Bella Juice Extractor Review

The juicer industry is saturated with a long list of models from brands who all claim to do the same thing, produce and yield great juice.

However, extracting the good from the bad can be a tedious process and one that requires expertise to look into what distinguishes the top products from the rest of them.

Luckily, you’ve got us, juice enthusiasts and experts who devote their time to finding out the best juicers out there that can suit a variety of budgets or needs. 

We often see the Bella Juice Extractor whilst conducting our research and have noticed models by Bella being sold in both Walmart and Target over the years, so we thought we’d take the plunge and take some time to discover what this Juice Extractor is really about. 

The Bella Juice Extractor, or elsewhere known as the 5-Speed Digital Juice Station is one of the most prominent blenders in Bella’s juicer collection. Today we’ll be giving an in-depth review of this model and letting you know our thoughts on whether it’s worth investing in. 

Specifications

• Type: Centrifugal Juicer
• Dimensions: 13.98 x 9.65 x 17.32 inches
• Weight: 8.38lbs 
• Motor: 1000 watts
• Dishwasher safe: Yes
• Warranty: 2-year limited

Bella Juice Extractor Review

We tried and tested the Bella Juice Extractor for several weeks to get a firm grasp and opinion of how it works and how we found it.

We also did some effective research into the product and the brand Bella to bring you a complete view and opinion of this juicer based on our views and also other customers' experiences.

Please note that this review is only for the Bella 5-Speed Juicer (model 13990) or otherwise known as the Bella Digital Juice Station, so is not to get confused with the other models offered by the Bella brand. 

About Bella

Bella is a popular kitchen appliance manufacturer based in Canada, whose innovative designs have attracted customers from all over the world. Their ethos is to offer quick and convenient appliances that are reliable to improve the quality of family life.

They produce a range of products away from juicers including toasters, coffee makers, and even cookware to help people enjoy working in the kitchen whilst also making it easier for them. 

What’s Included with the Bella Juice Extractor?

Aside from the juicer itself, Bella also includes the removable pulp basket and juice pitcher with their juicer so you can start juicing to your heart's content as soon as it arrives home. 

You’ll also get a free cleaning brush included, which may seem like a feed upon initial first impressions but it will help you out a lot through your cleaning process of the metal juicing basket. 

Don’t worry, Bella always included easy-to-read instructions to get you quickly informed on how to assemble and use your new juicer. 

Materials & Construction

Size and Weight

The size of this construction is fairly large and will take up a reasonable amount of space on your worktops in your kitchen which is not ideal, especially when you consider your other kitchen appliances you’ll need to keep stored on them. 

However, this is the consensus with most modern juicers nowadays, especially if the juicer produces a high yield of juicer in one setting, it needs a wider and taller design to then be able to put more fresh goodies through to juice.

If you’ve got a decent-sized pantry or larder cupboards in your kitchen to store this device then you’ll be lucky enough not to keep it out on the counter all the time.

Disassembling certain parts of the juicer extractor will help reduce the overall height of it so it’ll fit more neatly in storage.

Despite the overall size of the juicer, it is surprisingly lightweight and only weighs around 8lbs, which does make it more convenient if you do need to place it and remove it from storage every time you use it. 

Materials

The construction is made up of durable stainless steel for the main base and then features BPA-free plastic for the chute and pulp container.

The main base feels very solid and high-quality, however, the plastic components of this juicer bring down the quality as it feels very cheap and not durable at all.

We’ve seen customers comment that certain plastic components have snapped or even come off completely whilst in use.

We have not experienced any snapping whilst we’ve had ours but can see why the plastic components have broken as it doesn’t feel very strong. 

Components

Multiple components make up this design to make the juicer work efficiently. It has an incorporated power 1000 watt motor that can handle most fruits and vegetables with no bother (more on that later). 

At the top of the model, you’ll find the plastic food pusher which is removed when you insert your ingredients and then placed back into to press down to make sure it goes down the chute.

The chute is an average 3-inch size and can be some whole fruits and vegetables without requiring to be cut beforehand, this is pretty typical amongst centrifugal juicers.

The juicer features a so-called high-performance cutting blade along with the filter bowl and filter basket which ensure that all the good stuff from your fruits and veggies get put into the juice container and not the pulp collector.

