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I do not speak on behalf of everyone at Bon Appétit when I say that if I had to choose just one blender to use at home for the rest of my life, it would be an immersion blender. But my (perhaps peculiar) preference is one of the things that makes me particularly qualified to test and recommend immersion blenders for home cooks.
Sometimes called stick blenders or hand blenders, immersion blenders are lightweight and small enough to tuck into a drawer when not in use and a breeze to clean (just run the blender in a cup or bowl of hot soapy water, then rinse). And though they might not produce results quite as quickly as high-powered countertop blenders, the best immersion blenders are capable of just as much—and then some.
I’ve been reaching for an immersion blender in my own kitchen for more than a decade, and over the last few years, my colleagues and I have tested and retested more than a dozen popular models to find the best and most versatile options.
Shop the best immersion blenders:
- Best overall: All-Clad Corded Immersion Blender
- Best with attachments: Breville Control Grip Immersion Blender
- Best budget immersion blender: Cuisinart Smart Stick
The deep dive on our top picks
We’ve tested a dozen popular models to find the best immersion blenders for soups, smoothies, sauces, and more. Here are the three we recommend.
Best immersion blender overall: All-Clad Corded Immersion Blender
What we love: This powerful handheld blender has a 600-watt motor that quickly and easily turns solid ingredients into soups and smoothies, even if you don’t engage the Turbo button (which turns this thing up to “11” and is rarely needed). Other than Turbo, there are no specific speed settings. Instead, the top of the motor handle features a variable speed dial that lets you adjust the speed as much or little as you need while blending. And even at a lower speed, this blender can handle most smaller blending jobs in less than 60 seconds, which is the recommended maximum consecutive run time for this model.
The dishwasher-safe blending shaft on the All-Clad is 9.25" (longer than many of the models we tested), which makes it easy to blend in tall containers. Though the shaft is long, the blending head (the blade guard and blade) is on the shallow side, which meant it sometimes requires a little extra time to get started on bigger chunks of solid ingredients—but once something gets sucked into this blender’s powerful vortex, it will quickly be pulverized or puréed.
What we’d leave: The blender head would really benefit from a small rim of plastic or silicone on the edge to protect nonstick and enameled cookware or any cooking surface that isn’t safe for metal utensils.
Specs
Blending depth: 9.25"
Power: 600 watts
Power settings: Variable plus turbo
Included attachments: None
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
Best with attachments: Breville Control Grip Immersion Blender
What we love: You get a bit more bang for your buck with the Breville Control Grip than you do with the All-Clad thanks to the whisk attachment, large blending jar (with a fitted lid for storage), and the chopper attachment. These included attachments give you the ability to transform your easy-to-store immersion blender into a hand mixer for making whipped cream, or a basic food processor for chopping veggies (we don’t think you should ditch your food processor and stand mixer entirely, but if you don’t want to make as much of a mess or you want to make small batches of something, this is a good choice).
This is also my favorite immersion blender for puréed soups—and super-smooth pancake batter—thanks to what Breville calls its “anti-suction blending technology.” Most immersion blenders rely on the speed of spinning blades to suck ingredients up into a high-speed vortex, but not this immersion blender. Breville’s intentional design choice helps to minimize the chance of clogs and splatters as you’re working. Speaking of work, because there’s no vortex, you do need to move the blender up and down more frequently as you blend, but the handle is pleasant to hold. The end of the blade shaft also has a plastic rim to prevent damage to delicate cookware coatings or enamels.
What we’d leave: Because this blender doesn’t have an incredibly powerful motor, it took longer than other models to break down frozen strawberries in our smoothie test and in general just took a little longer to make smooth smoothies.
Specs
Blending depth: 8"
Power: 280 watts
Power settings: 15
Attachments: Blending jar with lid, chopping bowl with chopping blade, whisk
Warranty: 1 year
Best budget immersion blender: Cuisinart Smart Stick
What we love: Cuisinart’s small appliances are all over the place in terms of performance, but over many years of testing, my colleagues and I have generally been impressed with its blender offerings. The full-size blenders repeatedly perform well, and I wrote my own ode to the single-speed Cuisinart Smart Stick I used at home for nearly a decade (I only upgraded because I started testing other models for work).
