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Comment on Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer Hot Deal by Dennis Baeyen

Dennis Baeyen — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:08:05 +0000

88 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

Quiet, efficient, a joy, December 1, 2010

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This review is from: Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer (Kitchen)

I've owned three juicers before buying the Omega Vert 350. And finally I've found the perfect juicer. It doesn't take up much counter space. It looks good. It's quiet when it's juicing. It produces colorful juice and very dry extracted pulp. It can handle all fruits and vegetables, even wheatgrass which I've begun growing and juicing. It's simple to clean, with no sharp parts. And reassemlbes in a snap.

I gave away two of my other juicers (a Champion and Juiceman) and put my one year old Brevelle Elite in the basement, thinking I might use it again some day. But with each passing week, I don't think I will ever use the noisy, inefficient thing again--although it is a beautiful looking stainless steel machine. Anyway, I am happy now everytime I juice and hear the comforting slow whir of the Vert and see the dark, rich juice spill into my cup.

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Comment on Hurom HU-100 Slow Juicer, Snow White Lower Price by Denise M. Jones

Denise M. Jones — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:59:03 +0000

166 of 170 people found the following review helpful:

Happier with it now after using it a while, November 19, 2009

Denise M. Jones (Baltimore, MD USA) -

For the last four years I've used a centrifugal juicer and always wanted a masticating juicer, but never bought one because I knew some of them had problems juicing fruits, and also that they're very slow.

So, when I saw the advertisement for this "slow" juicer that was fast and which could juice both leafy greens and fruits equally well, I was very excited. I raptly watched the video demonstrations of its capabilities and ordered it promptly. Some of its purported advantages of extremely dry pulp, more juice, little to no foam, etc. have fallen far short of the promises made. I notice no increased amount of juice, the foam is absolutely no less than it was with a centrifugal juicer, and UNLIKE my trusty centrifigual juicer the Hurom does a LOUSY job of juicing greens. Just try to juice a leaf of Kale and you'll find it gets all wound up around the screw that is supposed to be chewing it up. It's a mess! I have to stop, put it in reverse, which makes the top come off, then unplug it, stick my hands down around the screw and try to get some of the stuck kale out. And, if you are going to juice a green like kale, do it last or anything you try to juice afterwards will also get stuck around the screw with the kale and not get juiced.

I have also NOT noticed any less separation than the juice created with my centrifugal juicer. So, that's a bust, too.

On the positive side, here are some things I do like about it better than my centrifugal -- it's blessedly quiet, the juice doesn't spit out at high velocity causing splashing everywhere, also small berries and things like pomengranate seeds are easier to juice since they're not trying to jump back out the top of the juicer like they do with the high-speed velocity of the centrifugal juicer.

So, if this is your first juicer, you'll probably be pretty happy with it. If you're a seasoned juicer and are looking to buy up, however, for the money I think I'd wished I'd gone for the twin auger juicer instead.

Update: I've been using the juicer for a couple of months now and am pretty happy with it. I just make sure I tear some of the larger greens up a bit before feeding them in, and I try to juice them last or right before some other item that will help push them through, like celery.

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Comment on Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicing Machine Sale by Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:47:46 +0000

81 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

Love our new juicer, November 21, 2010

Dawn -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicing Machine (Kitchen)

For the past couple of years we had been using a juiceman jr. We liked it but it was having difficulty holding up to all the juicing we began to do most recently. We did some research and felt that the Breville would meet our needs. I was happy to learn with the bigger mouth I didn't have to do as much prep work as I had been doing with the juiceman jr. Also, the Breville has two speeds and a booklet that has great recipes and suggestions. Relatively easy to clean and put back together. We have used it everyday and is holding up to all the various fruits and vegetables we are juicing!

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Comment on KitchenAid KPRA Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers Lower Price by Joe B.

Joe B. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:47:15 +0000

327 of 328 people found the following review helpful:

Solid and capable, March 28, 2004

Joe B. (Oakdale, NY United States) -

This review is from: KitchenAid KPRA Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers (Kitchen)

I highly recommend this attachment.
This attachment is very well made (Made in Italy). It attaches, detaches and cleans up easily, and most importantly, it works very well. This device only makes flat pasta so if you want rigatoni or penne, you'll be disappointed. I've made fettuccine and ravioli. After you've eaten home made semolina pasta, box pasta will never measure up. Be aware that making fettuccine is not that difficult but fresh ravioli is another story...it's quite a bit of work even with this machine. Making the filling and stuffing and sealing each ravioli is laborious. However, prior to getting this device, I used to use a hand crank machine. That's just way too much work. These rollers make the job manageable. The roller makes very consistent pasta, even when you use the thin settings.

My suggestion for a good pasta recipe is :
2 cups Semolina flour
1 cup unbleached flour
3 eggs
½ teaspoon of salt
6 tablespoons of water (most recipes say 3 but that just doesn't work well.)
*Some recipes like the one that comes in the box with this attachment, recommend the use of oil. I have not tried that approach yet. It probably works fine too, you be the judge.

** Some process advice: mix the 2 flours in the Kitchen aid bowl using the paddle beater. Mix the eggs and water together with a whisk and slowly add them to the mixer while in motion on setting 2. After the big, kind if hard dough ball forms, stop and change over to the dough hook for a couple of minutes. If you make ravioli, you'll want flexible dough or you'll get cracking. If the dough cracks or if air is captured inside during the sealing process, they are garbage as they will come apart in the boiling water.

To get dough flexible enough that it doesn't crack while making the ravioli, be sure to cover the dough between the first and second rollings and not let it sit longer that 30 minutes. Here's where the oil recipes may have an advantage...also, a light coating of water will help make a good seal.

I also picked up the Villaware 10-Square Ravioli Maker from Amazon. It is a metal and plastic form that helps you make 10-2.5 inch square rav's at one time. It works well but 2.5 inch rav's are a bit small. You will also have a tough time getiing a sheet of rolled pasta out of the rollers that is wide enough to cover the form as the rollers are close to the same width as the form.

Good luck!