The juicer collector has to be attached to the base but the juice container sits freestanding and can easily be switched out to another glass if it overflows. 

This Bella Juice Station features an anti-drip spout that can be rotated from a closed position to an open position to let liquid through.

The anti-drip function is very useful when you need to move your juicer to be cleaned as it won’t drip the remnants of juice left in the system out onto your floor. 

This is a beneficial component of the Bella Juicer and also one of the major features which drew us in. Anti-drip spouts are not commonly found on centrifugal juicers like these so it is a nice addition to have.

Of course, with any juicer you need a juice container and the one included with the Juice Extractor by Bella comes with two different parts. The container has a lid but also a chrome sleeve that the container fits in.

The chrome sleeve doesn’t have a function but is just there for aesthetic reasons so the container can be used on its own. The lid for the container is very functional and stops any juice from leaking out when coming through the spout of the juicer. 

The pulp collector is designed especially for this model so you won’t be able to use a container of your own to collect the pulp. It’s a pretty standard size and is large enough to hold large quantities of juicing pulp in without overflowing.

The black color of the pulp collector however is extremely inconvenient as it’s difficult to see when the container is starting to get full and will need emptying from the side of the container, you can see the level of pulp from the clear cover.

Assembly

Assembling the Bella Juice Extractor is not too complex but there are a series of steps to follow each time to put it back together. There is a helpful instruction manual included with the product which will show you a step-by-step guide on how to assemble it, but once you do it a few times you’ll be able to do it by heart. 

As we said, you will have to arrange these components in a particular order for the juicer to work functionally and for there to be no leakages or accidents. Below is a step by step list of how you should assemble the juicer:

1. Place the filter bowl on the main body of the juicer
2. Place the filter basket on top of the filter bowl
3. Place the cover over the filter basket and bowl and secure using the safety locking arm (should hook onto grooves on the cover)
4. Place the pulp container to the side of the main body underneath the cover
5. Place the juice container under the juice spout
6. The food pusher needs to be removed from the chute when inserting ingredients and then pressed on top of ingredients to push through.

It’s not uncommon for these centrifugal juicers to have more complex assembly than masticating juicers, they often always follow the same arrangement procedures as well to ensure they’re used safely and efficiently, so don’t be put off by how routined the assembly sounds. 

Preparation of Ingredients

Thanks to the large diameter of the 3-inch feed chute, your food preparation for this juicer is hugely reduced and for some ingredients, you won’t even need to chop them up. Wider ingredients like apples may need to be diced beforehand to ensure efficient juicing.

Most brands now offer a wider feed chute to make juicing more convenient for the generic user, so this feature on the Bella Juice Extractor is not a new innovation but is still a beneficial one. 

Performance

Motor

The motor is pretty powerful and can produce high speeds to juice stubborn fruits and vegetables like apples or carrots with no problems. The motor is pretty consistent and didn’t dip in power throughout our time of using it.

We did come across customer reviews saying that the motor blew up when they were juicing harder ingredients, which is something to be aware of before purchasing this product. 

Juicers that are not used properly i.e putting ingredients that are too big for the chute in there will be more prone to exploding or just not turning on anymore as the motor has been overworked.

This is not to take away from the Bella brand, however, there should not be this many cases of motors blowing up. 

5-Speed Settings

There are 5-speed settings features on the juicer which can be switched between soft fruits, nectarines, citrus, celery, and hard fruits. Whilst the speed settings are handy when you are juicing harder ingredients, make sure to use the slower settings for softer fruits as the quality of your juice will be better.

However, the speed settings may seem redundant to some seasoned juicers as a lot of other centrifugal juicers just feature a one-speed setting which is efficient at juicing all ingredients. 

Juicing Capabilities

It manages to produce a good yield of juice from most ingredients that we used apart from spinach, kale, and leafy greens, which are always the most difficult foods to juice.

Some pulps we found in the pulp container were still very wet but we like to put them back through the chute again to extract as much juice as possible and deter wastage. 

Soft fruits like grapes, watermelon, and oranges juice very well as you’d expect from any juicer as they are the easiest to juice. Harder foods like carrots, celery, and apples still work well but don’t come out as smooth as other centrifugal juicers that we’ve tested before.

To avoid any pulp from going into the juice container, we like to chop harder ingredients up beforehand to make the motor’s job easier and to ensure we have liquid and not solids stuck in our container. 

