The most important aspect of caring for your juicer will be keeping it clean. Whether you have a centrifugal juicer or a cold pressed juicer, it is extremely important to keep it clean. Some juicers offer ‘self-cleaning’ systems and are easier to clean than others, however all juicers require at least a little attention.
If you have been using and cleaning your juicer every day, but still notice discoloration in hard to reach areas or, even worse, ‘gunk’, then you are not cleaning it as well as you should. When gunk builds up, it can provide a place for bacteria to grow. This is generally considered unhealthy.
Assemble Your Cleaning Tools
Some of the parts of the juicer can be difficult to clean, but if you have the proper cleaning equipment, cleaning your juicer will change from being an onerous and time consuming chore into a simple, fast operation. Remember to unplug the juicer before you begin taking it apart for cleaning.
- A scrubbing pad that has a sponge on one side and a somewhat abrasive scrubbing surface on the other can be used to clean most of your juicer.
- A tough nylon brush is good for cleaning out the filter basket. A brush will work much better than a scrubbing pad, and you can use a toothbrush with stiff bristles, too.
- You will also want something to clean out the pour spout or other such difficult to reach areas, and a pipe cleaning brush will be perfect for this.
- Because you will not want to scratch up the plastic parts of the juicer, have a large plastic spoon on hand to remove pulp and other residue.
How To Clean A Juicer Machine
Your cleaning task will go much quicker if you have everything at hand before you start cleaning the juicer.
- Fill your sink with warm, sudsy water and place all the parts of the disassembled juicer in the water.
- If there seems to be any ‘gunk’ in crevices, it would be a good idea to soak the part to soften for a while for easier removal.
- Be sure to get all the particles of fruit or vegetables out of the filter basket screen with your nylon brush or toothbrush.
- Once all the parts have been cleaned, allow them to dry, and finish up the drying with a clean towel.
- Assemble the juice once everything is clean, and it will be ready for the next time you want a pitcher of fresh cold pressed juice.
Keeping your juicer clean will not only prevent bacterial contamination of your juice, but it will also help your juicer last longer.
How to Stop Juicer Clogging
One of the biggest problems that occurs when using a juicer, regardless of the brand, is how to stop the juicer clogging. Although masticating and triturating machines will provide you with delicious cold pressed juice, if the juicer clogs, the whole operation slows or stops. Understanding why your juicer is clogging is the best way to prevent it from happening in the future.
Keep It Clean
This, of course, is the most obvious solution to keeping your juicer running smoothly. After every use, the juicer must be dismantled immediately and cleaned thoroughly. It’s all right to let it soak for a while, but never allow produce residue to harden on any of the parts. Some of the chutes can be difficult to clean, particularly the one that goes to the pulp container, but make sure you remove every bit of pulp from this area.
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How to Juice Properly
Keeping your juice clean will certainly help to stop the juicer from clogging, but very often the way you juice contributes to clogging. Not only is the size of the produce that you put through the juicer important, but also the consistency. Soft fruits and vegetables, as well as leafy vegetables have a tendency to clog up the juicer, either in the auger or at the pulp chute. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to prevent this from happening so that you can enjoy your cold pressed juice without problem.
- Leafy vegetables can easily clog up your juicer, regardless of the brand. However, by mincing them fine, in pieces no longer than about 1/8 of an inch, these vegetables will pass through the juicer much more easily.
- When you’re juicing, and using multiple items, cut everything up, and then leave it in separate piles.
- In order to help leafy vegetables go smoothly through the juicer, don’t put them all in at once; throw in a handful and then put through a harder vegetable such as carrot or parsnip – this will help to clean out the residue of the leafy vegetables.
- Soft fruits have a greater ability to clog the juicer, so be sure to follow them with a firm vegetable.
- Don’t rush the juicing process. Many people try to cram everything in as quickly as possible. However, masticating and triturating juicers work fairly slowly, so letting them take their time to properly grind up the produce will make it less likely that your juicer will clog at all.
- Use the freshest fruits and vegetables. As these age, they tend to become soft and ‘flabby’ and will be more likely to get stuck somewhere in the machine.
- Celery is a popular vegetable for juicing, but it’s important to cut it up before adding it. Simply feeding in a whole stalk, which has very tough, long fibers in it, is a sure recipe for clogging up the juicer.
- Check the pulp outlet chute to make sure that the waste pulp is being ejected. You should see a fairly steady output here, and if you don’t, it means that there is some kind of backup somewhere.
- Alternate the produce you put into the juicer – soft, hard, soft, hard – and finish up the juicing session by running a hard vegetable through the juicer to clean it out.
Preparing the produce in the correct way before putting it into the juicer, alternating the different items, feeding the produce in slowly, and cleaning the juicer completely after each use will help you prevent the aggravating problem of a clogged juicer.