Omega Heavy Duty Dual Stage Juicer

I have been using one of the Breville Juice Fountains for a few years now, off and on [mostly off], but for reasons related to health, I decided to get back into juicing. I dutifully began buying more fresh fruits and veggies at our regular store and at our weekly farmer's market here in the village area I live in here in the Bay Area. I also combined the fresh juices with other fruits [pluots, apricots, strawberries, bananas, etc., along with some All One vitamin/protein and Royal Greens superfood powders to make smoothies in my destroys-all Vitamix]. This actually became a daily ritual. The Breville is actually a pretty nice unit, and depending on how one views such things, the roar of a jet engine in your kitchen in the morning will even help wake teenagers up. The Breville was able to consume just about anything, and while its parts were somewhat bulky to clean, like anything, if you get into a ritual, it was fine. I even got my kids to enjoy the fresh juice. But as I read more, I came to realize that a slow-speed juicer has significant advantages, especially on the enzyme/vitamin preservation side, which was the entire reason for my juicing. So, I did a lot of reading, and decided to take the plunge on the Omega 350. Glad I did. Not only can I hear myself thinking over my tinnitus in the morning, even with the juicer running, it is almost as fast as the Breville. While I have not done a direct side-by-side extraction efficiency comparison, the dry quality of the Omega pulp suggests I am extracting more liquid. If one accepts that the slow speed, mastication style of the Omega does in fact produce more healthful juice, there is actually in my view little comparison to be made, but if one sets that aside for the moment, and simply compares the two units on a variety of feature sets, here is my punch list: 1. Size: Omega wins. Slightly more compact on the countertop, but not by much, though neither is huge; however, when disassembled, the Breville's large pieces take up a lot more room in a dryer rack, or--if you use the dishwasher--the upper rack; 2. Cleaning: this is a draw, as each as its disadvantages. The Omega has what my kids call the Playdoh® pooper chute, that is a little more difficult to clean out, but Omega supplies a perfectly-sized tool for cleaning it. That rubbery plastic at the mouth of the chute worries me a bit for its unknown longevity, but we'll see. The Breville's screen is somewhat harder to clean than the Omega's strainer, but again, Breville gives you the right tool for the job. I have found with such devices, whether it is mixers, juicers, blenders, etc., that you get into a cleaning routine and pretty much it just becomes part of the ritual. As I said, I see this as a draw. 3. Ease of assembly: slight edge to the Breville, only because that little red dot on the lip of the clear yellow strainer on the Omega can be difficult to see in low light, there is no corresponding red dot on the auto cleaning brush [doesn't need one], and the arrow on the bowl is very difficult to see. The Omega fits together more precisely, but the Breville is easier. 4. Prep work: the Breville has a monster hopper, and so can accept large quantities and sizes of fruits and veggies. But, that high speed mangler inside means you cannot just gently drop your stuff in one by one. You need to fill up the hopper, and then keep pushing material into it, or you have to stop that jet engine, let it wind down and then re-load. For both machines, I cut up everything in advance. The difference is that I cut up everything for the Omega 2x so that it is easier to drop into the chute. Keeping the Omega running also does not require ear plugs or muffs. So, prep time a few seconds more for the Omega. 5. Feeding: Edge to Omega because while its chute is not as big, feeding involves no force whatsoever. As long as one preps material properly, it just chomps it on down. 6. Stability: edge to the Omega. Although I keep the rubber feet on the Breville clean, that first switch on really makes her dance. High speed will do that. No such problem on the Omega. 7. Pulp collection: a toss-up. The Breville's high-speed necessitates an enclosed collection cup, and so long as you have it assembled correctly, it works just fine. If you don't, not so fine. Conversely, the Omega collection cup is open, allowing one to watch the aforementioned pooper chute. Kids love it. 8. Juice collection: Negative for both here for two different reasons. The Breville has a collection cup with a U-shaped cutout to accommodate the outlet spout, but in a stroke of middling intelligence, it comes with a cap that makes it easier to store the juice, bit not shakeable. The Omega has a nice collection cup with no cap. Yeah, of course, we are supposed to drink it quickly, but Omega specifically features a juice longevity of up to 72 hours, so why no cap for the collection cup? If the assumption is you will pour it out, then why the ever-loving'-heck doesn't the cup have a pour spout somewhere on it? Cap, spout, or both would be nice on a near-$400 machine. 9. The juice itself: Haven't done a double-blind test, but I can attest to one noticeable difference, that I think speaks in favor of the Omega, though perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively. If one juices a cut, but unpeeled orange, the juice in the Omega is noticeably more bitter, suggesting it is extracting more from the orange rind than the Breville. Both do fine, but the Omega pulp is drier. Also, on carrots, I noticed that the more-pulp strainer on the Omega was more likely over time to clog with carrot pulp, whereas the less-pulp [clear] strainer had no such issue. 10. Warranty: big win for the Omega here: 10 years, versus the Breville 1 year. Not even close, unless I am missing something. Having said that, i will say my Breville is chugging along just fine after 4+ years of use. And on this note, I should mention that as I was waiting for my Omega to arrive, I came across the Hurom juicer, featured over at Chef's Catalog here: [...] . I thought to myself: "Oh no, here is everything I could possibly want in the Omega, plus it has a freakin' cool handle to grasp." So, I did some research on the Hurom, and came across this specific comparison: [...] . Granted, some of it may be self-serving, but a warranty difference of 10 years on the Omega and 1 year on the Hurom speaks volumes, even coming out of the same factory, handle or not. For now, I am keeping both juicers for another week or so, but it's not hard to see this is headed in the Omega's favor. Either my ex or a good friend will be happy to take the Breville off my hands, and I would like to see it have a good home. It's a fine machine, just not as good when you factor in the quality of the juice, which is what this is all about. 20120803 Update: I have just about 4 weeks juicing with the Omega, and it's been great. I have added wheat grass and several veggies to my regular juicing, and while the first shriek of the wheat grass never fails to startle the cat, the results are excellent. Veggies (like carrots, as well ) seem to clog up a little faster than fruits, but not to the point of stopping juice production. I haven't tried the recommended trick yet of running a little water through, but will. Also, to the observation that the pulp chute can clog up, it's true that it can get filled and some pulp seems to eject more smoothly than others. Omega supplies a cleaning tool that work well to clear the chute.