Pros
- Is just as easy to assemble and has the same food preparation requirements as most other centrifugal juicers on the market
- Obtained reasonable yields in our performance tests, except when juicing grapes
- Is mostly constructed of stain resistant dark colored parts
Cons
- Doesn’t come with a juice container
- Comes with a cover that’s so darkly tinted that it’s impossible to monitor how much pulp is in its pulp container
- Sprays juice out of its feeding chute
- Sprays pulp out from underneath its cover
- Made of low quality materials
- Because of all of its shortcomings not a good value despite its low price
Category Scores
| Assembly Diff. | 5.0 |
| Food Prep. | 5.0 |
| Soft Produce | 3.0 |
| Hard Produce | 3.0 |
| Pulp Free | 3.0 |
| Overall | 2.5 |
| Cleaning Diff. | 3.5 |
| Ease of Use | 2.5 |
| Versatility | 3.0 |
| Durability | 2.0 |
| Value | 2.0 |
| Cumulative | 34.5 |
All category scores are out of 5.
Contents
Assembly
Procedure
The Big Boss juicer, with one exception, comes with all of the same parts as most other centrifugal juicers on the market. As such, assembly procedure for the Big Boss juicer is exactly the same as it is for most other centrifugal juicers (such as this one, for example). The parts required for the Big Boss’s assembly include the following:
- Food pusher
- Cover
- Filter basket
- Filter bowl
- Motor base (body)
- Pulp container
Notably absent from this list is a juice container. Most other centrifugal juicers on the market come with a juice container specifically designed to accommodate the juicer’s design. Take a look at the photo below of the Breville Juice Fountain Plus. Note how the included juice container is of just the right height to fit underneath the juicer’s juice spout. Note how the container is relatively wide compared to its height to accommodate juice splatter into the container. Finally, note how the juice container comes with a lid that’s designed so that it covers most of the container while still allowing the juicer’s juice spout to fit into the container.
The Big Boss juicer does not come with a juice container and therefore users of this juicer will have to supply their own juice catch container for juicing. Most users will be inclined to use a glass for this purpose. However, glasses come in many different sizes and shapes – and depending on the specific size and shape glass used, such users may experience juice splattering out of the glass and onto their kitchen countertop. We were fortunate to have had a multitude of different containers at our disposal when testing this particular juicer for review. We were able to use the juice container included with the Juiceman JM250 with the Big Boss juicer. It was of sufficient height and width to catch most juice without much splattering.
An additional feature of the Breville’s juice container not shown in the photo above is that its lid features a vertically oriented piece of plastic called a froth separator. Centrifugal juicers normally produce a fairly foamy juice. The Breville’s juice container’s froth separator separates the foam from the juice when you pour foamy juice out of the container. This allows the user to pour only juice into a separate container while keeping most of the foam inside of the original juice container. Note that this foam does contain some juice and therefore we did not use the Breville’s froth separator for our performance tests. Instead, we poured the foamy juice into a separate container where we mixed it with a spoon. This represented the out of juicer yield – we’ll get back to what this specific type of yield is and what it means for the juicer’s performance later in this review. For now, it’s only important to note that the Big Boss juicer does not come with a juice container or lid with a froth separator. Therefore, users of the Big Boss juicer will not have the luxury of being able to pour a foam-free juice directly out of a juice container into a glass. They will be forced to either drink through the foam or mix the foam with the juice as we did for testing – doing so does maximize juice yield but can reduce the taste of the juice in the process.
Difficulty
Because the Big Boss juicer is mostly composed of all of the same parts as most other centrifugal juicers, its assembly isn’t any more or less difficult than the assembly of those other juicers. The Big Boss juicer does not come with a juice container which is definitely a negative in all of the different ways we described above – but none of those negatives relate to assembly difficulty. The Big Boss juicer therefore earns a perfect 5 out of 5 for assembly difficulty, the same as almost every other centrifugal juicer we tested for review.
Note
The Big Boss juicer we purchased did not come with a juice container. However, the juicer’s user manual does reference (in text) and show (in illustrations) what looks to be a juice container specifically designed for use with the Big Boss juicer and one that should have been included with it. Again, we did not receive such a container with the purchase of the Big Boss juicer we tested for review but we did want to note that it’s quite possible that we received a unique model and that most models may actually come with a juice container.
Food Preparation
The Big Boss juicer features a cover with a standard design – one from which extends a 3-inch diameter feeding chute. For centrifugal juicers such as this one, feeding chute size is the only factor that determines the size and shape of the produce that can be fed into the juicer’s chute. This is not the case for slow juicers. Such juicers require that more than just feeding chute size be considered for preparing produce for juicing with them. In any case, users of the Big Boss juicer need only to consider its 3-inch diameter feeding chute when preparing produce for juicing with this juicer.
