OmegaVertical Low Speed Juicer, 150-Watt, Silver

I have been using one of the Breville Juice Fountains for a few years now, off and on [mostly off], but for reasons related to health, I decided to get back into juicing. I dutifully began buying more fresh fruits and veggies at our regular store and at our weekly farmer's market here in the village area I live in here in the Bay Area. I also combined the fresh juices with other fruits [pluots, apricots, strawberries, bananas, etc., along with some All One vitamin/protein and Royal Greens superfood powders to make smoothies in my destroys-all Vitamix]. This actually became a daily ritual. The Breville is actually a pretty nice unit, and depending on how one views such things, the roar of a jet engine in your kitchen in the morning will even help wake teenagers up. The Breville was able to consume just about anything, and while its parts were somewhat bulky to clean, like anything, if you get into a ritual, it was fine. I even got my kids to enjoy the fresh juice.But as I read more, I came to realize that a slow-speed juicer has significant advantages, especially on the enzyme/vitamin preservation side, which was the entire reason for my juicing. So, I did a lot of reading, and decided to take the plunge on the Omega 350. Glad I did. Not only can I hear myself thinking over my tinnitus in the morning, even with the juicer running, it is almost as fast as the Breville. While I have not done a direct side-by-side extraction efficiency comparison, the dry quality of the Omega pulp suggests I am extracting more liquid.If one accepts that the slow speed, mastication style of the Omega does in fact produce more healthful juice, there is actually in my view little comparison to be made, but if one sets that aside for the moment, and simply compares the two units on a variety of feature sets, here is my punch list:1. Size: Omega wins. Slightly more compact on the countertop, but not by much, though neither is huge; however, when disassembled, the Breville's large pieces take up a lot more room in a dryer rack, or--if you use the dishwasher--the upper rack;2. Cleaning: this is a draw, as each as its disadvantages. The Omega has what my kids call the Playdoh® pooper chute, that is a little more difficult to clean out, but Omega supplies a perfectly-sized tool for cleaning it. That rubbery plastic at the mouth of the chute worries me a bit for its unknown longevity, but we'll see. The Breville's screen is somewhat harder to clean than the Omega's strainer, but again, Breville gives you the right tool for the job. I have found with such devices, whether it is mixers, juicers, blenders, etc., that you get into a cleaning routine and pretty much it just becomes part of the ritual. As I said, I see this as a draw.3. Ease of assembly: slight edge to the Breville, only because that little red dot on the lip of the clear yellow strainer on the Omega can be difficult to see in low light, there is no corresponding red dot on the auto cleaning brush [doesn't need one], and the arrow on the bowl is very difficult to see. The Omega fits together more precisely, but the Breville is easier.4. Prep work: the Breville has a monster hopper, and so can accept large quantities and sizes of fruits and veggies. But, that high speed mangler inside means you cannot just gently drop your stuff in one by one. You need to fill up the hopper, and then keep pushing material into it, or you have to stop that jet engine, let it wind down and then re-load. For both machines, I cut up everything in advance. The difference is that I cut up everything for the Omega 2x so that it is easier to drop into the chute. Keeping the Omega running also does not require ear plugs or muffs. So, prep time a few seconds more for the Omega.5. Feeding: Edge to Omega because while its chute is not as big, feeding involves no force whatsoever. As long as one preps material properly, it just chomps it on down.6. Stability: edge to the Omega. Although I keep the rubber feet on the Breville clean, that first switch on really makes her dance. High speed will do that. No such problem on the Omega.7. Pulp collection: a toss-up. The Breville's high-speed necessitates an enclosed collection cup, and so long as you have it assembled correctly, it works just fine. If you don't, not so fine. Conversely, the Omega collection cup is open, allowing one to watch the aforementioned pooper chute. Kids love it.8. Juice collection: Negative for both here for two different reasons. The Breville has a collection cup with a U-shaped cutout to accommodate the outlet spout, but in a stroke of middling intelligence, it comes with a cap that makes it easier to store the juice, bit not shakeable. The Omega has a nice collection cup with no cap. Yeah, of course, we are supposed to drink it quickly, but Omega specifically features a juice longevity of up to 72 hours, so why no cap for the collection cup? If the assumption is you will pour it out, then why the ever-loving'-heck doesn't the cup have a pour spout somewhere on it? Cap, spout, or both would be nice on a near-$400 machine.9. The juice itself: Haven't done a double-blind test, but I can attest to one noticeable difference, that I think speaks in favor of the Omega, though perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively. If one juices a cut, but unpeeled orange, the juice in the Omega is noticeably more bitter, suggesting it is extracting more from the orange rind than the Breville. Both do fine, but the Omega pulp is drier. Also, on carrots, I noticed that the more-pulp strainer on the Omega was more likely over time to clog with carrot pulp, whereas the less-pulp [clear] strainer had no such issue.10. Warranty: big win for the Omega here: 10 years, versus the Breville 1 year. Not even close, unless I am missing something. Having said that, i will say my Breville is chugging along just fine after 4+ years of use. And on this note, I should mention that as I was waiting for my Omega to arrive, I came across the Hurom juicer, featured over at Chef's Catalog here: [...] . I thought to myself: "Oh no, here is everything I could possibly want in the Omega, plus it has a freakin' cool handle to grasp." So, I did some research on the Hurom, and came across this specific comparison: [...] . Granted, some of it may be self-serving, but a warranty difference of 10 years on the Omega and 1 year on the Hurom speaks volumes, even coming out of the same factory, handle or not.For now, I am keeping both juicers for another week or so, but it's not hard to see this is headed in the Omega's favor. Either my ex or a good friend will be happy to take the Breville off my hands, and I would like to see it have a good home. It's a fine machine, just not as good when you factor in the quality of the juice, which is what this is all about.20120803 Update: I have just about 4 weeks juicing with the Omega, and it's been great. I have added wheat grass and several veggies to my regular juicing, and while the first shriek of the wheat grass never fails to startle the cat, the results are excellent. Veggies (like carrots, as well ) seem to clog up a little faster than fruits, but not to the point of stopping juice production. I haven't tried the recommended trick yet of running a little water through, but will. Also, to the observation that the pulp chute can clog up, it's true that it can get filled and some pulp seems to eject more smoothly than others. Omega supplies a cleaning tool that work well to clear the chute.

