Dash Juicer Reviews

The Dash Stainless Steel Citrus Juicer is perfect for citrus lovers looking for a low-priced machine designed to take the difficulty out of the citrus juicing process.

Like any product, this Dash juicer is not without its limitations. In the following article, I intend to take a deeper look at this citrus juicer to help you better understand both its positive and negative qualities as you move toward deciding if this is the juicer you should purchase.

I believe that the best decisions are educated and informed decisions. Therefore, I intend to bring together all of the knowledge I gained through my research into one easy-to-read package for you, to save you the time of researching it yourself.

Two Ways to Ream It Out

As you may suspect from its name, this juicer is meant only for citrus. You cannot use it to juice any other types of fruits or vegetables. Turn back now if you are looking for something to create fruit smoothies and carrot juices, this is not the juicer for you. In fact, if that is what you are looking for, you should check into my reviews on centrifugal and masticating juicers instead. However, if you enjoy a glass of cool lemonade on a hot summer day or like to liven up your morning glass of water, this juicer may be a good choice.

If the name wasn’t a dead giveaway, then the fact that there is no feeder chute may also tip you off that this is not a centrifugal or a masticating juicer designed for extracting juices from all types of fruits and vegetables. In place of the usual feeding chute sits a reamer which looks a lot like the manual reamers people have used for centuries to break down citrus fruits. In fact, this particular juicer comes with two reamers – one large and one small. The large reamer is well-suited to extracting the juices from large citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruits, whereas the small reamer is ideal for smaller ones like lemons and lime.

Easy to Use

The 85-watt motor included with this Dash juicer is adequate for extracting juice from soft citrus fruits. To use this device you simply cut your fruit in half and set it cut-side down on the reamer. Next, you push the lid down lightly on top of it. You do not need to press very hard. After all, the purpose of this machine is to remove the difficulty and physical strain associated with juicing citrus fruits. You won’t even need to flick an on/off switch, since the system automatically engages when it senses pressure. There is also no need to twist your wrists, which makes this the ideal product for someone with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome.

Compact and Contemporary

Like most Dash products, the futuristic appearance of this juicer reminds me of something from The Jetsons television show. All joking aside, the stainless steel exterior is not only extremely durable, it is also perfect for blending into the surroundings of an industrial or contemporary kitchen.

This small juicer takes up surprisingly little space on any countertop and is likely to be able to stay on your countertop without causing too much of a bother. If you choose to place it inside a cupboard, its small size and wind-up cord storage will make placing it on a shelf a simple task.

Affably Affordable

Many people wonder what the point is in purchasing a citrus juicer when it is not capable of juicing any other types of fruits. One of the biggest selling features for any citrus juicer, this one included, is its low price.

If you are not planning to create juices with other types of fruits or vegetables, why spend two, three, or four times as much money on a centrifugal juicer, or between four and ten times as much money on a masticating juicer? You would, basically, be throwing your money away on a product you aren’t likely to use to its full ability anyway. I believe that the Dash Stainless Steel Citrus Juicer is extremely well-priced and is worth the investment in reducing your day-to-day hassles.

On the Down Side

As I said earlier, nothing is without its faults and limitations. Of course, this Dash juicer is no different than anything else on the market. One of its biggest down sides is that it is rather short. Although the compact size means it will fit nicely under a cabinet or inside a cupboard, it also means that the juice spout sits so low you will only be able to fit a medium sized glass beneath it. Juicing entire pitchers of flavored water, lemonade, or orange juice will take a long time if you are required to fill one cup at a time then empty that cup into a larger pitcher.

Consumers have pointed out another potential limitation of this juicer. Although there were very few complaints compared to the number of positive reviews, those who posted complaints appeared to focus their attention on how difficult it is to clean this juicer. Although many removable parts are dishwasher safe, citrus is sticky and difficult to clean at the best of times. I do not believe that this problem would disappear if you were to choose a different brand of citrus juicer – it is simply par for the course, as they say.

Concluding Remarks

If you are a fan of citrus juices but are tired of the aggravation and pain caused by manually trying to extract juices from these fruits, the Dash Stainless Steel Citrus Juicer appears well-equipped to perform its duties and is available for a very affordable price. Of course, if you are hoping your juicer will be capable of extracting juices from more than just citrus fruits, you may want to consider purchasing a centrifugal or masticating juicer.

