Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus review: Big, beautifully-designed juicer pummels fruit better than it munches kale

It's clear that Breville meant business when it dreamed up the $150 JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus (converting roughly to £105 in the UK and AU$205 in Australia). Every inch of this machine screams serious juicer, from its large size and brushed metal parts, to its sturdy steel safety arm which locks its plastic cover into place. Unfortunately while impressive looking, the JE98XL stumbles when processing leafy and fibrous green vegetables.

6.2

Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus

$180 at Walmart

$180 at Macys.com

$180 at Amazon

The Good

The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus flaunts a handsome, sturdy design and pulls lots of liquid from citrus and other hard fruit. The machine also has two speeds to handle different types of produce and a food chute to process ingredients with minimal prep. The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain uses many dishwasher-safe parts for easier clean up.

The Bad

The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus costs more than competing centrifugal juicers and can't draw moisture out of leafy greens as well as other machines.

The Bottom Line

While the Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain sports a lovely, durable design with dishwasher-safe parts (and is adept at juicing fruit) its steep price and poor leafy greens performance are big detractors.

Specifically when tackling kale, the juicer managed a low average juice extraction percentage of 25.1 (based on amount of remaining pulp, juice extracted and initial ingredients). That's the worst result among my test group of five centrifugal juice extractors with the typical ranging between 40 and 50 percent.

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The Juice Fountain does redeem itself somewhat when juicing citrus and other fruit. While juicing oranges, the machine turned in an average juice extraction percentage of 66.4 percent -- the second highest logged so far. The juicer has two speeds too, "low" for softer items and "high" for harder produce.

Breville does include plenty of extras with this juicer such as a cleaning brush, a big 1 liter juice jug and a detailed manual with lots juicing advice along with numerous recipes to get started. Most of the JE98XL's parts are dishwasher-safe too, except the juicer cover, so cleaning is less of a headache than hand-washing everything.

In a nutshell, only consider buying the $150 Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus if you plan to juice in large quantities and crave a stylishly designed machine. Otherwise, go with the $100 Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain (roughly £70, AU$ 140) which performs better, costs less and is easier to clean.