Quick verdict: The Breville JE98XL ($149.95) is the fastest, easiest route to a glass of apple, carrot or beet juice at this price, and it has the ratings to prove it — 4.5 stars from more than 16,700 buyers. It is also close to useless with leafy greens, and Breville sells a smaller machine that does the same core job for about a third of the price. Those two facts decide whether this is the right buy far more than anything on the spec sheet.
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The Juice Fountain Plus has been on sale for over a decade, which in small-appliance terms is close to geological. An 850-watt motor spins a cutting disc against a mesh basket, and a 3-inch chute swallows a whole apple without pre-cutting. Every review tells you it is fast and fiddly to clean. Neither fact answers the two questions that matter.
Specifications
| Spec | Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus |
|---|---|
| Type | Centrifugal |
| Motor | 850 watts, two speeds |
| Feed chute | 3 inches — fits whole fruit |
| Filter | Italian-made micro mesh, titanium-reinforced disc |
| Capacity | 35.2 oz juice jug with froth separator, 2.6 qt pulp bin |
| Dimensions | 14.09″ D x 12.6″ W x 16.42″ H |
| Body | Heavy grade polymer |
| Warranty | 1 year limited |
| Price / rating | $149.95 · 4.5★ from 16,760 ratings |
Question one: what happens with leafy greens
TechGearLab buys the machines it tests and ranked the JE98XL second out of thirteen juicers, overall score 68. Strong result. Then look at how that 68 is built:
| TechGearLab category | Breville JE98XL | Ninja JC151 (same price) |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 68 (ranked #2 of 13) | 76 (ranked #1 of 13) |
| Hard produce | 8.3 | 5.3 |
| Leafy greens | 3.7 | 8.7 |
| Soft produce | 5.8 | 7.5 |
| Juice quality | 8.3 | 8.8 |
| Cleaning | 8.0 | 7.0 |
A 3.7 out of 10 on leafy greens is not a quibble. It is the machine telling you what it is. A spinning disc needs something with structure to shred; kale and spinach have almost none, so they get flung against the mesh and come out the pulp chute damp rather than juiced. Celery does a little better because of the fibre, but not much.
Meanwhile the hard produce score of 8.3 is genuinely excellent, and it is the highest in that test pool. Apples, carrots, beets, ginger, hard pears — this machine is superb at all of them and does the job in seconds rather than minutes.
So the honest framing is not “is the Breville good.” It is: green juice, or not? If greens are the point, buy the Ninja NeverClog instead at the same price, or read the masticating vs centrifugal comparison for why the two mechanisms diverge so sharply. If greens are not the point, keep reading, because this is the better machine.
Question two: do you need this one, or the $56 one?
Breville also sells the BJE200XL Juice Fountain Compact. Same brand, same centrifugal principle, same 3-inch chute, and it has been listed around $55.57 against $149.95 for the JE98XL. It carries the same 4.5-star average from 12,916 ratings, which is a large enough sample that the rating is not noise.
The extra $94 buys three things. A second speed — low for soft produce and greens, high for dense roots, where the Compact runs at one fixed speed. A much bigger pulp bin at 2.6 quarts against the Compact’s far smaller container, which is the difference between juicing continuously and stopping to empty. And a 35.2 oz jug with a froth separator, where the Compact juices straight into a glass.
That is a real upgrade if you juice for more than one person or in batches. It is close to worthless if you make one 12 oz glass in the morning and wash up straight after. Most reviews of the JE98XL never mention the Compact exists, which is convenient for anyone earning a commission on the more expensive machine. I would rather you bought the right one.
The other sibling worth knowing about is the BJE430SIL Juice Fountain Cold at $199.95, which adds a cold-spin system intended to keep the juice cooler. It rates slightly lower (4.4 stars) and does not change the fundamental leafy-greens limitation, so it is a $50 step sideways rather than up.
The Breville JE98XL chute is the real feature
Everything else about a juicer is negotiable; prep time is not. The reason people stop using juicers is not that the juice is bad, it is that quartering apples and topping carrots at 7am gets old in about a fortnight. A chute that takes a whole apple removes the step that kills the habit.
Two speeds matter more than the marketing suggests, too. Low speed for softer produce reduces the amount of foam whipped into the juice; high speed for beets and carrots stops the motor bogging down. The froth separator in the jug catches what does form.
Cleaning is the tax you pay
The 8.0 cleaning score is better than the Ninja’s 7.0, which surprised me, and the explanation is that there are fewer parts and they are bigger. The filter basket is still the problem: fine mesh with pulp driven into it under centrifugal force needs the supplied brush and running water, immediately, every time. Leave it to dry and the mesh becomes genuinely difficult.
