How Centrifugal Juicers Work

A centrifugal juicer is a cheese grater at the bottom of a spinning salad bowl. Produce drops onto a flat disc with sharp teeth, the teeth shred it, and the whole assembly spins fast enough that centrifugal force throws the shredded material outward against a fine mesh wall. Juice passes through the mesh; fiber does not.

The three parts

The cutting disc

A flat plate with raised cutting teeth, usually stainless. Breville states a titanium-reinforced cutting disc on some models. It does the shredding, and because it is flat and horizontal, produce only needs to be dropped onto it -- which is why centrifugal machines can have wide chutes while cold press machines mostly cannot.

The basket

A conical fine mesh wall surrounding the disc, spinning with it. This is the filter and it is also the thing that needs cleaning. Mueller states an Italian-made micro-mesh filter; Breville an Italian-made precision mesh filter on the Cold XL. Finer mesh means clearer juice and a slower rinse.

The motor

Big, by juicing standards, because spinning that assembly at speed takes power. Our registry runs from 400 W on BLACK+DECKER's JE2200B to 1200 W on Breville's Cold XL. Speeds, where published, run from 6,500 RPM on Breville's low setting to 18,000 RPM on Mueller's high setting.

Why this is fast

Three reasons, all structural. Produce is dropped rather than fed, so a wide chute works and prep is minimal. Shredding is instantaneous rather than progressive, so there is no waiting for an auger to work through material. And the basket does the filtering as a side effect of spinning, so there is no separate pressing stage.

The practical result is a glass in a couple of minutes against roughly twelve on a slow juicer, including cleanup. For somebody juicing apples before work, that difference is the entire argument for the category.

Why the same mechanism fails on celery

A celery stalk is long structural strands with liquid held between them. To release that liquid you have to crush along the strand. A cutting tooth moving at speed crosses the strand perpendicular, cuts it into shorter pieces, and flings those pieces at the basket wall -- where centrifugal force holds them but does not meaningfully squeeze them.

So the fiber arrives in the pulp bin shorter but still wet. Nothing about speed helps: a faster disc cuts the strand into more pieces, which is not the operation required. This is why the cold press category exists and why we repeat the warning on every page here. Masticating vs centrifugal is the full comparison.

Foam, heat and oxidation

A basket spinning at thousands of RPM is also a fan. It moves air, and that air gets whipped into the juice -- which is why centrifugal juice foams and why Breville includes a froth separator in the JE98XL's carafe.

The friction also adds a little heat, which is the origin of the "cold press" marketing term for the other category. We cover what that does to color, taste and storage in juicer foam and oxidation and how long fresh juice lasts. What we do not do is draw nutritional conclusions -- we write about machines, not about nutrition.

What the mechanism means for cleaning

Fewer parts than a cold press machine: a lid, the disc-and-basket assembly, a pulp bin and a carafe. The basket is the slow part, as the screen is on a slow juicer, and the trick is identical -- rinse it immediately, before the pulp dries into the mesh.

Hamilton Beach states that the pusher, cover, strainer, pulp bin and strainer bowl are all dishwasher safe on the Big Mouth, and BLACK+DECKER states the same for the JE2200B's parts. Where a brand does not state it, hand wash. Centrifugal juicer cleanup covers the routine.