In 2016, Juicero launched a really expensive juicer, which was imaginatively named the Juicero press. It was advertised as having a bunch of really fancy features, such as its own app, special juice packs that could only be used with the Juicero Press, and an ability to squeeze out juice with 4 tons of force. All of which could be yours for a mere six-hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Needless to say, Juicero had made something that was overengineered, a fact that would come out soon enough.

In 2017, Bloomberg posted a youtube video showing that the juice packs the Juicero was made to squeeze out with 4 tons of force could just as easily be squeezed with someone’s hands. Needless to say, this was not good for the already struggling sales of the Juicero press. 

Even more interesting, however, was the sheer amount of engineering that had gone into the machine. The basic structure of the thing spits in the face of standardization and insteads has gone all out with custom made parts, which did nothing but serve to make the Juicero more expensive. Expensive and hard-to-make machined parts are generally avoided as much as possibly, but the Juicero Press has 8 of these. For context, the average piece of hardware has 2. The plastic covering that is overlaid on top of the actual machinery was made with an expensive technique called overmolding, rather than use something else that could have easily done the same thing for less cost. And again, this was all used to create something that your hands could do just as well.

There is a name for these kinds of contraptions, and they are called Rube Goldberg Machines. Named after the cartoonist who first drew them, Rube Goldberg machines accomplish a specific task by having a series of unrelated devices all do simple tasks which trigger the next device. The Juicero Press is simply another of these devices, made to capitalize on its glitz and over-engineering to trick people into thinking that it is a worthwhile machine to buy, when in reality, it is about as useful, if not less, than a pile of bricks.