Five parts come apart in seconds and the pulp bin is detachable. Call it three minutes of washing up per session if you do it straight away. That is the honest cost of owning this machine, and it is the single most common reason the ratings that are not five stars are not five stars.
Noise, heat and the oxidation question
It is loud. An 850-watt motor spinning a disc at high speed sounds like a blender, and there is no version of this machine that is quiet. If you juice at 6am in an apartment with thin walls, that is a real consideration.
On heat and nutrient loss: this is the claim slow-juicer marketing leans on hardest, and it is oversold. Centrifugal juice does incorporate more air, separates faster and is best drunk within a few hours rather than kept overnight. That is a texture and shelf-life difference you can actually observe. The stronger claims about destroyed enzymes and lost vitamins are not something the independent scoring supports — TechGearLab rated this machine 8.3 on juice quality, only half a point behind the cold press machine.
Who should buy it
Buy it if: your juice is fruit and hard vegetables, you want it made in under two minutes, and you are juicing enough volume that the 35.2 oz jug and 2.6 quart pulp bin earn their keep. On that job, at this price, nothing in the category beats it.
Buy the Compact instead if: you make one glass at a time, you are new to juicing and not certain the habit will stick, or the $94 matters. Same brand, same mechanism, same rating from nearly 13,000 buyers.
Skip Breville entirely if: kale, spinach, wheatgrass or celery juice is what you came for. A 3.7 out of 10 is not a machine you can coax into doing that job.
How this assessment was made
Specifications, price, availability and rating data were verified directly on the live Amazon listing for ASIN B003R28HWQ with a United States delivery address, on the date shown below, along with the two sibling models named above. The performance figures come from TechGearLab’s tested review of this exact model, which buys the units it tests and scored the JE98XL and the Ninja JC151 in the same 13-machine pool on the same rubric. I have not run my own side-by-side yield test between these machines, and no number here is presented as if I had.
Verdict
The Juice Fountain Plus has lasted more than a decade on the shelf because it is very good at one clearly defined job. Buy it for hard fruit and root vegetables and you will use it; buy it for green juice and it will end up in a cupboard. Before you do buy it, spend two minutes deciding whether the Compact at a third of the price does everything you actually need — for a lot of people making one glass a day, it does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Breville JE98XL good for leafy greens?
No. In TechGearLab’s testing it scored 3.7 out of 10 on leafy greens, the weakest part of its result. A spinning disc needs structured produce to shred, and kale and spinach have too little of it. For green juice, a masticating juicer is the right tool.
What is the difference between the JE98XL and the BJE200XL Compact?
The JE98XL adds a second speed, a much larger 2.6 quart pulp bin and a 35.2 oz jug with a froth separator. The Compact runs at one speed and juices straight into a glass. Both use the same 3-inch chute and both average 4.5 stars. The JE98XL has been listed at $149.95 against roughly $55.57 for the Compact.
How long does the Breville JE98XL take to make a glass of juice?
Under two minutes for most fruit and hard vegetables, and much of that is feeding rather than juicing. The 3-inch chute takes whole apples, which removes the chopping step that makes juicing feel like a chore.
Is centrifugal juice less healthy than cold press juice?
It incorporates more air, separates faster and is best drunk within a few hours rather than kept overnight. The stronger claims about destroyed nutrients are oversold: the same independent test that rated its leafy greens performance 3.7 rated its juice quality 8.3, half a point behind a cold press machine.
How hard is the Breville JE98XL to clean?
Five parts come apart quickly and the pulp bin detaches, but the fine mesh filter basket needs the supplied brush and running water immediately after use. Around three minutes per session if done straight away, considerably longer if the pulp is left to dry on.
Is the Breville JE98XL loud?
Yes. An 850-watt motor spinning a cutting disc at speed is about as loud as a blender, and there is no quiet setting. Worth factoring in if you juice early in the morning in a shared or thin-walled home.
Related guides
- Best Juicer 2026: Cold Press and Centrifugal Picks Tested
- Ninja NeverClog JC151 Review
- Masticating vs Centrifugal Juicer: Which Should You Buy?
- Best Juicer for Celery in 2026
Glenn is the founder of Kitchenware Compare and has spent years researching, testing, and reviewing kitchen appliances, cookware, and gadgets. A lifelong home cook raised in a family that treated every meal as an occasion, Glenn started this site to cut through the noise of conflicting product reviews and give readers honest, practical guidance. When he is not testing the latest air fryer or digging into the specs of a new espresso machine, he can usually be found experimenting with new recipes or hunting for the perfect cast iron skillet at a flea market.
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