Looking down the Big Boss juicer’s feeding chute.
To test the Big Boss’s performance, we used it to juice five different fruits and vegetables. Of the five fruits and vegetables we juiced, only one of them needed to be cut before it could be juiced. The four others could be fed into the juicer’s feeding chute whole. A list of those five fruits and vegetables and a description of the cutting required for each can be found in the table below.
Most Centrifugal Juicers (including the Big Boss juicer)
| Fruit/Veg. | Size of Cuts | Time to Cut | Avg. Time to Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oranges | no cutting required | ||
| Grapes | no cutting required | ||
| Carrots | no cutting required | ||
| Celery | no cutting required | ||
| Apples | quarters | NA | 18 |
| More Information | |||
| Chute Size | 3″ diameter |
Note: the time above is in seconds. For a comparison of “time to cut” vs. “avg. time to cut” see here.
Performance
As we discussed above, we juiced five different fruits and vegetables (in five different tests) to test the Big Boss’s ability to juice different types of produce. We juiced exactly 1 lb. each of oranges, grapes, carrots, celery, and apples – one fruit or vegetable at a time. After juicing each fruit or vegetable we first measured the initial out of juicer yield. This yield was measured as a weight to ensure precision and accuracy in our measurements. Next, we poured this out of juicer yield through a sieve and measured the weight of the juice collected that made it through the sieve – this yield we call after sieve yield. Because the same sieve was used for all juicers we tested and for all tests for each juicer after sieve yield is a much better representation of the actual juice extracted by each juicer in each test than out of juicer yield, which always contained varying amounts of pulp. Certain juicers were able to obtain impressively high out of juicer yields but these yields often contained an excessive amount of pulp. This “pulp advantage” as we like to call it is eliminated when comparing the after sieve yields of different juicers.
Tabled Juicing Performance Test Data
Juicing Performance Summary
The Big Boss’s test results are nowhere near as impressive as those obtained by the top tier top rated centrifugal juicers we tested; however, its test results are also not egregiously bottom tier either. Its out of juicer yields oscillate between being average and slightly below average. Its after sieve yields are mostly average, with only one substantially below average result. The Big Boss was only terrible at juicing one fruit in particular – grapes. Its out of juicer grape juice yield was only 10.4 oz. and its after sieve yield in the same test was only 9.7 oz. – a 15th place result in both tests compared to the 16 other centrifugal juicers we tested.
The Big Boss juicer’s especially below average results in both tests can partly be explained by the fact that we noticed juice spraying out of the juicer’s feeding chute in certain tests and while juicing grapes in particular. The food pusher included with the juicer did not sufficiently seal around the inside perimeter of the juicer’s feed chute because it wasn’t wide enough to accommodate the feeding chute’s 3-inch diameter.
Because a large number of grapes were juiced and we only juiced a handful of grapes at a time we pushed down with the juicer’s food pusher a greater number of times juicing grapes than juicing any other fruit or vegetable. Thus, more spray was produced juicing grapes than juicing any other fruit or vegetable. Juice spray landing on the countertop was obviously not collected in the juice container from which we poured juice into a measuring cup to record yield. And so the grape juice yield we recorded could very well have been especially low because so much of the juice that should have been processed by the juicer and exited through its spout, sprayed out of its feed chute instead.
As far as pulp is concerned – the Big Boss juicer produced an average amount of pulp in all five tests. The out of juicer yield produced by this juicer is neither very high in pulp compared to average nor is it low in pulp compared to average. That being said, you will have to strain the juice produced by this juicer if you have a preference for virtually pulp-free juice.
Cleaning
The five parts of the Big Boss juicer that come into direct contact with produce when juicing are the
- Food pusher
- Cover
- Filter basket
- Filter bowl
- Pulp container
The juicer’s body may or may not, depending on how careful you are while juicing and while disassembling the juicer after juicing. In any case, the five parts listed above will always require to be hand washed in a sink or washed in a dishwasher. The body may or may not have to be wiped clean.
Let’s take a look at these five parts as they’re found on the Big Boss juicer, specifically, and how difficult each is to clean. The Big Boss is unique among all centrifugal juicers we tested for review in that its cover is made of a plastic that’s so darkly tinted that it’s impossible to see through. Most other centrifugal juicers have a clear cover that allows users to look through them to check how full the juicer’s pulp container is and whether internal parts are working correctly throughout the juicing process. It’s almost impossible to see through the Big Boss’s cover. This is great for cleaning difficulty but not so great for ease of use. It isn’t great for ease of use because users will have to partially disassemble the juicer just to check whether its pulp container is full when juicing a large quantity of produce because they absolutely won’t be able to look through its cover to perform this check. The cover’s dark tint is great for cleaning difficulty, however, because it makes the cover more stain resistant. As we discuss in other reviews (such as this one, for example), the clear covers implemented on other centrifugal juicers are often highly susceptible to staining. The dark tint of the Big Boss’s cover won’t stain nearly as easily.
