If you want the perfect appliance for making delicious seasonal soups and scratch salad dressings, look no further than the best immersion blender. Also known as stick blenders or hand blenders, these lightweight, portable devices are perfect for making smoothies and fresh drinks, too.
Immersion blenders with attachments are also fantastic for whisking heavy cream or kneading cookie dough, and while they can't do everything the more traditional buys on our best blenders list can, their small size makes them an ideal addition to a busy kitchen or a must-have for smaller kitchens with little storage space for larger appliances.
Our list of best immersion blenders is compiled after hard-won testing. We used them to make sauces for pasta dishes and dips such as hummus and baba ganoush. We even used some of our favorite models with mini chopper attachments to chop onion and garlic.
Millie Fender is Head of Reviews at Homes & Gardens. Formerly our editor for all things cookware, Millie is our resident appliance expert. She tried the majority of the immersion blenders in our shopping roundup, with our other expert writers tackling the rest. After years of comparing small kitchen appliances, she's well-placed to find the best immersion blenders.
The best immersion blenders 2023
The Braun MultiQuick 9 Immersion Hand Blender comes with a variety of attachments: a blending wand, whisk, and masher for making creamy potatoes and pure and a 2- Cup Chopper with Ice Crush Knife for crushed ice.
The blending wand is particularly innovative, with an easily-controlled flexible blending shaft that moves up and down with the press of a button to have even more reach around your bowl or pitcher as you blend. In our testing, this is the immersion blender that packed the most power, hands-down. It won on our soup consistency tests, and it also made some of the speediest and smoothest pestos of the machines we tested.
It's a mixed bag though, with the whisk taking one of the longest times to create stiff peaks from egg whites. This was also pretty flimsy in comparison to models from KitchenAid. The mashed potato maker worked well, but we found that it jammed unless we fully peeled our potatoes.
The pitcher is 20oz and the attachments are safe for dishwashing. You can also make the most of the splash control technology, which cuts down on suction and therefore reduces the risk of splashing when blending wet ingredients for soups and smoothies.
Our Braun MultiQuick Immersion Hand Blender review has more details.
Vitamix are well-known for their excellent blenders, and this foray into immersion blenders backs up this reputation.
On test, it blended tomatoes and onions into a perfect tomato sauce for penne alla vodka, and whipped up a delicious apple and date butter. It also made a great smoothie, so if you can't stretch to the $600 of a full-size Vitamix blender, this could be a cost-saving alternative. It comes with a handy base to hold the attachments, which are a whisk and a screw-top mason jar for blending directly into a container. The best feature of these is the whisk attachment, which whipped cream to perfection in a couple of minutes, so this is also a good option for bakers.
However, bear in mind that this immersion blender isn't dishwasher safe. Our tester Camryn also found it a little heavy to use, and didn't like that you have to constantly press down the power button to keep this immersion blender going.
Camryn's Vitamix Immersion Blender review has all the detail.
Immersion blenders don't always work well with non-stick pans because they can scuff up the coating with their metal blending wands. Enter the KitchenAid Variable Speed Corded Hand Blender, which has a plastic cover dubbed a pan guard that keeps the 8" removable blending arm with a 4-point stainless steel blade far away from the base of your pan to give you some extra peace of mind when cooking.
We found in testing that this immersion blender was a little more comfortable for our right-handed tested than our left-handed tester. It did second-best in our soup blending test, with very seamless blending and the variable blending paddle coming in helpful to start smoothly before amping up the power.
The 3-cup blending jar comes with a lid, perfect for storing sauces or soup in the fridge, and we were taken with the style of the design which could slot easily into any kitchen, with a number of colors to choose from.
Our KitchenAid Variable Speed corded hand blender review has more details.
The KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender liberates even the best immersion blenders of a cord.
It takes only two hours to charge this immersion blender to its full 20-minute run time. The attachments are generous, too. There's a jug with a 4-cup capacity, as well as a mini chopper and whisk.
Great touches include the scratch-resistant cap for the blender head and the variable speed trigger. We really liked the blending cup, which has a lid with a removable insert so you can add your blending attachment to make mayonnaise or sauces without any splashing or mess.
This immersion blender also comes in a range of colors including black, red, blue velvet, and white. Cordless is taking off in a big way. Our best portable blender guide has more examples.
This immersion blender is with our testers and these are our initial thoughts
Pick the Cuisinart EvolutionX Cordless Rechargeable Hand Blender if you want a cordless hand blender that doesn't cost the earth. It's surprisingly well priced given its premium looks and powerful lithium-ion motor. When we used it to make soup the blender didn't give us the smoothest consistency overall, but it handled a variety of ingredients very well and was one of the fastest to reach stiff peaks when we used the whisk attachment on egg whites.
The freedom of cordless immersion blenders is something you'll never realize you needed, but it means you can move around your entire kitchen and even blend your soups directly in the pot you cooked them in, with far easier cleaning after, too. The 30oz blending cup is large enough to make a morning smoothie, and it has a 20-minute runtime with only 2 hours of charging time.
In testing our one gripe was the safety lock, which certainly keeps the immersion blender a lot safer, but needs to be re-activated even if you momentarily take your finger off the trigger.
