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Auger & Pulp

Centrifugal Juicers

Fast spinning baskets and wide chutes. The right machine for apples and carrots, and the wrong one for celery, at any price.

By Brijon M. · Last reviewed October 2, 2026

A centrifugal juicer shreds produce against a fast-spinning disc and throws the pulp into a basket. It is quick, it is cheap, and the chute is usually wide enough to drop in a whole apple. It is also the wrong tool for the produce most people now buy a juicer for.

The speeds are not small numbers. Breville states 6,500 RPM on the low setting and 12,000 on the high setting for the JE98XL. Mueller states 12,000 to 18,000 RPM across its two speeds. That velocity is what makes a centrifugal machine fast, and it is also the source of every complaint about this category: foam, warmer juice, and juice that separates in the glass while you are still drinking it.

What centrifugal machines are genuinely good at

Dense, hard, watery produce. Apples, carrots, beets, cucumber, firm pears, peeled citrus. The disc has no trouble shredding them and the basket throws the fiber clear. For an apple-carrot-ginger glass in the morning, a centrifugal juicer will have you drinking it while a slow juicer is still grinding.

The other genuine advantage is prep. Breville states a 3 in feed tube on the JE98XL and 3.5 in on the BJE830 Cold XL; Hamilton Beach states 3 in on the Big Mouth. A 3 in chute means whole apples go in whole. On a slow juicer with a 1.8 in chute, the same apple is three cuts of work first. Over a daily habit that difference is minutes a day, every day.

And they are cheap. Our best juicers under $100 page is dominated by this category, because that is where the price band lives.

What they are bad at, and why it is not fixable

Celery, kale, chard, spinach, wheatgrass, herbs. Anything whose structure is long fiber rather than cell water. A spinning basket cuts across the grain of a fiber at high speed, which is a poor way to release liquid from a strand; the strand gets flung into the pulp bin largely intact. No speed setting, no technique and no brand fixes this, because it is the mechanism.

If celery juice is the plan, buy from the cold press category instead. We say this on every centrifugal page on this site, because it is the single most expensive mistake a first-time juicer buyer makes: a $70 machine that does not do the one job they bought it for. Masticating vs centrifugal lays out the comparison properly.

Apples beside a glass of apple juice on a light surface
Apples, carrots and beets are where a spinning basket is genuinely the better tool, and where the price advantage is real.

Foam, oxidation and what actually matters

Centrifugal juice foams. That is air whipped into the liquid by the speed of the basket, and it is why Breville puts a froth separator in the JE98XL's carafe. Foam is cosmetic and it settles. The more substantive effect of speed and aeration is on how fast the juice changes in color and taste, which is a storage question more than a nutrition one -- see juicer foam and oxidation and how long fresh juice lasts. We write about machines, not about nutrition, so you will not find a health verdict on this site.

Noise

This is the honest weak spot. A basket at 12,000 RPM is loud, and almost nobody publishes a figure. Breville claims its noise-reduction technology cuts mechanical noise by 40 percent on the BJE830, which is a relative claim against other centrifugals, not against a slow juicer, and carries no decibel number. If a quiet machine matters -- a small apartment, an early riser, a baby asleep -- read the quietest juicers, which is mostly not this category.

How to choose within the category

  1. 1.Decide the chute width you need. If you want zero prep, 3 in is the floor and 3.5 in is the ceiling currently available.
  2. 2.Check how the parts come apart. Hamilton Beach states that the pusher, cover, strainer, pulp bin and strainer bowl on the Big Mouth are all dishwasher safe. That is the whole cleanup story on a centrifugal machine, and it is worth more than wattage.
  3. 3.Ignore the wattage race. 1100 W does not mean better juice, it means a faster basket and more noise. Match power to the hardest thing you will juice, not to the biggest number on the box.
  4. 4.Check the warranty. It varies far more than you would expect in this category: Breville states 1 year on both machines we cover, while Hamilton Beach states 3 years on a cheaper one.
  5. 5.Then look at price. Best centrifugal juicers ranks the field; budget centrifugal juicers covers the sub-$100 end.

Start here

Each of these carries its own picks, the four-criteria table and a source label on every figure.

Guides in this section

Questions people ask

Are centrifugal juicers bad?
No -- they are badly matched to some produce. For apples, carrots, beets and peeled citrus a centrifugal juicer is fast, cheap and perfectly good. For celery, kale and wheatgrass the mechanism works against you, and no setting fixes it.
Why does my centrifugal juicer make so much foam?
Speed. A basket turning at several thousand RPM whips air into the juice as it extracts. It is cosmetic, it settles, and some machines ship a froth separator for it -- Breville includes one in the JE98XL's carafe. Our foam and oxidation guide goes into the mechanics.
Can a centrifugal juicer juice celery at all?
It will produce some juice, but the long fibers tend to ride the basket rather than being crushed, so a lot of the stalk ends up in the pulp bin. If celery is your main reason for buying, the cold press category is the right one.
Are centrifugal juicers easier to clean?
Often yes, because there are fewer parts than on a horizontal masticating machine and the mesh basket usually goes in the dishwasher. The screen itself is still the slow part -- that is true across both categories.
How loud is a centrifugal juicer?
Loud, and almost no manufacturer publishes a decibel figure for one. Breville makes a relative 40 percent noise-reduction claim for the BJE830 with no number attached. Where no figure exists we record "Not available" rather than inventing one.

Sources