Hand Blender Review

Hand and immersion blenders: great for soups

Although they can't totally replace full-size blenders (covered in our separate report on blenders), hand blenders (also called stick or immersion blenders) are handy for pureeing soups or frothing milk in the pot. The best reviews of hand blenders compare performance by whipping cream soups, pureeing tomatoes for marinara sauce or blending smoothies.

The Washington Post has the most recent and comprehensive review of hand blenders we found. Staff writers measure the performance of 11 handed blenders in four separate tests -- pureeing tomatoes, mixing salsa, whipping smoothies and pureeing a can of black beans in their liquid. Another excellent, older test can be found at Cook's Illustrated magazine, where editors evaluate seven hand blenders (priced between $13 and $70), by whizzing up marinara sauce, pesto and broccoli soup. Food & Wine magazine includes hand blenders as part of its review of 76 small appliances, but this article is sparse and not nearly as comprehensive as the reviews published in The Washington Post and Cook's Illustrated.

We also found some good product testing in smaller publications and specialty websites. For example, Only Cookware Blog lists the pros and cons for three hand blenders, but doesn't recommend a particular model. Bon Appetit magazine and KitchenGadgetGals.com names favorites, but the number of hand blenders and testing methodology are unknown. Wowzio.com, Amazon.com, Cooking.com and Epinions.com provide owner-written reviews on a range of models. Particularly insightful is how well hand blenders hold up from repeated use.

Australia's Choice and the U.K.'s Which? magazines each test numerous stick blenders in great detail, but most models are not available in the U.S. or have been discontinued. ConsumerReports.org doesn't report on hand blenders.

In an interview in Cook's Illustrated magazine, Chef Jean-Louis Gerin says that he uses a hand blender to emulsify sauces with purees of aromatic vegetables, such as shallots and garlic, to reduce the amount of butter added. Immersion blenders also aerate sauces more than whisks can, which gives the finished product a lighter texture. Cook's Illustrated recommends using tall, tapered containers for handheld blending; these containers allow the blades to be submerged, which makes for smoother sauces and vinaigrettes and less mess.

Most hand blenders are simple devices, and most get similar ratings ranging between good to very good. A few models, however, don't work as well as others in testing. One professional test describes the Oster Hand Blender with Blending Cup (*Est. $25) as noisy and not very stable. The majority of reviewers at Amazon.com concur that this hand blender falls short of expectations. In the same professional review, the Cuisinart Cordless hand blender (*Est. $80) lacks power and doesn't perform as well as others. It receives mixed reviews on Amazon.com. In Food & Wine's tests, the powerful 500-watt motor on the Dualit 88860 (*Est. $80) earns praise, but editors found it heavy and a bit awkward to hold.