I turned the machine on gingerly, waiting for the roar of the motor, hands ready to jerk away at the first sign of sparks. Almost immediately, sparks hit the inner wall of the plastic casing. That’s it. I don’t want to end up on the headline of the evening tabloid. This juicer has to go.
I’ve been pestering my wife to buy a juicer for a long time. When sparks flew literally with my 2 yr-old juicer, that was the last straw. We finally plonked down a couple of hundred dollars on Philips’ top of the range HR1861. My wife wasn’t too amused when I insisted on buying this expensive model. But having used a number of mediocre juicers in the past, i considered myself more than qualified to evaluate the juicers in the market.
The HR1861 turned out even better than i had expected and fully acquited me of my expensive decision.
Powerful 700W motor
For me this is the most important feature of all. I’ve lost track of the number of juicers that had struggled against the mighty carrots. And carrots featured in almost every one of my juicing recipes.
With my previous juicers, the noise from the motor would rise several notches whenever I threw carrots in. And there were times when I swore the juicer was either going to blow up or electrocute me. And you already know what happened with my last juicer.
With the HR1861, you have two speed settings: one for soft fruits like melons and the other for hardy stuff like carrots. After 2 months of daily use, i can safely say that with the high speed setting, the juicer grinds down carrots with ease. In fact i had used the lower speed setting for a couple of weeks and it handled carrots comfortably.
One point to note though, i didn’t throw in whole carrots even though the juicer was designed to handle whole fruits that fit inside its feeding tube. Out of habit i chopped carrots and apples in halves before shoving them down the tube.
Large juice capacity
The Philips HR1861 came with a large 1.5L juice jug. I didn’t realize how useful it was until i used it.
With models having smaller jugs, you either stop the motor completely in order to switch the jug/cup (a waste of time) or you attempt a swap with the motor running at full steam. The latter is a futile exercise (for me at least) and you’re much more likely to end up with precious juice dripping all over the countertop. This means more cleaning up to do!
The Philips jug on the other hand can handle 4-5 large cups of juices comfortably. Now you can juice for the entire family without stopping to change the jug and messing up the kitchen.
Not only that, the jug is sensibly designed to sit directly on the countertop with the juicer’s spout tucked in neatly at the jug’s rim. Why give the juice another surface to splatter on? If you’ve ever used a juicer whose jug sat on a base, you’ll appreciate this brilliant if simple design.
Fast & easy cleaning up
I’ve already mentioned that this juicer created much less mess with its larger juice jug and sensible jug placement. Cleaning up is decidedly simple too. All you need to do is flip the 2 large clamps at the side, lift up the lid, filter and juice collector in that order and you’re done.
You need to wash a total of 4 items (including the jug) which isn’t that much different from other juicers (edit: there’s actually 1 more item: the “pusher”). The brilliance of the HR1861 lies, not in reducing the no. of components for washing, but in making them easy to remove and wash . All that is left to do is a simple wipe-down of the juicer.
There could be a few drops of juice at the rim of the juicer but nothing like the mess that other juicers create.
Where’s the pulp?
You’ll be wondering where the pulp is by now.
Well they’re pushed into a 2L pulp container at the back of the juicer. Here’s a tip: just tuck a small plastic bag inside the pulp container. When you’re done juicing, take out the bag of pulp and throw it away. No cleaning required. If you’re greener than i am, just lift up the pulp container and wash it with the rest (edit: actually there’s 1 more tip. Place old newspaper under the juicer as a mat and throw it out with the pulp later.)
A superb juicer
While I love this juicer, there’re a couple of things i wished Philips had done.
Firstly the low speed setting didn’t get much use as a lot of my recipes included carrots. While this setting appeared capable of handling carrots, the high speed setting simply demolished them. It didn’t make sense to switch back and forth between them.
Perhaps Philips can consider making the high speed setting its default setting and having an even higher speed option? I’m sure many of us won’t mind paying slightly more for the added power.
Secondly, there’re usually a couple drops of juice where juice collector attaches itself to the juicer. I’m not exactly sure whether it’s a design flaw or a product defect. Either way it’s no deal-breaker as the mess – if a couple of drops can be called mess – is nothing compared to that made by other juicers.
The pros far out-weigh the cons with this juicer. And with its stylish yet robust-looking brushed aluminum casing, this juicer looks as if it’ll last forever.
Despite its higher price, the HR1861’s worth every dollar in my opinion. The Philips designers had obviously placed themselves in the shoes of the consumer in coming up with this winner.
Summary:
Power: 4/5
Capacity: 5/5
Convenience & ease of cleaning: 5/5
Robustness: 5/5
Price: 4/5
Value for Money: 5/5
