Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Review
Pros: Excellent at juicing hard produce, easy to clean, great juice quality
Cons: Substandard at juicing leafy greens, lackluster soft produce performance
Manufacturer: Breville
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Breville Juice Fountain scored about 10 points lower than the Omega Nutrition Center, performing a bit worse at juicing soft produce and leafy greens, but is much better at juicing hard produce. The Juice Fountain is also a very close second to the Omega in terms of juice quality and is easy to clean. We found the Juice Fountain to perform essentially on the same level as the Juice Fountain Elite. The Elite did better at soft produce, while the standard Juice Fountain did better at hard produce and leafy greens — and costs about half as much!
Performance Comparison
To determine which juicer is actually the best and is worthy of an award, we bought the top models available and tested them head-to-head to find the winners. We scored the performance of each product in five weighted rating metrics, with our results detailed below.
Juice Quality
Comprising the largest portion of the overall score, our Juice Quality metric accounts for 40% of the total. We used three different juice blends to judge performance, rating the quality of each drink produced.
The Breville J98EXL delivered an above average performance in our first evaluation, a primarily beet juice blend that also included apples, carrots, ginger root, celery, and cucumbers. We found the juice produced to be extremely flavorful, with a consistent taste throughout the drink. The juice also had a great texture and consistency, being very smooth throughout. However, there was a fair bit of foam produced.
The Juice Fountain performed about the same in our second test, an orange, apple, and romaine lettuce juice blend. The final product was very smooth with no pulp and minimal foam, but the citrus taste from the orange proved to be slightly overwhelming and much more prevalent than in other models.
For our final assessment, we used a drink known as the sunset blend, made up of apples, beetroot, carrots, oranges, and sweet potatoes. The J98EXL did very well, tying for the top spot overall in the test. The juice cocktail was extremely flavorful, with a smooth and creamy texture that was very consistent throughout.
Soft Produce
For our second metric, we looked at the proficiency of each product at juicing soft produce, using oranges, apples, cucumbers, and celery as our sample types of soft produce. We based scores for this metric, worth 20% of the total score, mainly on the yield each juicer got, as well as the amount of foam and pulp produced. The Breville Juice Fountain delivered an alright performance.
The Juice Fountain started off with a good performance in our cucumber test. This model produced about 200 mL of juice — above the average amount of 188 mL. In addition, the juice was almost completely devoid of pulp and only had a tiny bit of foam.
Moving on to celery, the performance of the Juice Fountain dropped, with it producing an average yield. There were moderate amounts of foam and the juice separated out quite rapidly, but there again was hardly any pulp.
Performance again declined in our orange juice test, with the Juice Fountain yielding slightly less than average amounts of juice. However, the Breville again did an excellent job of producing juice without pulp.
This product did redeem itself in our final test for this metric: apple juice. It did exceptionally well, earning the top score of the whole group. It produced 230 mL of juice — well above the average amount of 172.5 mL. The Breville again produce no pulp, but it did create about a half inch of foam and the apple juice did separate relatively quickly, like it did for most of the centrifugal juicers.
Hard Produce
Accounting for 20% of the final score for each juicer, our Hard Produce metric used carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets, again judging each juicer on the yield and quality of juice produced. The Breville Juice Fountain delivered an excellent job and the top spot.
The Juice Fountain delivered an unmatched performance at juicing carrots, yielding far more juice than the average amount. There was only a tiny bit of foam and no pulp whatsoever.
This product carried its superb performance into our beet juice test, again earning the top spot. The Juice Fountain again produced much more juice than the average and had no pulp. However, there was a bit of foam produced, about 0.75".
The Breville finished out this metric with another awesome performance at juicing sweet potatoes. It yielded about 50 mL more juice than the average amount produced with minuscule amounts of pulp and a small amount of foam.
Leafy Greens
Similarly responsible for 20% of the total score, our Leafy Greens metric is assessed much the same as the prior two metrics, with scores based on the yield and quality of juice. We used curly leaf kale, spinach, and wheatgrass as our sample leafy greens, juicing each to determine the scores. The Breville Juice Fountain struggled a bit, earning a 4 out of 10 for its mediocre performance.
The Breville did quite poorly at juicing wheatgrass, but still produced a few milliliters of juice — much better than the Cuisinart CJE-1000 which produced nothing. The Juice Fountain created about 1.5 mL of juice, less than the average 2.5 ml and the 5 mL produced by the Omega — the top scorer in this test.
The Breville performed relatively the same at juicing kale, creating about 10 mL less juice than the average. However, it didn't create a ton of foam. For the last test in this metric, the Juice Fountain's performance improved, doing an average job at juicing spinach. It had a slightly higher than average juice yield, but did create a little foam on the surface of the liquid.
Cleaning
For our final metric, accounting for the remaining 15% of the overall score, we judged the difficulty in cleaning out each juicer. The Breville J98EXL scored quite well, tying for the runner-up position.
The majority of the components for this juicer are safe to clean in the dishwasher, immediately earning this product some points. The discs are quite easy to clean, as well as the lid, strainer bowl, and pulp container. None of these parts have areas that trap food or give any difficulty in cleaning. The Juice Fountain also includes a quality cleaning brush.
Value
The Breville Juice Fountain is actually a decent value, providing excellent performance at a price that is substantially lower than the other Editors' Choice award winner.
Conclusion
The Breville J98EXL is a top-notch juicer that only had some minor deficiencies when it came to juicing leafy greens. It did reasonably well in the rest of our rating metrics, making it an excellent choice if you want a premium juicer, but are still shopping on a budget, as this model retails for half the price of the Omega — the only model that outperformed it.
— David Wise and Austin Palmer