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Comment on Breville BJB840XL Juice and Blend Find Best Deal by Reader

Reader — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:43:34 +0000

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

Could be better, September 9, 2011

Reader (Seattle, WA USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Breville BJB840XL Juice and Blend (Kitchen)

I've had the Breville BJB840XL Juice and Blend combo for about two weeks now, and have been using it twice daily, mainly for juicing. I have found some aspects of this juicer better than expected, and some aspects disappointing. I rate it as follows:

Juicing: 3 stars. I purchased this product mainly to use as a juicer, as the other similar Breville juicers seemed to be unavailable, even on Breville's own website. Maybe they have been discontinued. At any rate, the juicing performance is disappointing. I've been making a green vegetable juice consisting usually of kale, parsley, celery, cucumber and apples, and a red vegetable juice made of tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots and scallions. Although the powerful motor allows the vegetables to be pushed through very quickly, a surprising amount of the produce ends up in the pulp bin. Along with finely ground fibers, there are also inch-size chunks of apple, big chunks of celery, large pieces of kale leaves, a lot of the parsley, etc. With the red juice, large pieces of tomato and long pieces of scallion end up in the bin. In both cases the pulp is fairly wet, and if I go to the trouble of putting it back through the juicer a second time, more juice can be obtained, although most of the pulp just shoots straight into the bin. And it's usually too much hassle to bother with trying to re-juice the pulp. The instruction manual has a chart listing the recommended speed settings for various fruits and vegetables. Leafy greens are not mentioned on the chart, and it makes me wonder if this machine was simply not designed to juice this type of produce. I've experimented with various settings, as well as trying to wedge the greens between other items such as apples, but nothing has worked very well. This machine just doesn't do a good job juicing greens. As for the other types of produce, I've followed the recommended settings, as well as experimenting with other settings, but have not found a way to obtain a more complete juicing. The manual also suggests pushing produce through more slowly if you're getting big pieces going in the pulp bin, but I have not found this to help much. Since I go to some lengths to find high quality organic produce (not to mention the cost), it's disappointing to have so much of it go to waste in this machine.

Blender: 4 stars. It's a blender, nothing special. Works well. The container is large and holds a good amount. It is also made of a very heavy glass and may be difficult for some people to handle because of the weight.

Construction: 5 stars. This machine seems very solidly built. Both the juicer and blender operate smoothly on full power. Both components lock onto the base, a very desirable feature. This is the first blender I've used that doesn't risk flying off its base when full of liquid and operating at high speed. The motor is powerful, yet surprisingly quiet. All the main parts fit together well and are disassembled easily. The solid construction seems to be this machine's greatest strength.

Cleaning: 3 stars. In addition to the parts being easily disassembled, they are easily cleaned with a hot water rinse. The surfaces are smooth and easily release food particles. If you're using the machine multiple times per day, you'll appreciate the relatively simple cleanup. The exception is the strainer basket which needs some elbow grease to clean with the supplied brush. And you will want to get it completely clean after each use, because the instructions for cleaning the strainer of dried on particles are not simple. My biggest gripe with regards to cleanup is the sheer number of large components you have to wash each time. There are at least seven or eight pieces to wash, and they fill up an entire drying rack. Also inconvenient is the fact that about a third of the pulp from a juicing doesn't go into the pulp bin at all, but sticks to the underside of the plastic component above the bin. Pulp needs to be cleaned from multiple components.

One last comment on Breville's claim that you can put whole apples in this juicer. The actual size of the feed tube is approximately 2 3/4". That will take only the smallest whole apples, which you don't typically find in stores. I've found that your average medium sized apple still needs to be cut into quarters.

In conclusion, this is a very well made machine that nevertheless suffers from some design flaws. It follows the same basic design as old fashioned juicers and suffers from similar flaws. To get better juicing performance I'd want to see a machine that really gets all the juice that can be extracted, leaving only dry pulp. For easier cleanup I'd want a machine with far fewer components. This would probably require a company like Breville to really rethink the design of a juicer. My reason for giving it an overall three stars, in spite of the excellent construction,... Read more

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Comment on Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor Shop Now by Groovy Vegan

Groovy Vegan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:30:44 +0000

333 of 335 people found the following review helpful:

Why I prefer this juicer to Green Star, Champion, and others:, November 29, 2008

Groovy Vegan (USA) -

This review is from: Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor (Kitchen)

The Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor is the third juicer I've owned, and is definitely my favorite. My cheap and easy-to-use Juiceman's motor burnt out after a year, at which point it would have been more expensive to repair than replace. My Champion still works after 15 years and is not difficult to clean, but is messy to use, leaving drips all over the countertop or whatever I line it with. I've also tried the Green Star and Green Power Juicers, which make perfect juice with dry pulp, but take a long time to clean and assemble. The Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900 is the second-down from the top of the line of the four Breville juicers (only the Elite is better), but after a month of use of about every-other-day use, I find no need to upgrade.

Here's why I like this juicer so much for my typical juice of carrot, kale, celery and apple and/or pear:

*Easy to set-up: It takes only seconds to set up this juicer. The juicer itself has only 3 pieces to snap into place, plus there's the acrylic pitcher, pulp basket, and pusher. The pieces fit perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle, which brings me to the second reason I like it:

*Not messy: The juice ends up in the pitcher, the pulp goes to the pulp basket, plus some residual of each ends up in the juicer to be cleaned. My Champion Juicer OTOH required me to find containers around the house that would fit, and still some would drip out. I would have to place a baking sheet or towel under it to contain the mess.

*Quick vegetable and fruit prep: I can fit several carrots at once into the 3" diameter shoot, plus whole pears and/or apples. I don't have to do as much cutting ahead of time as I did with other juicers with a narrower shoot. You must be careful though to use the pusher and not your hand.

*Quick clean up: Those 6 pieces mentioned above are all I have to clean. I can clean my juicer in just a few minutes, once I figured out a good way to clean the filtration basket--by far the most challenging part to clean. This basket was frustrating to clean at first, particularly since my juicer did not come with the brush it was supposed to (and customer service did not respond to my request to obtain a brush). I tried various brushes, but what works best is an all purpose nylon scouring pad from Trader Joe's which comes in packages of 4 for $2.59. The secret to quick clean up is to begin cleaning as soon as you've finished juicing, although you do have a few minutes to drink your juice first. Rinse off the filtration basket and vigorously scrub half of each of the three sections at a time with the nylon scrubber, rinsing each half section before moving on to the next. This should remove 90 to 90% of the pulp debris. Repeat or spot clean to remove the rest. I can clean the whole basket in less than a minute. The other parts are quick and straightforward to clean, although you have to be careful to clean under the rim of the acrylic part that the basket sits in.

*Helpful design features: The juicer has a smaller footprint than the Champion and Greenstar Juicers; a sleek, modern look that looks good in kitchens; pieces that fit together well (as mentioned), and even the plug is in the shape of a ring so one can easily pull it out of the socket without yanking on the cord.

*Doesn't stain. Although it has some acrylic parts, so far, with immediate cleaning after use, there have been no stains.

A few compromises. No juicer is perfect. This juicer is average in several areas. You can have a juicer that is above average in these areas (Green Star and Green Power), but you will be spending a lot more time in assembly, disassembly and cleaning. Having used the Green Star and Green Power, I would rather have the quick and easy juicer and sacrifice a small amount of yield.

