What Is an Auger Juicer?

An auger juicer is a juicer whose working part is a slow-turning screw -- an auger -- that crushes produce against a screen instead of shredding it against a spinning basket. And here is the thing worth knowing before you shop: auger juicer, masticating juicer, slow juicer and cold press juicer are four marketing names for that one mechanism. They are not four grades of machine. Every machine on this site described by any of those four words has an auger inside it.

What the auger physically does

An auger is a tapered screw -- the same shape as a wood drill bit or a grain conveyor. In a juicer it turns slowly inside a chamber that narrows toward one end, with a mesh screen forming part of the wall. Produce enters at the wide end, gets caught in the thread, and is dragged into progressively less space. There is nowhere for it to go, so the cell walls rupture and the juice is squeezed out through the screen. The dry fiber keeps travelling and is pushed out of a separate opening as pulp.

That is the whole mechanism. No blades, no spinning, no heat generated by friction at speed -- which is where the "cold press" name comes from, although nothing in a home juicer is actually pressed in the way a hydraulic press presses. The published speeds tell you how slow slow is: Omega states 43 RPM on the VSJ843, Kuvings and Nama both state 50 RPM, Nutribullet 65 RPM, Omega 80 RPM on both horizontals, Hurom 90 RPM, and AMZCHEF 90 RPM. A centrifugal machine for comparison: Breville states 6,500 RPM low and 12,000 RPM high on the JE98XL.

The four names, and what each one is really telling you

We have separate pages on each pairing because people search them as if they were real distinctions: masticating vs cold press, juicer vs cold press and slow juicer vs centrifugal. The short answer in each case is the same -- the first two are one thing, and the real comparison is against a centrifugal machine.

Single auger and twin gear

The one distinction inside the category that is mechanical is how many screws there are. Single-auger machines -- which is almost everything -- have one screw crushing produce against a screen. Twin-gear machines have two interlocking augers turning toward each other, and the produce is crushed between them rather than against a wall.

Tribest states 110 RPM on 200 W for the twin-gear Greenstar Pro, with a 1.5 in chute opening and a 12-year warranty for household use. Twin gears are the mechanism for the hardest produce -- wheatgrass, mature kale, raw turmeric -- and the cost is more parts to wash than any single auger. Our full comparison is twin gear vs masticating, and best twin gear juicers is the shortlist.

The other geometry distinction is which way the auger points. A vertical auger crushes downward and takes less counter space; a horizontal auger lies flat, feeds continuously and has a narrower throat. Vertical vs horizontal juicers covers which to buy.

What to look for in an auger juicer

Four published specs are worth comparing, and all four are genuinely available on most listings -- unlike yield, pulp dryness and cleanup time, which no brand in this category publishes at all.

1. 1.Chute width. This is the spec that costs you time every single session. Kuvings states 3.5 in on the REVO830 plus a separate 1.75 in auto-cut chute; Hurom states 45 mm (1.8 in) on the H400; Tribest states 1.5 in on the Greenstar Pro. The difference between 3.5 in and 1.5 in is whether you use a chopping board.
2. 2.A reverse function. How you back a jammed wad of celery out of the screw without dismantling anything. Nutribullet and AMZCHEF both publish one; most premium verticals do too.
3. 3.The warranty term, read carefully. Omega, Hurom and Kuvings USA all state 15 years; Tribest states 10 years on the Slowstar and 12 on the Greenstar Pro; Ninja and Nutribullet state 1 year. And read the structure, not just the number: Nama states 15 years on the motor but only 2 years on parts, and on an auger machine it is the auger, screen and seals that wear.
4. 4.Rated power, compared only against other augers. The augers on this site run from 130 W to 240 W. Comparing those figures with a centrifugal machine's 850 W or 1200 W tells you nothing -- see how many watts should a juicer have.

Three auger juicers worth starting from

One at each end of the money and one in the middle, chosen on the four specs above rather than on the name on the box.

The Kuvings REVO830 is the one we would buy if money is available: 3.5 in and 1.75 in chutes, 50 RPM, 240 W, and a 15-year limited warranty from Kuvings USA. The Omega J8006HDS is the sensible middle -- 80 RPM, 200 W, a triple-stage auger, continuous feed and 15 years -- with a narrow chute and more chopping. The Nutribullet Slow Juicer is the cheapest honest way in: 65 RPM, 150 W and a reverse function, with a 24 oz catch cup and a 1-year warranty as the trade.

Who should buy an auger juicer, and who should not

Buy one if celery, kale, spinach or wheatgrass is any part of the plan. That is the whole case and it is a strong one. Those vegetables hold their juice between long parallel fibers, and a flat blade spinning at thousands of RPM travels along a fiber rather than rupturing it, while an auger crosses and crushes it. Masticating vs centrifugal sets that out properly.

Do not buy one if hard fruit in a hurry is the plan and the budget is tight. Apples, carrots and oranges are short-fibered and full of free liquid, which is what a centrifugal machine handles well -- and a centrifugal machine will be faster, cheaper and wider in the chute. Best fruit juicers is the page for that buyer, and are expensive juicers worth it is the honest version of the money question.

If you are at the start of this, how to choose your first juicer is the page to read next, and how cold press juicers work goes deeper into the mechanism than this page does.