Miracle Exclusives Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer MJ445

The Miracle MJ445 Stainless Steel manual juicer is a class act. All of the parts fit together nicely with precision that you might not expect from a product at a price point that the MJ445 is offered at. Clean up is simple and much shorter than with many powered juicers that I have owned and used. The juicing capability and efficiency is excellent, producing dry pulp from wheat grass or other leafy juicing materials. That said, it is important to note that there are a few "tricks" to operating this juicer in a more efficient manner; First, you need to process the pulp that is produced from the first pass a second or third time. I run the pulp through at least three times, alternating a fresh load of wheat grass and a load of pulp until I have obtained the yield that I am looking for. Second, you will need to find a surface to work on that fits the clamping capacity of the juicer and is stable enough to keep the unit steady while cranking the handle. The MJ445 has rubber protective washers to prevent marring of your surfaces but it is important to find a surface that will be thin enough to clamp to and offer enough lip to obtain an adequate bite. I have processed 3 flats of wheat grass and a number of Kale leaves all without drama. Considering the short cleanup time and the addition of a physical ritual (juicing by hand) to your daily juicing activities I think that the MJ445 is a great tool to obtaining your health related objectives.

The reviews for the Miracle juicer and Hurricane Juicer are on point with the pros/cons (especially MacGuffin's review, I'd support every comment about the Miracle Juicer). The Hurricane manual juicer (which has 5 year warranty, polished finish) is identical to this Miracle Juicer, so the reviews for the Hurricane should reflect the performance of the Miracle Juicer. I chose the Miracle because it was cheaper price for me (free shipping and no tax). I just want to give the Miracle a review because there's barely any and it should have more!My initial wants for a manual juicer were: affordable auger type juicer, no electricity, efficient for leafy greens, quiet, easy to clean, and the potential to juice fruits and hard vegetables if chopped, less oxidation effect because its not centrifugal.OPERATION of this juicer is very quiet and requires little effort in turning the handle, even when stuffing it with a lot of items. fruits and vegetables need to be chopped up to fit in the chute and tampered down to 'catch' the auger. The clearance underneath the juicer is kind of low as others have mentioned. You will have to find a way to to make room for catching the pulp as well as catching the juice.So far I have ran these fruits and vegetables through the juicer and here's how I'd rank the juicing efficiency:GREAT (dry pulp after second pass)- spinach, cilantroOKAY- gingerFAIR- lemon, celeryNOT EFFICIENT (wet pulp/ small juice output)- Asian pear (chopped), tomato (sliced), carrots (peeled/chopped)As you can see the non efficient fruits and vegetables were fruits and carrots. The two items that have been getting mixed reviews on both the Hurricane and Miracle Juicer. You CAN juice them, but half your juice will be in the pulp. Running the pulp through yields little amounts. As for carrots I have yet to find a way to juice it more efficiently with this juicer. There's probably a good reason why it it called a wheat grass juicer and not a manual juicer in general, it would get majority of low reviews! Anyways, this juices leafy greens very well as that is the intended purpose of this juicer.MESH SCREEN vs NO MESH SCREEN- I have yet to observe this more, but what I noticed when not using the mesh screen is more juice output, but more pulp in the juice. The other thing is there is foam when not using a screen. I observed this when juicing spinach. I'll have to observe more to see if this is consistent. When I did use the mesh screen, the juice had no foam and looked very clean. A possible solution to this is to leave the screen out and have a large tray with a mesh screen on top of the tray to catch pulp from the juice output and the pulp output holes.QUALITY of juice is up to the preference of the individual. I have juiced using a centrifugal juicer, and in terms of juice presentation, the Miracle juicer wins in my opinion. With the mesh screen on, there's no foam and the juice looks 'richer' in color. This Juicer also can extend the storage time for the juice created compared to a centrifugal juicer. So far I've only juiced for single servings. I think juicing in large quantities is possible but it will be more efficient to get a motorized masticating juicer (Omega VRT350HD is what I would have chosen if I could afford it)CLEAN-UP is easy. I just put the auger, endcap, juicer, mesh screen and tamper under hot water until the pulp washes away. With proper clean-up after each juicing session, this will last forever and look new throughout that time.Overall, great juicer for leafy greens! Definitely recommend for this type of juicing as well as the high quality and heavy duty construction of this juicer. You definitely get what you pay for. And you save a few bucks purchasing this Miracle Juicer than the Hurricane. The trade off is a 5 year vs 1 year warranty and a polished finish vs a matte finish. Seeing how this Miracle juicer is identical to the Hurricane and the matte finish is beautiful, saving a few bucks is justified.Hope this helps people entering the interesting world of juicing like me. I was interested in juicing after watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead documentary. When I can afford it, I will be getting the Omega VRT350HD.----------------update 3/3/12Carrots CAN be juiced. It just takes time and a lot of effort. For example, it took about 6 carrots to juice almost 8 oz. That was with the mesh screen inside and running about a quarter of the pulp a second time.There is another manual juicer called Z Star by Tribest, due to the juicing screen design I believe it can extract more juice than this one (completely based off of seeing the mechanical designs). I can extract more juice with soft fruits/vegetables if I plug the pulp output hole. But I think I will be using this for leafy greens and just eat fruits whole.The only reason why I chose this over the Z-star was some of the reviews for it said the screen broke due to trying out experimental items.. I'm sure it was due to user error, but in any case I wanted a sure bet the juicer would last forever.Update 2/20/13Wow can't believe it's almost a year since the last update.. I'd like to say This juicer is packed back in its box and hasn't been used in a long time ever since I bought an Omega Juicer. Although I had fun cranking out juice by hand, it took too much time and effort! Time is money! Motorized juicers are getting very inexpensive as well, I would consider one of those if time and effort is your priority.