*Noise - This juicer is as loud as your average kitchen appliance like a food processor or blender. The Green Star or Green Power are whisper quiet. It is not as loud as my Blendtec blender which requires me to wear ear phones.

*Yield - The pulp in this Breville is neither very wet nor very dry--it's average. For sawdust-dry pulp and more yield, the Green Star, Green Power and the $2,000 difficult-to-clean Norwalk exceed the Breville.

*Versatility - The Breville is strictly a juicer. If you're a raw foodist who is interested in making frozen banana "ice cream" and "not tuna" pate', you might prefer the Champion, Green Star or Green Power. However, I have found you can make these items in the food processor, so I'd rather have the dedicated easy juicer. Banana "ice cream" takes about 5 minutes in the food processor, as opposed to about 30 seconds in the Champion juicer.

The bottom line is that the right juicer for you is the one that can get used. With quick and easy food prep, assembly, disassembly, and cleaning, at my house,... Read more

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Comment on Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer Hot Deal by rawgeek

rawgeek — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:28:03 +0000

84 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

Best juicer we've ever owned!, January 18, 2011

rawgeek -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer (Kitchen)

This is our 4th juicer since 1991, and I grin with amazement every time I use it! The design of this vertical, single-auger juicer is superb. It's as quiet and cool as a juicer can be, while it chews our greens for us. It does a fine job of juicing wheat grass, yet can also handle an over-ripe pineapple, which is what burned out our Breville last month. The daily carrot, apple, celery, kale, spinach, parsley, cilantro and ginger drinks are a breeze, and produce less pulp than I've ever seen from any juicer. I've fed it large amounts of grapefruit, oranges, and lemons, and it handles it all without the slightest problem. I've even made my own almond milk from soaked almonds. The quality of the juice from this machine is as close to Norwalk as you'll get from a juicer that's this convenient in every way. It even pulls the produce into the auger by itself when you drop the pieces into the feeder shoot. I've used a Juiceman Juicer (for which I am forever grateful), a Norwalk Juicer that produced the finest juice ever but with a lot of work, and a powerful Breville, but would put them all aside for this small, quiet, well designed, efficient, convenient, and easy-to-clean Omega VRT350HD. And, on top of all that, the 10-year warranty must be best in class. I feel very fortunate to own this machine; it allows me to prepare several jars of juices every morning before work with minimal time and effort. Kudos and thank you to the designers of this machine!

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Comment on Hurom HU-100 Slow Juicer, Snow White Lower Price by E. Tam

E. Tam — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:23:17 +0000

152 of 153 people found the following review helpful:

Almost perfect juicer, February 6, 2010

E. Tam (California) -

This review is from: Hurom HU-100 Slow Juicer, Snow White (Kitchen)

It juices virtually everything perfectly! Peel the rind off a lemon and it juices better than a citrus juicer! It does greens VERY well, almost all pulps come out dry without so much as a drop to wring out from it, and it looks gorgeous in a glass.

Here's how it works: you feed your produce into the feed chute and it's processed by a black acrylic auger against a metal sieve. Basically this means the auger is chewing the produce and pressing the resulting pulp and juice against a metal screen with tiny holes. The pulp is pressed through a pulp chute while the juice is filtered through the holes and into the juice chute. It's absolutely amazing. Honestly, I really wanted one of the Omega nutrition center juicers, but just watching the videos of making carrot juice on those things was painful! You have to JAM it into the feed chute to get the carrots to go in. The amazing thing about this juicer is that the auger PULLS carrots in with no effort whatsoever from the user. One thing to note though, is that you need to let it do its own work. If you DO try pushing it in, it locks up the auger. On softer produce like leafy greens and fruits, it has no problem with jamming stuff in. It may not be as fast as a centrifugal juicer, but it's at least twice as fast, and a QUARTER of the work that goes into jamming them into the Omega nutrition center.

So far I have juiced the following without any problems:
Celery
Carrots - SHOULD BE PEELED. Skins are extremely bitter!
Romaine
Kale - surprisingly mild flavor even in its raw state
Cucumbers
Apple - must be a firm fleshed apple like Fujis, Galas or Granny Smiths
Orange - I will NEVER drink "fresh squeezed" carton juices ever again.
Lemon
Grapes (didn't expect this one to come out as dry as it did--wow!)

As for citrus, be sure to peel the rind off first otherwise you'll be left with very bitter juice which contains natural though indigestible oils. Note that certain pulpy fruits like grapes and berries will have somewhat wet pulp, but it can be put through the juicer again and the auger will squeeze even more juice out of it! The great thing about this juicer is if you want to make a different juice without mixing the flavors, you can run 2-3 cups of water through the machine and you'll be ready to juice your next batch of fruits and/or vegetables. So if Sally wants carrot but Brian wants apple and neither wants to taint their juice with the other's juice, you don't have to disassemble the whole thing to avoid doing so.

Green juicers should already know this, but if you're new, this is how you get through several batches without having to wash it over and over: alternate produce! This actually goes for fruit as well, but it's imperative that you alternate with greens. Start with some leafy greens, then follow this with 1/2 of a cucumber--which actually doubles as a plunger so you can just use that cucumber half to push those leaves in. If you want to do straight kale, you may have to open the juicer, remove the auger and pull some of the fibers out of the base--which won't be a problem if you mix your greens. Keep in mind I've never had to do this as I've never had any lock-ups while juicing--most likely because I've always alternated produce.

Speaking of cleaning--virtually painless. Just separate the removable parts from the base whole and put it in the sink. Run hot water through the top and rinse it off (with soapy water if you desire), then remove the top and rinse the bottom of the feed chute plate. Next rinse your auger, and if you juiced something fibrous, run the chisel part of the included cleaning brush through the indented ring where it may have collected. This takes maybe 5 seconds. Next, rinse and scrub the screen. This is a little more difficult/time consuming. I don't actually like using the included brush for this. I use a non-stick safe scouring pad to wipe it gently twice and usually all the pulp stuck in the holes are gone. The clear plastic base is easy to clean; pull the attached silicone plug out and clear out the pulp chute with a spray of water and rinse the rest out and you're done. Cleaning takes 3-5 minutes depending on what you juiced. Quick tip for removing carrot stains: use a towel with a couple drops of vegetable oil on it and the stains wipe right off.

