Norpro 523 Stainless Steel Citrus Press Juicer

Good press that we have had for over 7 years, Works great. Has not stained, got bent out of shape or shown any signs of age.

After buying one of the "color coded" presses (green=lime; yellow=lemon) that broke after a few weeks of use, I discovered a well-respected bartender's blog who recommended this item. And boy, was he right! I've been using it regularly now for over a year and a half, and I do have a few quibbles, but it's the best citrus press I've used. Pros: It does a great job at extracting not only the juice but the essential oils, which is the whole reason for buying this thing; works on many different types of citrus; cool stainless steel look; cleans up well in the dishwasher; durability. Minor Cons: I wish the diameter was a little bigger--it will fit all supermarket lemons but some homegrown ones get too big to fit; when doing a lot of juicing the handle can become slippery, especially when dealing with cuties, etc.; it can spray juice out the side and require you to tilt it to get all the juice out, but this is endemic to all citrus presses with this design.

17 years and still using it. I first reviewed my Norpro citrus press with several updates following see the bottom of this review for the history I had bought one of the cast aluminum citrus press a week before and broke it after one day. As I use it mostly for limes and lemons I didn't want a stand type press because it took up too much kitchen counter real estate. So I did a search on the net and came across this one. First it's stainless steel and built tough,very heavy duty. second it's got a 3" bowl, large enough for the large limes and lemons, but I'm afraid that it's too small for most oranges sold in supermarkets. I feel that the design could be improved with another roll of holes in the bottom of the press, but other than that it's the best I've come across. Since I've received it, I've had a chance to look in several specialty cooking stores and haven't found one comparable. **** Update, it's now 8/15/07. I use the press almost every day (my favorite drink is 2 packets of splenda, one fresh lime and a quart of carbonated water over ice). The press is in the same shape it when I bought it. No deformation of the handles (I'm a big guy 6'6" and 325 lbs and I've really squeezed the handles hard), after a pass through the dishwasher it shines like new. **** Update it's now 11/18/2009. Still using it just about every day and it still looks and works like new. **** Update 1/12/2012. Still works fine, I now have a small amount of deflection in the handles(hey after 6.5 years of hard use that's not too bad), my solution is to squeeze one half of the lime, take it out, put the other half in and then put the first half on top and squeeze them both. This is working for me, but if it gets any worse I'll consider getting a new one - I still love this device. **** Update 8/4/2016. Still have it, still using the squeeze one side, put the second half in, put the first one on top the unsqueezed one and squeeze them both method, deflection in handles not increasing - but I think next I need to give someone a gift idea for me a new one will be a good choice for them. 11 years of service - worked out to be a great value. To quantify the deflection in the handle, the gap is less than ¼" in the pressing area. Arrived at by measuring the distance between the bottom of the top bowl and the bottom of the lower bowl (through a hole in the lower bowl) and deducting the thickness of the metal of the lower bowl. **** Update 12/11/2022 Still going strong with no real change since my last review 6 years ago. Just spent Thanksgiving with some friends that I gave one of these 17 years ago and they are still using theirs too.

This is definitely an upgrade from the average cheap aluminum run-of-the-mill citrus juicers which broke after about 20oz of juice. After reading the review by someone who had used this for over two years (and going), I had to get it, since it was of stainless steel construction, which is a step up. One selling point for me was that it was said that it is solid stainless steel. Look, these are the words of people who actually purchased and experienced these products, not just marketing verbiage. Well, the manufacturer's verbiage does not say "solid stainless steel", so I'll put that on the table as my fault as to not do EXTRA research. So, when the juicer arrived, I excitedly ripped the box open to expose the juicer. I'll have to say that I was excited that "It's HERE!" and that my old aluminum one had broken, and supposedly it was/is better than my previous one. I was a bit disappointed because it did not have the weight of "solid stainless steel" like another reviewer had mentioned. It also "clanged" like it was "hollow". After closer inspection, it is made from heavy gauge, "possibly" stainless steel sheet metal, not a solid cast which we would be led to believe from many reviews here. Albeit, the welding and blending quality is exquisite, which could lead anyone to believe it is solid, but believe me, it is not. I took it for a test drive and it definitely works better than the aluminum juicers, but not as solid as I would like. I can feel that it eventually will deform after some time. It definitely does not feel like the "buy it once and never have to buy another one" feel to it. The process for squeezing juice with this squeezer is like someone else said, counter intuitive. The lemon/lime/orange half goes in the opposite way that it would naturally fit. Yes, this way prevents juices from spraying out the sides for the most part, but what tends to happen is the cut-sides of the lemons/limes/oranges tend to fold into itself, preventing full extraction. I've also tried to cut the edges to help prevent the folding, but it still happens. Dropping the fruit in "backwards" seems to work better, which the juicing half would tend to split the peel and have better extraction, but then that would defeat the purpose of the drain holes at the bottom. The bottom line is that perhaps the bowl is too small, even for small limes. I still give this product 4 out of 5 stars because it is "better" made than the cheap aluminum ones you can buy for $10, but don't believe that this is made from solid stainless steel. Is it worth $20? Sure, I think so, but I know it won't be the last $20 I send on a juicer for sure. I'm still in pursuit of a "SOLID" stainless steel juicer. If anyone finds one, please leave me a comment. =========== UPDATE (04-21-2014) ========== A year later, it's still going strong. No rust, no signs that it's going to break any time soon. This was a good buy.

