 The GrandDaddy of Hand Blenders! |
| Review Date: June 25, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Stephanie Lamphere, Birmingham, AL USA |
June 25, 2004: I have had a Braun handblender for many years (10 years?), and was pleased with its performance, until it finally lost its spunk last week. I bought this product yesterday as a replacement, and I must say I am very pleasantly surprised! This was a HUGE step up! I would even say that this is a professional quality gadget! (It is certainly styled to look the part!)
My favorite thing to make with my handblender is hummus - a mediterranean chick pea dip - and last night I made some the smooooothest hummus I ever made! This is in part because of the 9 speeds available on this model. I started out with lower speeds and then worked my way up to the top one. This is a large handblender, but it was comfortable and easy to use - lightweight even, and sure has a LOT of power. As with most of these products, it was a little difficult to clean the blades, but not a problem. (Really, the best way to clean it is to "blend" a cup of soapy water!)
There other models of this that come with attachments - that might be nice in the future, if I want to whip or chop using the attachments - but this basic model with the blender and the cup are all I need for most anything, and worth the price tag for the POWER you get from this brand! It's true what they say - KitchenAid ROCKS!
UPDATE: yikes! I was blending bread into breadcrumbs (not toasted, silly me) and it got doughy and really thick and blew the fuse. If anyone knows how to fix that, please comment. I stand by my earlier glowing review - this incident was my fault! |
Quite useful, seems well made
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| Review Date: December 21, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Matthew Leo, Boston, MA |
For those of you have have never had one, these immersion blenders are quite handy. They are easy to clean, and convenient to use. They also don't take up much space; I keep my KitchenAid unit on the counter, and store the beaker in the cupboard where I keep glasses, with the blender attachment inside. It's no fuss at all if you want to mix just a single drink. While a traditional blender is more versatile, if I had a choice of only one I'd go with the hand blender as being the most useful on a day to day basis.
This is the second immersion blender I have owned. I like this one quite a bit; it is powerful, but quiet. I'm not sure whether having 9 speeds is so important, I find I either use speed setting 1 or 9. Maybe they should make custom units that go all the way to 11. ;-)
One concern with a device like this is marrying a powerful motor to a removeable attachment. My first device (an Oster) chewed itself to bits, leaving metal shavings in my food (good thing I checked). The KitchenAid unit's attachment has a good positive lock design which makes this improbable. A safety interock would have been better. The metal shaft of the blending attachment is driven by a hard plastic socket with slim splines. This means in the unlikely event of anything ending up in your food, you'll have tiny bits of fractured plastic, not desirable of course, but preferable to long, razor sharp metal shavings. The socket looks like it could be replaced if necessary, but given the price most people would opt for replacing the entire unit over having it serviced.
One thing would be nice is if the guard around the actual blades was plastic instead of metal. Then it could be used directly inside nonstick saucepans for pureeing soup.
Conclusion: a safety interlock and plastic blender shield would improve this product, but overall it is well made, quiet and safe. Few things are made to last these days, but given how useful this device is, its a safe bet you will get your money's worth. |
The Handblender to End all Handblenders
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| Review Date: August 16, 2004 |
| Reviewer: M. Pierce, SLC, UT USA |
You really can't go wrong with KitchenAid. Form and Function must be their mantra. I use this for sorbet, soups and other instances where a food processor is inconvenient. In fact, I've put my black and decker blender into storage - with the handblender who needs it. You have the very convenient control of the angle. Gone are the days of stick a knife in the blender to get everything blended.
The speed control is perfect and the blender is precise enough that you can partially blend items easily. Clean up is a snap and the lower half separates from the motor half. Like my KitchenAid mixer, I get the feeling that I'm going to have this tool for life. |
POWERFUL !!!
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| Review Date: June 17, 2005 |
| Reviewer: H. Bowden, Daphne AL |
Like the previous reviewer, I owned a Braun for over 20 yrs. The Braun still works beautifully but I thought I'd like one stronger. I love the KitchenAid quality so I picked KitchenAid. I bought the cobalt blue for $20 including the rebate, so it's a steal. When it arrived, I made some salsa. Thinking it would chop like my Braun, I turned it to speed 9. 5 seconds later, everything was liquidfied. Including the onions! Learned my lesson. Don't make salsa on speed 9. Other than my own fault for underestimating this tool, it's GREAT!! Especially for making smoothie and whipping cream. (I bought the whisk attachement) A definite must tool in the kitchen. I just wish Amazon had the black one on sale when I purchased the blue.
One thing I'd like to add is, KitchenAid customer service is excellent. They didn't make me pay for shipping a defective stand mixer back to them. In addition, since they were out of the model I had, they upgraded my 5 qt mixer to a 6 qt professional. That was a 150$ upgrade. I just called them on a stand blender I bought, and they were willing to send out a replacing immediately before retreiving the other one, once again, shipping label would be included. However, after toying with the blender, turned out it was my fault. The stand blender was perfectly fine. |
Sweet
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| Review Date: March 21, 2007 |
| Reviewer: orangekay, San Francisco, CA United States |
The last time I used a "stick blender" was back in the 80s when the Braun version first hit the consumer market and the infomercials started pitching that "Venturri Ring" garbage on TV. I almost never used my Braun as it was essentially worthless for most tasks, but I've seen so many people recommend similar looking gadgets recently I couldn't resist nabbing this one when it was on sale for $29.
Suffice to say, this thing has a lot more power than the models of 20 years ago, and it's built like a tank to boot. I haven't had a reason to turn it up past 5 on the speed dial so far, as even that is just way too much power for most tasks.
My one gripe is that there's no way to lock the power button down while in use. I understand that this is probably for safety reasons, but it takes quite a bit of force to trip the switch, and my wrist starts getting tired pretty quickly. I can't imagine what anyone with tendonitis or arthritis would go through trying to use this thing. I also have no clue why they bothered throwing in the cheap little plastic cup thing. Anyone who's in the market for an immersion blender probably already has some kind of vessel to do their blending in, but there it is. |
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