I encourage you to carefully read this and other resources before choosing your juicer, honey.
One of the most important considerations you need to make is, how much time do you want to spend making juice every week? Because what juicer you get depends greatly on that. This was an important consideration I didn't make when we decided to try the norwalk over the breville we had been using. Suddenly without realizing what I had done, I had turned a daily routine that lasted around 30 minutes in to a routine that lasted 90 minutes. Keep in mind that anything using filter bags and a press is going to take MUCH longer just due the process it uses. Clean up time will also be much more intensive. You will get virtually zero pulp and the juice will be superior, but you're investing more time in making the juice. So if you are making more than a quart a day, I would advice not using a juicer like that, you will regret buying the juicer you did.
A centrifugal juicer needs to be very powerful and well designed if you are going to be doing any significant amount of juicing. One reason is that if the blades don't grind up the produce(especially leafy greens) fast enough you will start generating a lot of heat which harms the juice and makes it spoil faster. A second reason is that centrifugal juicers don't extract as much juice, so you want one that is very well made to maximize the amount of juice you are extracting from the pulp. Buying tons of produce isn't cheap and wasting it is even worse.
Another very important consideration that almost no one new to juicing thinks about is the size of what I call the feeding tube(the part you stick the produce in). The bigger it is, the less cutting you have to do to make whatever it is fit in there to juice it. Anyone who says this isn't a big deal is wrong or doesn't have to make the quantity of juice I do every week. Again, it's a matter of time. The three members of my household consume at least 4 quarts of juice a day. Not having to cut cucumbers in half or quarters and apples in to 3 pieces is A REALLY DAMN BIG DEAL.
An alternative to centrifugal juicers are masticating or similar juicers. These, in various ways, grind and press the produce without centrifugal motion. This creates less heat and, depending on the juicer, usually yields more juice and a superior quality juice. For example, our old norwalk(which I hated almost from the word go despite it being an amazing juicer in general) yielded about 10-15% more juice than our breville(which I loved). Which goes to show that juice yield isn't everything. Many act like it is, but it's just not.
A very popular line of this type of juicer is the omega juicers. An example is here:
http://www.amazon.com/Omega-J8006-Nutrit...843&sr=8-1
Something that seems to be a trend I've noticed with these type of juicers is that the feeding tubes are MUCH smaller. For example, this one I linked(which is VERY highly rated) has a feeding tube of only 1.5 inches vs the 3.25 I am used to on my breville. That's small enough that even large carrots would need to be cut in to quarters first! However, you are going to get a better juice and probably a better yield from this juicer than mine. Just be prepared to spend more time actually making it.
We used this breville below for months and were happy with it and have recently gone back to it after our norwalk juicer fiasco. We got sucked in to the idea of the norwalk being way more efficient at extracting juice. And it is. We just failed to realize it would take 3x more time and labor to PRODUCE the juice! Add on to that getting stuck with a super expensive machine that broke and you have a recipe for nightmare. This juicer comes with a clear pitcher with a lid that isn't shown in the picture. The pitcher fits around the spout that the juicer is expelled from.
http://www.brevilleusa.com/beverages/jui...essor.html
![[Image: bje820xl.jpg]](http://www.brevilleusa.com/media/catalog/product/cache/7/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/j/bje820xl.jpg)
Keep in mind that juicing has become extremely popular of late and you might have to wait a while to get the one you want. If you decide you like the breville my family is back to using, you can find it here:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/...%20copy-_-
If these prices seem high to you or you are at all uncertain whether you will juice over the long run, consistently, I encourage you to grab a cheap $80 juicer and use it for a few weeks. Heck, you might even be able to return it for a refund within 30 days, no questions ask. Just see your local retailers return policy!
