Well, not really.  Sunkist juicers are just citrus juicers.  Actually, they’re “commercial” citrus juicers to handle heavy duty juicing operations.  Regardless, I’m baffled as to how they think they can get away with charging so much for it.  It doesn’t even juice the oranges for you – you still have to cut them in half, and press them to juice them.  You also have to wash it every time after use (but I suppose that’s the case with every juicer.)

So it is limited to juicing citrus fruits only, but at least it looks like it does the job very well.  Sunkist juicers are made of high-grade materials, such as corrosion proof plastic and the casing of the juicer steel.  The metal strainer oscillates as you use it, which extracts more juice from the pulp.  And finally, sunkist juicers weigh a whopping 31 pounds!  This can be both a good thing and a bad thing.  If you have counter space and plan to make juice all the time, then you will never have to worry about mishandling it.  But, if your plan was to use the sunkist juicer for casual use and to store it away, I would think this product is not for you.

I’m still confused over how expensive it is.  The juicer is use is the Black and Decker CitrusMate citrus juicer, which costs around $25.  As I said in my review, it does its job well.  Even if it sucked and broke after a few uses, I could buy and go through about 24 citrus juicers before I would spend as much as I would on a sunkist juicer.

Anyway, I must state this isn’t a review.  This is merely my observation of sunkist juicers.  This may seem unfair, but I am not certainly going to drop $600 to try it out.  For those of you that own a sunkist juicer, I would love to hear from all of you to get a more fact-based perspective.

My very first juicer was the Black & Decker CitrusMate citrus juicer.  The first thing is that it only costs about $25.  It is an electric model and is very easy to handle.  The juice container sits on top of the base, and a rod rotates in the middle when pressure is applied down.  When the lid is placed on top, the rod is connected to the reamer that is used to juice the citrus fruit.  As you push down on the reamer, it rotates and will juice the fruit.  It even alternates between clockwise and counter-clockwise to really get all the juice out of your fruit.  The lid conveniently has a strainer that doesn’t allow the pulp to fall through into the juice container.  It has 3 settings that let you control how much pulp goes through – no pulp, a little pulp, most of the pulp.  Finally, there are two different sized reamers, allowing you to juice big and small citrus fruits.

The CitrusMate is actually a great product if you are only interested in citrus juice.  If all you want is to be able to make orange juice in the morning, or fresh lemon juice to make lemonade, this is the juicer for you.  It will juice oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, lemons, limes, and so on.  It is quick and easy to use, and does a great job of getting most of the juice.  Compared to what you would pay for a good citrus press (about $150), you are definitely getting plenty of bang for your buck with the CitrusMate.

The first downside is obvious – it only juices citrus fruits.  You will HAVE to upgrade to juice any kind of vegetable.  Another disadvantage is cleaning.  For such simple tasks, washing the lid and container each time is a pain.  Finally, this citrus juicer will not be able to juice the rinds, which contain a lot of nutrients that you don’t want to miss out on.

Overall, the CitrusMate citrus juicer does its job, and it does it well.  As a first juicer, you cannot go wrong.

The way an electric citrus juicer works nowadays is with a cone that is attached to a reamer that spins when pressure is applied down. It will spin continuously in one direction until you stop pushing down. When you apply pressure again, it will spin in the opposite direction. This ensures that you will get as much juice out of the fruit as possible. Also, your arms won’t get tired trying to squeeze every last drop of juice since it’s electrically powered.

Unfortunately, it is limited to only citrus fruits, so you would have to get a different juicer if you want to use juicer recipes that require apples or carrots. Also, you won’t be able to juice the rind, which is packed with plenty of nutrients.

The citrus juicer I use is a Black and Decker CitrusMate. It is very easy to use and makes very little mess. It also has a feature that allows you to adjust the strainer to allow more (or less) pulp in your juice. An electric model will cost more (about $25), but it does a very efficient job and if you enjoy citrus juice or use it a lot for other juicer recipes such as lemonade, or for alcoholic beverages, it is worth it. If you decide against it, you should invest in a small hand operated citrus juicer at the very least for simple jobs.

Of course, there are extremely high end citrus juicers as well.  Some can cost as much as $600, like sunkist juicers!  In my opinion, this is WAY too much money (I’m guessing you feel the same way too.)  For most casual uses, you can get good citrus juicers for much much cheaper.

If you are interested in juicing a larger variety of fruits and vegetables (and you definitely should be), you will need to upgrade to either a centrifugal juicer or auger juicer.