Just One Issue
I have been using a Hurom slow juicer for the past 5 years and decided to buy this as the Hurom did not do a good job on wheatgrass. The Z-Star is very well made and will be very durable. On wheatgrass, it outperforms the Hurom in terms of the quality of the juice and the yield. Both score 3 stars from Juicers.ie for juicing wheatgrass and leafy greens, but for me the Z-star is much better than the Hurom I own. It gives significantly more juice than the Hurom and the juice tastes better and has a smoother texture as well. It is very easy to assemble and cleaning is very easy - much easier than the Hurom. I did try and juice some oranges so far as well. It did a good job with those. Yield was better than an automatic juice press I own and there was a smoother texture to the juice than the juice press and the Hurom. It was harder to clean the filter though after juicing oranges. I think it would do a good job on most fruits and vegetables, although I imagine harder fruits and veg would be a lot of work to turn through the device. The only real problem I have encountered is that the wheatgrass sometimes wraps around the auger and does not get pushed through the machine. Sometimes running more produce through it will help move this through, but sometimes that does not work and you have to take it apart and remove the grass from the auger, which is a bit of nuisance. It only takes a few seconds but it is still disappointing. You can cut the wheatgrass up into shorter lengths to avoid this happening, but that obviously takes longer and it is a little messier too. The collection cup could also be a little bigger and it should be curved to fit properly against the machine. The straight edge on the collection cup against the curved surface of the machine means some juice drips to the outside of the collection cup. It is a very small amount but does add to the clean-up as well. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase. It is a sturdy, high quality juicer with better than expected performance on leafy greens and wheatgrass. Despite the minor issue of the wheatgrass getting caught on the auger, I would definitely recommend this and would buy again. If you are juicing leafy greens each day then this is great. However, juicing a lot of other fruits and veg would likely be easier with an electric juicer.
