Form over function? But you need SOME functions!

After spending a week in Europe drinking fresh pressed OJ, I came back to the US and immediately started looking for a citrus juicer. I found the Cuisinart CCJ-100 at a local Bed, Bath & Beyond: the price was right ($30), the form was nice (matched my other countertop appliances) and Cuisinart is a name that I have known and liked for many years (having had waffle irons, coffee makers and food processors from them).

At first glance, this is a nice unit. It is compact, unobtrusive and has a nice stainless steel finish. The features (as designed) are great. It changes the direction of the reamer each time you release pressure, which really helps to get all of the juice and pulp out of the fruit. Then, when the pulp strainer is full you put on a cover and press down on it which activates a centrifuge setting which literally spins all of the juice out of the pulp. It is really cool. (Imagine your washer on the spin cycle.)

Alas, all of these features are nice but none of them work. The unit I purchased was completely unreliable from day one. After about 1 orange the gears started to slip resulting in a terrible sound. The "fast-spin" feature almost never works on the first try--it simply grinds away at the gears and never engages. This morning I actually never got it to engage after 10 minutes of trying.

Others have commented about the length of the spout--this is indeed a drawback. Also the "it spins on the countertop" complaint is accurate, although this can be alleviated by holding the base steady while pressing the fruit with the other hand. (I can do this but not my wife who has smaller hands than I.) Finally, the "fast-spin" feature (when it works) makes it extremely difficult to clean the pulp strainer since it completely compresses all of the pulp into the strainer openings.