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.