Norwalk Model 280 Hydraulic Press Juicer

I was extremely excited to receive this product. When I did, it included no instructions as to how to use it, so I had to search for other options and learned how to set it up. Once set up, I turned it on and...nothing happened. I went back to my resources for instructions on how to address this issue. I made sure everything was tightened properly and it was resting evenly on the counter, turned it on and still nothing. The product has a lifetime guarantee. Unfortunately this guarantee is registered to the seller. None of this was worth the money I paid for the press, so I sent it back to the seller and I am awaiting my refund.

I have been juicing for 24 years. I went through two Champion juicers, a Jack Lalanne juicer, a Green Star juicer, and now we use a Norwalk 280. It took a long time to learn how to get the most out of it, it takes longer to make the juice and it takes longer to clean the machine. So why give it 5 stars ? Because I spent about 20 years throwing away damp pulp. That's throwing away some of the nutrition that I was working and paying for.The Norwalk will juice anything. We juice fruits, vegetables, sprouts, and wheat grass and the pulp we throw out is drier than with any other juicer. There is just no better way to flood your body with nutrition, and to get the most nutrition out of your produce.

When someone says a juicer is the "Best" you have to understand the qualifiers involved. This juicer is not for newbies! Minimum setup, run and cleanup time is 30 min. almost no matter what you do. The bags and cloths used to filter out the pulp require time consuming cleaning if used, need to be frozen between uses, and will ultimately have to be replaced.This is the BEST juicer for extracting all the juice possible from your source provided you have sufficient material and time. A minimum of 2 cups of titurated material is needed to use the hydraulic press. Any less and the press simply cannot remove all the juice because the tray's depth (which is needed to catch all the juice that comes out when you do have enough material) prevents the press from squeezing the bags enough. Also you must press two bags at once for the same reason.The manual has numerous typos in it (discovered upon my first cursory review of it) and says nothing about how you efficiently proceed from one type of source to another without having to clean the whole machine up between uses. My initial run was with Carrots, Beets, Parsley, Celery and lemons - all worked fine together but you cannot separate the juice unless you clean up between each type and use separate bags for each type of source.There are two ways to use this juicer efficiently:1) Plan to take several hours to juice everything you will need for a month or so and freeze what you will not use within 72 hours and refrigerate the rest. Each day drink what you will, and replace what you drunk from the freezer stores. With careful planning you can keep use of this machine to a minimum.2) Be a professional commercial facility that simply uses this thing all day and every day. However, for this purpose, it is sad that you can only squeeze two cups of pulp at a time.As for its other uses like crushing ice, making fruit smoothies,etc. it is a little less of a hassle because you don't need to use the bags, but it will still require a minimum of 20 min. or so to setup, use and cleanup.This juicer weighs about 50 pounds at least! It is NOT designed to be moved. Better have it on a dedicated counter near the sink to stay.I regretted buying this before I even got it because I saw some other juicers that cost about 1/12th as much and were quick to use and cleanup. Not as powerful, not as through, not as well made, but way less hassle to actually use and way less cost.All sales are final! I see why now. This is a juicer for someone who absolutely needs the best and does serious bulk juicing. This is not for the housewife that occasionally want's a glass of carrot juice.The very disappointing thing to me is the no-return-cuz-you-don't-like-it policy. There is absolutely no period of time to review and evaluate this machine once you buy it. This, to me, is not really standing by your product. In 1930 a return policy would have worked but now-a-days there simply are too many competing designs for this company to make any money if they allowed new users to return the product.Engineering and Quality - 5 starVersatility - 3 starEfficiency for user - 1 starHassle factor - 8/10Definitely review other juicers before committing to buy this one.

Far exceeds extraction of other juicers.Check out this Report.The Bailey ReportA comparative study of the operation and efficiency of machine "A", a leading centrifugal juicer; machine "B", described as being a juicer, grater and homogenizer; and machine "N", a Norwalk hydraulic press juicer. A chemical analysis of the mineral content of the extracted juices was made. Uniform 5 pound samples of carrots, parsley and celery were run on each of the machines with the following results: Carrots Parsley Celery A B N A B N A B NJuice Extracted - ozs. 40.5 40.5 57.0 8.80 8.80 27.0 50.7 59.7 68.1Mineral Content - mgsCalcium 501 1458 2708 460 500 1605 345 505 675Magnesium as MgO Tr 5.7 22.8 75 85 265 170 305 385Phosphorous as P2O2 20.3 70.9 285 110 115 445 200 305 480Iron as FeO 10.5 10.1 37.6 5 10 45 Tr 5 5Potassium as K2O 8.1 16.2 31.9 1245 1745 5415 3550 5070 6465Sodium 100 110 365 1635 1995 2315This study indicates that the Norwalk produces a much greater amount of juice from a given sample than does either of the other juicers in much less time. The extremely fine pulp produced by the Norwalk and the very great pressure applied by the hydraulic press would appear to account for the greater yield of juice and the very marked superiority in the extraction of mineral content.