The main things that attracted me to this juicer that it's able to process almonds for a very easy almond milk. Just soak 1 cup of almonds overnight and the next morning put it through the juicer with 3 cups of water and you've got a very healthy and tasty almond milk which goes phenomenally well with cereal. I've tried blanching the almonds and removing the skin first but it does not make a big difference. Using raw almonds does result in a cleaner fresher tasting almond milk. It does do soymilk as well, but I would recommend doing blending it instead as... Read more

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Comment on KitchenAid KPRA Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers Lower Price by "coral8er"

"coral8er" — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:22:34 +0000

746 of 749 people found the following review helpful:

I LOVE IT, but..., January 19, 2002

"coral8er" (Burbank, CA United States) -

This review is from: KitchenAid KPRA Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers (Kitchen)

I have had every kind of pasta roller - the chrome manual kind, the one that does everything (mixes, extrudes) and now this. I LOVE it. I love having my hands free to hold the dough going in and coming out and not having the manual roller shift all over the place. I am amazed how thin I can make the dough - tissue paper-thin. My only complaint, and I make it for the sake of completeness, is the fact that it took SEVERAL batches of dough (the first of which I was willing to sacrifice) to "clean" it out. I noticed what looked like metallic deposits all over my dough, especially on the edges. This was very distressing to me. I tried wiping the roller with a towel (for about an hour), I tried rubbing it with olive oil and I tried dusting it with flour, all of which helped, but it was ridiculous how much time I had to spend and how many batches of dough I had to waste (about four)! Overall, however, I am very pleased, but I think they should include in the instructions a statement to the effect that you should expect to see the deposits and how to clean it, or they should make sure it's cleaner before sending it out!

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Comment on Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicing Machine Sale by Vincent D.

Vincent D. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:12:15 +0000

190 of 194 people found the following review helpful:

Wow Juice Fountain, January 25, 2011

Vincent D. (Dallas, Tx) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicing Machine (Kitchen)

The Breville JE98XL was our replacement to our decade old Jack Lalanne Juicer. Wow, what a difference. If I had known what I was missing I would have made the switch a long time ago. We get a lot more juice out of our fruits and veggies with the Breville than with the Jack Lalanne. I can only imagine how much money was wasted over the years by not getting everything out of our produce. The Breville also makes quick work of juicing. Before, it was a major event to create enough juice for my family. Now it takes minutes. Clean up is super easy as well. And with the fitted juice catcher, no more mess to clean up like with the Jack Lalanne.

One more comment on all those downers who gripe about high revolutions killing the enzymes. Yes it is true, but to a very small degree. And the time I save with the Breville is well worth the small faction of enzymes I may lose.

I have been juicing for over a decade and this is the best machine I have used. I am once again excited about juicing, thank you Breville!

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Comment on Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer Hot Deal by C. Conkey "schnoodle"

C. Conkey "schnoodle" — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:11:31 +0000

263 of 271 people found the following review helpful:

Wow! I'm in LOVE!!, October 22, 2010

C. Conkey "schnoodle" -

This review is from: Omega VRT350 Heavy Duty Dual-Stage Vertical Single Auger Low Speed Juicer (Kitchen)

Ok, I hardly ever write reviews, but this juicer deserves the accolades I'm about to bestow upon it. I'm a heavy juicer, and go in fits and starts with heavy juicing and then no juicing. About a year or two ago I purchased the Omega 8003 juicer and have been happy with it. The main drawbacks to that juicer are its small diameter feed slot and the fact that you really have to "push" stuff along with the pusher. For the last couple of weeks I've been heavily juicing with that machine. My review is really from the perspective of what I'm coming from.

First, I did a lot of research on juicers (again). Although I looked at the Jack La Lane juicer which is a high speed juicer (and much cheaper), I found myself coming back to the slow speed for the same reasons that drove me to my original Omega 8003, namely, keeping the enzymes in tack, better taste (less watery) and a better yield (especially with organic fruit being so costly). It was taking me about 25 minutes to juice with the Omega 8003 including cleanup, which is a bit lengthy for a glass of juice. Now, in defense of the 8003, it does a really good job of juicing, pulp is dry and it makes a good juice. However, I tend to make really large glasses of juice (usually at least 24 oz) and it requires everything to be cut up into small enough pieces to fit in the small feeder. Apples take forever, and even feeding things like grapes you still have to push a few in, then mush it down, few more, mush it down etc etc. Process takes a while.

So my new VRT HD arrived today. Forget what HD stands for, but apparently the only difference is the strength of the inner filter/strainer, which I saw some reviews of cracking. I plan to work this thing like a mule, so I wanted the best.

Setup was super easy, all the parts were easy to figure out, never needed to read an instruction and I was off an juicing in minutes. I've done 4 juices today, so far using all fruits (apples, pineapple, carrots, grapes, pomegranate and kiwi). All I can say is WOW!!!

What I love so far: First and foremost, because its a vertical cylinder that masticates, I just drop in the fruit, say a carrot, and it grinds it right up. I can't cut off the tops fast enough. It just eats em right up. With the 8003, I have to jam and shove those things down into the screw. That alone is worth the price of admission. Just drop em in and watch em go. LOVE IT!! (can you tell I'm excited).

Everything else got chewed up just as well. I've used a lot of fleshy fruit today, and did have one issue on my second juice. My pineapple and grapes got clogged on the little outlet where the fiber ejects. I think that was my fault however because I think I got over zealous and excited. I slowed down my feed a bit on the subsequent juicing's and had zero issues.

Another feature I REALLY like is the self cleaning feature. A plastic thingy swirls around the outside of the screen/filter while your juicing and cleans the screen. In my 8003, grapes and other fleshy fruit really tend to clog the screen up, but I have had no issues all day. That screen comes out almost as clean as it went in.

I do get foam floating on top of my drink. I'd actually say a bit less than my 8003, which surprised me because in a web demo head to head with another 800? unit I watched on youtube it looked like the VRT produced a bit MORE foam, but this is not my experience. It's not a lot of foam, but I hate foam. Nothing that a quick skim with a spoon doesn't rectify. Pure tasty juice underneath.

Lastly, I was told in same said video that cleanup would take twice as long. I found that to be true for the first cleanup (not knowing what I was doing) but so far, my cleanup has maybe taken an additional minute. I find it quite simple actually, and once you figure out the pieces (not difficult), it actually seems little harder than my 8003.

All in all I absolutely LOVE this juicer. I can juice 24 or more ounces of juice, from opening the fridge door to putting the pieces back into the cabinet in under 10 minutes. The top feeder is so much wider which allows for much bigger pieces, which means a lot less cutting and preparation. Once it goes in, it self feeds, which means your not standing there mushing stuff down. Juice tastes great, fiber comes out reasonably dry, and clean up is simple enough.

It's only been a day, but what a great day its been.

