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Which should I get - Omega Vert VRT330 or Omega 8006?

I've decided to save up bit by bit for a high quality juicer (which will be absolutely indispensible to me since I feed through a stomach tube).

I've been looking up different juicers and have heard good things about the Omega Vert VRT330. Apparently it requires basically no tamping/plunging since it's powerful motor just sucks stuff rights in. It's also supposed to be self-cleaning, just put water through and run it, and this is very attractive to me as the big downside I found to the Champion masticating juicer which my friends let me borrow was the large amount of dissassmbly and cleanup time requires.

However, the Omega 8006, which doesn't list itself as self cleaning, seems to have extra functions above the Vert, and will apparently grind, mince, chop, and turn nuts into butter and milk, as well as make frozen desserts and baby food. I wonder, would nut butter/milk made by this thing be smoother than that made in a Vitamix? I like the idea of the grinding/mincing/chopping, eliminating the need for a food processor. Unless the Vitamix does all that on it's own and I don't really need a food processor of any kind.

I'm leaning towards the Vert because of it's ease of use and self-cleaning capacity, but I like the sound of the 8006's food processing functions. Any thoughts?

Has anyone used either of these juicers, or has other juicers to recommend? (I'm looking for masticating). Are there other juicers besides the Vert which self/auto clean?

Comments

  • I am saving up for a Hurom Slow Juicer, I have seen some really good reviews and I like that it takes up so little space. I currently have a centrifugal juicer which just does not work for leafy greens. I do not know the juicers you mention but will google, maybe I'll have to save up for something else...:-)

  • I have a Norwalk machine. It is a masticating juicer with a 2000 pound press. It gets every drop of juice out of the masticated pulp. It has multiple functions which I confess I have never used. I have a vita mix that I find more convenient for most of those things and I have a Magic Bullet that I find more convenient for certain processes than the Vita mix. The thing I find so extraordinary about the Norwalk for juicing is the fact that you can juice for three days and keep it in the frig with very little oxidation and I think they are the only juicer that can make that claim. Everything goes in the dishwasher. It is a major thing for me to juice for three days, but I would rather do that than clean another juicer numerous times a day. The Norwalk juicer is the juicing machine used by the Gerson Institute. I had lung cancer in 2001 and and not many people can say they are nine year lung cancer survivors. I give God the glory for leading me to the lifestyle, diet, and accoutrements that I needed to fight for my life.

    Over many years the Norwalk will pay for itself in the amount of juice it produces and the additional nutrients it gives you. By all means get a juicer for now, but save for the big one. If you do the juices and blended raw foods, you may find the nerve damage improving. I also have rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia that have improved beyond my wildest dreams on our lifestyle. I have a mini juicer that I travel with, but the pulp is very wet and the juice must be consumed within fifteen minutes because of oxidation.

    My food processor which I rarely use is a Cuisinart - Robo Coupe from the 1970s. I got it just recently from a consignment store for twenty dollars. It was in its original box with manual and parts and it is a wonderful machine. If I did the gourmet raw foods, I would use it frequently. I don't see that you will need an expensive processor for your liquid diet. I don't see that you would need a Bullet. Just a Vita Mix and a great juicer and you should be good to go. Even with my mini l-equip juicer, which is a fairly high quality machine, you must strain the juice before you put it in your tube. I would even strain it from the Norwalk.

    Again, I compliment you on your quest for health and not sitting back and pouring a can of that awful stuff down your tube. It would be so easy to give up and do that. And, again, my very best regards.

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Hey, thanks for your encouragement and support on my journey towards raw and health.

    Anyway, holy crap, the Norwalk costs $3000! If I set aside $10/month towards it, it would take me 25 yrs to save up! But then again, I'm planning on starting a homebased web design business this year, so hopefully eventually I'll be earning enough to set aside more than than... :). Right now I'm spending a hefty utility rebate cheque+$145.oo out of pocket for a Vitamix 5200 demo model, and I'll be continuing to borrow my friend's Champion until I save up enough for an Omega.

    The thing is, I'm not the only one who's going to benefit from the Vitamix and juicer - my sister especially is committed to becoming a vegan, and my other two siblings, whether they decide to become vegan or not, want to eat healthier. Whether any of them end up raw is their own decision, but raw or not, a food processor would be a huge bonus for healthy/vegan living. Of course, the Champion has some some food processing abilities - it can make frozen desserts, nut butters, and the like, but once I go ahead and buy an Omega I was planning on selling the Champion, rather than having two juicers taking up counter space. I like all-in-one and I'm huge into minimalism and lack of clutter, so...

