OT: Hand-held Blenders

[Chris J Dixon]

Off-topic, but I know you all like to talk equipment ;-)

Currently I liquidise large pans of soup by ladling it in batches into the liquidiser attachment on my Kenwood Chef. It does an excellent job, but the process is a bit messy and time-consuming.

I am contemplating getting a hand blender for this task, so that I can simply process it whilst still in the saucepan, and wondered what experience others have had.

I have a feeling that many of these appliances are only intermittently rated, say 1 minute out of three, for instance, which would not really be suitable.

Which best buys are:

Braun MR4050 HC £29.00 Kenwood HB615 Wizzard Pro £25.00 Kenwood HB150 £13.00

But looking on Amazon you can get plenty which are very much more expensive than any of those tested. At what point would more money buy something gutsy enough for my intended use?

Chris

[NOSPAMnet]

I have a Braun and use it for the very purpose you mention and have had no problem with it .It does that job admirably and saves several filling of the liquidiser. I can't remember which model it is but it has the small jug,large jug,whisk and the 3 different bladed parts . It's multi-speed with Turbo setting . It was a lot more than £29 tho'.I got it in Argos.

[Adrian C]

Don't forget the obvious!

A quote there from a satisfied user ...

"I have used mine for years and ground everything from soup to nuts I think it will out last me , thats ok I'll hand it down to someone who likes to work"

[Lino expert]

+1 for a Braun, mine's a Vario, I've had it for a few years now so the name may have been superceded, but it's an extremely nifty bit of kit

- easy to up the speed while you're holding it, good blades, nice extras with the jugs (ooh err) and all that malarky.

[Gordon Henderson]

We got a Bamix a couple of years back. Maybe 3.

don't think we got it from there, but that's sort of what we have - the blender, 3 blades and a grinder and a stand. The "Gastro 200" is probably the closest to what we have.

We've given it a lot of abuse - mostly grinding ice to make slush/smoothies. The flat blade makes a really smooth milk shake though! (Ice, crushed + cream, blended + flavour = instant ice cream/really thick "shake"... crude but effective!)

Much more expensive that the ones you're looking at though!

Ours came with 4 beakers too, although I can't remember if we bought them separately - 2 plain ones and 2 with pouring spouts. Ah, they're on the accessories page:

's the wet and dry mill we have - although I have to say, I've only ever used it once more out of curiosity than anything else!

Just checked the model - it's a 200W model and rated for 5 minutes constant use. I know I've given it plenty of abuse for what seemed long periods of time and it's never felt hot...

FWIW: I used to have one of the older Braun ones, and it was fine for soup, but I've never consider blitzing ice with it!

Of-course, there's always a Blendtec...

it probably will!)

Gordon

[Rod]

I absolutely 100% agree - much better idea. I used to avoid whizzing soups in a liquidiser because it tends to be messy and tedious and ends up with more washing up! And dangerous - setting it off with a litre of very hot soup and a lid not quite down isn't a good idea.

I've always felt, perhaps unfairly, that liquidised soups can end up a bit homogenised - and prefer to stop slightly early with the stick blender - while there is a little texture left.

At the time, I was absolutely 'off' Kenwood as they had let me down over something or other - ended up with a Braun Type 4193 (400W). Think that might be the MR4000 here:

Adequate - but nothing special. We make fairly thick soups as a rule and it copes. I have been finding it seems to cut out intermittently at high speed. :-( Our previous Braun was in some ways better. Never knowingly had a problem with limited usage time - it doesn't really take very long in the sort of quantities we process - maybe at most 2/3 litres or so at a time.

I wondered about this one:

(and there are many more, at much higher prices, if you click on 'stick blenders' towards the top of that page).

One thing - I would *always* choose one where the whizzy bit separates from the motor bit. Makes washing it much easier, even finding somewhere to put it down for a few minutes is easier. I know the Warings one doesn't... :-) But it is more of a beast to look at although a lower wattage. Variable speed would also be quite nice but we manage with two speeds.

