The drain hole simply isn't large enough. It plugs up way too easily no matter what produce is run through the machine in any sufficient amount to create more than two or three tall glasses of juice. This results in juice leaking down the motorized base and making a pretty substantial mess, usually because you are halfway through running something through the machine and the juice has been backing up for a bit. I think it said somewhere in the directions that some of this is "normal", I gotta raise the BS flag...I call it bad design. The directions say not to run really ripe fruit through the machine (which could lead to leakage problems); well, what are you supposed to use, hard and sour unripe fruit? Even chasing something "pulpy" like kiwi through the machine with something hard like apple doesn't seem to clear the machine out at all. The inability to use ripe fruit seems to contradict the reason you'd want the juice to begin with. This is by far one of the more frustrating issues with this juicer, it should not get plugged up so easily.

A design issue is the catch basin and lid; the catch basin does not line up with the lid very well and can shift if you are juicing a lot of things consecutively, you'll wind up with pulp on your counter if you don't keep an eye on it. There is no solid mechanical connection between the two. The lid also has a couple of crannies in it that pulp seems to migrate towards that are difficult to clean by hand, those should be eliminated in a design update.

Another design issue: The Chrome Plated Plastic. Not all of the parts of the device that shines is "stainless [steel]". I checked the directions front to back as well as the warranty information, the juicer is "dishwasher safe" (except the base), so one could reasonably expect to throw the parts in the dishwasher and have no ill effects. WRONG. Do NOT use a high heat drying/washing cycle. This will cause the chrome plating to come off, and may also deform the thermoplastic (which is all of the plastic) parts as is what happened to a previous reviewer. Ours had the chrome plating begin to "rot" off after only the second wash. I called the Jack LaLanne juicer service phone number and they suggested I return it. I'd take it back, but I don't care about the chrome myself and the product works fine. If you've had this problem, take it back and get a replacement, they need to correct the washing instructions or fix the product design.

Another bad property of the product is that it mentions various vegetables or grasses that naturally have a low water content can be put in the juicer. Wheat grass and broccoli come to mind. I think that this is misleading; from my experience with the ginger root, these products do not have enough liquid content to produce a significant amount of juice and will need to be "chased" in the machine with something that has a higher liquid content to extract any material. This is bad information given to the consumer if they think they can get a glass of "straight" wheat grass juice.


In summary: 3 to 3 1/2 stars. What the machine is capable of doing, it does well. It does not do everything it should do (as advertised) and has some unfortunate limitations and design issues. When it works, it does a really good job, but I wouldn't want to be limited to apples, carrots, tomatoes, hard pears and celery if I had actually paid for this product. I would give this a very cautious "buy it" recommendation, but just know what you are getting into and see if there's something that might do a better job for you. If they update the design, then this juicer may be a better product.