So before I write my review of the product I'd like to include a few facts/qualifiers about myself. As the name suggests, I am a graduate student. I'm getting my PhD in a social science field, so when I say I've extensively researched it I mean that I have done much more than simply looked at a review or two. I have both a limited income for expensive purchases and an over abundance of experience and education in the researching of things. Additionally, this is my first juicer. I enjoy juices (fruit and green), and I've had many of them over the years, but haven't had the opportunity/will/desire to purchase a juicer before now. I have several friends with centrifugal juicers and have been able to see them in use and try juices from them, so I did have somewhat of a base of comparison before making my purchase. Ultimately I chose a masticating juicer, and this particular model, because I felt it was what best suited my lifestyle. I would strongly recommend that anyone considering purchasing a juicer as conduct their own thorough research in order to decide which one will be best for you or your family.So on to the Omega VRT 350: I decided on a masticating juicer because I knew that I wanted the ability to store juices for at least a day. One of the benefits of masticating juicers is that you can do just that due to the low oxidization of the juice. The longest I have stored a juice is about 48 hours. I tend to make large juices (I get very close to overflowing the container that comes with the juicer) and I will normally pour the juice into 1 or 2 glass bottles to store, then drink the rest. The juice is definitely best fresh. There is a bit of separation when the juices are stored overnight (from what I can tell this is the pulp and the juice separating, it is nothing like the separation you see with centrifugal juicers!), but a good shake and they takes almost exactly the same as they do fresh.The juicer comes with two filters, one coarse and one fine. The coarse filter definitely leaves a lot of pulp in the juice. So much that it seems more like it was blended rather than juiced. While it does make the drink a bit...chewier...it also makes for a much more substantial and filling juice. My goal is to transition myself to the coarse filter so that I can gain even more of the benefits from the produce I am juicing. The fine filter, on the other hand, strains most of the pulp from the juice. I would not say all of it, there are definitely still a few bits and pieces of pulp. This will not be a super smooth juice, like that concentrated "orange juice" garbage they sell at the grocery stores. If you absolutely cannot stand pulp in your juice, this may not be the machine for you. One option would be to further strain the juice with a sieve or cheesecloth, but I have not tried it.As far as functionality, ease of use, cleaning, etc. the Omega VRT has it's pros and cons. Overall I would say that most of the parts seem to be very well made and are holding up quite well after several weeks of juicing. I have noticed some wear on the plastic parts of the sieve that I am keeping an eye on for now. I also found that the juicing basket (for lack of a better word - I'm referring to the main part of the machine that houses the auger) is very difficult to remove from the base. A small amount of coconut oil rubbed on the black locking mechanisms has made this problem non-existent. The filters can also be a bit difficult to clean. I find that tiny particles of produce easily clog them and these components easily take the longest out of everything for me to wash after a juice. Even still, I do not find clean up to be terribly difficult. I have tried the "self-cleaning" trick of running water through the running juicer, but I found this just made a mess and the juicer still had to be hand washed afterwards. When I make a juice I usually clean the juicer immediately, taking apart the machine and cleaning each piece right away so nothing gets dried on. I would say the whole process from start (taking veggies out of the fridge, cleaning & prepping) to finish (cleaning all components, wiping the counters, etc.) takes me about 30 minutes. Again, I am making at least 3-4 juices at a time, so this averages to 10 minutes or less per juice. I'm also slow and methodical, so this process could probably be shorted for people in a hurry.I feel like I had a lot to say about this juicer, and I'm sure I'm missing some points that I wanted to make. Overall, it is definitely a product that I would buy again. But like I mentioned earlier, this is because I feel this particular style of juicers suits my needs best. There are some basic issues: celery doesn't juice particularly well (this is true for anything stringy, it will clog the port where the pulp comes out), it can be time consuming to prep everything (you need to cut things like carrots/beets/apples into small chunks to get them through the opening), and there is still pulp in the juice even with the finest filter. However, none of these issues concern me terribly. I simply don't juice large amount of celery (no more than 2 or 3 stalks in a juice) and make sure to cut it into small piece, alternating it with harder items like carrots or beets. The extra prep time doesn't bother me. Something about cleaning, chopping, and preparing a giant bowl of veggies, some fruit, and the odd herb or chunk of ginger is relaxing and exciting. I never juice from a recipe, so I have no idea how they will turn out (answer: so far so good!) so it's always a bit of an adventure. The pulp doesn't bother me as I've always liked my OJ with lots of pulp, so having a bit of something in my juice doesn't seem weird or gross to me.Overall, I think that the Omega VRT is a great masticating juicer. I like it for its compact size and ease of use. You can also supposedly make nut milks with it, a feature I have yet to try. I hope that this review has been helpful for someone who is considering purchasing a juicer. Researching what you want is very important (unless you just have money to throw away on $300+ appliances). I have one friend with a centrifugal juicer who loves it because it is exactly what he wanted, and another with the same juicer who regrets not having done more research and spending the extra money on the masticating juicer she later realized was what she really wanted. On that note..happy juicing!