Hand Held Blender

The simple hand held blender has many functions, is inexpensive and comes in a variety of quality and performance levels.  You can find the three major brands, Durabrand, Oster and Hamilton Beach at your local convenience store.  When selecting a hand held blender there are certain features you should look for such as a detachable stem.  For easy cleaning you really need the unit to have a detachable mixing stem. The Durabrand and Oster units have it, the Hamilton Beach hand-held blender does not.

The Oster unit has a combination mixing and measuring cup.  When you mix up a drink with these units and the drink froths up you can make a real mess - so leave some room in the mixing cup.

You also need a unit that has some reasonable power.  Power is important, as well as the ability to control the power level. All three of these hand held blenders come with two speed options.  However the Oster unit has about twice the power.  That unit will be able to handle ice cubes better than the other two. The unit could have had three speeds given the amount of power it actually has.

The Oster unit has a much better style and look to it. and has a stainless steel mixing stem while the other two brands are plain white plastic from top to bottom.

Finally, as always, you get what you pay for.  The Oster model costs about twenty percent more than the other two, about four dollars.  It is a no brainer to cough up the extra money for the Oster hand held blender.  The differences between the Durabrand and the Hamilton Beach units is not very much.  So if you can not afford the Oster then you might as well save money and buy the less expensive Durabrand unit.