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Comment on Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor Shop Now by MW

MW — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:58:09 +0000

793 of 795 people found the following review helpful:

The "Lexus" of juicers, June 9, 2008

MW (Miramar, Florida United States) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor (Kitchen)

We owned a refurbished Waring JEX328 juicer for about two years and my wife used it to make juice for our children and me almost every day. It held up fairly well and we paid almost nothing for it at the time (around 30 bucks, I think), but it finally cratered a couple of weeks ago. We debated for a while whether or not to replace it with this Breville model or the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro. We finally decided on this one because it had so many five star ratings and because it is an appliance we use so often, thus we thought it made sense to get the best one we could find, even with its steeper price. While I can't compare it to the Hamilton Beach model, I can compare it to the Waring model, and it beats the Waring model hands down.

As soon as you unpack the Breville you know you have a top quality piece of equipment. It does an outstanding job at juice extraction (the pulp is dryer than what the Waring produced, and the Waring actually did pretty well) and the clean-up is far easier. When cleaning the Waring, you had pulp caked up within the machine itself and it was a pain to clean it out, partially becaused it had a higher moisture content but also simply because of all of the nooks and crannies in this catchment section of the juicer. Although this section detached, it was still difficult to clean nonetheless . The Breville puts the pulp in a separate container off to the side, and as others have mentioned, if you line it with a plastic bag there is nothing to it. The only "pain" is cleaing the filter device, which is going to be difficult with any juicer you buy. The brush they provide does make this a little easier, however.

Now for the biggest difference: the noise produced when the machine is turned on. With the Waring, you had to pause the television, stop talking, cover your ears, and hope the neighbors didn't phone the cops on you for disturbing the peace. The Breville is FAR quieter. Don't get me wrong, it is not "whisper quiet" or anything like that, but it probably makes one third of the noise the Waring did.

Is it worth the higher price as compared to the Waring or Hamilton Beach? Hard to say. Like I mentioned, we got the Waring for practically nothing and it was a good introductory machine for us for juicing, but SO LOUD!

I can't really find any flaws with the Breville at all (we have run it for about a week now). Considering, however, that it costs almost three times what you can get the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro for (I would chose this one over the Waring purely from my experience with it and from reading the reviews for the Hamilton), whether or not you want to go with this "ultra juicer" version boils down to sheer personal preference. How often you will run it and what variety of recipies you might want to put through it should probably be your driving factors, along side the price difference, of course. The main differences I found with the Breville as compared to the Hamilton were a slightly higher wattage (900 versus 800) and the variable speeds instead of only one, single speed. From our perspective, though, we have had no regrets in spending the extra cash for this top model.

EDIT 08/05/08: Just thought I would mention that since this review we bought the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro as a gift for my wife's mother, so we had a chance to directly compare it to the Breville. It did a good job, but it was louder and not nearly as solidly built as the Breville. After this comparision, we are even more satisfied with our decision to spend a bit extra and get this model. The varible speed on the Breville is something you will definitely miss should you go back to a model that does not have this feature. Hope this helps!

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Comment on Breville BJB840XL Juice and Blend Find Best Deal by H. Curran "English Bay"

H. Curran "English Bay" — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:49:06 +0000

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

**UPDATED** All Around Fantastic!!!, August 24, 2011

H. Curran "English Bay" (St Simons, GA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Breville BJB840XL Juice and Blend (Kitchen)

August 24, 2011

My husband and I watched the documentary Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and decided we were ready to make changes. I had been eyeing another Breville juicer way before seeing the doc, but after we decided we were going to go for it I started to do some serious research on machines and models. Beginning on the Breville site, we watched videos of the different models in action, then read reviews across the web and finally decided on the Juice and Blend.

Convincing my husband to pay extra for the blender was not easy but our house is on it's third stand alone blender this year, and our current one was on it's last legs when we were shopping for the juicer. We realized that by getting the J&B we would have two quality machines in one. I make smoothies regularly for my kids, that way I know that even if they don't/won't eat the best breakfasts that they've all had a greek yoghurt and fresh fruit smoothie to get them started in the morning.

When the Breville arrived we were EXCITED!!! We started our juicing immediately!! Kale, carrots, beets, spinach, watercress, peppers, sweet potato, celery, cucumbers etc etc etc. AWESOME!! The machine was easy to use and easy to clean--thanks to the nylon brush included by Breville. Juicing for the two of us I had to remember to empty the pulp container several times so that the vegetable flakes did not back up into the juicer. The blender is as powerful as the juicer. Quality parts throughout. I just completed a 15 day juice fast, joined the online reboot community and lost 20lbs. My hands and feet stopped swelling in the night and overall I feel really great! My husband did the juice fast for 28 days, lost 40lbs and the most significant difference for me is that he no longer snores. We have fresh grapefruit and orange juice to start our mornings, and the kids now prefer real fresh juice smoothies without the yoghurt. The machine is a monster and worth every penny. It was and is a great investment for a healthier lfe!

****Updated - October 21, 2011*****

Thought that I'd post an update for our three month anniversary!!

We are now juicing once a day and making smoothies in the blender a few times a week and The Juice and Blend is still the same
powerful machine as when it first arrived. I absolutely love both the juicer and blender.The difference the juicer has made in our lives is incredible, I cannot stress this enough. Beyond both of our expectations! The blender is the best that I have ever had the opportunity to use, quality materials, large, powerful. I have not had a problem even blending frozen fruit.

Cleaning/staining: I was prepared for stains on the Breville due to juicing beets, carrots, greens etc but did not have a problem until my husband starting making his own juices. When I juice, I immediately pour the freshly made juice into a stainless steel thermos with a tight seal cap then I empty the pulp container by removing the plastic grocery bag that I've used to line and catch the pulp then I rinse all pieces to remove the majority of the vegetable flakes and pop everything into a clean sink with hot soapy water. I always start by cleaning the screen blade bowl, holding it upside down to drizzle dish soap completely around the screen then I use the nylon brush in a circular motion going over both the in and outer side, rinse it off and it looks like new! (I use Ivory dish soap, little to no fragrance, like the clean). This is really the only piece that requires anything other than a quick wipe in soapy water and rinse----unless of course you let everything sit. AHEM! Side eye at my spouse! After my husband started making his own juices, the juice jug and juicer cover with feeder tube quickly developed a permanent 'fog' and the screen is not the same color as when it arrived both of which I attribute to not cleaning or even rinsing the Breville immediately. However since I was ok with normal staining when we made this purchase, this is not a big deal, I just mention it as a heads up for anyone considering this machine.

Still happy and satisfied customers!!

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Comment on Acer AC700-1090 11.6-Inch Chromebook (3G) Lower Price by Michael W. Jarvis "MWJ"

Michael W. Jarvis "MWJ" — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:58:55 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

The future of computing is here, February 10, 2012

Michael W. Jarvis "MWJ" (Longmont, CO) -

This review is from: Acer AC700-1090 11.6-Inch Chromebook (3G) (Personal Computers)

This is a great product built around the new paradigm of cloud computing in its truest form. I would recommend it for both business and personal use. Everything is on the web. You lose the entire book and all you need is another notebook or just any computer with a Chrome browser to start working again, INSTANTLY. Same goes for future upgrades, or when your dog decides to bury it in your backyard.