What would make these far, far better would be a good LiIon power pack to make them cordless. Any chance of a Makita stick blender sometime soon?

[Bob Eager]

Or DIY it using a V8 engine...

(see last night's Top Gear!)

[Dave Liquorice]

Same here Braun Vario 300W type 418 (possibly 4189 the 9 is separated from and in different font to the 418 so might be part of date code or serial number that is next to it).

Variable speed is very useful, low speed for making milk shakes, top speed for soups. For ease of washing I'd say a detachable head is essential.

[Mike Barnes]

You'll be pleased by what you can achieve in one minute.

We have a Bamix which is the Rolls-Royce brand and is priced accordingly. The comprehensive instructions make no mention of duty cycles and they recommend that you oil it every now and then, which I take as a sign of a good attitude! Ours has never shown the slightest sign of distress despite intensive use, and I'm reassured by the ten- year guarantee.

[Toby]

Another vote for the Bamix, I have the mill thing too, and have used it one, to try it, it now been downgraded to living in one of the high cupboards!

We also make large batches of soup (and freeze it)

Had the Bamix for abut 3 years too, hasn't missed a beat!

Toby...

[meow2222]

FWIW I've used a few different wand blenders, makes varying from posh to argos cookworks, and I've really not noticed any difference between them. Removable blades sound like a good idea, but one doesnt have that and I've not found it to make any difference, it cleans so easily under the tap.

All of them gradually overheat and take a very long time to cool down. So maybe a good option for you would be 3x cookworks handheld blenders. These things are good as long as you're ok with some remaining texture - not so good when you want puree.

Oh, dont overlook blade sharpening, its necessary to avoid slowdown of work.

NT

[Peter Parry]

I've had a Bamix one for about 20 years and it has survived regular use. Soup is usually made in 5 gallon lots when there is a glut of appropriate ingredients and it will happily turn a few hundred tomatoes into soup in a few minutes. It's also more than paid for itself making mayonnaise.

I had a Braun (no idea which model) at one stage but it wasn't anywhere near as fast or effective.

[ajp]

Bought a Kenwood HB665 in August - seemed Ok but now the gearing mechanism for the chopper unit is making an awful racket - I suspect damaged gears.

We have an old Braun model which has now gone out to Crete which has given stirling service for years.

Oh, and the end of the blender unit on the Kenwood is metal so it can't be used in non-stick pans.

Alan

[NOSPAMnet]

I had a Vario 300W/ 5 Speed but the part I used the most ....the long part with the blade at the end ( like a Flymo) packed in so I bought a newer Model .I still have the old one( well the motor part ) but it seems from the Braun site that you can get every other attachment but that part that died .

You can have it free if you want it :-)

[Phil Addison]

Got the Kenwood HB615 Wizzard Pro couple of weeks ago from Comet (best price I could find and you can reserve it online and pickup there). Previuosly only iused the KW liquidiser before and was amazed to find the stick design is MUCH better. The blade is kind of propeller shapped and partially enclosed so it acts as a powerful pump that sucks stuff into it from the bottom, blends it and shoots it out holes in the sie of the enclosure. Its so powerful that if you switch it on in a beaker full of water you can actually lift the beaker by lifting the stick. ie it sucks itself to the beaker. Of course in use you hold the beaker down and plunge the stick up and down. The downside for your application is the 700ml capacity of the beaker, though you could use it in a bigger pan, but I think efficiency is max in a narrow beaker.

It comes with a second chopper attachment in a more squat tub and that is very effective at grinding 300 grams of supermarket mince into smaller bits for bolagnaise sauce. It does that in about 30 secs.

Compared to this the KW liquidiser just whirls in the base and the blades throwing the heavier bits upwards where they remain. I doubt I'll use it again now we have the stick blender.

Phil

[Chris J Dixon]

;-)

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I have to say that Bamix was the first name to come to mind - I remember seeing them demonstrated when I was a lad, back when Lewis's existed in Leeds.

Chris