The Best Manual Juicer In 2021

We’re all familiar with those little citrus squeezer dishes, and most of us have a juicer like this tucked away somewhere in our kitchen storage space.

You cut the fruit in half, place it over the juicer dish, then twist and squeeze until the juice comes out.

This design has barely changed since your grandma bought hers back in the day!

The thing is, they’re fine for prepping a little lemon juice for your cheesecake, but not so good for making drinks.

It takes a lot of time, energy and produce to get anything like a proper drink from a dish juicer. You’re also limited by the types of fruits and vegetables you can use.

Fortunately, there’s a great selection of manual juicers on the market today, all of which are capable of making super-fresh, long juice drinks.

I’ve reviewed four of the best manual juicers for this guide, one of which I’m sure will be perfect for your own kitchen.

First off though, let’s cover the pros and cons of buying a manual juicer in the first place.

(Want to learn more about juicing and blending? Take a look through my collection of guides and reviews.)

Why Buy A Manual Hand Juicer?

We all have to keep a close eye on our household budgets these days, and you’ll find even the highest quality manual juicers won’t break the bank.

There are less moving parts to manufacture, after all, and zero electrical parts.

Because there’s a smaller number of parts to play with, hand press manual juicers are also very easy to disassemble and are easy to clean.

Unlike those squeezing citrus dishes, you can also use a much wider variety of produce with manual juicers.

Think things like oranges, berries, grapes and pomegranates.

You just add your ingredients, pull the handle down, and the produce is crushed against a filter that squeezes every last drop of juice out.

I really mean every last drop! You get a surprisingly high yield from a manual juicer.

This all takes a little bit of elbow grease, of course, but as long as your hand control is fine you’ll be able to make some deliciously fruit concoctions with one of these devices.

There’s one final benefit to using a manual juicer.

If you’re the first one up in the morning, you can rustle up a fresh orange juice without disturbing anyone else in the house.

Any Drawbacks To Using Manual Juicers?

There’s one drawback to using a hand press manual juicer that you need to know about.

If the produce you’re using has a particular tough exterior, then you’re not going to mash it through the juicer, no matter how much upper arm strength you boast!

You can mitigate this problem though by preparing the food in advance. Peel it thoroughly, dice it up, and then just add it to the manual juicer as normal.

As long as you don’t mind this extra little bit of prep work, and the produce inside is soft enough, it’s a problem that can be overcome.

It’s just something worth being aware of before you dive in!

Summary

Before I move onto the individual manual juicer reviews, I wanted to highlight my top picks.

This will be helpful if you’re in a hurry, and just want a quick recommendation for the most common circumstances.

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BEST OVERALL- Zulay Professional Citrus Juicer

“Zulay has some of the best manual citrus juicers on the market, and this particular juice press takes my top spot. It’s solidly built from heavy duty cast iron, available in a range of colors, and delivers impressive juice yields. The cup size on this juicer is very generous too, making it easy to juice a very wide variety of fruits. It’s also extremely easy to clean and care for, and will last for years.”

BEST HANDHELD – OXO Good Grips 2-in-1 Citrus Juicer

“OXO’s manual citrus juicer is a clever design with two separate reamers: one for lemons and limes, the other for bigger fruits like oranges and grapefruits. Those reamers snap onto a cup with clear measurement lines. You get the maximum amount of juice but it makes minimum mess. This is citrus juicing on a real budget!”

BEST FOR LEAFY GREENS – Lexen GP27 Original Healthy Juicer

“The Lexen GP27 is the best juicer option if you’re going to be focusing on those tough leafy greens like spinach, kale and celery. You get an excellent yield from these tricky ingredients, but it’s turned by a hand crank. For that reason, you’re going to need a countertop edge if you’re to make practical use of it.”

BEST CITRUS SQUEEZER – Zulay Kitchen Lemon Squeezer

“If all you want is an effective, fresh citrus juicer for juicing the smallest batches, the Zulay Kitchen Lemon Squeezer does a great job. Two stainless steel strainer bowls nest together to crush your lemons and limes, and a smart filter design does a great job of keeping seeds out of the juice.”

Reviews

That’s a quick summary, now onto my reviews of the best manual juicers.

Zulay Professional Citrus Juicer

Zulay’s pretty much the king when it comes to manual juicers. The company’s got a great reputation for making high yield, long-lasting appliances.

Zulay’s Professional Citrus Juicer is constructed from hard wearing, heavy duty cast iron.

That gives it the kind of longevity that cast iron cookware’s famous for, although it does mean it’s heavy enough that you’ll want a permanent home for it in your kitchen.

If the thought of gray or black cast iron body doesn’t appeal, this juice press is actually available in a number of colors:

• Black
• Grey
• Orange
• Pink
• Pomegranate Red
• Rustic Copper

One of the big advantages of this manual juicer is the unusually large 5 inch, food grade stainless steel cup. This extra size makes it much easier to crush larger produce like grapefruit.

Once you’ve added your produce to the juicer cup, it’s a case of pulling the handle down and squeezing the contents into the glass.

That handle has quite a firm grip to it, and it’s ergonomically designed to fit comfortably in the hand too.

Although it’s heavy enough to be stable on the countertop, this juicer also comes with a set of rubber grip feet that helps with stability. Combined with the deeper footprint, there’s little danger of it tipping over.