This immersion blender is with our testers and these are our initial thoughts
The NutriBullet Immersion Blender comes at a reasonable price and has a whisk and blender attachment for making delicious desserts and smooth soups and sauces.
There are two speeds for different intensities and consistencies, and a soft-grip handle to prevent any slipping. We enjoyed the whisk in particular. Some whisks feel quite flimsy, almost like afterthoughts to the immersion blending attachment, but the NutriBullet had a good sturdy feel that we felt would last a long time.
The motor is just half that of our top pick, the Braun MultiQuick, and there are no anti-scratch designs to prevent your pans from being damaged, but for the price this is a great choice. It even fits compactly in most flatware drawers when not in use.
This immersion blender is with our testers and these are our initial thoughts
How we tested the best immersion blenders
At Homes & Gardens, we put a lot of thought into how we test, and for our best immersion blender guide we decided to bring our candidates into our testing facility and compare them side-by-side.
There was a lot of discussions about which soup would be best suited to seeing how capable an immersion blender is, and we settled on a humble English pea and mint soup. Peas come with small but noticeable skins, and mint can be quite a harsh herb to blend, so we felt that we would be able to taste the difference in power and effectiveness with this recipe. We cooked up a big batch, divided it between all of the blenders, and ran them for the same amount of time before doing a blind taste-test to see which was the smoothest.
Not all immersion blenders come with added attachments, but we tested those that did. Whisks were tested with egg whites, seeing how long it would take for the whisk to create stiff peaks of an equal amount of egg white in each test. When an immersion blender came with a mini chopper, we used that to make a pesto. Some came out like a smooth sauce and others like a roughly chopped dip, which could be good or bad depending on what you plan on cooking.
We also took into account how easy the products were to clean, and how it felt to use them.
What to look out for in an immersion blender
Finding the best immersion blender is all about knowing what you need to use it for. While we were taken by some multi-taskers, there is no point in buying an immersion blender with a mini blender or masher attachment if you don't plan on using it. That's especially the case if you're paying a premium for the added attachments.
Some will already have machines in the home that are designed to take the place of these attachments, and many food processors also come with mini chopper attachments, so take a good look at what you already have, from a hand mixer to an extra-large jug for blending into, and then evaluate what is missing from your kitchen or needs replacing.
Power is important, so take a look at what motor power is. While soups blend up very easily, and heavy cream won't take much power to whip up nicely, there is a case to be made for opting for a powerful model if you intend of making purees, dips, or thick sauces.
Immersion blender FAQs
How does an immersion blender work?
An immersion blender consists of a shaft with blades at one end. Its motor drives the blades round. It’s designed to be immersed into a liquid – for example a soup or sauce in a pan – hence the name, and is therefore different from a food processor with a bowl into which liquids are poured for blending. As you are holding the blender you can move it around in the liquid as necessary to ensure blending is even.
What does an immersion blender do?
Use an immersion blender for one-pot cooking on the stovetop. It can be used to blend soups, for example. But it’s also useful for making fruit smoothies or milkshakes. An immersion blender can also be used to make pesto or purée a tomato sauce for your pasta dishes. Consider using it to speed up tasks such as beating eggs, making pancake batter and whipping cream. And an immersion blender can also be used for making baby food.
Assessing immersion blenders in our test kitchen
What is the purpose of an immersion blender?
The purpose of an immersion blender is to – you’ve guessed it – blend, but also to whisk, chop, mash and even chop ice if your model comes with these attachments. It can be used for many of the same tasks a standard blender is kept on hand in the kitchen for. It’s a handheld blender (which is the name sometimes used) so that you can put the blades into a pot of soup on the stove, or a glass or other container in which you want to make a smoothie or a milkshake, for example.
Will an immersion blender scratch a Dutch oven?
An immersion blender shouldn’t scratch a Dutch oven. The reason is that’s it’s typically designed so the blades don’t make contact with the bottom of the pan. However, that said it is possible to touch the bottom or the sides of a Dutch oven with the blades, so be sure to use it carefully in the center to avoid this happening.
Will an immersion blender scratch pots?
While an immersion blender is generally designed to avoid the problem of the blades coming into contact with the bottoms of pots, it is possible for this to happen. It is therefore important to use it carefully to avoid making contact with the bottom or sides of a pot with the blades. Hold it high enough to avoid scratching the base of the pot.
Directly comparing immersion blenders
Can an immersion blender replace a food processor?
An immersion blender could replace a food processor. Depending on the model and its attachments, an immersion blender could perform tasks such as blending, whisking and chopping. However, immersion blenders can't slice, grind, or knead, but a food processor can.
A food processor takes up more room in storage, whether that’s on the countertop or in a cabinet. A handheld immersion blender, on the other hand, takes up a lot less room because it doesn’t come with a bowl for the ingredients you need to blend.
Can an immersion blender replace a hand mixer?
An immersion blender can replace a hand mixer in your kitchen with the right attachment. An immersion blender shouldn’t be your choice of appliance for folding, or creating bread doughs, for example. That’s because an immersion blender has blades that cut the ingredients on which it’s used. However, a whisk attachment means you can whip cream, which replaces a hand mixture.
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