KitchenAid 2-Speed Hand Blender

Immersion blenders can be useful, but is this one a good starting point?

A hand blender can come in handy when you need to blend things that you rather not transfer to another container. I’ve used this to make soup and mayonnaise a few times and I’ll get into how well it worked later. A hand blender is really a fairly niche tool that come in handy every now and then, but will likely gather dust. So, is this one worth having in those few instances you would use it?

Purchase Info:

I received this as a gift for Christmas two years ago, so I don’t know how much it was bought for. I found it for as low as $40 here on Amazon.

Build Quality:

Despite its mostly plastic build, this blender feels well made. The blending arm is metal, of course and seems solid. The button you hold while using it is soft and contoured, which helps it stay relatively comfortable to use for short blitzes. Fo longer blends, however, it can get tiring and may cause hand cramping. The speed selection is simple to use, as it just takes a twist of the top. Other than those things, there’s not much to this tool. I don’t see any glaring quality issues and I’d give it a 9/10 as far as build quality goes.

Functionality & Performance:

In my experience, this blender can do most things you ask it to do, just a little more slowly than you might want. For example, when making mayonnaise, I know that you should add your oil slowly at the beginning, but I felt like I had to go a little two slowly when using this. I will say that I may have just needed to make more mayo at once to help get things started, but I think I whisked my first mayo faster than this hand blender did my first time. As for soup making, this blender feels more at home. In making a butternut squash soup, the blender did a pretty good job, but it wasn’t quite as smooth as I would’ve liked. I honestly just think that this could use a little more power to emulsify things more quickly and easily. Either that or a better blade design would make this a great buy at under $50. However, it is a little underwhelming, even at $40. Then again, maybe it’s in line with others at this price point. With that being said, I’d give the performance a 7/10.

Is it Necessary?

Not at all. Sure, it makes blending certain things, like soups, easier, but if you could transfer it to a dedicated blender I think you’d be better off. I’d only pull this out for very specific situations .

Do I recommend it?

If you plan on making a lot of blended soups, sure I don’t think you’d be disappointed. If you want to make mayo or other things where emulsification is the goal, I’m not convinced that this could satisfy.

Overall Rating: 7/10

For something that I’d recommend most of us to pass on, it’s not bad by any means. I think if I made salsa or more chunky things I would be more impressed. Then again, if you have say a food processor, I think that would do a better job at salsa and still be more versatile. Just know what you plan to make with this.