Similarly, the Big Boss juicer’s pusher, filter bowl, and pulp container are also highly resistant to stains because of their dark color. Many other centrifugal juicers we tested have a clear filter bowl and many have light colored food pushers and pulp containers. The Big Boss may not look as good as those juicers out of the box, but over time it should be able to keep looking as well as it did out of the box much better.
Of final note is the Big Boss’s filter basket. Its filter basket has the same 3.5 in. inside diameter and 6 in. outside diameter as those filter baskets included with most other centrifugal juicers on the market. Its filter basket also features an almost identical design with razor blades at its center and a fine mesh around its perimeter.
The Big Boss juicer’s filter basket on the left and a Breville centrifugal juicer’s filter basket on the right.
What makes the Big Boss’s filter basket uniquely difficult to clean is not the design of its filter basket, but rather the low quality of the cleaning brush that the manufacturer includes with the juicer specifically for the purpose of cleaning the juicer’s filter basket. Take a look at the photos below. On the left is the cleaning brush included with Breville centrifugal juicers. On the right is the brush included with the Big Boss juicer. Note how the Breville cleaning brush looks to be distinctly more heavy duty. We can confirm that after actually using both cleaning brushes, that the Breville cleaning brush definitely feels much more heavy duty and that its more heavy duty design makes cleaning the Big Boss’s filter basket much easier.
The Breville’s cleaning brush on the left and the Big Boss’ cleaning brush on the right.
Juice and Pulp Spray
While juicing with the Big Boss juicer we noticed that juice would spray out of its feeding chute because the food pusher included with the juicer wasn’t sufficiently wide enough to seal over its chute. We also noticed pulp spraying out of the top of the pulp container at the junction where the pulp container and filter bowl met. This spray didn’t make any of the juicer’s parts more difficult to clean but it did require that we wipe clean the countertop on which we conducted testing. We needed to clean the countertop we conducted testing on after using most juicers for different reasons (sometimes a small amount of juice would spill out of or pulp would fall out of certain parts during disassembly, for example). However, the Big Boss juicer was one of very few juicers we tested that required that we clean the countertop because of a mess that was created during the actual juicing process.
Dishwasher Safe Parts
The juicer’s user manual states that “all detachable parts are dishwasher-safe”. It also states that those parts should be placed “on the top tray of the dishwasher” where they’re “well away from the heating element”. Detachable parts include all of the parts in the bulleted list above. Note that we did not and neither do we recommend cleaning any centrifugal juicer’s parts in a dishwasher. We explain why here.
Cleaning Summary and Overall Score
The Big Boss juicer mostly has very easy to clean highly stain resistant parts. Its only difficult to clean part is its filter basket, but not because of the filter basket itself. Rather, it is the low quality of the juicer’s included cleaning brush that makes its filter basket uniquely difficult to clean. We had the luxury of being able to clean the juicer’s filter basket using a Breville cleaning brush during testing. However, consumers are likely to not be as fortunate. When you purchase this juicer it’s likely that you won’t have any tool better than the included cleaning brush to clean the juicer’s filter basket. And unfortunately, the cleaning brush included with the Big Boss juicer is of a very low quality compared to those cleaning brushes included with many other centrifugal juicers we tested. Another major issue we had with regard to cleaning the Big Boss juicer was that it created a unique mess that very few other centrifugal juicers created – namely the mess it created by spraying juice out of its feeding chute and pulp from underneath its cover. Despite these complaints, the Big Boss still earns an average 3.5 out of 5 for cleaning difficulty, mostly because of its dark stain resistant parts.
Ease of Use
Juicing Speeds
This juicer features two different juicing speeds. Its manual, unfortunately, uses very broad guidelines to direct new users as to which speed to set the juicer to in order to juice different fruits and vegetables. We discuss why two speed juicers are more difficult to use than single speed juicers here. We discuss why a multi-speed juicer having a manual with insufficient directions for setting speeds makes it even more difficult to use here.