There are not any software packages to install or maintain, hard drives to de-fragment or virus software subscriptions to update or to bog-down or interfere with applications. It all just works! No more having to bug your family or neighborhood IT Guru and no more trips to Best Buy that cost as much as this single machine on a service invoice from the Geek Squad.

If you have a 3g/4g phone that you can tether it to, buy the WiFi only model and save $100. Acer AC700-1099 Chromebook (Wi-Fi)

While both the Acer and Samsung are great machines, it's worth the extra $50 for the extra 1/2 inch of display. (And I think the battery is a little stronger in the Samsung too.) Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi 12.1-Inch Chromebook (Black)

It's the last "technology" change you'll ever have to go through! And you'll actually be happy you did.

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Comment on Acer AC700-1090 11.6-Inch Chromebook (3G) Lower Price by Hein Moritz

Hein Moritz — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:25:04 +0000

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Great product, December 25, 2011

Hein Moritz (Maryville, TN, US) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Acer AC700-1090 11.6-Inch Chromebook (3G) (Personal Computers)

Gets even better as we learn how to use Chrome. Looks like there are many more apps than anyone can use. Love the rapid turn-on.

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Comment on Livestrong® LS13.0E Elliptical Best Buy by Justin Williams

Justin Williams — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:57:41 +0000

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

A good buy, with some quirks, February 5, 2012

Justin Williams (Charleston, SC) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Livestrong® LS13.0E Elliptical (Sports)

Here's my quick hits if you don't want to read a lot. If this review was on a 10 point scale I'd mark it a 7.5, but since it's a 5 star scale I'll go with the closest and a 4.

Pros:

Pretty easy assembly (2~ hours for wife and myself)
Quality Packaging
Solid Feeling main construction
Resistance levels will give plenty of room for expansion
Surprisingly ok speakers
Fan is a plus
Good workout
Quiet and smooth operation

Cons:
The middle button for + / - and enter don't always work
Small display
Display defaults to heart rate *IF* you hold the meters, even when you hit the change display button (it will default back to heart rate)
Some of the coverings feel and look cheap (plastic pieces that cover up wires and such)
I feel like the base should be a little wider, and perhaps this could make it more stable. (Please read below for description on this... minor quirk IMO)

I purchased this unit after Christmas not for a new years resolution, but something that I wanted to do for myself. I didn't want to tag it as a resolution since most of those fail. The thought was that if I had an elliptical in my house, I would have less of an excuse for not using it. So far in my 4th week of owning it this has been the case. I'm likely an average guy, overweight and trying to get into better shape. I'm well below the 300lb limit on elliptical.

I decided on this model after trying out several different ones at Sears, Dicks, and reading many online reviews. To me the final two models was this one, and the Sole E35. This model won out because my wife said she liked this one better, and in my opinion they were very close. Also several reviews discussed how hard the Sole was to assemble, and this model was relatively easy to do. They both had a nice feel and smooth stride, and quite honestly I liked the way the pedals felt on the Sole better. However, their pedals are enclosed, and that would leave you on your own. The open pedals on the Livestrong may be better to some folks.

Delivery: Amazon shipped it for free, via a local delivery unit, and they placed it in the room inside my house. I opted not to pay extra. This was a little bit of a hassle to get scheduled, but this was not on Amazon. I had to call to get it arranged and everyone was nice. Once it was scheduled no problems. The local company was nice, and helped me put it downstairs where I could move it by myself to the final destination. I

Assembly: Assembly for this guy was pretty straight forward. The unit was packaged very well, with the major pieces of the unit insulated and undamaged. We took it out of the box large pieces at a time, and moved it upstairs to its final spot. Overall it took us approximately 2 hours to put it together, and the manual was pretty decent. It was confusing in a couple of parts, but we managed to figure it out. We were shorted by one screw, but it was for something that isn't load bearing, just one of the plastic pieces. The hardest time we had was fishing wires through one of the main tubes to the display. That alone probably took us 15 - 20 minutes. The product was put together in such a way to where if you are handy at all, you should be able to avoid paying the $200 extra for assembly. I'm glad we didn't pay that much. One minor complaint I have about the device is the placement of the power cord. Its in the front, which for most folks isn't a problem. We have ours facing out into the room, so the cord is visible. I can't ding anyone for this, but just be aware if it is a problem for you.

Materials: The main portions of the elliptical are very solid, and anything that needs to be is made of decent quality stuff. There are some plastic pieces that snap on the unit to cover wires and such that look and feel cheap, but their job is to make it look complete. They function just fine, but a bit cheap. The wiring for the console was easy to connect and was done well. The bolts were greased and lubricated where they needed to be. Although I bought some lithium grease, I don't believe any of it was necessary.

Operation: Here is where the meat and potatoes of the unit is at, and what most people want to read. After assembly, we both hopped on and tried it out. Initial impressions is that it felt solid, it was smooth, and it was quiet. That has held up for the most part, but some of it I feel can be better. When you are using the unit, if you start "going at it" it feels like you are swaying side to side a little bit. This may be somewhat unfair to the unit as its ~200 pounds, but it certainly doesn't feel like a ~400lb precor at the gym. With that being said its not a ~75 unit from walmart either. It's a nice in between in my opinion, however I think they could have made some of the stability bars at the bottom a little wider and it may have helped. That would come at the cost of... Read more

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Comment on Livestrong® LS13.0E Elliptical Best Buy by joan_smiths

joan_smiths — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:39:09 +0000

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Solid piece of equipment, January 10, 2012

joan_smiths (Pittsburgh, PA) -

This review is from: Livestrong® LS13.0E Elliptical (Sports)

We've had this elliptical for a year. It is so much more convenient to workout at home than having to go to the gym - we have worked out much more regularly. It's been used by people from 5" tall up to 6'1" tall, male and female, old and young. I think it slightly favors the taller people, but the shorter ones were able to use it comfortably.

We bought it at Dicks and paid the extra fee to have the box delivered to the door (because we have very steep front steps at our house), and we paid to have the elliptical assembled by their "professional" assembly people, who turned out to be the delivery men, who were less than impressive with their knowledge of assembly. It has a ton of parts, and it appears daunting to assemble if you are not good at that sort of thing. In retrospect, I would definitely have it delivered to the door again because of the weight and size, but I would re-think having their people assemble it- we probably could have done a better job, just taking our time. The assemblers made some mistakes putting it together, so we had to have a repairman come out (under warranty) and do it correctly. It has a great warranty and the repairman was available immediately to come and do the work. Since then, it has worked beautifully, with an occasional squeak or two, but nothing that lasts or is too annoying.

