KitchenAid 5-Speed Hand Blender, KHB2561 Review

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List Price: $130.00
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I had been looking at immersion blenders for a while, checking prices, reading reviews. I had also had been looking at food processors, because mine hit the wall (figuratively. Literally, it hit the floor) and I rely on it heavily. I decided to get this little beauty because I am easily coerced into buying things based on brand recognition. I had no idea that I was going to kill two birds with one blender (not really "birds." More like one soup, one salsa). It works great. The carrying case makes me feel important when I take it out, and I have the urge to say something like, "step back. I'll handle this."

We have a smoothie blender for smoothies, so I haven't tried it for that, but I've done soups, salad dressings, sauces, chutneys and salsas and it works like a dream. Clean up is easy, it feels sturdy, and it gets the job done.

The cord is slightly annoying, it completely gets in the way of me pretending it's a magic wand, but it isn't, it's a kitchen tool, so I'll just suffer that one out in relative silence.

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I recently received this as a gift and it is amazing! I haven't used an immersion blender much in my cooking life but given that this one has so many uses and utensils, I will be able to use it for many purposes. I have already used the chopper and immersion blender attachments for various tasks. They worked perfectly. I also love that it has a tool box to hold all of the components. I don't have to worry about parts getting lost or forgotten in the cupboard. I highly recommend this small appliance.

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I had to replace our KitchenAid immersion blender because it burned out while mixing some Almond Butter. This new set seems to be a much cheaper design compared to KitchenAid's their last generation. The wand locks on to the motor in a partial turn instead of a snap on lock like the last design which seems destined to crack one day. The variable speed is a 5 step turn knob instead of continuously variable knob. One real annoyance is that it is more difficult to grip this knob. It's a flat, low profile disk and very smooth finish making it tough to grip while cooking/mixing if you need to change the speed. The switch also feels very cheap and not solid like to tall, round knob from their last design which worked great.

What is new is the 2 additional choices on the mix blades. However, I tried using the batter mix blade head but it did not do a very good job on simple corn bread batter. I needed to move it all around the batter and didn't pull in the dry mix to the wet very well. It was a lot of lifting and re-plunging to get the dry mixed included.

The other annoyance is that the chopper lid/top no longer locks in to the motor housing. It just sits on top which make it easy to lift off the chopper while working. The whole design of this new set seems like a step backwards from the last set I owned from Kitchenaid.

I realize that here are some trade offs in manufacturing to make a product come in a price point / offering more features to outsell the competition. The trade off in this new set seem to be to offer more immersion head choices (that don't seem to work well) while compromising the quality of the overall product. What I'd prefer is a good, well made immersion blender with a good wisk and chopper.

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I bought this a couple months ago and have used it for a number of things, including chopping nuts for fudge. I even used it to chop frozen nuts and it performed quite well.

It has worked great in everything I have used it for; cauliflower mash, fudge, whipped cream, mayonnaise, gravy, liver pate etc.

I have arthritis and my hands are fairly weak but this unit gives me no trouble at all, it's comfortable to hold and operate. The cord is a little stiff but not so bad that it interferes with use. It cleans up easily as well.

The different blade make it a very flexible unit, I have made whipped cream with one blade and then mixed fresh liver and tomato paste with another and both came out great without lumps or unmixed parts.

There is only one problem I have had and that is with the chopping unit, it has a part inside the stem of the blade unit that got stuck up in the center when we first used it and it never came back down, since this worked as a sort of shock absorber the chopper container, lid and blade ground against each other when we used it and caused the plastic to be ground away in places.

But I called KA and they were happy to send me replacements at their cost. I believe since this is a new unit for them there are a few kinks to be worked out but KA is aware of that and will replace my entire unit free of charge and restart my warranty from the date I receive the new unit, can't argue with that.

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We opted for the more expensive Kitchen Aid blender with attachments and containers so far it very adequately replaces my 45 year old blender, and newer little food processor, so I can get rid of at least two space-takers. We were very pleased with the cream of broccoli soup and very smoot home-canned tomato/vegetable soup. The winner is smooth and frothy hot cocoa, instead of just an okay hot drink with sediment in the bottom.

The food processor easily chopped a head of red cabbage for Swedish winter salad I'm very pleased!