I bought this rather expensive gadget after wearing out a succession of nearly identical cast aluminum juicers, which cost about ten dollars less. However, if you wash the aluminum juicers in the dishwasher as I insist on doing, they only last six months or less before the paint starts peeling off, exposing the perishable metal beneath. No such problem with the Nor Pro, which is solid stainless steel, and should last for years no matter how you wash it. The short-lived aluminum juicers work very well, and since the Nor Pro is a virtual line-for-line cousin, it's no surprise that it works well, too. Some of the reviewers have commented unfavorably on the "springiness" of the handles, but I don't find this a problem. Yes, the handles do deform just a little in the process of squeezing (and then recover their original shape just as quickly, with no permanent deformation), but the lemon juice is fully removed just the same. (If you want to get the very last drop, just reverse the position of the lemon, facing the cut edge away from the drain holes, squeeze again, and empty the last dribble from the side. This not rocket science. An excellent, durable tool.

*****UPDATE 11/01/2014***** The rivet holding one half of the juicer to the other broke yesterday. Reading recent reviews of this juicer suggests that this a COMMON problem. I have reached out to NORPRO to see if they will replace my defective unit and will further update this review when I hear from them. *****ORIGINAL REVIEW***** I've owned a couple juice squeezers in the last few years. Both were the yellow enamel coated variety. Both died the same death: peeling and cracking enamel that got worse and worse with repeated use. This time I decided to buy something that would never peel and settled on the Norpro juice press after reading a large number of reviews. Is nearly twenty bucks a bit steep for a juice press? Not when it's built to last a lifetime. Honestly, this thing is solid enough that you could knock someone out with it if you had to. It's heave duty all the way around--nice and thick stainless steel, industrial hinge--it's built to last (and based on some of the reviews here, has lasted at least a few people 10 or more years). A nice side benefit: it's large enough to fit small to medium oranges so you can use it to make orange juice. Me? I use it to make wicked good Gin and Tonics or variations of Old Fashioneds that use fresh orange juice.

Previously, I had the Oxo citrus press. It's made from painted aluminum. The paint would get oil from the citrus rind pressed into it and be very difficult to remove. Also, in just under a year, small cracks appeared in the aluminum at the edges of the bowl. Over the following months, the cracks got bigger and bigger until it eventually broke into multiple pieces. Also, the paint had begun to chip, making me wonder how much of the chipped paint was ending up in my juice. While witnessing the gradual complete failure of the Oxo press, I repeatedly asked myself, "Why doesn't someone make a stainless steel version?" It would be easier to clean and much more difficult to break or bend. Then I found this Norpro model. It's perfect! It has fewer holes in the bowl than my previous press. I thought this might be a problem, but in practice, it's been a complete non-issue. The juice flows freely from the press and even squirts off in random directions much less than the previous press. Maybe that's because the bowl is a little bigger, or because the design is a little different. I don't know, but it just works. And yes, it's easier to clean, doesn't get citrus oil stuck to it as badly and I don't have to worry about paint going into my juice.

I was looking for a citrus juicers that could be used to extract all of the precious lime juice needed to make festive summer drinks, and so I did some research on amazon. I read all of the reviews, and settled on this one. It is just what I wanted. It does a great job of extracting all of the juice, and it is easy to use. I do worry that the hinge could break, but I have not seen any signs of it failing. So I will keep an eye on that. But otherwise I am really pleased with this citrus juicer.