My immersion blender is so old it is avocado green. I think my Mom gave it to me almost 20 years ago. The blades just aren’t sharp enough anymore and my soups aren’t coming out smooth any longer.
Anyone buy one fairly recently. I made a quick trip into William Sonoma and the ones they have are very heavy and expensive.
I am thinking I could give this gift idea to my H.
What brands do you have and like. I will mainly use it for butternut squash soup.
I have a butternut squash soup…and thought about getting an immersion blender…but decided not to. I use my blender to purée the soup. It works fine, and saves me from having a small appliance for one use!
I know…not any help.,
One word: Bamix. It saves me from having to transfer the soup into a blender. Only one pot to wash, and my Bamix is sooo easy to clean.
Williams-Sonoma is having a 20% off and free shipping deal today, FYI.
I replaced my old Cuisinart immersion blender with a new one earlier this year. The new one cost less than $30 at CostCo. It has two attachments: a whisk and the usual blade, and comes with a graduated plastic tumbler. I find that it works better than the old one, and is easier to clean, since the entire bottom attachment can be washed.
During Thanksgiving week I bought one for S and his GF. I wasn’t able to find the exact same model I have, but settled on something pretty close: it has high and low settings instead of a continuous dial, like mine. The cost is roughly $30. GF loves it, says it has “revolutionized” her soup making. 
There is a more expensive one that has some kind of extra thing that would appear to function like a mini-chop, but It costs about $20 more for something I have no need of. The more expensive one also has a somewhat more powerful motor, but for my purposes the cheaper one is fine. For me, the purpose of the item is primarily pureeing soups and sauces directly in the pot. I like the degree of control it gives me over how smooth I wish the mixture to be. It is also handy for making sauce purees for Indian and Asian fusion dishes or mayonnaise in the accompanying plastic tumbler. (I saved the metal one from the old blender, so now I have 2, which is even more handy.) It will puree things like fresh garlic and ginger. If you want to make a smoothie, the ice has to be crushed in advance at least to some degree. If you want to make a lot of smoothies w/o crushing ice, you might need the more expensive one.
Whether you get a pricier one with more bells and whistles should probably depend on what you want to do with it.
ETA: the new models I’m describing are all Cuisinart. The basic mode has a 200watt motor, the more expensive one is 300watt.
The budget pick ($35) is the Cuisinart Smart Stick http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-immersion-blender/
Hmm…I’m thinking I should give this a whirl!
The SmartStick is the one I got S and GF, and it is the one I have is the prior iteration of.
@thumper1, it is a great kitchen tool. (I don’t have a blender, just this and a circa 1983 Cuisinart.) They get quite a lot of use.
Bamix Professional purchased from WS about 3 years ago. Love it - even makes great mashed potatoes.
My original is a Braun. I had told my H they had one at Costco but when he went they presently aren’t stocking it in the store or online. @Consolation I trust your recommendations and I’m glad I don’t need to spend $150.
@thumper1 - I love not having to put the soup in the blender. The immersion blender is much safer.
@yauponredux thank you for the link
My son gave me a KitchenAid immersion blender about eight years ago. I’ve used it twice – I’m not big into making soups – but using it was a hell of a lot better than using my regular blender. With the regular blender, you take the six quarts (or whatever) that’s in your cooking pot and just pour it one quart at a time into the blender, then blend. Then, you have to pour the blended stuff into another container. Boy, did that make a mess. With the immersion one, it’s all in one pot, which was a huge convenience.
I have no idea how much my son spent, but as he was only in HS at the time, I know it wasn’t a lot.
I have a cuisine art that I received as a gift ( after killing whatever brand I had before ) It’s basic , but it gets the job done and easy to clean. I use it for soups and also to make mock mashed potatoes from cauliflower. It is so much easier with less cleaning than using my food processor
Another vote for Cuisineart Smart Stick. Easy to use, effective, inexpensive. (I use the whisk attachment for whipped cream. Works just as well as my blender, but less of a hassle.)
Yeah I hate to take out my food processor and don’t own a regular blender. My main selection criterion is that the stick blender should have a metal base for using in hot foods. I use it for soups, to puree the tomatoes in marinara sauce, as a mini choppr with the appropriate attachment, and to make fresh pesto - yum! Never tried it on mashed potatoes, but will do so now. I have a Braun, and bought whatever Costco was selling last year for my daughter.
I bought a super cheap Proctor Silex immersion blender years ago. It’s going fine. Nothing fancy, no attachments. I use it mainly for making pasta sauce and frijoles refritos since it’s easy to control the amount of chunkiness. Butternut squash soup I tend to make in the blender to get the silkiest consistency.
I requested an immersion blender last year for Christmas to use with my crockpot tomato basil soup recipe. This is the one I received:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RF7QJW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It is heavy duty, easy to clean, and does a great job; however, it is a bit pricier than the others mentioned upthread.
@“cincy gal” I sent my H two links. One was to the Breville you linked and the other to the Cuisinart. I’ll let him decide what he wants to spend. The Breville was rated tops in the link from yauponredux.
@mom60, my immersion blender is a rarely used, old, and heavy Kitchen Aid, but FWIW we have had a Breville toaster/convection oven, Breville electric kettle, and Breville panini press for many years now and have been happy with all. If your H is thinking about Christmas shopping now, he is WAY ahead of mine 
I use the 29.95 blender from Sur La Table. I’m still on the first one…I bought it 22 years ago. I did purchase another one…the old one isn’t always interested in working hard…but 29.95 is hard to pass up. Yes, the same price. I used it tonight to make tortilla soup.
Having always been a big blender user, I was not especially interested in an immersion blender. Then D left hers in my house, and I got religion. It is so fast and efficient for cream soups and purees and keeps it all in one pot. Hers was light and cheap, but worked just fine for that single task.
In the last year I got a Breville blender, and it is impressive. Again, being a fan of the avocado Osterizer, I didn’t think I needed anything else, but there is so much less stirring and pushing things down needed.