Hand Held Blenders

[lucyem]

Our blender circa 1993 is not much fun to deal with. We only use it for smoothies, it is a pain to drag out and wash and put away and is starting to smell funny when running. I was looking at the hand held blender options and that looks so much easier. My question is with some smoothies we use ice too. Do they work on ice? Probably my stupid question of the day but none of the descriptions mention ice. Thanks!

Oh and any brand recs would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!

[hippiewitchie]

I have a stick blender that I bought years ago when I didn't have room for a blender in our tiny kitchen.

It is worthless for ice, so for smoothies, don't bother- go with a regular blender.

It is GREAT for blending hot soups directly in the pot for creamy soups and mayo is less of a hassle with it than the big blender.

[staceychev]

I second everything Hippiewitchie wrote. I have both and use the traditional blender for smoothies and salad dressings, and the immersion blender for soups and things in the pot.

[busylizzybee]

We make a smoothie with ours every day and it works great- but we don't use ice cubes, just frozen fruit.

[marimara]

I've used ice with mine (pre chopped by the icemaker thingie) and use frozen fruit daily. It's a hamilton beach I think, from walmart. However, I don't recommend it, the attachment falls off every time I use it, it's annoying and I think it's dying. I want to get the stainless steel Cuisinart when this one officially dies.

[mkksmom]

I love my magic bullet for smoothies. much easier than pulling out the blender.

nak

[*bejeweled*]

[zech13_9_goforgold]

I had to get rid of my hand blender when we moved, but I loved the one I had. It was both a stick hand blender and had a chopped bowl. I used it a lot. I was so sad to give it away.