The good things about this equipment:
*It is very solid.
*It has a very smooth pedal motion. It is a good stride size for both short and tall people.
*The incline is great- it works smoothly and adds to the workout.
*I am not a super strong work-out person - I'm middle-aged with the usual aches and pains, but I found that level 1 resistance is not too difficult at all. I use all the incline levels in every work out and they are not overwhelming, but add an extra dimension to the workout that I think is valuable.
*I have not used the pre-programmed workouts because they look too strenuous for me, but the manual adjustments for incline and resistance take just a press of a button and I can adjust them to suit my own needs as the workout progresses.
*When I used the ellipticals at the gym, I developed a sore ankle over time. With the curve of the Livestrong 13's foot pads, my ankle has not had even a tinge of ache. I like that you can move forward or back on the pedals to change which muscles you work. You can also easily pedal in reverse at all incline levels.
*The fan works well.

Things I was a little disappointed with:
*I could not figure out how to make the USB drive work with the equipment. The directions were extremely vague and didn't work the way they described. I am fairly adept with tech stuff, but there just wasn't enough accurate info to make it work at that time. Maybe it has improved since a year ago, but I never found the time to pursue it further. But, I get a fine workout without it, just can't use the equipment to its full potential.
*The main drawback of this equipment for me is that the handles are a little too far away from the foot pedals for me to be 100% comfortable. (I am 5'4", but I have short arms and legs). I can hold the handles, but it is a slight stretch when I am at the back end of the pedals. I can't reach the extra controls that are on the top of the handles when I work out, so I just use the ones on the control panel. I tried it out at the store before I purchased the elliptical and I don't remember noticing this problem - I guess I was probably positioned at the front of the pedals. I wish the handles were curved toward the foot pedals a little bit more.
*The heart monitor in the stationary handles works fine, but it takes about 30 seconds for it to fully register. Would be nice if it worked faster.
*The manual timer is default set to 30 minutes - you have to hold the button down and wait for it to go up or down to the time you want to work out. A minor irritation.

All in all, I would buy this Elliptical again. No equipment is perfect, but this one is very solid and smooth. It has the features that are most important to my family. It has already paid for itself in the savings of canceling our gym membership last year. I expect it to last a very long time, but if it breaks, it has a fantastic warranty.

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Comment on Livestrong LS5.0U Upright Bike Sale by Sandra Martinez

Sandra Martinez — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:10:25 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Fantastic Bike!, January 17, 2012

Sandra Martinez (San Diego, CA USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Livestrong LS5.0U Upright Bike (Sports)

I have had this bike now for almost two months now. I have no regrets on this purchase. I ride this bike a few times a week to change up my workouts.
If you're in the market to buy an exercise machine, I would recommend this bike. I love it!

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Comment on Livestrong® LS13.0E Elliptical Best Buy by Buckeye9228

Buckeye9228 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:47:19 +0000

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Love it, mostly., December 30, 2011

Buckeye9228 -

This review is from: Livestrong® LS13.0E Elliptical (Sports)

We bought this elliptical after trying out several at Dick's. I went there thinking I wanted a Sole, but I put the thing at the highest resistance and I could still move fairly easily. I felt that it didn't offer enough room for progression. The Livestrong is SUPER hard at the highest resistance/incline and actually a little bit tougher than I would have expected at the lowest. It's pretty sturdy - does move a little bit, especially if I'm really pushing it. Assembly was easy for my husband, who is a pretty handy guy... works on cars. He had it together in about an hour. It had a squeak and a little bit of looseness in one of the handles, but the squeaking went away on its own and the hubby tightened up the handle in 2 seconds. Speakers are pretty cool. You can plug anything into it (phone, iPod, iPad) and it works great. Plenty loud for me. The fan is good too... if you like cold air blowing on you when you're sweaty (which I hate). The fan has 3 or 4 speeds. The stride is a little different that what I'm used to from Precor at the gym, but I got used to it about 10 minutes in to my first workout & now I don't even notice. The footpads are awesome - no sliding, and you can move your feet around to work slightly different areas (unless you have ginormous feet... then maybe not). It kicks my ass, which is what I was looking for. AND, I never have to wait my turn.

4 stars only because the display & program set up kind of sucks. It doesn't show a graphic display of the program you're on, just numbers. The programs that come on it aren't that great either - they don't seem to take advantage of its capabilities. You can't really plug in the USB (to tract your progress) and read a book/iPad at the same time because the USB sticks out and pretty much in the middle of the display (book/iPad resting area). I use the manual setting and vary my workout myself, which works fine for me.

Overall, I'm happy with this purchase.

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Comment on Livestrong® LS6.0R Recumbent Bike Online Deals by Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:42:18 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Great bike!, February 16, 2012

Laurie -

This review is from: Livestrong® LS6.0R Recumbent Bike (Sports)

I didn't buy this at amazon, however, this is a great price. My husband put it together in about an hour or so, easily. The back is SO comfortable and it is just really nice bike. I'm glad I held out for it!

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Comment on Livestrong LS5.0U Upright Bike Sale by jptennessee

jptennessee — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:29:06 +0000

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Sturdy, quiet, only minor quibbles, December 27, 2011

jptennessee -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Livestrong LS5.0U Upright Bike (Sports)

The box arrived looking like it had been drop-shipped. The box had obviously been torn open and retaped. Luckily, all the parts were there and none damaged. It was easy to assemble although the allen wrench provided did not fit some of the bolts well, so I had to improvise a little. Great instructions and the most organized set of hardware I have ever seen. I have had it for about a month, and it works well. It is very solid and heavy. It has very smooth pedaling, and is pretty comfortable to ride. The heart monitor works great so far. It has a variety of "courses" although I have mainly used the manual course.

The only minor inconveniences I've observed include the following: there is no "off" switch - you either leave it on with the computer screen doing wild patterns (and wasting energy) or you unplug it. That might not be a problem if you have it plugged into an easily-accessible place, but the disconnect from the bike itself is at the floor on one side. This could have been better designed. Also, the inside of my heels hit the pedal pivot-point sometimes. I have to stay conscious of my foot position to keep this from happening, but that may just take some getting used to. While the display offers a lot of information, pedal RPMs is not one of them, and that is what I've been used to on every other bike I've ridden. I found a pace that probably is equivalent, but it seems that should have been included. Finally, the seat is adjustable, but it is a little hard to move so that my wife has some difficulty if I don't reset it for her.

So, great performance in the areas that count with a few minor inconveniences that will just take some getting used to.