The stainless steel construction is what convinces me to purchase this type of manual juicer. As far as I can tell, all other moderately priced juicers, manual or motor driven,contain BPAs in the plastic.Only the Kuvings claims it has no BPAs in its "Silent Juicer" (which is not very silent considering the reviews on Youtube). Anyway, I'm not yet convinced that the Kuvings is, indeed, 100% BPA free.Also, telephone reps claim the Z-Star manual juicer is BPA free, but it is not so stated on their website. It has to be in writing for me to give it any credence whatsoever.So, in my opinion, if being BPA free is important to you, this juicer, as well as the Hurricane, would be a good choice within the limited scope of its use.John Koehler at Discount Juicers has said that he gets a lot of inquiries regarding BPA free construction. So, maybe manufacturers will start incorporating the BPA free plastics in their designs.Update: I received my juicer on FeBRUary 2, 2013.It looks like top quality as described in other reviews. I washed it and put it to an initial try-out.As shipped, it does a good job of squeezing the liquid out of the veggies (I've tried lovage, cabbage and collard leaves so far)fairly well. I left the screen in.I would have preferred the pulp to be a little drier as I could squeeze some juice out of it with my fingers. It really chews the carrots, which I cut into smaller pieces. The pulp dryness seems to be a function of the load in the auger and the squeezing chamber volume, that is, the distance between the auger tip and the top cap which screws onto the front of the juicer.I noticed that the pulp is drier if I put enough veggie in to fill the auger as I see it from the top of the machine and give it a good push so that it loads into the auger. The pulp then continuously pushes against itself and thereby gives a better squeeze. The auger type of juicer that has a screw on the juice exit causes the pulp to back up and get a good squeeze. I don't know if that type works better since this is my first juicer.Also, the smaller the volume, or size, of the squeezing chamber, the drier the pulp, or so it seems to me. Another reviewer said that he put a washer on the auger that would move it slightly more toward the top cap thereby reducing the squeeze chamber. I tried this and it did help. I simply cut some shims out of white "bleach bottle" type material (I used a vitamin bottle). I sized them to fit between the nylon bushing and the juicer body. I removed the bushing and carefully traced the smaller diameter of the nylon bushing onto the bottle material, then cut that size hole out. I then trimmed around the outside of that hole so that I ended up with a white washer of plastic. I made 3 of these shims. With 2 shims on the nylon bushing, which I replaced in the machine, the juice was noticeably drier. I might try 3 shims, but I don't want have the auger scraping against the top cap. Also, I might point out that tightening the top cap moves it closer to the auger, so you have to take that into account when shimming the auger. The tightness of the top cap and thickness of the shim material will make a difference.Overall, I recommend this product. I does do a good job out of the box and a better job if it is modified as above. And NO BPAs in this one. Remember though, that modifying it could void the warranty. The choice is yours.