Having used and tested a number of mediocre juicers in the past, we review the Philips HR1861/00 Aluminium Whole Fruit Juicer, a brilliant and stylish juicer that gives more juice than most other centrifugal juicers available in the high-street. The Philips HR1861/00 Juicer is synonymous with quality performance and can make delicious juice for the entire family without much fuss.

Design features:

The Philips HR1861 Whole Fruit Juicer looks quite stylish at first look with its distinctive and tempting design. It makes simple work of juicing all types of fruits and vegetable and one may feel much healthier as a result. This HR1861 Philips Juicer is made of anodised aluminium casing that offers a stylish finish to it and will not stain or mark keeping its looks over time. It is quite compact and takes up room only as much as the kettle (or perhaps a bit more).

Therefore, even if you have a small kitchen, it can fit in without any problem. But at the same time, some customers have reportedly described it as ‘bulky’ and that it consumes a fair bit of counter space in the kitchen. The juicer’s housing has a high quality brushed aluminium finish and this offers a smooth, modern look to it unlike many appliances that are silver-painted plastic these days.

Stainless steel Micro-mesh filter:

There is a unique, patented Micro-mesh filter made of durable stainless steel that gives you all the juice without any fuss and makes sure it squeezes every last drop of juice out. It also delivers more juice for your produce with a relatively higher juice yield compared to other centrifugal juicers in its price range. We found that it is fairly easy to disassemble and clean.

Wide feed chute:

One of the biggest selling points of the Juicer is the fact that it comes with a wide feed chute. The chute that you insert the juice ingredients down is wider than most other juicers. Actually, the chute is sufficiently large enough to pass numerous carrots or whole apples down in one go instead of chopping or slicing them up into quarters or even smaller pieces like most juicers do.
However a word of caution that you must peel the Citrus fruits before placing them in the juicer. This is because if they are not organic fruits and vegetables, you may have to remove or peel the skin of the produce to ensure you do away with any agricultural chemicals that might have been sprayed on them. It is also recommended that you peel the oranges first as the skin is very bitter, however other non-citrus fruits require no preparation at all.

Cleaning brush:

The cleaning brush that comes with it is meant especially for cleaning the mesh filter and the pieces are rinsed away easily after a scrub in no time. Using a teaspoon to leaver out the micro-mesh filter is useful sometimes, especially if you are juicing a lot of apples in a single go, so clean the filter after the first jug is full. The simple reason for this is that the juice tends to a bit thick and cloudy as the filter gets clogged up.

Starchy fruits like bananas and avocados will not pass through the very fine filter though it works particularly well with apples, carrots, beetroots and other citrus fruits. Also, there is a frothy scum in the juice in all juicers, but all you have to do to keep this to the bare minimum is just insert the filter before pouring. The waste or pulp is dry because of the micro-mesh filter, thereby ensuring a smooth clear juice.

Powerful 700 Watt motor:

The Philips HR1861/00 juicer machine has a powerful 700 watts motor featuring two speed functions that can juice soft and hard fruits and vegetables easily. One is for juicing soft fruits like melons and the other is useful for hardy stuff like carrots. The motor extracts pulp from whole fresh fruits and vegetables exceedingly well, crushing the produce into nutritious liquid. Another advantage is that it can eliminate all the monotonous chopping and saves on washing up. The motor makes no more noise than a blender or a smoothie maker and is relatively quiet with a smooth operation. The length of the Cord is 1.2 m and the motor requires a voltage of 220-240 V for operation.

Multiple speed control:

The variable speed control knob is a very nice option that allows more control over juicing. The main advantage of the variable controls is that it lets you steadily build speed rather than risking an eruption and customizes your juicing speed for juicing soft or hard fruits and vegetables. The multiple speed settings also provide consistent power regardless of load and helps minimize stress, thus preventing burn-out built engine.

2 litre pulp container:

Unlike other centrifugal juicers, the Philips HR1861 700 watts Juicer features a generous 2 litre pulp container, that helps you juice for a longer period without having to empty out the pulp. The dry pulp that is left out is easily transferred into the pulp container placed at the rear of the unit. Also, as the pulp container is large, you can juice a lot in a single go. However, it is so large that it may be difficult to fit in the dishwasher. A simple tip is to just put a bio degradable bag in the pulp container so that you do not have to wash it every time. The pusher fits into the chute pretty well and allows you to safely push fruit and vegetables into the juicing mechanism without any mess. Both the pulp container and pusher are made of Polypropylene (PP) plastic.

1.5 Litre  juice jug:

With juicer models having smaller jugs, one has to either stop the motor completely to switch the jug or cup which is a complete waste of time or make an effort to swap the motor operating at full steam. The latter is more likely to end up with the juice dripping all over the countertop and this means more cleaning up to do. But this juicer features a 1.5 l juice jug that is thoughtfully designed to sit directly on the countertop with the juicer’s spout tucked in smartly at the jug’s rim to catch the last drops.