This upgraded Smart Stick model won’t purée and pulverize as quickly as the All-Clad, but the 300-watt motor and stainless-steel blades can still break down frozen smoothie ingredients. And when you want less speed for soups or salad dressings, a variable speed dial on the top of the motor/handle allows you to stop anywhere between the highest and lowest speeds as you work. The handle also includes a smart new safety feature: a lock button you need to press before you can turn on the blender. For $50 (the price at the time of publishing), this blender is already a great deal, but it also comes with a whisk attachment, a 3-cup chopper/grinder attachment, and a 2-cup measuring mixing cup that’s great for smaller blending jobs like salad dressing.
What we’d leave: Other than the fact that it’s not as powerful as the All-Clad and I haven’t had 10 years to test its durability, there’s very little I can find wrong with this blender. Some customers have complained about the safety-lock feature, noting that it’s difficult to push two buttons at the same time (though the lock button can be released once the blender powers on).
Specs
Blending depth: 8"
Power: 300 watts
Power settings: Variable
Attachments: 3-cup chopper/grinder, 2-cup mixing/measuring cup, whisk
Warranty: Limited 3-year warranty
How we tested immersion blenders
To ensure our top picks could handle most typical home cooking applications (soups and smoothies), we used each immersion blender to make a creamy carrot soup and a smoothie with frozen berries, fresh spinach, peanut butter, milk, orange juice, and avocado. If the blender came with a chopper attachment, we used that to chop onions. And if it came with a whisk attachment (most did) we used it to turn heavy whipping cream into a batch of whipped cream.
What makes a good immersion blender?
With enough power, at least a few speed settings, and the right attachments, these handheld kitchen gadgets can pulverize and purée solid ingredients for soups and smoothies, blend salad dressings, turn out airy whipped cream, emulsify mayonnaise, and even chop onions if you’d rather not tackle that task with a knife. Here’s what our winners all need.
Power
As far as small appliances go, immersion blenders are particularly small. So we wanted to make sure that our top picks had enough power to handle both soups and smoothies. We found that some models did just fine with soups and sauces but struggled to blend leafy greens and frozen fruit into an actually smooth smoothie due to a lack of power.
Multiple speed settings
Power may be paramount to the performance of an immersion blender, but not every recipe requires max wattage. In fact, starting with too much power (especially if you’re working in a shallow pan or blending jar) is a great way to spatter hot soup or tomato sauce all over your kitchen. Because you can (and should!) use these handheld kitchen appliances for puréeing, pulverizing, and emulsifying, we looked for immersion blenders with more than two or three speed settings.
Features and attachments
Immersion blenders are pretty simple kitchen tools, but there were a few nice features that made the overall blending and cleaning experience better. For example: a plastic rim on a blade guard to protect nonstick and enameled cast-iron cookware, a blade cover for safe storage, and a lock to prevent anyone from accidentally starting the blender before you’re ready. And attachments like a whisk or chopper can turn a handheld blender into a versatile, multipurpose gadget you might even reach for multiple times a day.
Quality construction
In addition to looking for sharp, stainless-steel blades, we favored immersion blenders that felt like they were well-constructed from quality materials. Because when you’re working with something that has a detachable spinning blade, you want it to feel stable and secure at every speed.
Ease of use
The best immersion blenders are convenient and easy to use. So we looked for models that were pleasant to hold and easy to adjust when necessary. We also looked at how easy or hard it was to attach the blade shaft and swap any included attachments.
Little noise
We don’t expect any blender to be quiet, but we were shocked by the noises that came from a few of the immersion blenders we tested. Some of the worst-performing models made the most unbearable rattling and whizzing sounds even when blending soft ingredients for soups and sauces.
Easy cleaning
It’s pretty easy to clean an immersion blender. Simply run the blender in a blending jar or bowl filled with warm water and a drop of dish soap, then rinse with hot water. Some models do have dishwasher-safe blade shafts, but we advise against actually putting them in the dishwasher since repeated runs will dull the blades. That said, we did appreciate when any included cups or attachments were dishwasher-safe.
Other immersion blenders we tested
For something so powerful, the Vitamix Immersion Blender sure is quiet. This 5-speed handheld blender (from the maker of the full-size blender we’ve been enthusiastically recommending for years) has a 625-watt motor to power through even the biggest chunks of frozen fruit. And while most immersion blenders (including the Breville) shouldn’t be run continuously for more than about a minute, the Vitamix can run up to three minutes straight. The only real drawback of this immersion blender is the price—the base model comes with no attachments and at the time of publishing, it costs $170. On the other hand, if your issue is space, not price, this is actually a very good option for home cooks with small kitchens because you can purchase additional attachments (or bundles) that turn this simple stick blender into a great multipurpose kitchen tool that can eliminate the need for a full-size blender, a hand mixer, and a food processor.
