Best stick blender?

[LuminousBoutique]

I've got to give it up to my $20.00 Walmart stick blender... my little friend has held steady for two years, but tonight it met its death. I was about to grab my keys and go buy another one when I heard the magic words from my husband: "why dont you just order a nice industrial stick blender. its time."

::cue the singing angels::

time to upgrade! IYHO.... whats the best workhorse of a stick blender I can buy myself? ::edit to add.... i need to keep it under $150... I'm cheap, what can I say?::

Edited January 18, 2010 by LuminousBoutique

[topofmurrayhill]

Kitchenaid is pretty good for consumer quality stuff, which is what I have because I hardly ever use a stick blender. If I needed a professional tool I'd probably get a Waring. They make a whole line of industrial quality immersion mixers. I saw a small 16" one for 70 bucks. You'll find a lot of online merchants if you google restaurant equipment.

[inherowndominion]

I agree, kitchen aid hand mixers work really well...if you want something totally top of the line for soap making purely, soapequipment.com has some really really nice stuff, unfortunately out of my price range though *drool*

[topofmurrayhill]

Soapequipment.com is a cool supplier, but a lot of the equipment they offer was selected from other industries and is obtainable for much less. For instance, they are selling the Waring immersion blenders I recommended but are charging $100 for the one I saw at a restaurant supply house priced at $70.

That's probably the one I'd get if I were you. I don't imagine you'd need anything bigger to replace a $20 Wal-Mart mixer. With your budget I'm sure you could get the next size up, but maybe it would be better to quote the list price to your husband and use the difference to upgrade something else.

Edited January 18, 2010 by topofmurrayhill

[Meridith]

I can't vouch for any other brand than a Moulinex since that is all I've used or had to use. I've had mine for close to 20 years and that baby is still going strong.

[LuminousBoutique]

Thanks I was looking at the Warings, I didnt find any Moulinex in my searches but I'll look right now. I have a restauraunt supplier I go through for some of my other supplies and they sell Waring stick blenders but I was just wondering what everyone else uses too because I do use it quite a bit and dont want to waste my money I also found quite a few Warings on ebay and amazon for a price I like also... best I've found was 65, for the same one soap equip wants to charge 99 for. I do 2-3 batches of soap a day preparing for show season so i do need a workhorse. I still am amazed the one I had lasted so long considering the abuse the poor thing went through... and the funny thing is the motor is still fine, it was just the shaft came out of the locking mechanism and even with my nerd hubby it cant be put back together again, its like humpty dumpty.

My husband (who knows zip about soaping) keeps saying I should use a cement mixer attached to a drill... but thts a bit much for the batches I make, LOL.. maybe someday I'll be hardcore enough to make batches in a giant bucket but for now a stick blender will do, haha.

[topofmurrayhill]

With that kind of usage, it does sound like you could benefit from a professional tool. Restaurant suppliers carry the industrial quality stuff, so just choose a model they all sell and find the best deal on it.