Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL Review: Best Centrifugal Juicer for Home Cooks?
The Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL is an 850-watt centrifugal juicer aimed at home cooks who want fresh juice in a hurry without spending all morning in the kitchen. At around $150, it sits between budget single-speed units and $400+ masticating models — and it earns that position, with caveats worth knowing before you buy.
Product Overview
The JE98XL is a countertop centrifugal juicer: produce goes in the top, a spinning disc tears it against a stainless steel mesh filter basket, and juice flows into the included 1-liter pitcher. Pulp ejects sideways into a 2.6-quart container you can line with a plastic bag for fast cleanup. Two speeds let you match the motor to what you're juicing — high for hard produce like beets and carrots, low for softer items like tomatoes and grapes.
The 3-inch-wide feed chute is the headline spec. Whole apples, large beets, and uncut cucumbers fit without prep work, which matters when you're juicing before work. The pitcher includes a froth separator that keeps foam out of the glass, and the power cord wraps under the base for compact storage.
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Motor | 850 watts |
| Speeds | 2 (high: ~12,000 RPM / low: ~6,500 RPM) |
| Feed Chute | 3 inches |
| Juice Pitcher | 1.0 L (35.2 fl oz) |
| Pulp Container | 2.6 qt (88 oz) |
| Dimensions | 14.1" × 9" × 16.5" |
| Weight | 10.1 lb |
| Dishwasher Safe | Yes (most parts) |
| Warranty | 1 year limited |
Performance & Real-World Use
The JE98XL genuinely delivers on speed. Whole apples, beets, carrots, and sweet potatoes pass through quickly on high speed, and the ejected pulp is notably dry — meaning more juice in your glass and less waste in the bin. Systematic testing by TechGearLab ranked it #2 across 13 juicers with particular praise for hard produce: beets yielded 181ml per run, sweet potatoes 151ml, and apple juice scored among the best tested.
Soft produce is more inconsistent. Cucumbers do well, but berries, melons, and citrus deliver variable results. Orange juice can turn bitter when pith contacts the disc — a known limitation of centrifugal juicing that the JE98XL doesn't escape.
Leafy greens are the machine's weakest category. Kale, spinach, and especially wheatgrass come out poorly. Independent testing found large clumps of unjuiced wheatgrass remaining after two passes — the high-speed centrifugal mechanism simply isn't designed for fibrous leaves. The dual-speed setting helps slightly over single-speed competitors, but if green juice is a daily habit, this is the wrong tool.
Cleanup is where the JE98XL legitimately earns its ratings. Most parts are dishwasher safe, and hand-washing the filter basket under running water with the included cleaning brush takes under five minutes. The large 2.6-quart pulp bin lets you juice for multiple people before you need to empty it.
Noise is the other honest trade-off. Centrifugal juicers are inherently loud, and the JE98XL at high speed is no exception. Early-morning juicing will wake light sleepers.
- 3-inch feed chute handles whole apples, cucumbers, and large beets without cutting — real time savings on busy mornings
- Exceptional juice yield from hard produce: beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples all perform strongly
- Dual-speed control provides useful flexibility across produce types
- Fast: fresh juice in under a minute for most single-ingredient recipes
- Thorough cleanup in under five minutes; most parts go in the dishwasher
- Froth separator included for a cleaner pour straight from the pitcher
- 2.6-qt pulp bin handles multiple servings before needing to empty
- 4.5 stars from 16,600+ Amazon customer ratings
- Loud on high speed — not suitable for silent early mornings or thin walls
- Centrifugal process generates heat and introduces air, which oxidizes juice faster than cold-press extraction
- Poor leafy greens performance; kale, spinach, and wheatgrass are a meaningful limitation
- Citrus can turn bitter when pith contacts the spinning disc
- Juice pitcher shifts on the counter during operation due to vibration
- No juice spout cap — the pitcher must be in place before you start, or juice will run
- 1-year warranty only, significantly shorter than most masticating competitors
The Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL is a reliable, well-made centrifugal juicer that delivers exactly what it promises for fruits and hard vegetables. TechGearLab's hands-on testing ranked it the best centrifugal juicer in its class, and the 4.5-star average across 16,000+ Amazon ratings backs that up. The real limitations — noise, oxidation, and weak leafy-green extraction — are trade-offs inherent to centrifugal juicing, not to this model specifically. At $150, with fast operation and a genuinely simple cleanup process, this is the right first juicer for most home cooks who want fresh juice without the cold-press overhead.