The Foodi Power Mix, a 2-speed hand blender from Ninja, is part of the brand’s Foodi Power Mix system—which comes with additional hand mixer and whisk components, including a separate hand mixer motor/handle. And it sure is powerful—too powerful for some of our tests, unfortunately. On its main setting (there’s also a turbo button), the 750-watt motor pulverized frozen smoothie ingredients in a tall blending cup with ease. It also splattered hot soup out of a saucepan. With some additional low-speed options, this blender might have been a top pick—especially because it has dishwasher-safe parts, a plastic edge on the blade guard to protect your cookware, and a very accessible price tag ($100 at the time of publishing).
The Braun Multiquick 5 Immersion Hand Blender we tested was fairly basic, with just two speeds and a 350-watt motor (an upgraded model has a whopping 21 speeds, yet only 50 additional watts of power), but it somehow did a decent job making a smoothie. It also came with a smoothie cup/blending beaker and a whisk attachment. If you’ve never used an immersion blender, this is a decent starter model at a decent price, but we’d still recommend the more affordable Cuisinart Smart Stick over this older model Braun.
In our immersion blender testing, KitchenAid’s 3-Speed Hand Blender technically had enough power to make the soup and the smoothie, but it was a mechanical nightmare. We had trouble making the locking mechanism on the blender work and eventually just held the top and bottom parts together with both hands. As you might imagine, this was very inefficient. Not to mention dangerous.
We really like ChefWave’s nut milk maker, so we were excited to try the brand’s Intermix Hand Immersion Blender—especially because it has 9 speeds and a very accessible price. It also comes with as many attachments as the Breville we love (including a second, extra-long blending wand), and in our testing it was much quieter than comparably priced blenders. But we quickly learned that it was so quiet because the motor wasn’t very powerful. When we tried to blend the smoothie, the stainless-steel blade caught on a piece of frozen fruit and actually broke the whole blender.
The Hamilton Beach looks good on paper: reasonable price, dishwasher-safe parts, and a chopper attachment. But after one hand-washing session, water got trapped in the chopper lid. It has only 2 speeds, and the 225-watt motor struggled to make a smooth smoothie. By the time the smoothie texture was nearing what we wanted, the motor smelled like it was working way too hard. This blender did however, manage to leave smoothie spatters in our tester’s kitchen.
The Mueller Ultra-Stick immersion blender is one of the only hand blenders we tested that came with a milk frother attachment, and we know the brand name Mueller, so it seemed promising. But then we turned it on. We made note of the blue accent light that gave off a not-so-subtle nightclub vibe (we look, but we don’t judge) and forced ourselves to pay more attention to the fact that it actually did a decent job of blending a smoothie. Unfortunately, we could not get past the very loud metallic rattling noise it made while it worked. Shockingly, the noise was somehow even more grating when we used the milk frother attachment to make cold, frothy milk—and the result was no better than what we can get from this cheap battery operated milk frother.
The Powerful 5-in-1 Hand Blender from KOIOS is a good budget option if you want a variable speed hand blender but you don’t want to spend a lot of money (the SRP at the time of publishing is $60, and it’s often on super sale). It has 12 speeds and impressive attachments: a separate chopping bowl and blade, a mixing beaker, a whisk attachment, and a milk frother attachment. It performed pretty well in our testing, but it didn’t feel like a high-quality kitchen tool, and many Amazon reviewers who used it longer than we did have complained of durability issues.
The Oxa Smart Powerful 4-in-1 Immersion Hand Blender (no relation to Oxo, but somehow related to KOIOS, the brand above) was extremely loud. And that was just one issue we discovered in testing. It was also heavy, making it hard to move the blender up and down while blending soups and sauces. This thing was pretty much useless when it came time to make a smoothie—which is probably why this hand blender has been discontinued.
In theory, a cordless immersion blender provides a convenient way to bounce around the kitchen, blending soup on one side and flying over to make a batch of pesto on the other. But we’ve used them, and we don’t love them. The problem is that they’re less powerful, even when fully charged, than the vast majority of comparable corded immersion blenders. And while we’ve never enthusiastically recommended a cordless immersion blender (or a cordless blender of any kind), this All-Clad Cordless Rechargeable Stainless Steel Hand Blender was by far the best and most powerful cordless hand blender you could buy when we tested it in 2023. It also cost $330 at the time, and that not-so-accessible price tag might just have something to do with the fact that it’s been discontinued.