    I'm really new at this - why is oxidization bad for juice? Is it bad for your health to drink oxidized juice?

    Also, I guess I could put all the parts in the dishwasher, but I still have tons of cleanup to do to get all the pulp off the Champion's parts before washing it. Is it the same with the Norwalk?

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Let me know what you find out. I'd like to find some comparison of the Omega Vert vs. the Hurom Slow Juicer as well, so I can see which is a better juicer or better suited to my needs.

  • Hi ,JR,

    Sorry I did not see your question sooner. No, the Norwalk does not present a pulp cleaning problem. The pulp goes straight into a cotton bag as it is masticated and then the pulp is pressed to express the juice. You can press two bags at one time.

    I clean my little juicer screen basket - that I carry on my travels or use for a really quick glass to drink immediately (a Mini L'equip) - with a stiff toothbrush. I place a plastic grocery bag into the pulp catcher or a large freezer bag if I want to save it. My dog loves the pulp from the little juicer. He eats the carrot apple straight or mixed with his food!

    I am so glad you got your Vitamix, JR!! I just ordered a 32 oz container for mine. I live alone and the smaller jar is perfect for me and easier to clean and handle in the sink and it stores under the cabinet.

    www.discountjuicers.com I like this site to compare juicers and it explains oxidation for you also. It does not include Norwalks, I don't think. My granddaughter just got a Champion and she is very pleased with it. It is a very good juicer and receives good reviews. She got it from Craig's List. What do you not like about it? I used one while I was ill until I got my Norwalk, and I was well pleased - but like you I was borrowing it. In fact, I recommended the Champion to my granddaughter because her budget was $200 with shipping - so I suggested Craig's or eBay. If I had to replace my Norwalk, I would get a Champion or a Green Star, in fact.

    I hope you keep posting. I would love to hear if your nerve damage improves in addition to how your general health does. My husband was on a tube for a long time, but he would hold liquids in his mouth and swish and savor the tastes, being careful not to swallow. (His esophagus ruptured.) Are you able to do this? I hope your family does well on the raw vegan life.

    Always remember to strain your foods - even from the best of the machines - before putting it in your tube. I speak from experience. A trip to the hospital for a clogged tube is no party. Are you going to do green juices? Best Regards!

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Thanks SO much for your reply - you sound like just the person I need to talk to!

    I'm headed to bed so this'll be brief but just to touch on two main points:

    I really enjoy the Champion, but I find four things: a) it takes a lot of post-juicing cleanup; b)it gets really hot only halfway through juicing, making me afraid I'm going to damage the motor or something! c) it gets really clogged up halfway through juicing to the point where I have to do a whole bunch of cleanup in the middle of juicing, not just only at the end, and d)it's frickin' heavy! I feel like I've herniated something every time I try to even scoot it across the counter!

    What attracted me about the Omega Vert is that it's smaller and lighter weight but supposedly just as powerful, that it's self cleaning, and that it doesn't require tamping. And it's upright style with an actual spout that drains right into a glass, intead of me having to find some kind of container that will fit underneath the Champion's mesh screen, etc. I mean, the Champion does the job but I just find it unweildy, time-intensive, and not user friendly. Anyway, to each his own!

    What I'm most interested in is hearing about your husband's experiences with the stomach tube! I strain everything through a fine mesh bag, but I'm worried about how in the world I'm going to be obtaining the fiber I need this way. Also, although I'm adding fats in the form of coconut cream and avocado, and I'm making sure I get enough calories, the right carb/fat/protein balance, and all my amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, I'm not sure I understand how having it this way counts as anything more than a juice fast. Maybe the mesh bag is too fine a strainer and I need to be having at least some pulp through the tube? It's so easy to block up though! I'm just worried that living this way basically is a juice fast and is unsustainable. Please give me your advice/experiences/tips!

  • Jakkrabbit--the Omega Vert and the Hurom are basically the same juicer. They are made at the same factory in Korea. Omega just puts its own label on the Vert.