We didn’t find that the powerful motor caused the juice quality to decrease (our taste buds can vouch for this) but one of the negatives of a centrifugal juicer is that it does cause the juice to oxidize faster so you’ll need to dry it within a day of juicing it or it will go bad. 

Noise

We’re not sure about the exact noise levels in regards to decibels for this juicer, but we can vouch that it can get pretty loud, especially when juicing the harder ingredients. If you’re looking to juice early in the morning in a family home, then this juicer will probably be a no-go.

Listening to the juicer whilst upstairs, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner which in the middle of the day is not that disturbing but can be if you live in a household full of people. 

Ease of Use

This model is easy to use even for those who have never used a juicer before. Once you get over learning the components and assembly, the speed settings and the food pusher are self-explanatory.

Everything is fully explained in the instructions manual and there are also various YouTube videos online if you do find yourself struggling.

Cleaning

The chrome finish on the juicer is extremely hard to make look clean so we recommend using some cleaning detergent on a microfiber cloth to get that brand spanking new look again once you’ve used the juicer.

One of the easiest and safest ways to wash all the components is by handwashing in mild dish soap and warm water and by using the included cleaning brush. The cleaning brush is not exactly necessary and you could use any cleaning utensils of your own if you wish. 

You should try to clean your components straight after you’ve finished juicing otherwise they’ll make it more difficult to remove. We like to remove ours straight away and then soap them in warm soapy water to soften the remnants so they’ll easily wash off with running water and a sponge. 

Bella states that everything apart from the main body and the filter basket of the juicer is safe to put in the dishwasher, so following the confirmation from Bella’s manual we put it to the test. The parts did survive and none of them came out defective, however, we’re very wary that after prolonged dishwasher processing that they could warp from the heat as many plastic containers do. 

To stay on the safe side, just stick to handwashing and save yourself the possibility of finding your components warped after a dishwasher cycle. 

The additional chrome sleeve included with the juice container is just a pain to clean due to the finish of the metal, so it's best not even using it when you’re juicing.

If you do use it, however, make sure to remove the chrome sleeve from the container before you hand wash it as it’ll become more difficult to remove due to the water pressure. 

Warranty, Brand Reputation & Customer Service

Bella Juice Extractor Warranty

The Juice Station model from Bella comes with a 2-year limited warranty, limited being the keyword there. A 2-year seems like a pretty generous warranty and is pretty common amongst modern-day juicers, however, it seems like Bella has a lot of limitations in its warranty that prevent customers from receiving a full refund or an immediate replacement when necessary.

The 2-year warranty only covers damage or breakage of mechanical parts e.g. the motor but the non-mechanical parts only have a 90-day warranty period, which probably gives an insight into the quality of some of the plastic used in the juicing components. 

The warranty also states that customers who proceed to try and claim a refund within the warranty period will only receive a partial refund based on how long is left on their warranty period. Which we’ve never come across anywhere else. 

Understandably, some companies are reluctant to hand out refunds for any old thing, but it seems like Bella is trying to con customers out of money even when the product breaking was not the customer’s fault. 

Brand Reputation

Up until we began delving deeper into the Bella brand, we always assumed they were a highly regarded brand loved by households over the country and they still are, but there is more than meets the eye. 

There seems to be a lack of information available online to find out about the brand Bella. We’d presumed that the brand was from the USA, but it's actually based in Montreal in Canada and is formally called ‘Bella Housewares’ and is a subsidiary brand of Sensio Inc. 

None of this information was openly disclosed on the Bella ‘About Us’ page on their website and what stood in its place was a mere depiction of the idyllic housewife is well suited for the Bella brand. 

There seems to be a heartless testament to how the brand tries to work hard to protect the environment by using chemical-free components, but in reality, the brand does just ask its customer to dispose of their broken or old Bella products in a recycling center.

This ‘environmental’ focus from Bella seems completely redundant as they don’t disclose what they are doing to cut back their carbon footprint and cut back on the packaging or non-environmental friendly components. It just seems like a way to try and jump on the bandwagon that companies are fronted to do for PR purposes. 

Customer Service

We don't often comment on the customer service quality provided by a brand as it is very rare that we have to reach out to them. Being pretty happy with our Bella Digital Juice Station that we received, there was no need to engage with their customer service team as there were no defects or reoccurring problems that we encountered. 

