Salter Deluxe Citrus Juicer

Verdict

You can’t get much cheaper than this electric juicer. It’s a little basic, using plastic parts, but it’s hard to complain too much at this price. The Salter Deluxe Citrus Juicer does struggle with larger fruits, such as grapefruit, but if you primarily want it for orange juice, it’s a good budget choice.

Introduction

Proving you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy freshly squeezed juice at home, the Salter Deluxe Citrus Juicer is an affordable, simple way to make your own drinks – whether it’s a glass of orange juice at breakfast, or lime juice for cocktails. 

It’s a step up from manual juicers and uses a compressor handle and spinning cone to squeeze the juice from the fruit, hands-free. You don’t have to worry about getting covered in sticky juice or having to fish out the pips. 

Elsewhere, it comes with two juicing cones designed to suit larger fruits, like oranges and grapefruit, as well as smaller lemons and limes. A built-in strainer catches the pips and there’s an anti-drip spout on the side to flow the juice straight into your cup or glass.

Design and features

• Neat and compact size 
• Compressor handle 
• Anti-drip spout 

There are few bells and whistles with the compact Salter Deluxe Citrus Juicer, and it’s more basic-looking than the Smeg CJF01 Citrus Juicer. A spinning plastic reamer – or cone – sits above a strainer.

You manually press the fruit down onto the cone using your hand, or you can place the fruit on top and use the built-in compressor handle.

As the cone cuts through the flesh of the fruit, the juice flows from this strainer through a small spout on the side into a container of your choice. And when you’re done, flick the spout up to stop the juice flowing and prevent any drips. 

The juicer itself is neat and compact. The black and metal design will fit in with most kitchens, and the small height means it is small enough to slot underneath – or even inside – a kitchen cupboard. 

The downside of this compact nature is that few containers will fit comfortably underneath the spout. I tried standard glasses, plastic cups and even a measuring jug but they were all too tall. The only container that was large enough to catch the juice, but small enough to fit beneath the spout was a coffee mug.  

The cone, strainer and juice bowl are all detachable but they’re not dishwasher-safe; you’ll need to wash them by hand. However, they’re easy and quick to clean so this is a minor point.  

Performance

• Mixed results depending on fruit
• Compressor handle not as good as using a hand 
• Strainer only catches large pips and pulp

As juicers go, the Salter Deluxe Citrus Juicer is simple yet effective. As its name suggests, it’s designed solely for citrus fruits and I tested it using lemons, oranges, limes and grapefruits. 

To use, you simply cut the fruit in two, place one half on top of the cone and press down – using your hand or the compressor handle – to start the juicing process. The pointed tip and ribbed edges of the cone cut into the flesh of the fruit to squeeze out the juice.

In my tests, the standard cone and handle were the perfect size and shape for an orange, yet were a little too big for a lemon or lime, and were too small for a grapefruit. This size mismatch meant that even if I used the compressor handle to push the fruit onto the cone, it didn’t always cover all the flesh. I got much better results when I used my hand to squeeze the fruit onto the cone, to guarantee the entire flesh was used. Thus making the compressor handle slightly moot. 

The juicer does ship with a smaller cone which goes some way towards solving this problem. However, the compressor handle is still too big for lemons and limes, causing the fruit to end up wobbling around. It’s also slightly too small for a grapefruit, making the juicing uneven. 

The cone spins at a single speed. If you’re using your hand, this slow speed is great for giving you control but it’s very easy to press down too hard – with your hand or the compressor – in a bid to speed things up. This causes the juicer to stop spinning and makes a grinding, mechanical sound. 

The amount of juice extracted using the Salter Deluxe Citrus Juicer varies, depending on not only the size of the fruit, but also the juicing method you use. The compressor handle doesn’t always push all of the flesh onto the cone, meaning you miss out on juice. Whereas using your hand guarantees much more juice. 

The strainer catches pips, and larger bits of pulp but it’s not enough to catch all pulp meaning that some ends up in your juice. This wasn’t a problem for me; I like juice with ‘bits’ but when making juice for my four-year-old I had to restrain the juice to meet his exacting standards. 

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