First of all, a distinction needs to be made on exactly what type of juicer the Breville is, only then will these reviews be helpful. The Breville belongs to a class of juicers called centrifugal juicers. These work by forcing the juicing item onto centrally located spinning blades that essentially finely grates it and then the contents are thrown outward onto a spinning screen (spinning at a thousand or more revolutions per minute)… this forces the juice through the screen while the pulp gets held back and eventually slides up the angled screen and gets thrown over the top and into a holding bin… and thus the juice is separated from the pulp. The other types of juicers are the masticating juicer, where the item is literally crushed in an auger (a big screw) and compressed so that the juice flows through a small screen in the bottom while the pulp is pushed forward where it gets ejected at the far end… and the other type is the citrus juicer which is basically an electrically powered reamer used to semi-manually ream-out citrus fruits quickly. And finally there is the common kitchen blender.
Each type of juicer has it advantages and disadvantages… to be able to juice ALL types of vegetables and fruits well and efficiently you will actually need all four types of juicers. In reverse order…
Kitchen Blender: for very soft or delicate and highly pulpy fruits (raspberries, bananas, blueberries)
Citrus Juicer: for the ultimate in convenience, speed, ease and an excellent amount of juice extraction for all citrus fruits
Masticating Juicer: virtually the only type of juicer for leafy greens (however it will also perform well with any items that are not too soft and pulpy, as the small screen plugs up too easily), however be warned, the juice extraction process is going to be very, VERY SLOW!
Centrifugal Juicer: very, VERY fast extraction rate and the large screen makes the juicing of pulpy fruit easy and fast. However extremely pulpy (ie bananas) and very soft fruits would do much better by foregoing the juice/pulp separation process and simply tossing them into a blender.
Now about the Breville BJE510XL specifically: For me its about the best centrifugal juicer out there. Motor is very powerful and the variable speed feature makes it more useful over a wider range of fruits/veggies, however really soft fruits such as raspberries, strawberries etc. and some small fruits like blueberries do not do well in this juicer at any speed as even the slowest speed is so violent that they too quickly slide over the top of the screen before much juice can be extracted from them. Expect then for the pulp of many soft fruits and vegetables (such as tomatoes) to still contain some juice after processing. I would actually suggest using a blender for the berries and then adding it to the extracted juices separately… its both more economical and healthier for you that way. Leafy greens (including wheatgrass) are another problem item for any centrifugal juicer… they will not juice properly so don’t even bother trying… leafy greens is what the masticating juicers truly excel at. Finally, though citrus fruits will juice in the Breville, you will soon get tired of peeling them as you canNOT juice them with the peel still on because the citrus oils extracted from the peels don’t taste very good at all. Once you’ve purchased a good citrus juicer you’ll understand why this really is the only way to juice any citrus fruits. The Breville is great for whole kiwi, apples, carrots, celery, broccoli stalks, asparagus, radishes, beets, kohlrabi, cabbage heads (outer leaves removed and head sliced to under 3″), cucumbers, squash, grapes, mangoes, peaches, and plums (with pits/seed removed of course), pears, all melons, papaya, etc… even tomatoes and strawberries (though don’t expect the pulp to be very dry)… and there is no need to peel many of these items before processing (just the melons), you just drop them in the large 3″ chute. The juicing process is really fast and the clean-up is a snap… you just rinse out 3 parts and brush the screen. The fit/finish, materials used and quality in general are all excellent and the design intelligent.
The downsides of the Breville BJE510XL are: even at the slowest speed it is still quite fast and soft fruits/vegetables can literally be thrown back out through that large 3″ diameter feed chute if you are not fast enough to cover with the plunger or your hand… yes, it can get real messy, like as in throwing bits of food/juice up and out onto kitchen walls, etc. so there is a bit of a learning curve when juicing the soft items. We’ve owned this Breville for the last 3 months and have used it everyday… the blades have dulled a little since it was new, which is to be expected but still all-in-all remain plenty sharp enough to get the job done… and the lower clear plastic bowl has slightly discolored from all the carrots but again it is to be expected and is only very, very slight.
Bottomline here… we have been very please with this Breville BJE510XL and can highly recommend it for juicing most fruits and vegetables with the notable exceptions being leafy greens (get a masticating juicer just for juicing those items) and citrus fruit (a citrus juicer would be far more convenient) and finally don’t be expecting soft items to be 100% fully extracted.