The Philips jug can handle 4-5 large cups of juices at ease. This allows you to juice for the whole family without stopping to switch the jug and messing up the kitchen. Why give the juice another surface to spatter on? If you have ever made use of a juicer whose jug sat on a base, you will really appreciate this exceptional if simple design. The foam separator works exceedingly well and this accessory in the juice jug helps you choose either clear or cloudy juice.

Extra large feeding tube:

Another highlight of the Philips HR1861 Multiple Speed Control juicer that should be emphasized is the extra-large feeding tube having a diameter of 75 mm. This XL feeding tube allows larger pieces of fruits and vegetables so that they do not require peeling directly in it for juice extraction. It can easily take in a few whole apples or pears without putting you through the trouble of peeling, deseeding, chopping and so on. The extra wide feeding tube is also quite easy to clean after use.

Integrated cord storage:

The juicer also comes with a handy in-built space-saving cord storage facility in the base to help keep counters looking neat and safe. This feature makes sure that it does not consume too much space in the cupboard.

Special safety clamps:

Safety comes first with the Philips HR1861/00 juicer. There are special safety clamps made of brushed aluminium that cannot be used unless all the juicer components are carefully assembled. The safety lock lid is made of SAN (considered BPA free) and this means that the juicer will not operate unless the lid is locked into place safely and besides, it also stops splashes.

Non-slip feet:

Most juicers usually have small rubber pads, but this HR1861 juicer has suction cups on the bottom that helps fix it well to the kitchen and stops it from whirling off the bench as it whizzes fruit and vegetables. The machine tends to jump slightly and this feature keeps it steady while running. Unlike other juicers, it also has a drip-stop spout made of aluminium for dripping out any remaining juice inside the machine onto the worktop after juicing, when you have removed your jug or glass from underneath the spout. The spout flips up and seals the hole and keeps the worktop clean and tidy.

Dishwasher safe:

Easy assembly and operation and the fact that all the parts apart from the motor is dishwasher safe makes it a choice than a chore. This feature takes the strain out of brushing and rinsing. Though most removable parts can be cleaned in the dishwasher, there are some parts that are too large for that, while the plastic parts should always go in the top level.  The abrasive nature of dishwashing tabs or powder can slightly dull the clear plastic parts and hence it requires some care.

Free Recipe booklet:

Philips also offers you a free recipe booklet ‘The Juice Master: Keeping It Simple’ by Jason Vale (aka the Juice Master) along with the product. This book features over 100 easy to follow, delicious recipes exclusively for your Philips Juicer. This easy to read book will help you keep you slim and healthy forever by naturally cleansing your body system, clearing your mind and taking your energy level to a new high.

Warranty:

The manufacturer offers a guarantee period of 2 years from the date of purchase for this product.

Use & Care:

This juicer is less messy with its larger juice jug and practical jug placement. It is also simple to clean. All you have to do is turn over the two large clamps at the side, raise the lid, filter and juice collector, sort of that order and you are done. You are required to wash a total of 4 items including the jug and the pusher; not much different from other juicers. The brilliance of the juicer lies not in reducing the number of machine components for washing, but in making them fairly simple to remove and wash. All that is required is an effortless wipe-down of the juicer.

There are basically four main parts that can be rinsed under a tap; however the mesh that does all the work takes a bit longer. There may be little drops of juice at the rim of the juicer, but certainly not messy like other juicers do. As for us, it generally takes about 10-15 minutes from preparation to finish washing, depending upon whether the fruits and vegetables need to be chopped or not. It is further recommended that you have the sink prepared with hot water and washing up liquid such that the 7 items could be washed up and dried at once and the unit restored back to its original place.

Drawback:

One of the downsides of its use is apparently the inclusion of a low speed setting that did not get much use as generally a lot of the recipes included carrots. While the low speed settings can handle carrots, the high speed settings simply smash them. Therefore, switching back and forth between the settings did not make much sense during use. Perhaps, Philips can even think about making the high speed setting as its default setting and integrating an even higher speed setting, if we do not mind paying a little more for the extra power.

Secondly, on testing we found that there are normally a couple drops of juice where the juice collector attaches itself to the juicer; unsure whether it is a product defect or design flaw. Either way, it is not a big deal if a couple of drops can be termed ‘mess’ – simply nothing compared to that produced by other juicers!

Conclusion:

Finally, the aroma and taste of the juice produced by the Philips HR1861/00 juicer was very telling. The Philips juice tastes good every time in comparison with cartons, as the juicer aerates the juice out of grinding process, leaves it frothy and the sensitive flavours oxidise in no time, as do the health giving polyphenols. So, if you want really good juice with great design and performance and easy to clean mechanism, this Philips juicer fits the bill pretty well. It is indeed more expensive than some of the other juicer models, but we felt it is money well spent.

Philips HR1861 Juicer Machine – Technical Specification Table