Modern machines for making juices use massive hydraulic presses to apply tremendous pressure on the fruit. They press the fruit inside out to extract its juice and it can be quite a brutal sight to see. Nevertheless, the process is exceptionally fast, and juice is delivered by the hundreds of gallons in a mater of minutes, extracted from vast amounts of fruit. It’s difficult to imagine a hand juicer extracting such large volumes of juices in so short a time. The process of making juice with a hand juicer is very slow.

That famous hand juicer is known to us all. Yes, the one that had a little upside down spiky orange in its middle, which looked like an island in the middle of a jug that would collect the extracted juice, was very popular and much in demand. This was probably the original hand juicer produced on a large scale. Different materials like metal or glass were used. The fruit was cut in half and its fleshy part was squeezed over the upside down orange and juice was collected into the little jug it sat in. It was quite a messy affair, and needed a lot of cleaning afterward. However, most families have nostalgic memories of this equipment.

Subsequently, we had juicers with handles attached to squeeze fruits without having to touch them directly with hands. You would have seen such kinds of hand juicers at outdoor events where they are used to make homemade kind of lemonade using lemon juice with fleshy part of lemon thrown in with lots of sugar and water. If ever you had a chance to drink this lemonade you would recall its having pips and the whole area around the point of making it quite messy.

The next improved version of hand juicers was the one that would sit on the table, standing vertical, and also had a handle. This design was introduced by Rival long ago in the 1920s. In this case the fleshy half of the fruit was placed onto the juicer part. But the handle offered a lot of power. Pulling of the handle caused squeezing action. This proved to be the beginning of the next range of hand juicers.

The technology of extracting juices from vegetables and fruit has undergone many changes and developments. However, it has been difficult to design an appropriate hand juicer that could facilitate juicing of leafy vegetables and the more solid crunchy fruits like apples. Some models are provided with a handle enabling you to crush these more inflexible foods and extract juice.

There is a segment of people who also like to preserve the flesh and seeds of the fruit along with the juice. For such people special filters were made to trap the squeezed fruit and all its parts. Another popular model was the reamer. In this case the action of spinning and rotation squeezed the fruit inside the container and delivered juice.

Single gear juicer, masticating juicer, single auger juicer, wheatgrass juicer… these are but different names for the same equipment. Basically designed for extracting juice of leafy green vegetables like wheatgrass, spinach and kale, these juicers can really be used to juice almost anything.

The working of this machine is very simple. You need to cut your chosen fruits and vegetables to a suitable size that can get into the chute at the top of the juicer. It’s not at all necessary to peel or remove the skin from the foodstuff. You should know that many fruits and vegetables contain live enzymes exclusively in the skin and you shouldn’t lose these nutrients by removing the skin and throwing it in the garbage.

While extracting juice of leafy vegetables or wheatgrass, you may need to slightly push these down into the main auger of the juicer. For juicing most other foodstuffs, the single gear juicers are usually designed to have an automatic feed that pulls the food down into the rotating gear by force of gravity, causing little effort on the part of the operator.

On entering the juicer, the produce is crushed or ‘chewed’ by the auger and then pushed through a fine sieve, with juice coming out from one side of the sieve and fills the provided chamber while the remaining pulp is discarded into another chamber.

The auger of a single gear juicer moves at a speed of just 80 rpm. Such low speed prevents the internal components from getting heated. And, that’s the main benefit of such juicers as heat kills live enzymes and destroys nutrients. Juicers with a single gear keep the enzymes intact, thus delivering healthier vitamin rich juice.

The low sped of such juicers also prevents oxidization of juices, essentially required for a healthy juice. Oxidization is the process of air getting added into juice, causing the juice to rot or spoil. Well, nobody would ever eat rotten or spoiled food, but many people continue drinking spoiled juice as they don’t realize that it is spoiled. This juice is not likely to cause any harm to the body, but it remains to be of poor quality and appears rather watery with a thick layer of foam on top. Non-oxidized juice would have very little foam with an even color through the juice. It may appear tasty, but lacks vitamins and nutrients, thus defeating the very purpose of having fresh juices.

Simple operation coupled with the convenience of simple assembling or dismantling makes these juicers a desirable accessory for any kitchen.