I went through a juicing phase at some point last year and got pretty obsessed with them. There are a lot of different types of juicers. The 2 kinds I have are a centrifugal and a single gear juicer. Centrifugal juicers use a high rate of speed to cut the veggies and fruit. They tend to create a lot of foam because of the Oxygen created when the fruit/veg is agitated that fast. Most are 7-15,000 RPM. I think they are great if you are in a hurry and don't have a lot of time in the morning or whenever to make juice. The other kind of juicers are gear juicers. They don't cut the fruit/veg, they basically smoosh it with the gear. They go very slow compared to the other kind. The RPM is so slow you can even see the gear rotating, where with a centrifugal, it goes so fast you can't see it. From what I've read, the gear juicers retain more nutrients since they don't go as fast.
As far as brands go, well I have a Breville centrifugal juicer, and a Greenstar single gear juicer. There are lots of brands out there. Look on Craigslist for a local person looking to get rid of their juicer. The Breville that I have was only $70 off Craigslist, but it would have been over $300 new. That's the thing with juicers, you can buy them in Wal-mart for $60-80, but they aren't that great quality. You can get a really nice Breville from Bed Bath & Beyond for around $160 or so. One of the things you want to look for is metal parts. Metal just holds up better, and tends not to stain as much. As far as clean-up... well...it doesn't matter which brand you get, they are a pain to clean with a million different parts. But its just like doing dishes, fill up the sink with soapy water and soak the parts. My best advice on clean up is to do it right away, so the goop and pulp doesn't dry and get sticky.
Hope that helps.