Weight, Power Cord Length, Juice and Pulp Containers
The Big Boss’s weight, power cord length, and the volume of its pulp container are listed below along with averages for the centrifugal juicer category (Cent. Avg.). For more information as to why these specifications can make the juicer easier or more difficult to use please see here.
| Big Boss | Cent. Avg. | |
|---|---|---|
| Power Cord Length | 46 in. | 41 in. |
| Juice Container Volume | NA | 34 oz. |
| Pulp Container Volume | 64 oz. | 73 oz. |
Ease of Use Summary and Score
The Big Boss juicer is a two speed juicer which makes it more difficult to use than a single speed juicer, but not as difficult to use as a five speed juicer. Its weight, power cord length, and the volume of its pulp container are fairly average for the centrifugal juicer category. But what earns the Big Boss’s below average score of 2.5 out of 5 in this category more than anything are two things both which were not mentioned in the two paragraphs above. Those are the fact that it doesn’t come with a juice container and the fact that it has an opaque cover. The fact that it doesn’t come with a juice container means that you’ll need to source your own container for collecting juice as it comes out of the juicer. Depending on what size and shape container you use, you may experience juice splattering onto your countertop while using it. The fact that the Big Boss doesn’t comes with an opaque cover, means that you’ll have to partially disassemble it to check whether its pulp container is full when juicing a large quantity of produce. These two aspects to the Big Boss’s design are the primary reasons why we give it a below average score in the category.
Versatility
For information regarding the Big Boss juicer’s score (which is the same score as most other centrifugal juicers we tested) in this category please see here.
Durability
Build Quality and Materials
The quality of the materials used for the Big Boss juicer’s construction matches its price point. That is to say that this juicer is made of similar quality parts to those juicers that are priced similarly and of distinctly lower quality parts than those juicers we tested that are priced more expensively. Of particular note is the quality of the Big Boss’s filter basket. The stainless steel used for its constructions was of noticeably lower quality than the stainless steel used for filter baskets of more expensive juicers, such as Breville’s line of centrifugal juicers and even more expensive juicers from other brands such as Cuisinart and Jamba Juice.
Brand Reputation
Who manufacturers the Big Boss juicer? We don’t really know. Searching online for the Big Boss juicer, we found no results for a manufacturer’s website. Bigbossjuicer.com is a one-page website with an image of the Big Boss juicer logo and nothing else. The back of the juicer’s user manual states that the juicer is distributed by Emson. Emson’s website lists several As Seen On TV brands including Big Boss. The site has an image that upon clicking it, directed us to bigbosskitchen.com. Bigbosskitchen.com lists several different appliances including a juicer, but not the specific model we tested for this review. The juicer listed there comes in two different colors – model no. 9358FE for a silver version and model no. 9379FE for a metallic red version. Both juicers have a completely different design to that of the Big Boss juicer that we tested for this particular review. This leaves us with no information anywhere online about the particular juicer we tested, except for that information listed on retail websites. We know that Emson distributes it, but is Emson only the distributor or does it manufacture the juicer as well?
Quality of Support
The juicer’s instruction manual doesn’t list a contact phone number, a physical address, an email address, or even a website URL. An included warranty card does list a toll free phone number. Because of its lack of popularity very little is said about the quality of support for this juicer online.
Consumer Reviews
There are, however, plenty of consumer reviews that talk about the low quality of the juicer and about several of its parts breaking after even just a few days of use. Our survey of consumer reviews for this juicer fully confirm our own suspicions about the low quality of its parts – suspicions that arose after observing and using the juicer for only a few hours during testing.
Warranty
The warranty card that accompanied our purchase of this juicer states that it comes with a 2-year limited warranty. We did read an inordinate number of reports online of customers having trouble making warranty claims for this juicer.
Summary and Score
We really have nothing good to say about this juicer as far as durability is concerned. Not only is it composed of parts made of materials of substandard quality, but it also is manufactured by a company that isn’t represented anywhere online. To tell the truth, we don’t even know what company actually manufacturers it. Is it “Big Boss” or is Big Boss simply a brand that an American company (most likely Emson) uses to rebrand a generic made in China juicer? We have very strong suspicions that the latter scenario is much more likely to be true. The Big Boss juicer earns the lowest score possible for durability – a dismal 2 out of 5.
Value and Recommendations
The Big Boss juicer normally retails for well under $100 – usually between $50 and $70. At this price point it is just about the same price as the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro and as much as half the price of the approximately $100 top rated Breville Juice Fountain Compact. If you want to spend as little on a juicer as possible, we recommend the Hamilton Beach over the Big Boss juicer. It should be clear at this point in the review that the Big Boss juicer has a lot of issues, all of which we’ve already spend more than enough time on in this review. We cannot dismiss those issues as being minor inconveniences. We cannot honestly say that we feel that you’ll be able to purchase this juicer and be happy with it- that you’ll be able to live with all of this juicer’s problems. If you absolutely don’t want to spend more than $60 or so on a juicer our recommendation is the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro juicer. If, however, you’re both able and willing to spend a bit more, the Breville Juice Fountain Compact offers superior build quality, is easier to clean, and is able to garner better yields than both the Hamilton Beach and the Big Boss juicer. The Compact is recommended as the best centrifugal juicer in 2019.