Mueller Ultra-Juicer Review
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
This Product Mueller Ultra-Juicer | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Awards | Best Centrifugal Juicer | Best Budget Juicer | |||
Price | $60 List $46.99 at Amazon | $180 List $179.95 at Amazon | $160 List $152.27 at Amazon | $120 List $119.85 at Amazon | $70 List $69.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score | |||||
Star Rating | |||||
Bottom Line | If you are looking for freshly-squeezed juice at a bargain, we think this is a great middle-of-the-road option that won't blow your budget | The large chute, easy-to-clean parts, and efficient juicing capabilities make this a top-tier centrifugal juicer | This juicer is difficult to clean and requires ample prep time, but it produces great wheat grass shots and soft produce juice | Easy cleanup and a stronger motor may make this premium model worth the extra expense | An inexpensive and user-friendly machine that produces a very quality glass of juice |
Rating Categories | Mueller Ultra-Juicer | Breville Juice Foun... | Cuisinart Easy Clea... | Hamilton Beach Big... | Hamilton Beach Big... |
Juice Quality (25%) | |||||
Soft Produce (20%) | |||||
Hard Produce (20%) | |||||
Leafy Greens (20%) | |||||
Cleaning (15%) | |||||
Specs | Mueller Ultra-Juicer | Breville Juice Foun... | Cuisinart Easy Clea... | Hamilton Beach Big... | Hamilton Beach Big... |
Model # | MU-100 | JE98XL | CSJ-300P1 | 67850 | 67601A |
Type | Centrifugal | Centrifugal | Masticating | Centrifugal | Centrifugal |
Warranty | 2 Year | 1 Year Limited | 3 Year Limited | 3 year | 3 year |
Dimensions //L x W x H with pulp cup and without pitcher // | 16" x 8.1" x 16" | 14.1" x 9" x 16.5" | 11" x 10.3" x 20" | 14.5" x 14.5" x 9" | 14.4"1 x 7.8" x 11.46" |
Reverse? | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Dishwasher Safe? | Filter blade | Yes, most parts | Removable parts are top rack safe | Yes | Yes |
Average Soft Produce Yield | 18 ounces | 16 ounces | 17 ounces | 16 ounces | |
Average Hard Produce Yield | 17 ounces | 22 ounces | 16 ounces | 18 ounces | |
Average Leafy Greens Yield | 5 ounces | 4 ounces | 7 ounces | 4 ounces |
Our Analysis and Test Results
We like that the Mueller Ultra-Juicer has a larger feed chute for bigger pieces of produce and that it has dual speeds to maximize your juice yield from both hard and soft produce. However, this model struggles with leafy greens compared to the top-ranked juicers in our tests.
Performance Comparison
Juice Quality
The Ultra-Juicer got off to a bit of a rough start with our “Can't Beet It” beverage, composed of apples, carrots, celery, beetroot, cucumber, and ginger root. We found the final drink to be a little on the watery side and the taste to be just a bit more bland tasting than when we made this beverage with some other juicers. However, we appreciated that it produced minimal to no pulp and the drink wasn't at all gritty.
Performance improved quite a bit when it came to our romaine, apple, and orange drink. The texture was a bit pulpy, but the taste was refreshing and light — albeit with strong romaine overtones. It was definitely on the thicker side and had just a small amount of foam. The Ultra-Juicer did even better with our final blended juice cocktail. Our judges gave it very high marks in texture and taste, though it had plenty of pulp.
We also noticed that this juicer struggled quite a bit with sweet potatoes and beets. Additionally, the motor would bog down with larger produce chunks, forcing us to cut smaller pieces than other models required.
Soft Produce
Starting with cucumbers, this juicer created 200mL of juice from 12 ounces of peeled cucumbers, with only a tiny amount of pulp and a slight bit of foam. This yield was a bit higher than the group average of around 180mL. With celery, the Ultra-Juicer generated an average amount of juice that had little to no pulp or foam but did separate.
The performance of this juicer improved a bit when it came to orange juice, yielding just a bit more than the average product. There were only mild amounts of pulp, but we did notice that the juice was very foamy. Finally, the Ultra-Juicer finished out this metric with an excellent performance in our apple juice test. It yielded considerably more than average, with negligible pulp and only a little foam.
Hard Produce
Our subsequent tests focused on juice yield for hard produce like carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes. We noticed a definite performance drop here for the Ultra-Juicer but it still finished about average overall compared to the rest of the products.
We got off to a solid start in our carrot juicing metric, with the Ultra yielding an above-average amount for 8 ounces of carrots. We got 105mL of juice from this appliance and little to no foam or pulp. Unfortunately, some chunks from the ends of the carrots made it into our glass.
The performance then plummeted quite a bit when it came to juicing beets. The Ultra-Juicer yielded quite a bit less juice than other models and had some non-trivial amounts of foam — though the juice was essentially pulp-free. We also noticed that it sounded like the juicer was struggling quite a bit with larger chunks of beets, though this did get better when we cut up the produce smaller than we usually would.
The Ultra-Juicer rebounded a bit with sweet potatoes, yielding an average amount of juice. It had mild amounts of pulp and just a bit of foam, but the motor again sounded like it was substantially struggling with the larger pieces. All in all, this juicer wouldn't be our first choice if you are looking for a product exclusively for hard produce.
Leafy Greens
Our final juice yield metric focused on how the Ultra-Juicer handled leafy greens. Unfortunately, we weren't very impressed with this appliance's performance, and it earned it one of the lower scores of the group.
This juicer struggled considerably with wheatgrass, having some of the lowest juice yields of the group. It barely made any juice, with none making it into the collection chamber without tilting the appliance. This juicer also didn't do much better with spinach. It yielded about 50mL of very foamy juice from 7 ounces of spinach, which was quite a bit less than the average yield of around 70mL.
The Ultra-Juicer finished out this metric with an above-average performance regarding juicing kale. It yielded slightly more than the average amount of juice from 4.25 ounces of kale, but it was slightly foamy.
Cleaning
Our last round of tests looked at how easy it is to clean the Ultra-Juicer once finished juicing. We found this to be a reasonably painless process overall.
The filter/blade piece is dishwasher-safe; however, the rest of the components can only be cleaned in warm soapy water. This appliance includes a useful brush for cleaning, but bristles would get pulled out whenever they got caught on the disc. We also found the plastic shields to be a bit of work to clean if bits of produce dried in them, but overall this model isn't too hard to clean.
Should You Buy the Mueller Ultra-Juicer?
While this centrifugal juicer didn't do the best with some types of hard produce and with certain leafy greens, we were overall satisfied with its performance — especially given its lower price tag. Overall, we think the Mueller Ultra-Juicer is a great option if you are shopping on a budget and want a juicer that performs decently well at most things.
What Other Juicer Should You Consider?
If making juice from soft produce is your primary goal, the Mueller is probably the budget option for you. However, if you want something with a little better versatility, then the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth might be one to consider. It offers better performance using leafy greens with similar performance for hard produce. It is the same price range, so choosing which one will be based mainly on the kind of juices you hope to make.