Philips Viva Collection Masticating Juicer review: an excellent entry-level slow juicer

It’s hard to call any slow juicer budget when prices start at around £150, but the Philips Viva Cold Press Masticating Slow Juicer is one of the cheapest I’ve ever tested. It held up well under testing, too, with a sturdy design and relatively compact footprint. Keep reading for my full Philips Viva Slow Juicer review.

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Philips Viva Cold Press Masticating Slow Juicer

The Philips Viva Slow Juicer is a sturdy slow juicer with fuss-free assembly. It’s intuitive to use and effectively extracts a decent amount of juice from apples, oranges, carrots and celery. However, the pulp was damp to touch which suggests there was more juice to be extracted.

Philips Viva Slow Juicer: Specs

• Material: Plastic
• Colour: Black
• Capacity: 0.75 litres pulp container, 1 litre juice jar
• Feeding tube: 70mm
• Weight: 4.48kg
• Power: 150 watts
• Cleaning: Detachable parts can be put in the dishwasher
• Other features: Drip stop, QuickClean, 80% extraction, recipe app

Philips claims that the Philips Viva Slow Juicer’s wide feeding chute can fit whole apples, which I tested in my first juicing experience. I found that it did fit small and medium apples, but the larger apples in supermarkets will be too wide. Cut these into quarters before use, or you’ll end up with a jammed feeding chute which is frustrating to clear. 

Setting up the Philips Viva Slow Juicer

Setting up the Philips Viva Slow Juicer really couldn’t be easier. There are parts in total: the pulp outlet goes on the end of the juice collector, into which slots the squeezing chamber and juicing screw. That then locks onto the main body of the machine, and under the juice chamber there’s a groove in the base of the machine into which you can slot the juice container. Under the pulp outlet you can place the container to catch your scraps, but I found that this was on the small side in testing and filled up quite fast. 

The feeding chute has a flap that has to be lifted to slot in apples and larger fruits and vegetables. This closes with a narrow hole for carrots, berries and other finer ingredients. This acts as a safety feature to protect kids from any mishaps. 

You need to plug the Philips Viva Slow Juicer in and press the power button to start the juicing process. You can choose to have the drip stop in place throughout juicing or open up the chamber (which I would recommend) to release the juice as it comes. 

Using the Philips Viva Slow Juicer

Philips gives you a very handy juicing manual with the Philips Viva Slow Juicer. It includes recipes, nutritional information and tips for day-to-day use. I did freestyle in my tests somewhat, because it helped me to compare to other juicers I’ve tried, but if you want to get started with juicing and don’t know where to begin it’s a great start. As with most juicers you can’t add fruits such as avocado and banana, or any nuts or frozen ingredients. 

Celery

The first thing I tested in the Philips Viva Slow Juicer was celery, because it’s something I juice on a daily basis for that morning celery shot. Disgusting, but allegedly very good for you. The wide chute meant I was able to add the entire celery in one go, and the Philips Viva Slow Juicer mulched it up without much help from my pusher. The screw spins around and breaks down fruit and vegetables, which is then strained by the squeezing chamber. 

The pulp was more obvious in the Philips Viva Slow Juicer than in my usual centrifugal juicer, and it’s a shame there’s no jug with a pulp separator to remove this before drinking. Most obviously though, the cold press created a much more colourful and vibrant celery juice than my usual, which is the Stellar Electricals juicer. That’s a good sign that there’s as much goodness in your drink as possible, but the total juice output from one whole celery plant was just over 200ml. That’s only marginally more than my centrifugal juicer, and the pulp did feel a little damp to touch. I tried squeezing out any excess juice with a straining cloth and failed, so while the pulp was damp it was clear that the majority of the juice (I would say 90%, instead of Philips’ claimed 80%) was extracted. 

Apples

You can feed whole apples into the Philips Viva Slow Juicer, but I chopped up a particularly large one to avoid any jamming. With this experiment I used the equivalent of three medium apples and it yielded again just over 200ml of juice. The pulp holder filled up a lost faster than the juice container itself and I had to pause the machine and empty it midway through. 

I added ginger and carrots to this juice and the result was a very pulpy and frothy drink. It was delicious though, and because I could taste the fibres I could tell it was a healthier juice than one from a carton, which really is the whole point of slow juicing. 

Oranges

Juicing oranges was very successful in the Philips Viva Slow Juicer. Again, there was a lot of pulp, which is luckily just how I like it. I was able to use the drip stop to prevent any juice from spilling when I had finished making the juice, but one small thing to note is that the juice collector doesn’t have a pouring spout as such. I used one of the corners to act as this, but pouring into a cup could definitely be easier. 

Noise level

Most juicers are fairly noisy, but the Philips Viva Collection Masticating Juicer is no noisier than most. It's certainly quieter than my centrifugal juicer, emitting a mechanical noise instead of a shredding sound that's akin to a blender.

Cleaning the Philips Viva Slow Juicer

Juicers are famously fiddly to clean, but the Philips Viva Slow Juicer can be fully taken apart and all detachable parts placed in a dishwasher. I did this from time to time, but I opted for the 90-second clean on most days. This requires taking apart the juicer and giving it a thorough rinse, which allows you to remove any leftover pulp or juice without putting it through a washing cycle. 

Should you buy the Philips Viva Slow Juicer?

I give the Philips Viva Slow Juicer 4 stars out of 5. It’s exactly the kind of slow juicer you’d expect for the price you pay, which while not cheap, is on the lower end for masticating models. The juice is clearly full of goodness, with fibres and pulp aplenty, but it’s a shame that some more thoughtful touches such as a pulp separator and pouring spout on the juice collector haven't been added. The pulp collector is also far too small for making anything more than a shot of juice. 

Cleaning is easy and so is assembly. Another perk is the small footprint, because it can live on most kitchen counters for a morning juice without taking up the whole space. There is a lot of guidance in the handbook and Philips juicing app, so for those who want to get started in juicing it’s an excellent place to begin. 

About this review, and the reviewer

Millie Fender heads up all things small appliances at Future. There’s nothing she loves more than testing out the latest and greatest cooking gadgets, for indoor and outdoor use, from toasters to air fryers. She reviewed the Philips Essential Air Fryer from her own kitchen, testing it rigorously for a month before writing this review.

Millie lives in South London and is constantly squeezing more appliances into her modest kitchen.  If it makes it onto the kitchen counters full time, you know an appliance is worth the hype.