    I got a Hurom and love it. However, even with running water through it, I would not call it 'self cleaning'. Instead, I would call it 'easy to clean'. I still take it apart and wash it out, but it is way easier to put together and take apart than my Champion. Plus, the Champion doesn't juice greens, and the Hurom does that very well.

    I got this juicer because I wanted green juice, and a juicer that didn't take up a lot of space. I have almost no counter space. The Hurom was exactly what I wanted. Oh ... it does come with a tamper, and I do use it sometimes, but it will suck almost everything into the juicing mechanism. However, some tamping is required, at least for me.

    Hope this helps.

  • I just googled the juicers you are speaking of - - wow - - I see why you are impressed. Yeah if the Norwalk ever goes, one of them would be my choice.

  • Hi-

    I purchased the Omega 8006 from discountjuicers.com a few weeks ago. It cost $299 with free shipping! The best of the best is supposedly the Green Power, but I didn't want to spend that kind of money when the Omega has a very long guarantee.

    I have made juice three times so far. The pros: quiet for a kitchen appliance, very good at wringing juice from produce (versus my old centrifugal machine), which gives the most bang for your buck. It does a great job with greens, although when I tried to juice a pineapple rind, I had to clean it out (it had got jammed). Luckily, it's a very simple assembly job and cleaning job, so it wasn't much of a hassle.

    Cons: I wish the auger was made of stainless steel and I wish the feeding chute wasn't so narrow. But maybe it's good to cut up the produce.

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Cherie, I've read it. Thanks for the info on the fiber capsules and fiber water.

  • JR, After 15 years, I remembered the name of the canned food - Jevity with fiber. Could you find out the fiber ingredients on a label and add it to your food. I do so think if you are doing your Vita Mix, you will have fiber a-plenty and supplementing fiber intake should NOT concern you unless you have diarrhea. Of course I am not a doctor and do not even play one on TV. I would say consult a nutritionist, but chances are, if they would even discuss something other than the canned crap, it would not be raw. My doctors don't like vegetarian, they sure don't like vegan and raw vegan is hilarious to them. So the medical profession is not gonna support your efforts more than likely. You are doing everything right, it seems.The times my husband's tube clogged was not from anything we did or did not do - it was from medications I had to administer through the tube. Even with crushing, mortar and pestle, mixing with water and flushing, it still happened twice. Good luck. Keep up the good work. Let us hear from you often. You are an inspiration to me.

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    You said I should have fiber aplenty with the VitaMix - does this mean that the Vitamix will blend things so smoothly I won't have to strain them? Because otherwise, if I still have to strain things as usual through a mesh bag, how will there be fiber seeing as how all the fruit and vegetable pulp is being strained out? I have liquid Metamucil leftover from my tube insertion procedure (when I didn't pass anything for a week! until I was given Metamucil) which I could add to the lquid I get after straining, but I'd have to research a bit to find out if it would be bad for me to take that every day for the rest of my life.

    Anyway, thanks so much for your replies so far and I'm honored to be an inspiration. It sounds like you might be interested, so here's the photo links I posted on another thread:

    First, just for fun: My stomach tube with some airbrush tattoos around it:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4296634026/in/photostr...

    And here's the exercise progression photos:

    This is me, post face injury/stomach tube, at 100 lbs around Christmas, before gaining weight and starting my exercise program. My temples look like caverns!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347987110/

    After gaining some weight, my face doesn't look so skeletal:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347239549/in/photostr...

    My arms, when I was 100 lbs:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/page1/

    (I'm flexing in all the photos below):

    January, 11 days into my exercise program, 106.8 lbs, big difference already:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347987306/

    The exciting part - Feb, 22 days into exercise program, 108.4 lbs. Wow, huge change even from 11 days before!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347987360/in/photostr...

    And, my upper abs are starting to pop - after just 22 days of exercise! Can't wait to see how mad shredded I am by summer...

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347239687/in/photostr...

  • JR

    Thanks for the pics. Very impressive how quickly you are building mass. I love your air brushed tats. Real ones would be cool when your immune system is stable!!!! Yes I think your VM will pulverize your food to the point that you will get enough fiber. I think strain "just in case" and "what if". I think when you strain it, you will be surprised at what is NOT left in your bag! You will get to the point that you probably won't strain stuff, but until you get used to your blernder and how it works on different foods and length of time to blend, I think straining would be called for. Some people do not strain their VM food before it goes in the tube. I don't know how large your tube is, so I am just talking through my hat anyway......I hope you get your blender really soon! I was so excited as I waited for mine to come in. I checked the porch multiple times daily. You won't need any extra fiber anyways if diarrhea does not present.

