While there is a lot of info on the benefits of juicing and its effects on your health, we think it is time to talk about a rarely-talked-about topic – how to clean a juicer?
Juicing is amazing – but sometimes it can be a handful, especially a juicer cleaning part. Fruit pulp gets dry quickly and then it clings to the plastic parts so hard that cleaning your juicer becomes similar to a cardio session.
Washing your juicer the right way will save you a lot of trouble and ultimately prevent your juicer from ending up stashed and forgotten in the cupboard. Let’s jump right into the most efficient ways to clean a juicer!
Table of Contents
- Do I have to clean my juicer after every use?
- Can I clean juicer parts in the dishwasher?
- How to Wash Your Juicer after Use
- How to Clean Tough Stains
- Squeaky Clean
Do I have to clean my juicer after every use?
If you simply want to make a healthy juice for everybody at your party, you don’t need to wash the juicer in between. But if you’re done juicing for the day, don’t wait for the next juicing session – clean your juicer after use.
Professionals recommend washing your juicer as soon as you extract juice for a good reason. The earlier you clean, the easier the cleanup.
Most people who successfully incorporated juicing into their daily lives claim the best time to wash the juicer machine is right after, before you even take a sip of the fresh juice. The reason is simple – juicer cleaning becomes harder the longer you wait.
Fresh pulp rinses easily – unlike the hours-long residue that sticks to the walls and dries there. After only a couple of hours, your juicer will require serious scrubbing. Leave it long enough, and the food residue will start to rot. At that point, you need to disinfect your juicer thoroughly before it’s safe to use it again. Smaller powerful devices like Ninja blenders also get residue stuck between the blades, which can be quite difficult to clean.
If you absolutely must just gulp down the juice and rush out of the house, leaving your juicer unwashed, make sure to give it a quick rinse. Rinsing after use will make the proper cleanup later on much easier, as no produce pulp remains on the walls of your machine. For example, both Vitamix and Ninja blenders come with a self-cleaning feature, but that works only if you do it right after you’re done using the blender.
Can I clean juicer parts in the dishwasher?
Some juicer models aren’t dishwasher-safe, but many juicers out there do just fine in the dishwasher. For the most part, plastic parts of the dishwasher and even the stainless steel filter basket (the mesh strainer) can be washed in the dishwasher without sustaining damage. Never let the base of the juicer get wet. For example, most Ninja blender parts are dishwasher safe, except for, of course – the base.
However, it’s important to read the care instructions for your juicer model. If your juice machine requires hand washing, then cleaning it in the dishwasher may damage the parts and void the warranty. For example, some portable blenders can’t be washed in a machine, since not all electronics are detachable. It’s better to be safe than sorry – follow the care guidelines in the instruction manual to help your new juicer stay in great shape for years to come.
How to Wash Your Juicer after Use
Washing your juicer machine right after use is the easiest way to do it, and it’s a part of most people’s regular cleaning process. Since the pulp didn’t get the chance to get dry yet, it’s easy to rinse and clean up with a little soapy water. Let’s go over the juicer cleaning process step by step. Also, if you are juicing without a juicer, the cleaning process is way simpler and takes little to no time.
Here’s what you need:
- Water sink
- Dish brush
- Mild dishwashing soap
- Damp soft cloth
Get your drying rack or mat ready before you begin juicing. Once the juice is ready, you’ll have everything set to just wash, rinse, and let the juicer dry.
How do you clean the plastic part of a juicer?
- Turn off and unplug the juicer machine from the wall.
- Disassemble the juicer. Doing this should be simple and intuitive, but if you come across an issue, consult the user manual for your model found inside the box or online. For example, Vitamix blenders can be dissasambled in less then a minute for the sake of cleaning.
- Throw the pulp out of the pulp collector or freeze it for future use. Want to make juicer cleanup even easier? Line your pulp collector with a plastic bag. The solution’s not eco-friendly, but it makes repurposing the pulp for soup or muffins a breeze!
- Rinse all plastic parts and the stainless steel filter basket under running water. Try to get as much pulp off the juicer parts as possible.
- Use a bit of mild dish soap and a dish brush to gently rub and thoroughly clean tough residue from nooks and crannies.
- The mesh filter basket can be tricky to clean. Shower it with a strong water stream and use the dish brush to rinse debris from the fine screen holes in the mesh.
- Use a damp cloth to wipe down the base of the juicer.
- Let all parts air dry completely or dry them with a kitchen towel before reassembling the juicer.
How to Clean Tough Stains
Sometimes you don’t have the time, and sometimes you simply forget to wash your juicer right away. After a few hours, the pulp gets dry and starts to pose a hard-to-wash problem. After a day or two, it’s a stinky mess. Even though it’ll still require some elbow grease, there are a few things you can do to make cleanup easier. Cold press juicers usually take longer to clean than, let’s say juicers for greens, thanks to the slow juicing method.
How to clean a juicer – here’s what you need:
- Big bowl or an empty sink
- Baking soda, white vinegar or bleach
- Dish brush
How do you clean juicer buildup?
To get rid of caked-on dirt and the brown coating, you need to give your juicer a deep cleaning. Put all the washable parts of a juicer inside a sink or bowl and fill it with water, leaving the juicer pieces submerged. Hot or lukewarm water (up to 120°F) will help break down dirt quicker.
- Add a couple of tablespoons of baking soda to the water to get rid of browned, stuck, and dried produce pulp.
- Add a bit of bleach into the water to get rid of discoloration or mold on the silicone parts of your juicer.
- If your juicer suffers from hard water scale or mineral deposits, soak the parts in one part vinegar and one part water for a few hours, ideally overnight. Add a bit of lemon juice for extra strength. People often think that all citrus fruits have a cleaning effect like lemon juice does. But the truth is, juices like orange juice tend to have way more sugar inside, which makes them bad for cleaning purposes.
Let your juicer soak in the solution for at least an hour, and then use your dish brush to scrub the dirt deposits. Then, thoroughly rinse the juicer and let it dry completely before reassembling.
Squeaky Clean
And there we go – now you know how to clean a juicer! Remember, patience goes a long way, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t get the hang of it on the first try.
Ideally, you should wash your juicer right after using it. But life is not always simple, so from time to time, you’ll need to put in more effort to clean the stuck-on pulp deposits from your juicer. That’s okay though – as far as you wash it well, your juicer will be ready to take on the next dose of your morning beverage.
Cleanup is much simpler when you wash the juicer right away. Over here at The Home Dweller, we learned that the hard way. That’s why we’re here to share these pro tips for juicer maintenance with you – and if you found them useful, please spread the word by sharing this article with your friends on social media.
