How To Clean A Juicer

We all know that drinking freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice gives your body a boost of vitamins and minerals.

However, once you’ve extracted all of the delicious, flavor-packed juice from your chosen ingredients, you’re left with one tricky problem; how do you clean a juicer?

Let’s face it, juicing is a messy business! Trying to scrub at the pulp left behind is time-consuming and it takes a lot of effort to get your juicer looking as good as new again.

Factor in your busy lifestyle and, by the time you actually get round to cleaning your juicer, the job becomes even harder.

But don’t panic, we’re here to help! Below, you’ll learn how to clean a juicer the easy way.

We’ll take you through each step, what equipment you need, and show you how to keep your juicer ready to use whenever you need it.

Types of Juicer

First things first, let’s take a look at the three basic types of juicers available. This will help you determine which type you have if you don’t already know.

It’s also useful to know the different types if you’re looking to buy a juicer, as you’ll be able to see which are the easiest to clean.

Centrifugal Force

With this type of juicer, fruits and vegetables are shredded by super-sharp blades spinning at a high speed. The blades are surrounded by a mesh strainer and, as the ingredients are shredded, centrifugal force pushes the juice through the mesh into the collecting jug.

The leftover pulp is collected in a separate container. These are the easiest of the three types of juicers to clean.

Masticating

This type of juicer works by mimicking the action of chewing. A single-spiral auger masticates the fruits and vegetables and the juice is extracted into one container while the pulp is separated into another.

This type of juicer is the best for extracting juice from leafy ingredients, such as kale or grasses. These are fairly easy to clean, but the difficulty level will depend on what you’re juicing.

Triturating

A triturating juicer grinds fruits and vegetables into a very fine pulp in order to extract as much juice as possible.

This is the type of juicer that you’re most likely to find in juice shops, and it’s also the hardest type of juicer to clean.

How Often Should You Clean a Juicer?

Whichever type of juicer you’re using, it’s important to clean it after each use. If not, the tiny particles of fruits and vegetables can easily become trapped and begin to rot.

This leads to bacterial and mold growth and, ultimately, could cause food poisoning or other serious health problems.

You might think that giving your juicer a quick rinse under the faucet would be enough to clean it, but it isn’t as simple as this. If you miss any bits of pulp, they can quickly harden and cement themselves to the juicer.

This makes them much harder to clean later on, so it’s worth doing it properly each and every time.

The easiest way to make sure you’re cleaning your juicer thoroughly is to factor an extra five minutes into your daily juicing time.

It’s not a lot of time, but it’s enough to make sure you’re doing the job properly. You should also take some time to deep clean your juicer once a week.

Daily Juicer Cleaning

Let’s take a look at how to clean your juicer after each use, to begin with. Here’s a list of all the equipment you’ll need:

Non-abrasive sponge
Soft-bristled brush
Spatula
Dishwashing liquid

Note: It’s worth checking if any of your juicer’s components are dishwasher safe. If they are, remove them, rinse them under hot water, and place them in the dishwasher.

This is the easiest way to clean a juicer. However, if this isn’t an option or if your juicer only has certain parts that are dishwasher safe, follow the steps below.

Turn your juicer off and unplug it from the electrical outlet

Remove both the juice and pulp collection containers, then disassemble the other components. This includes the grinding mechanism, strainer, lid, and plunger.

Take your spatula and scrape as much pulp out of the container as possible. This can either be composted or placed into your food recycling bin.

Fill your sink with hot water and add a couple of drops of dishwashing detergent. Place all of the disassembled components in the sink and leave them to soak for a few minutes.

Take your non-abrasive sponge and clean the collection containers. Then take your soft-bristled brush and clean out the other components. Rinse them under hot water, and leave them to air dry.

Now you need to clean the juicer’s base. To do this, simply dampen the non-abrasive sponge and wipe it all over. Do not submerge the juicer base in water!

Once everything is dry, reassemble your juicer and it will be ready to use again.

Weekly Deep Cleaning

To keep your juicer in great condition and to get any of the bits that you might have accidentally missed in your daily cleaning, it’s essential to give your juicer a weekly deep clean.

To do this, you’ll need the same equipment as usual along with some baking soda and distilled white vinegar. Once you’ve got all of your cleaning gear together, follow these steps:

Fill a sink with hot water and add a few drops of liquid detergent. Add all of the components to the sink and leave them to soak for 15 minutes. This will help loosen any hardened-on bits of pulp.

Take your non-abrasive brush and dip it in baking soda. Scrub the components, covering every inch of them, then rinse them under hot water. The baking soda will act as an abrasive agent and lift off any stubborn pulp.

Fill the juice and pulp collection containers with distilled white vinegar. Allow them to soak for 15 minutes, then pour the vinegar out and wipe with a non-abrasive sponge. Rinse them well, then allow them to air dry. Doing this will remove any streaks or water spots that have formed on the containers.

Conclusion

As you can see, cleaning a juicer is a really easy job. It also doesn’t take as much time or effort as you might think.

Making sure you follow the steps above will keep your juicer clean and ready to use every time you need it, as well as making sure that each cup of juice you create contains nothing but healthy, vitamin-packed juice.