Consumer Reports: Best juicers

You've heard it before: You need at least five servings of fruits and veggies a day. Juicing offers a way to up that number.

And Americans are catching on. Sales of juicers are up 25 percent in the past year. Want to get in on the health trend? Consumer Reports tests juicers to find the best.

Farmers markets offer the bounty of the season. But whether you're buying peaches, berries, or leafy greens, it's easy to end up with too much produce. What to do with it all?

Juicing is an option. Consumer Reports tested 13 juicers, both augers and extractors.

Extractors spin very fast to separate the juice from the pulp. They produce less pulpy, frothier juice.

Cold-press juicers, also called auger-style, make juice by slowly crushing and mashing produce.

"Auger-style juicers tend to be more expensive, but in our tests they produced more pulp, which can make for a more nutritious juice," said Dan DiClerico of Consumer Reports.

Convenience is also of key importance.

"The juicer is not going to do you any good if you don't like using it. So we paid really close attention to things like how easy the machine is to assemble, how easy it is to clean, the size of the feed tube, since a wider feed tube means less time spent chopping fruits and vegetables into smaller pieces," said DiClerico.

For example - it took a lot of time to scrub out bits of pulp from an Bella NutriPro juicer model 13695.

The best of the bunch? An extractor-style juicer from Juiceman beat out pricier juicers. It costs $70.

The best of the auger-style - one from Kuvings that costs $400.

But don't juice up everything you buy. Eating whole fruits and veggies is even better for you.

Consumer Reports says rather than buying a juicer, you might consider using a blender or food processor. That way you'll get all the nutrients plus fiber.