Hamilton Beach 4-in-1 Electric Immersion Hand Blender with Handheld Blending Stick, Whisk + 3-Cup Food & Vegetable Chopper Bowl, 2-Speeds, 225 Watts, Silver and Stainless Steel (59765)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this mixer/chopper/whisk. I was ALMOST put off by some of the negative reviews. However, I decided to purchase anyway; the price point (under $20) was too tempting. The negatives that I read were: 1) the blender doesn't stay attached; 2) it is too low power to blend anything but soup; 3) it gets overly warm; 4) it doesn't last; and 5) over time the chopper attachment leaves little bits of black plastic behind in the food. I cannot address 4 and 5, as I have only had this chopper for a little over a week, so if it doesn't last I will come back and amend my review. As for the rest...I bought this chopper/mixer because we were taking a trip to New Orleans, couldn't change the date, and my husband broke his jaw. Although our accommodations had a kitchenette, I called and found out there was not a blender available. Since we would be flying, bringing our clunky countertop blender was not really an option but I needed to be able to prepare food that could be sucked through a straw. This blender performed admirably. Our hotel stay included a breakfast buffet, but I didn't think my husband would be able to eat anything. Wrong! With the help of this little mixer I was able to puree fruits (melons, pineapple, blueberries) then add two yogurts, some milk, and a banana. I poured it in a deep cup and blended it a little more with the blender attachment, and POOF: instant breakfast smoothie. (One reviewer commented that the blender splattered everywhere and made a mess in the kitchen; most immersion blenders work best if you use them in a deeper container.) I also pureed a muffuletta (a traditional New Orleans poor boy type sandwich), blackened chicken with pasta, and before we left on our trip the first thing I tried was pureeing some corned beef and cabbage. This little mixer has plenty of power. It won't, of course, replace a traditional blender, and I'm not sure if it would crush ice for a blended drink, but for a portable, compact, lighter weight alternative to several appliances, it does all that I'd hoped for and more.As to the blender head not staying attached, I had that problem at first, until I discovered that when you are putting it on correctly you can feel when it snaps and locks into place. Once I figured that out, I didn't have any problems with it coming off. I would say that, for myself at least, when the blender attachment came off it was ¨operator error,¨ since I probably did not have it firmly locked on.The last negative that I will address is those people who say it gets really warm or too hot. These sorts of blenders are not really designed to run for long periods of time. That said, I was probably running the blender attachment for two minutes at a time and it did not get noticeably warm. I also only pulsed the food chopper for about 10-15 seconds at a time, mostly because this usually chops the food more efficiently.

I didn't have super high expectations for this immersion blender/mixer despite good ratings I found because it's pretty inexpensive. I'm very pleased with the quality and so far, it works great.

Easy to use and great price

I got this blender as a gift for Christmas. I had been asking for one for a very long time. I love making soup, but I hate having to wait for it to cool down enough to use my standard blender. With this blender, problem solved.I love the design of it, it’s incredibly simple. Your fingers don’t go anywhere near the blade when you’re removing it or putting it on. It would be nice to not have to hold the button down while I’m blending, but I understand that gives me some level of control and it’s fine. It’s light weight but has enough power to blend through anything I’ve attempted to blend so far, but again, my main use of this blender has been for soups, so essentially any vegetable can be blended with this blender. I wouldn’t recommend using this for something that has a batter-like consistency, I almost feel like that doesn’t even need to be said, since this is a blender and not a mixer, but sometimes people like to try it out in that regard.I’ve been using it since December and no problems so far. I liked it so much that I bought my boss one for her birthday this last month (July)! If you blend things frequently and expect that you’ll be using this immersion blender nearly every day, maybe take a look at some of the pricier options, because those are going to have the longevity and functionality that this one may not have. For my purposes, this is the perfect option. I use it occasionally, and it has been a wonderful tool and addition to my kitchen!

This was a great purchase for my husband and me because it is such a versatile tool.BOX- The product came into a secure box with all of the different pieces fully intact.MOTOR- The product consists of a motor that plugs into an outlet and several different attachments for the motor. The motor is nothing more than a thick handle/stick with two buttons on it- high and low. Press the low button and the motor spins; press the high button and it spins faster (duh). The electrical wire for the motor is a generous length, which allows us to use the products anywhere in our kitchen.HAND BLENDER- The attachment we use the most is the hand blender. The blender screws into the base of the motor. At first, we weren’t attaching the blender correctly and it kept falling off. You have to turn it with a little force until you feel it kind of lock into place. Once we learned this we never had a problem again. We’ve used it to puree soups and oatmeal. The most common thing we make, however, is raw vegan banana “nice cream”. It is a really easy recipe- peel and freeze bananas overnight; place frozen bananas into a bowl and blend with the hand blender until it becomes a smooth ice cream like consistency; add toppings as desired and enjoy! The problem with the recipe is that it is hard for a normal blender to blend up the frozen bananas. The hand blender attachment for this product blends up the frozen bananas very easily.The end of the hand blender with the blade on it (that actually does the blending) is protected by a round metal guard but the guard has large horizontal slits in it that allow puree and banana nice cream to come out the sides so the blender doesn’t get clogged up. This is an essential feature that was not included in my older hand blender (and therefore made it almost impossible to make nice cream).MIXING BOWL- The second attachment is a mixing bowl. The bowl has three pieces- the clear plastic bowl, the blade which gets attached to a metal dowel that sticks up out of the bottom of the bowl, and the black plastic lid. The motor then gets screwed into an opening on the lid. All of the components easily attach together and feel very sturdy once secured. We’ve used this to chop up cauliflower, carrots and other hard vegetables. It also works fast - in just 30 seconds we chopped up carrots into the consistency that bagged chopped carrots come in.WHISK- The third attachment is the whisk. The whisk seems sturdy and well made.Admittedly, we have not used it once so I cannot review this particular part of the product.CLEANUP- The cleanup for all of the attachments is very easy because all the parts (except the motor) are dishwasher safe. We like that it is much easier and faster to clean the hand blender than it is to clean a regular blender.NO OVERHEATING- Unlike hand blenders we have used in the past, this one has not overheated on us. As I said before, making banana nice cream can be very taxing on motors. Our old hand blender used to get so hot we couldn’t even hold it. This product does get a little warm with heavy use, but has never gotten hot.OVERALL IMPRESSION - We use this product very often (every other day, at least) and it has been working great ever since we bought it four months ago. We highly recommend it, especially considering how inexpensive it is.