Developing a regular juicer maintenance schedul will help keep your machine in tip top shape (bonus: it keeps your warranty valid as well! Hooray!). Keep reading for an easy cold press machine maintenance schedule.
SAFETY FIRST! When maintaining, servicing or cleaning your cold press juicer, be sure to TURN OFF AND UNPLUG YOUR MACHINE!!
Weekly Juicer Maintenance
We recommend doing a weekly check of your juicer when it’s “cold” (as in, hasn’t been operated for a while). Look for leaks, loose bolts, or pretty much anything that doesn’t look like it did when you got it. These will be easier to spot if your machine has been idle for several hours and is dry.
Monthly Maintenance
Check Your Bolts
Check the condition of all screws and bolts. Make sure they’re all in place and snug tight (just past hand tight) – avoid over tightening. Vibrations from general machine use can loosen the guide blocks located on the side rails, the cylinder bolts and the bail latch at the top of the shredder.
Guide Blocks
All Juiced Rite juicers use Guide Blocks on either side of the Moving Platen to move the platen while pressing. There are four blocks total, one at the top and one at the bottom of the rail on each side of the moving platen. Each block has three (3) bolts that need to be tightened regularly, to keep the platen moving correctly on the side rail.
Your guide blocks might look like the the ones pictured below made with our HDPE material, or they could be made of aluminum bronze, which look a lot like brass. You’ll need to tighten either version regularly. It’s imperative that your guide blocks stay snug on the rails as they are integral to the operation of the press. So check them at least monthly!
Cylinder Bolts
The Cylinders are located at the back of the machine under the cylinder cover behind the moving platen. The M75, M25 and CM25 only have one cylinder while all other larger machines have two.
The bolts are located at the back of the cylinder where they attach to the machine. Each cylinder has four (4) bolts. Tighten all of these just to snug but do be careful not to over tighten. Fluid can leak out if these aren’t tightened enough so channel your inner Goldilocks and tighten them all “just right”.
Bail Latch
The Bail Latch is located at the top of the chute. The “bail” is the U shaped portion that latches over the hook on the shredder housing. This bail has two lock nuts at the end that can loosen a bit with the vibration of the shredder (see diagram below). Tighten the lock nuts about once a month so you can smoothly lift the handle while also having very little wiggle in the chute. You can literally test this by shaking your chute with the latch engaged to see how much wiggle there is!
The adjustment nuts are only used to control the tension on the latch lever to close the chute. You would only need to adjust these nuts if you hear rattling when the shredder is on or if the latch lever is too hard to engage.
#PRO TIP: A general once over the whole machine is always a good idea too and we recommend doing this while tightening your bolts.
Clean Your Hub
Remove the hub located under your blade holder during regular cleaning at least once a month. This will ensure it does not gum up with sugar and stuff and doesn’t become a permanent fixture on your machine (that would be bad). Check out this video for full instructions on how to remove your hub.
Open Your Electrical Boxes
Take a moment to open up and look inside the Control Panel and Electrical Box to make sure everything inside is staying nice and dry. The seals on these boxes are designed to last for the lifetime of your machine. But it’s always good to know what shape they’re in. Here’s a “how to” on opening and closing your panels.
Semi-Annual Juicer Maintenance
Change Your Oil Filter
Juiced Rite machines have two styles of oil filters: screw on and element. Screw on filters are pretty straightforward, follow those instructions here.
If you have an older style element filter, it’s a little more involved, so feel free to call us and we’ll walk you through what you need to do for your machine. You can contact our Service Dept here: toll free at 800.590.9670 ext 3 or locally at 909.464.8253 ext 3 or email at service@juicedrite.com.
#PRO TIP: Always check the level and color of your oil when changing your filter. You may need to do a full oil change more often than the recommended minimum of once a year, depending on your production usage.
Annual Maintenance
Full Oil Change
Oil is basically the life force of your machine. It’s super important that it’s clean and at the proper levels at all times. You will want to do a full oil change once a year at the minimum following the steps here.
Oil changes can be done along with your new oil filter change, which makes it easy to remember- change your oil every other time you change your filter! We HIGHLY recommend you also check your oil color and levels during all your regularly scheduled filter changes.
Best Maintenance Tip Ever
And the best maintenance tip of all time?
Love your machine.
Just love it. Keep the machine clean, keep the oil clean and pay attention. If anything seems odd or weird or the machine is not acting in a normal way, contact Juiced Rite and let us help you. You can contact our Service Dept here: toll free at 800.590.9670 ext. 3 or locally at 909.464.8253 ext 3 or good old fashioned email at service@juicedrite.com.
Juicer Maintenance Video
Check out this video for a general walk through on maintenance steps.
Happy Maintaining!