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Hey, thanks!

    I'm getting more and more excited for my Vitamix to come...:)

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Hey, I watched a Youtube vid comparing the two, and basically the only real difference is that Omega is a 60-year old American company which offers a ten year full warranty, whereas Hurom is a new company and only offers a onne to two year warranty on the juicer itself, with a ten year warranty on the motor only. This alone would make me go for the Omega!

    Also I saw a comparison between the Hurom and the Omega 8006, and even though I was looking at the 8006's food processing capacities, I see that it requires constant tamping and is a lot more time consuming. I'm very busy and anything that takes more time isn't really a bonus... I'm thinking since I already have the Champion I can just haul it out whenever I want to make nut butters, frozen desserts, etc?

    The Champion doesn't juice greens? I've been juicing greens through my champion this whole time! Am I going to ruin the motor?

  • Jakkrabbit,

    The Vert is made by the same company that makes the Hurom. This is the best article I have seen on this topic (I got my juicer from this company):

    http://www.discountjuicers.com/verticalaugers.html

    Here's the key paragraph:

    "To cut to the chase - both the Hurom HU-100 and Omega VRT330 Juicer are made in the SAME factory, using many of the same parts in Korea. So the juicers are virtually identical except for some minor differences that will be explained below."

    Champion juicers do a crap job in juicing greens, at least in my experience. My experience was that it chewed them up, they got wrapped around the auger, and just generally didn't work well unless I juiced other things, then put the greens in, then followed with other things. No problem with that from the Hurom

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Thanks! I watched the videos the discountjuicer guy posts on Youtube, and have decided to go with the Vert (it has a better warranty than the Hurom).

    And yeah, the Champion does do a crap job with greens, such a hassle, but I didn't know that there were other juicers which didn't do that, so I thought it was normal and just part of whta juicing greens entailed.

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    Hey, I've been hearing consumer reviews which say the Vert leaves a LOT of pulp in the juice, requiring straining. I do NOT want to have to spend time straining every single thing that comes out of a juicer. Has anyone else had this experience with the Vert or Hurom?

  • I do not have to strain my juice, and I have a Hurom.

  • I have a Hurom juicer - absolutely love it. I don't strain the juice, although there is a teeny amount of pulp in it.

  • I use an omega juicer 8003 model and love it to death. I would seriously recommend it to anyone. You can check out the specs at any omega provider website.

  • BackuperBackuper Raw Newbie

    It's better to take the Omega 8008 juicer. It has larger funnel and screen and it is BPA-free as well.

  • Claire TurnipClaire Turnip Raw Newbie

    Sometimes I forget to check if these things are BPA-free. Thanks for the reminder, Backuper!

  • bretleebretlee Raw Newbie

    If you Think you will need a juicer Then Omega Juicer 8006 will be the best one for you and I after that I will suggest you to take Omega J8004 and after that Omega VRT 350.

    Thanks

  • Claire TurnipClaire Turnip Raw Newbie

    Hi Bretlee,

    Thanks for the advice.

    What are the advantages of the 8006 over the 350?

  • bretleebretlee Raw Newbie

    Thanks

    Claire Turnip

    see the some difference!

    The Omega VRT350HD juicer is taller while the Omega J8006 Juicer is wider

    Omega J8006 runs at 80 RPM while Omega VRT350HD runs at 70 RPM

    The Omega J8006 juicer has 6 different caps to thrust pasta shapes more than the Omega VRT350

    Omega VRT350HD Juicer is a little bit more expensive than the omega J8006 Masticating Juicer! :)

    The Most mportant One Is Omega VRT350HD juicer will only be able to juice vegetables, fruits, greens and wheatgrass while the Omega J8006 model will be able to extrude pasta, soy milk, it can make frozen desserts and it can grind, mince and chop baby foods.

    Thanks.

  • Claire TurnipClaire Turnip Raw Newbie

    Awesome info, bretlee!

    The Omega J8006 definitely sounds like the one for a raw foodie. We're always pushing the limits when it comes to what kitchen appliances can do :)

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