The Dash Dual Citrus Bar may be a letdown for those seeking the convenience it promises; it fails to follow through.

When I hear the words “Citrus Bar” I see images of a bar top in a tropical oasis, covered with fruit drinks. When I come back to reality and realize that we are actually discussing a juicer, my imagination pictures a juicer capable of quickly and easily supplying citrus juice beverages to an entire bar full of people.

Unfortunately, although my research showed that this particular juicer is very good for its low price, I also found that it cannot uphold my dreams of serving an entire bar full of people in a short period of time.

No More Sticky Fingers

A very unique feature included with this juicer is the built-in citrus slicer located on the inside of the lid. Simply place your citrus fruit in the cup-like holding space behind the two reamers and pull down the lid to slice your fruit in half.

My favorite aspect of this feature is that it reduces the mess you will make while juicing sticky citrus fruits. If there is one thing I find annoying about working with citrus fruits it is the stickiness of their juices. On more occasions than I can count, I have found myself running back and forth between my task and my taps, trying to clear away citrus juice from my hands to stop myself from tracking it throughout my entire kitchen. With this slicing option, there will be no more sticky juices on your hands or your countertop.

Unfortunately, the cup-like holding space included with this juicer appears to only be big enough to fit a large orange. This means that you may still find yourself having to slice your grapefruits by hand on an external surface.

Twice As Fast

After slicing your citrus fruit in half, you can move each half to its own designated reamer. That’s right, there are two reamers in this juicer. Perhaps that explains why they chose to call this a citrus bar instead of a citrus juicer.

This added convenience means that the juicing process itself will take half the time it takes with a traditional single-reamer juicer. Simply place both halves on their own reamers, pull down the lid and press gently to initiate the motor. The motor will cause both reamers to spin as they simultaneously fill the single juice cup beneath.

One Cup to Catch it All

It is good to know that this system has been designed in such a way as to feed the juice from both reamers into the same juice cup. Separate juice cups would only create more work and more dishes. Unfortunately, the single cup that Dash chose to include is rather small. I would hazard a guess that about 8 ounces of juice would fill this cup. That’s the equivalent of about one glass of juice.

I honestly expected that this juicer would have included a larger juice cup since it simultaneously juices two halves of a fruit. I figured that it was made for people who like to make entire pitchers of juice at a time. I mean, it is called a ‘bar’ and bars generally serve multiple people. Theoretically, you could fill the cup several times and empty it into individual cups as needed, but I think it would be much more preferable to fill an entire pitcher and allow guests to serve themselves.

Sufficient Space Required

This is a very large juicer. Making room for two reamers, a holding space for the slicer, and the motor means that this juicer is wide, deep, and tall. You will need a large countertop or a large cupboard to house this massive juicer, which measures approximately 9” high by 9” deep by 9” wide.

Ready, Set, Clean

One of the most popular consumer complains for this machine was the amount of cleaning required. Although the removable, non-electric parts of this juicer are dishwasher friendly, there are many difficult-to-reach parts which are not dishwasher safe.

Secondly, many dishwashers have a difficult time cutting through dried-on citrus juices, which become almost like a plastic coating of their own. As a result of this difficulty, many consumers have taken to hand washing all parts of the Dash Dual Citrus Bar. Since this juicer is larger than most others, it contains more parts. Hand washing these extra parts adds time to the juicing process, meaning that the time they saved by juicing two halves at once is now lost.

You Get What You Pay For

In the end, consumer reviews for this juicer are generally positive. Most of the negative reviews revolve around difficulties in fitting a grapefruit inside and having to individually hand wash pieces of the machine. Another common complaint is that the 90-watt motor overheats if you try to create too much juice in a short period of time.

I suppose that you get what you pay for. This citrus juicer is rather inexpensive and, thus, cannot be expected to perform as well as more expensive juicers. It appears that the majority of consumers who gave positive reviews for this juicer are aware of this fact and based its high scores on the expectations they had for this juicer. Although it cannot live up to the standard set forth by more expensive juicers, it lives up to the quality expected for a juicer of its price.