VonShef Premium Slow Masticating Juicer review: Kale proves too much for this VonShef cold-press juicer

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Priced below the bulk of typical cold-press machines, the $200 VonShef Premium Slow Masticating Juicer certainly plays the role of fancy home juice extractor. It's large, sports a pair of collection cups and spouts, and boasts an eye-catching red paint job. The juicer's tower stands tall and imposing and has at its heart a menacing plastic auger, a drill bit-like piece that pulls in fruit and wrings liquid from produce slowly but with lots of torque.

5.5

VonShef Premium Slow Masticating Juicer

The Good

The VonShef Premium Slow Masticating Juicer efficiently juices citrus and hard fruit. The cold-press machine also operates more quietly than centrifugal juice extractors.

The Bad

The VonShef Premium Slow Masticating Juicer clogs often and has trouble chewing through fibrous kale leaves. The appliance uses a complex design with numerous parts that are tricky to assemble and break down. None of the juicer's components are dishwasher-safe.

The Bottom Line

Though relatively affordable for a cold-press machine, the VonShef Premium Slow Masticating Juicer clogs often, is overly complex, and is a pain to clean.

Unfortunately, this kitchen gadget's performance falls short of its imposing profile and grandiose name. First, the VonShef Premium Juicer is a jigsaw puzzle of many parts: eight in all, not counting the main unit that houses the machine's power cord and electric motor. Second, these components must be aligned precisely or they won't fit together. Worst of all, none of the juicer's parts are dishwasher safe, so you'll have to clean the entire contraption by hand. The VonShef Premium's narrow food chute compounds these annoyances because you have to slice and dice produce into small chunks before you juice.

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The appliance did remove a decent amount of liquid from fruit and citrus, managing an average extraction of 64.5 percent when processing oranges (which means that 64.5 percent of the orange turned into juice, and the remaining percent was pulp). By contrast, the Omega J8006, a competing cold-press juicer, fared much better here (76.8 percent).

Running leafy and fibrous kale leaves through the VonShef Premium proved to be this machine's undoing. The machine scored a low average kale extraction of 18.6 percent (compared with the Omega's 44.2 percent) and clogged frequently, producing no juice at all.

All of these factors combine to paint a picture of a cold-press juicer that is relatively less expensive than its competition for a reason. For a juice extractor with satisfying results, you'dbe wise to splurge on the $300 (about £210 or AU$410) Omega J8006, which makes more juice, produces less waste, and cleans up with minimal hassle.