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Comment on Livestrong® LS10.0E Elliptical Best Price by J.T.

J.T. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:18:25 +0000

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

GREAT MACHINE!, January 16, 2012

J.T. -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Livestrong® LS10.0E Elliptical (Sports)

Got It 2 weeks after I ordered it, only took me about an hour to assemble. I have been using it for 3 weeks now and am very satisfied have had no problems at all. Would absolutely recommend this elliptical to any one. I am a big guy (FAT) I weigh 275 or at least did 3 weeks ago and it supports my weight just fine. my wife spends 30-40 min on it every day and she loves it as well. no squeaks, or other noises everything runs smooth,(I did add grease when I assembled the unit to the moving components and shafts.) I also enjoy the online tracking thru livestrong.com all in all i have no complaints at this time.

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Comment on Livestrong LS5.0U Upright Bike Sale by Sara F.

Sara F. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:09:02 +0000

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Solid bike at a great price!, December 5, 2011

Sara F. (IL) -

This review is from: Livestrong LS5.0U Upright Bike (Sports)

I spent a lot of time reading reviews on exercise bikes, but ultimately decided on this...I'm glad I did! This bike is solidly built and offers some features that the pricier bikes, like the Sole Fitness B94 Exercise Bike don't, as that was the other bike I considered. I found a store to try out the Sole B94 in person and was not impressed, especially with it being priced at $250 more. Livestrong is made by Johnson, which is great manufacturer of fitness equipment. Unlike Schwinn fitness bikes, this one is stable and intelligently designed. The water bottle holder is out of the way, the handlebars are sturdy and can handle spirited riding, there is a spot for your iPod to rest, a magazine/book rest, and a display that shows everything you need. One note, they used to include a USB stick to upload your workout data and I thought it was missing from my box. When I called customer support she informed me that even though it clearly states in the manual that a USB stick is included, they have stopped doing that. That was a little disappointing, but she offered to send me one free of charge. You can use any USB stick with it...doesn't have to be just theirs, but it is nice to have a dedicated one for the bike. Enjoy your workout!

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Comment on Livestrong® LS10.0T Treadmill Online Store by postgenerate

postgenerate — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:07:20 +0000

5 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

Stay away. don't be fooled by lame technology., January 8, 2012

postgenerate -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Livestrong® LS10.0T Treadmill (Sports)

Made in China.

I purchased an LS10.0T mostly because I thought the USB upload tracking feature was a cool Idea. Oh what a horrible mistake I made. Here are my problems.

1. The instructions suggest the first thing to do is to update the firmware. I tried this. I downloaded the livestrongusb.exe file to two computers. I installed the program in both. but when I try to execute the tool to generate the usb data it returns with a nasty error The update has failed, please contact customer services at 1-800-xxx-xxxx. Being a religious person, I find it extremely offensive that I have to call a sex chat line to get treadmill support. So I try to do it via the manual method. i.e. load the ROM file directly to the USB stick. Success. but trying to load that into them treadmill results in "No software on USB" Again. no success and lots of frustration.

2. I tried to upload my workouts to the web site. some dates were wrong, work out data is wrong, etc. That is ok, but the problem was that once I figured it out and uploaded all the data it was too late. There is no way to delete workout data from the website. That user profile is now permanently contaminated. The only way to correct bad data is to start over fresh with a new user profile. Others on the livestrong forum suggest "delete it from the classic view" but the "classic view" is a no longer availaible on the web site. Be very careful.

3. I tried to delete my user profile to remedy the problems. No chance. I had to create an entirely new profile.

4. the use of Facebook to login to the website and the expectation that I have a twitter account in my profile is extremely lame.

5. part to fasten the console was broken. Had to have company send me a new one. This should have been noticed in the factory.

I'm about ready to toss this POS treadmill into the trash.

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Comment on Livestrong® LS8.0T Treadmill Best Price by A Regular Joe

A Regular Joe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:06:39 +0000

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

You want a treadmill and you want to run, January 28, 2012

A Regular Joe (A Regular City, MI) -

This review is from: Livestrong® LS8.0T Treadmill (Sports)

WHO IS THIS FOR?

There are people like you and me who want to get in shape, and then there are avid runners who will tear down a treadmill piece by piece before telling you that its junk if it doesn't cost $3,000 and come from a certain brand.

I'm the type who just wants to run - I am overwieght again, feel terrible all the time, but live in a climate where it is hard to run and have a busy life which makes it even more difficult if I can't work out on my own time. I also want a good quality treadmill that isn't going to break on me, but I really don't care if it has a thousand features I'll never use. That's why I finally settled on this treadmill. It has a good strong motor, does the basic stuff you'd expect from a treadmill, has a quality construction for its price point, good customer service, and is recommended at several different stores for a no frills treadmill.

ASSEMBLY

The treadmill is a beast - plan on 3-4 people to help you get it in the house if you don't want to pay for installation. Apart from the sheer weight it is easy to put together, you just attach the legs and the control panel and you are set to run. It has enough extras to be interesting, but is well built.

RUNNING

The belt turns at various speeds. Get on. Run. Pretty straight forward. As someone who isn't overly concerned about all the details we have been very pleased with the treadmill. The only major difficulty is moving the treadmill. Assemble it where it is going to stay. We ended up deciding to move it from one room on the same level to another, just about 20 feet, and that was a serious chore. I hope we never move because I can't imagine getting it up the stairs.

As long as you are looking for a good basic treadmill, and have the $800-1000 for quality, you'll be happy with this. The 400-600 range really seems like junk.

4/5 stars.

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Comment on ASUS B23E-XH71 12.1-Inch Laptop (Black) Best Buy by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:56:45 +0000

ASUS THE GREAT, February 21, 2012

J. Indsay "JML" (Houston) -

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This review is from: ASUS B23E-XH71 12.1-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)

I have had no problems with this computer. It is very fast, light and I am enjoying it. Sorry that I am not a tech person, so someone else will have to tell you those things. I sure can say that I like ASUS products.

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Comment on ASUS EeePC Meego 10.1-Inch Netbook (White) Online by mweb

mweb — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:40:58 +0000

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

"Meego", February 8, 2012

mweb -

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This review is from: ASUS EeePC Meego 10.1-Inch Netbook (White) (Personal Computers)

I bought this item about a week ago and am making movements to return it. The operating system "meego" is just about the most ridiculous thing I've ever tried to figure out. Unless you have experience with it, or have a friend who knows how to do it, don't even try. It "automatically detects" new hardware when its plugged in, and there is no way to manually search for it. So, I couldn't use my printer. Also, I downloaded open office and am having difficulties removing it before I send the computer back. It's a good product, but a horrible operating system.

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