal-bar switch – with high (top), off (middle) and low (bottom) options. However, it should really be a left-right (horizontal) switch, in stead of a vertical one – for a tall person like me (185cm), I often cannot see what setting it’s on without bending over. I’ve been startled on more than one occasion as the unit’s powered-up on as soon as the clamps were closed (see ‘Components’ above for an explanation of this safety feature) because I thought the switch was off, when it was really set to one of the ‘active’ settings. A horizontal switch would fix this issue.
- When cutting and washing fruit & veg, your work area can, at times, get a little wet. The juicer has rubber feet, but they aren’t of the suction variety and, as such, I’ve had my juicer move around by a few inches when activated on a kitchen bench that’s just been wiped down. If they had one or two small suction pads on the feet, or somewhere under the unit, this problem would go away.
Parting words
Other than that, I love my Sunbeam JE8900 Cafe Series Juice Extractor and would recommend it to anyone. 9 out of 10, with one point lost due to the above reasons – but hopefully these will be fixed / improved in a future build.
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