Breville's Juice Fountain Compact Is a Powerful Entry-level Juicer

We purchased the Breville Juice Fountain Compact Electric Juicer so our reviewer could put it to the test in her kitchen. Keep reading for our full product review.

Once you experience the taste of fresh, homemade fruit and vegetable juices, you’ll turn your back store-bought varieties for good. If you’ve never tried your hand at juicing, the process is easier than you may think—all it takes is the right appliance. Centrifugal juicers are an excellent option for entry-level juicers. They operate with a spinning blade and filter system that finely processes fruits and vegetables and separates fibrous pulp from liquid. The Breville Juice Fountain Compact, a vertical centrifugal-style juicer, boasts powerful performance in a small, space-saving package. It’s also priced at an affordable $100—but is it all it’s cracked up to be? We stocked up on our favorite fruits and veggies, pushed our favorite smoothie-making blender to the side, and put it to the test.

Performance: Plenty of power

As first-time juicers, we were excited to try the Breville Compact Juice Fountain. We’d been under the impression that most juicers were bulky, time-consuming, and hard to clean. But wow, we couldn’t have been more wrong.

Right out of the box, we were impressed with how little space the Breville occupied on our countertop. Plus, its design is pretty easy on the eyes, making it one kitchen tool we wouldn’t mind keeping out 24/7.

We made several fruit juices using blood oranges, navel oranges, apples, and strawberries. We also made veggie juices from tomatoes, celery, carrots, peppers, and spinach. We tried to use a variety of soft and firm produce as well as leafy greens to see if there were any differences in how the juicer processed them.

At 14,000 RPM, the motor is powerful and had no trouble quickly processing all the fruits and vegetables we tested. We barely had to give the food pusher much use to move food through the blade; whole celery stalks and carrots were pulled down and processed in seconds.

Leafy greens were another story. The manufacturer recommends bundling leafy greens to extract more juice and feeding them into the juicer in between firmer produce. We followed this suggestion with our spinach, but the leaves still seemed to get sucked through the spinning center blade so quickly that little juice could be extracted. When we examined the pulp, we found larger pieces of spinach remaining compared to the other produce. 

We appreciated the extra-wide feed chute. Measuring 3 inches in diameter, we were easily able to feed medium tomatoes and apples into the juicer without having to do any pre-cutting. We didn’t even have to core, skin, or destem any of our produce. Seeds, stems, and skin are no match for the juicer blade and micro-mesh filter basket, which Breville calls a Nutridisk. Our juice was perfectly smooth, pulp-free, and yes, delicious.

It’s worth noting, however, that smaller fruits, like berries, have a tendency to fly back up the chute if you don’t insert the food pusher fast enough. We think this happens because of the high speed of the juicer. We ended up with several strawberries flying across our counters before we got the hang of placing food in the chute with one hand and immediately plunging the food pusher into the chute with the other hand. 

As with most motorized kitchen appliances, the juicer makes some noise. It’s not too loud, though. The fast operating speed means you’re not listening to it for more than a couple of minutes, anyway.

Breville claims the Nutridisk extracts “30 percent more juice and 40 percent more vitamins and minerals” compared to other juicers. Without access to advanced lab testing for nutritional content analysis, we had no way of testing this claim. However, compared to masticating juicers we’ve previously used, we’d have to say this centrifugal juicer certainly extracted less juice based on the resulting pulp. That’s not surprising, though. Centrifugal juicers tend to extract less juice than masticating ones due to their high speed. The pulp produced by the Breville contains some remaining moisture, but it wasn’t enough to concern us about food waste.

Speaking of food waste, don’t throw away your juicing pulp! We stored our leftover vegetable pulps in an airtight container in the refrigerator and then used them to make other meals like egg scrambles and a quick veggie sautes with sliced chicken sausage.

Design: Beautiful and functional

Clean lines, a silver-tone base, and a compact footprint make the Breville Juice Fountain a lovely, aesthetically pleasing addition to any kitchen counter. The clear plastic bowl means you can watch the juicer in action, which—let’s face it—is pretty fun.

Similar centrifugal-style juicers come with an external pulp-collecting container. In this model, pulp is collected within the unit, equating to fewer parts and a smaller build. The main bowl features a divider that allows pulp to collect in the outer ring of the bowl, while the extracted juice passes through the filter basket and into the inner ring of the bowl.

The compact design is also extremely easy to assemble. There are only four main parts—the main bowl attaches to the base, the blade/filter basket locks into the base, and the juicer cover fits snugly on top of the bowl. You’ll have it out of the box and ready to juice in seconds.

Several safety features are also built into the design, including Breville’s signature easy pull plug. The plug features an easy to grip ring that makes plugging and unplugging the juicer extra easy without any tugging or wiggling. The juicer will not turn on unless the safety locking arm is engaged and locked vertically over the juicer cover.

The 25-ounce juice jug is designed with a special lid that keeps separates froth from juice when you pour—definitely a pro when it comes to enjoying the smoothest juice possible.

Cleaning: Pretty easy, with a little elbow grease

The Breville Compact Juice Fountain’s compact design comes in handy again when it comes to disassembling and cleaning. The main collection bowl, blade filter, and lid lift off in one piece for easy transport to the sink.

The included cleaning brush makes quick work of getting the parts clean. We used the end of the brush as a spatula to scrape pulp away from bowl and lid, then finished by hand washing with a soft sponge.

The micromesh filter is the harder part to clean. It took us several rounds of scrubbing both the inside and outside of the mesh filter with the cleaning brush to feel confident we’d gotten it clean enough. The manufacturer recommends soaking the filter in a mixture of lemon juice and water to help remove accumulated residue, but we haven’t had to do this (yet).

The parts are also listed as dishwasher safe, but we prefer handwashing plastic parts whenever possible to cut back on scratching and etching the plastic. As with other juicers, the plastic parts may also be subject to discolorations from fruit and vegetable pigments. We washed all parts immediately after use and didn’t notice and staining.

Price: Exceptional value

The Breville Compact Juice Fountain is priced around $100. Similar centrifugal juicers can range in price anywhere from $50 to $150, placing the compact Breville in the middle of the pack. Compared to larger juicers and more expensive masticating style juicers, it’s a very affordable option. It may have a smaller price tag, but it doesn’t skimp on power or ease of use. 

Breville Compact Juice Fountain vs. Breville Juice Fountain Cold

Priced at $180, Breville’s Juice Fountain Cold, is another vertical centrifugal style juicer we tested. It operates quite similarly to the Juice Fountain Compact, but the more expensive Cold model features two operating speeds for better control when processing soft and hard fruits and vegetables. We have to admit, though, that we never found ourselves wishing for more speed control with the Compact model. 

With an external pulp container, the Cold model is larger and requires more storage space. The biggest selling point of the Cold model is its supersized juice and pulp containers. The extra juice and pulp capacity makes it easier to produce large batches of juice at once. The extra-large 2-liter juice jug can go directly from your countertop to the refrigerator with several days’ worth of juice. Both models work wonderfully, so it really comes down to the volume of juice you wish to produce.