As for the cleanup, a quick wipe down is all that’s needed here. All of the detachable parts – including the stainless steel cup – are dishwasher safe.

The combination of high juice yield, solid construction and ease of use & cleaning made the Zulay a very easy pick as my best juicer overall.

Pros

• Super solid build quality from a trusted juicing brand.
• Impressive juice extraction.
• Large cup size makes working with bigger fruits very easy.
• More color options than any other manual juicer I’ve reviewed.
• Easy to clean and care for.
• Suitable as a commercial juicer as well as in a domestic setting.

Cons

• You need a certain amount of manual strength to get a really good squeeze out of juicers like this.
• Seeds and pulp build up quickly in the pressing section.
• One of the heavier juicers, so make sure you’ve got space to give it a permanent countertop home.

OXO Good Grips 2-in-1 Citrus Juicer

This is a fun one! The OXO Citrus Juicer is designer to help you squish and squeeze citrus fruits, one by one, into a container that measures the juice.

Like the Zulay Lemon Squeezer I review below, this is another small scale juicer.

Still, it’s a simple and cost-effective way of turning raw produce into a lovely fruity drink.

The upper part looks and feels like the squeezy dishes of old, but as you push each segment down onto it, it fills straight into the juicer container below.

The container has really clear markings too. If you need to get a certain amount of citrus juice for a recipe, rather than making a juice drink, the measurements are precise enough for standard recipe measurements.

It also comes with two different “reamers”. That’s the filter part of the juicer that you push the produce into. There’s one for smaller fruits like lemons and limes, and a second one for bigger items like grapefruit or orange juice.

Every part of the Oxo Good Grips is made from BPA free plastic, and it’s dishwasher safe too.

Just make sure you run those parts through the upper half of the dishwasher. If you put them in at the bottom they’ll come into contact with the heating element, and the plastic will warp over time.

Pros

• A clever combination of squeeze juicer and measuring cup.
• Pour spout is well designed and doesn’t drip.
• Easy to grip while squeezing the citrus fruit.
• Measurement markings are nice and clear.
• A basic fruit juicer at an affordable price point.

Cons

• The design makes it quite fiddly to clean properly.
• The lid doesn’t seal as tightly as you might like.
• Small citrus juice servings.
• Lemon pulp in particular can clog the filter and stop juice flowing.

Lexen GP27 Original Healthy Juicer

The Lexen GP27 juicer has been specifically designed to tackle the really hard juicing stuff. Think produce like celery, wheatgrass, kale & spinach.

These ingredients typically benefit from an electrical slow masticating juicer, but this manual juicer is more than up to the job.

Rather than the pull lever you’ll find on the average citrus press, the GP27 features a hand crank which you turn. Even though the intended produce is tough to work with, it’s pretty easy on the arms.

The steps for using the GP27 are very simple.

Once you’ve prepped your greens, you add them to the container along the top of the machine. Next, put the juice cup under the spout, and start turning the handle.

The greens will then be crushed through the screw section.

Once you’re done, everything comes apart nice and easily for a good rinse.

One thing to keep in mind is the positioning requirement of the GP27. This juicer needs to sit on the edge of a countertop, so that you can actually turn that handle easily.

Just something to be aware of before you buy this one.

Once in place though, a suction base and clamp hold the whole thing securely in place.

Finally, there’s good peace of mind if you choose this juicer. If you’re not happy with the performance of the GP27, you can return it to Lexen within 30 days, no questions asked.

Pros

• Excellent at tackling tough leafy greens.
• Suction base and clamp keeps the GP27 securely in position.
• Can accommodate big portions of produce.
• A juicer that’s easy to use and clean.
• No quibble 30 day money back guarantee.

Cons

• Only really suitable for tackling these sorts of ingredients rather than, say, citrus juice.
• Requires a permanent, very specific location so you can turn the hand crank.
• Quite a lot of parts in the assembly / disassembly process.

Zulay Kitchen Lemon Squeezer

Remember how around 20 years ago the traditional corkscrew fell out of favor?

Out went that evergreen contraption with the twisty top and the levered arms. In came that handle-squeeze device that pops the cork out with a lever action.

You can think of Zulay’s lemon squeezer as doing the same thing for the squeezing dish we’re all familiar with.

It’s made from two stainless steel strainer bowls that nestle within each other. Once opened, you just add your halved citrus, then squeeze the two parts together.

You get a huge amount of juice out of this thing, and the filter grooves in the bowl are designed in such a way that seeds cannot make their way into the mix.

So, no hunting around for slippery seeds. You also don’t have to worry about your dinner guests grimacing politely as they try to remove them from the salad they’ve just put in their mouth.

To be absolutely clear, you’re not going to be able to make long juice drinks with this particular juicer. Not unless you have a lot more patience than I do.

That said, it is an extremely effective way of getting every last drop of juice out of lemons, limes and even small oranges. Think dressings, juices for baking and cocktails.

Pros

• A really efficient, small-scale fresh citrus juicer.
• Stainless steel strainer filters do a good job of keeping seeds out.
• A high yield from this citrus juicer.

Cons

• Not really the best juicer if you’re trying to make a juice to drink.
• Cold produce from the fridge will give your hand quite a workout.
• Not the most durable manual citrus juicer.