Omega VRT 330 Review

When Omega made the horizontal J8006, they made one of the most perfect, cheap and powerful masticating juicers of all time. A favorite among many, including myself, I was excited to see how well the company had fared with tower-style masticating juicers. And so, I’ve come to review the Omega VRT330–does it hold up as well as its more famous cousin?

The Juicer:

I rarely have anything negative to say about masticating juicers, but Omega have dropped the ball with the VRT330. While it’s a fine juicer, it requires far too delicate a touch to work properly. There are too many variables that can go wrong when juicing with the Omega VRT330, and it all comes down to a bad pulp ejection system and weak torque output.

Firstly, only the freshest and crunchiest of ingredients can be used to juice, as anything that’s soft or wilted will produce pulpy juice or simply clog the machine. Secondly, the pusher is absolutely irrelevant, because the juicer does a fantastic job of sucking in and juicing produce by itself, as long as that produce if fresh, cut to size and added one-by-one. See what I mean by “delicate touch”? The Omega VRT330 has some unique quirks that make it less user-friendly than…almost any other masticating juicer I’ve tried so far from Omega.

If fresh yet over sized produce is put into the chute, the machine shuts down, if wilted or soft produce is used; the juice becomes really pulpy, the filter clogs up and washing becomes a huge pain. Actually, taking into consideration how many parts come apart and need washing, I’d set aside 15-20 minutes after every juicing session to scrub the machine. The provided hard bristle brush doesn’t do a very good job of cleaning the screen or filter, so that’s another minus this machine’s owners will have to deal with.

Speaking of brushes and filters, here’s what comes in the box:

• 1. Two plastic 1 liter jugs
• 2. Two screens
• 3. Filter
• 4. Cleaning Brush
• 5. Plunger (virtually useless)
• 6. Manual
• 7. Juicer itself

Despite not being a centrifugal juicer, the Omega VRT330 is surprisingly loud. Not as loud as a blender, but there are far more silent masticating products out there. And as I said earlier, cleaning this machine can be difficult if anyone uses the wrong type of produce, uses the plunger or over stuffs. But, we didn’t notice any drip and when I managed to work out the juicer’s quirks, it operated very smoothly–if rather slowly.

It took me about 20 minutes flat to fill up the one liter jug that comes boxed in– using a mix of spinach, apples, carrots and beet. It’s not too slow but neither is it blazing fast–even by masticating standards.

The Juice:

Well, the juice tasted good, no complaints about that. While we did notice a bit of foam pour out the spout, sieving the juice got rid of that problem quickly. However, we noticed a pretty average yield on fruits, even worse if they were soft fruits such as peach, kiwi or grapes, and I didn’t even remotely believe the Omega VRT330 could do things like coffee, pasta or butter–it can’t.

However, leafy green yield was good and the pulp came out dry. Speaking of pulp, it’s a pretty bad idea to put it back into the juicer to squeeze out even more yield, as doing so will only encourage the juicer to clog up even quicker. Overall, it felt like too much work, that took too long to clean and set up–for basically average yield that tasted no better than anything else I’ve had in the past.

I had to remember to cut up the produce well, makes sure it’s fresh and crunchy, feed the juicer carefully and never use the plunger…for juice that’s foamy and tasted average.

Tech Specs:

The Omega VRT330 sports dimensions of 6 x 16 x 8 inches , weighs a solid 20 pounds and has an 80 RPM motor that produces an anemic amount of torque for a masticating juicer.

Final Verdict:

The Omega VRT330 is a far cry from the standards set by the J8006, and not even it’s physical form can excuse the short comings of this tower-style masticating juicer. The Kuvings Whole Juice r is a far better deal, and of course, virtually any other horizontal juicer from Omega itself will out shine the VRT.

A lot of people might disagree with me but the cleaning, prepping, quirks and a high tendency to clog on the slightest provocation make the Omega VRT330 a juicer best passed over.