However, whilst conducting our research and also looking at some of the reviews that were left when we bought our juicer, we saw a common theme amongst the comments about the customer service, namely the customer service being awful. 

We aren't ones to speculate but comments like these do ring alarm bells for not only us but also other potential customers who may be thinking about buying a juicer from the Bella brand. 

It’s a bit concerning to see numerous complaints not only about defective products or products breaking within the first initial use of them but also to see that these customers were ignored or turned away by the Bella brand when they got in touch with them. 

Some customers claim that the customer service is non-existent after having written hand-written letters, emails and trying calling them on the phone numerous times to receive no correspondence whatsoever back. 

Whilst these findings are alarming and can seem very off-putting, they only summarise a fraction of the thoughts of their customers over time and there is still a good percentage of happy customers who have found no issues with their products from the Bella brand. 

Bella does offer some great priced and innovative products that help the brand remain prominent in this industry, but the team at Bella need to focus primarily on their customer service quality and seek to rebuild trust amongst its customers or potential customers to try and avoid the brand being tarnished from past experiences. 

Final Verdict

Does the Bella Juice Extractor work well?

The Bella does pretty much what every other centrifugal juicer of the same price point does, so it’s hard to pinpoint what sets it apart from the rest.

Which I guess, gives you your answer, it can’t be set apart from the rest and is just to be blunt a decent centrifugal juicer that produces good-quality juice at an affordable price.

We’d recommend this juicer to the juicing amateurs out there or those looking to dip their toes into the juicing community as it’s easy to use and won’t disappoint.

Those with greater expertise in juicing will find this too simplistic and might want to go for something that is more high-tech or produces a greater yield of juice from difficult ingredients like leafy greens. 

We came across no issues with our Bella Juice Extractor apart from the fact it struggles to produce a decent yield from when we try to juice spinach, kale, and greens, but this is more than expected with a centrifugal juicer. 

We’ve been using the juicer every day and it works fine for what we need it for but can’t comment on its quality and performance for time to come as of yet.

If we find any problems with the juicer or if any damages or problems transpire then we’ll be sure to update this article with what has happened and how it was dealt with by the Bella brand. 

We feel like it must be luck of the draw with the quality of juicer you receive and pot luck to whether it breaks or not, which is not ideal when spending your hard-earned money on a new appliance.

There does not seem to be consistency with the quality of products from the brand and there are a noticeable amount of recurring issues which pop up in the reviews. 

Does the brand reputation put us off?

It does make us very wary and we’d maybe have to reconsider purchasing another product from the Bella brand due to the lack of disclosure of their background and where they produce their products. 

We’re also very skeptical of how they regard their customers and their customer service seems to be appalling so we’d probably avoid buying from them in the future to avoid altercations. 

Value for money

For the price tag this Bella juicer has, we have no complaints as it does everything to a good standard of what you’d expect if you paid this much.

However, there are less expensive models from other brands out there that do as good a job as the Bella Juice Extractor and have better reviews from their customers.

If you’re in the market for a new juicer and you’ve got spare money to take the risk to try out this Bella blender, then you’ll be pleased with the results if you get a good one but probably left in despair if you manage to receive a defective or problematic model.

Otherwise, you’re better off saving your money and finding yourself a more reliable juicer at the same price point or even a lower price point.

Recommendations

If you’re trying to stay on a budget then we’d recommend the Hamilton Beach Juicer Machine (67601A) it features the same 3-inch chute as this Bella Juicer and other similar features but is also a fraction of the price and has copious amounts of praise from customers and experts,

If you’re willing to spend a bit more on a high-quality juicer for all your health needs then the Breville 800JEXL is highly regarded by us at Juice Producer.com and other juicing experts in the industry.

The stainless steel construction will sure make you look like you mean business and the power and performance of the motor is faultless. 

Would we recommend the Bella Juice Extractor?

No, we wouldn’t recommend it to our readers or to anyone who may come across this article. There are more reliable models out there and also better brands who respect their customers and pride themselves on top-quality customer service.

Our particular juicer we received worked fine, but there are too many bad reviews noting motors blowing up, plastic snapping, and radio-silence from customer service to recommend this to our trusted readers.