Hand blenders…

Cookworks best stick blender I have ever had. Had Braun and Phillips in the past. This is far more efficient and very easy to clean.

A friend who is a professional cook advised me to buy an inexpensive one so I did and it's fine for my purposes. I suppose what you need might partly depend on what quantities you're making but I haven't had a problem blending quite large pans of soup with mine, which is a Bosch.

I bought a dirt cheap supermarket own brand one 12 years ago. It’s still going strong.

The cheaper the better…. Mine lasted about 20 years, before giving up the ghost.

DS bought me a Tower a couple of Christmases ago. Offered me more expensive but this suits my purpose and I'm very pleased with it. I make a lot of soup in the winter and it's great not to have to clean a processor.

I've a Braun that I've had for years, it has a little chopping blade which goes in it's own small container. I've found both invaluable.

I had reason to buy a cheap one recently and, although it does the blending job it's a pig to put together and take apart. The Braun is a doddle.

So, check ease of putting together and taking apart if you're going for a cheap one...

I have a supermarket own-brand version, Sainsbury’s I think. I did have a fancy posh one but it was a nuisance to put together and dismantle so I gave it away and got the cheapo one which is better.

Supermarket own brand has been fine for me. Since my (expensive) soup-maker started fusing all the electrics I have been making soup in a pan and liquidising with the stick blender - works fine.

Braun for me. I might have had it about 100 years!

I had one from Lidl, £14.95 lasted nearly nine years and when it gave up a few months ago the next time Lidl had them on offer I bought another one. When I originally wanted to buy a blender I went to Currys and looked at a lot of the models on offer but found many were too large and heavy and I knew I would have difficulties with my arthritic right hand so bought the cheap one to see how I liked using it, never expecting it to last so long.

Mine (stick blender) was a Kenwood, not at all expensive, and very simple to use/take apart for washing.

I've just made cream of mushroom soup and mine is Russell Hobbs, not Tower as I first posted.

My last one lasted about 15 years and it cost around £4.99 from Argos or similar - it didn't wear out but I dropped it and the plastic cracked.

I bought a new one last year - Bosch 300W at £20.

Sometimes 'buy cheap' is good!

I bought mine in Sainsburys after my old one broke. I don't know the make as it was under the Sainsbury brand. I've had it a good few years and it is still working perfectly. It wasn't expensive.

I use mine a lot, several times a week and my very old cheapo one was starting to make strange grinding noises so I bit the bullet and bought a Kenwood with all the bells and whistles.
(Including a potato masher attachment - hate mashing spuds.)
The new one is so powerful the soup or whatever is blended almost before it gets going, and the whisk is wonderful but i must remember to release the power button before i take it out of the cream/egg white etc or the kitchen counter, walls, cupboard and me all get pebble dashed.
I haven't even used the Turbo button yet, I daren't.
(I love it really...)