Omega J8006 Nutrition Center Review

The Omega scored well above the next best product in our review, the Breville Juice Fountain, also an Editors' Choice award winner. The Juice Fountain centrifugal juicer does have an edge on the Omega when it comes to juicing hard produce, but is far inferior at juicing leafy greens. However, the Breville is about half the price of the Omega, so it may be a better option if you are shopping on a smaller budget and don't plan on juicing leafy greens frequently.

Performance Comparison

To determine which juicer is really the best, we bought the top models on the market today and pitted them head-to-head. We scored the results of each product in five weighted rating metrics — Juice Quality, Soft Produce, Hard Produce, Leafy Greens, and Cleaning. The results of the Omega are below, comparing its performance to the rest of the models in the group.

Juice Quality

Our first and most important metric, Juice Quality, takes credit for 25% of the total score for each appliance. We used three different juice recipes to judge the performance of each product, evaluating the taste, texture, and thickness of each beverage. The Omega tied for the top spot, earning an 8 out of 10 for its performance, as highlighted below.

The Omega did very well at our first recipe, a blend of beets, apples, carrots, ginger root, cucumber, and celery. However, its performance was eclipsed by the Cuisinart CJE-1000, which claimed the top spot. The juice produced by the Omega was very smooth and the right thickness, without too much foam, but the flavor wasn't as uniform. While the Cuisinart created a consistent flavor profile throughout the drink, there were the occasional bursts of celery or ginger flavor in the Omega's drink. For our second test, a romaine, orange, and apple mixture, the Omega again finished in the runner-up position to the Cuisinart. The Omega's drink was extremely tasty and the perfect consistency, but there was a little more pulp produced than the Cuisinart. We found we also favored the taste profile of the Cuisinart a tiny bit more.

The Omega did tie for the top score in our final test of this metric, the “Sunset Blend”. This drink consisted of apples, beets, and some other types of hard and soft produce. The Omega's drink tasted great throughout — though it was a little on the pulpier side and was slightly more watery. However, our judges agreed that it undeniably tasted the best out of all the competition.

Soft Produce

Moving on to our next metric, Soft Produce, we evaluated the yield of each juicer with cucumbers, apples, oranges, and celery. In addition to the amount of juice produced, we also looked at the quality, judging the rate of separation, the quantity of foam, color, and amount of pulp, though the yield made up the bulk of the score. The Omega again tied for the top spot, earning a 7 out of 10 for its performance.

Surprisingly, this model struggled a little when it came to juicing cucumbers, delivering a relatively subpar performance and creating about 10 mL of juice less than the average amount produced. However, the juice produced did have very little pulp or foam. The Omega did much better at juicing celery, tying with the Tribest for doing the best overall and generating about 175 mL of juice — 20 mL above the average.

The Omega again did very well at juicing oranges, getting the highest yield of the entire group. We peeled the oranges before we juiced them and the Omega produced a beverage that only had mild amounts of pulp and no discernible foam.

The Omega did finish out this metric with a relatively lackluster performance at making apple juice. This product still had an above average yield, but the juice had moderate amounts of pulp.

The juice was a little lighter in the color than the others and had about a half inch of foam at the top.

Hard Produce

Our next metric, Hard Produce, also accounts for 20% of the total score. We used sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots to evaluate performance, again judging the juice produced on the amount of pulp, separation rate, amount of foam, and of course, yield. The performance of the Omega dropped considerably, earning it a 5 out of 10 and placing it in the middle of the pack, as shown below.

The Omega solidly struggled at juicing beets tied for the worst score of the group. This model only created about 80 mL of juice, compared to the 140 mL of the Breville Juice Fountain.

This masticating juicer did a little better with beets, producing an average amount of juice. There were mild amounts of pulp, but only about 0.25" of foam on the top of the juice. The Omega finished with a strong showing in our sweet potato test, generating an above average yield of 168 mL — about 10 mL more than the average.

Leafy Greens

Our final juicing metric, Leafy Greens, is also responsible for 20% of the total score. We tested with wheatgrass, curly-leaf kale, and spinach to test the performance of each product, with the Omega delivering an excellent performance, earning a 9 out of 10 and claiming the top spot, as shown below.

The Omega did an absolutely phenomenal job at juicing wheatgrass, generating 5 mL of liquid — the most out of any juicer. It carried its outstanding performance into our kale test, again having the highest yield out of any of the other products we tested. However, the kale juice did have a non-trivial amount of foam on the surface. For the third test, the Omega again produced the top result, delivering an unmatched performance at juicing spinach. This product generated about 40 mL more juice than the average, though it was again a bit foamy.

Cleaning

For the last 15% of the score, we hand washed everything and assessed the difficulty in cleaning. The Omega is exceptionally easy to clean, again tying for the top score of 9 out of 10.

All of the components are a breeze to wash manually, including the filter. This task is made even easier by the high-quality cleaning tool included that looks to be very durable. Unfortunately, the various components of the Omega are not rated as dishwasher-safe, so you are limited to hand-washing.

Value

The Omega J8006 isn't really a good value pick, as it is one of the most expensive options of the group, with other products giving you a much better bang for the buck.

Conclusion