My Kitchen Aid hand mixer I use for heavier duty mixing tasks such as cookie dough mixing, cake mixing. The hand blender (can't remember the brand) came with a blender tip (use in stove to blend soups, in a measuring bowl to make smoothies, puree veggies for baby food), a whisk tip (excellent for making whipped cream and beating egg whites but only in small quantities), a mini blender bowl (was good for mincing herbs but it broke when I tried using it to grate cheese as they recommended), a regular blender bowl (was great for mixing crepe batter but the shaft broke because it got too much heavy duty use) and an ice shaving bowl that I never used. To sum it up, the blender stick is very versatile but more for light weight task. It's best use is in making pureed soups. I like lots of kitchen utensils so I also have a kitchen aid stand mixer too. I hope this helps.

A hand mixer is more for making batters, whipping eggs or cream, etc. It's kind of an old fashioned appliance. Most people prefer a stand mixer, unless they're short on space or money. A stand mixer is better for doughs and can knead. It has a lot more power.

An "immersion" or "stick" blender is basically a blender which uses your own vessel instead of a blender jar. It isn't as powerful as a blender with a base motor, but it's very convenient to be able to put the blender into the pot of soup rather than transferring jarful after jarful to the blender and then into another pot. You have to be careful to keep the blender blades below the surface of the soup (which is lower with the convection of the blades going round) or you'll decorate your whole kitchen with soup. Equally, you can use it for blendering smoothies or mixed drinks in your glass or pitcher.

Many immersion blenders also come with separate attachments such as Raro described. I think the whisk on mine is pretty useless because it takes less muscle power for me to hand whisk than to hold the blender and let it go round and round. Additionally, it's the circular or orbital motion when whisking that gets the air in, not rotation, which means doing it by hand is better anyway. The one task I think the whisk might be superior for is frothing, which is a circular motion. I think that's mostly because a cup is too narrow for a circular motion, and also, I think circular might build up more air in the top rather than all the way through (though that's a guess).

I love the mini-food processor that came with my immersion blender. I didn't use it for years, but when I tried it I found that it worked really well for herbs because the power comes from above rather than below.

I haven't used my regular blender with the motor base and jar since I got the immersion blender. It's even still in the box since I remodelled my kitchen (about a year). I can blend anything with the immersion blender, it's a lot easier to clean up, and to store. But it's nothing like a mixer. I can't imagine how one would use them interchangeably.

Imagine doing tasks by hand. Blender tasks are done with a knife (chopping) and a sieve of some kind (pureeing). Mixer tasks are done with a wooden spoon (mixing, beating), whisk or fork (whipping), or bare hands (kneading). The appliance that will do some of both is the food processor. It'll do chopping and pureeing and most also have a dough blade that'll do mixing and a certain amount of beating.

pllog, it sounds like you're well satisfied with your immersion blender. What brand name did you purchase?

Thanks to you and raro for your comments as they clarified the differences.

I recently purchased the Bamix immersion blender from an eBay seller, but have not had the chance to use it much. My other choice would have been the Kitchen Aid which you reference.

I have the Cuisinart - I'm have no idea if it's better than the KA or not, but I love this tool. I use the chopper attachment (makes it into a mini processor) a lot. It will puree a soup in no time, but it makes paste out of potatoes.

I would never consider this tool a replacement for a hand mixer, but then I love my small appliances. I use my hand mixer for smaller batches of things that I don't need my stand mixer to do, or that I need to use a different mixing container for (something other than the bowl that I have to use with the stand mixer).

Bamix is supposed to be the very best. I don't know of any brands that are bad, though the mini-FP on the KA, I think it is, was noted by a couple of members to have the knife too high to be really effective for herbs.

Unfortunately, mine is a Braun and since Gillette bought them they don't have kitchen appliances in the U.S. It's great and was a Costco special.

Some of the newest immersion blenders are trying to replace jar blenders and have the 15 speeds and all. Beware of weight! You don't want to be holding up a great big motor. For the kind of things I use an immersion blender for, I can see where having a few speeds might be nice, but I've never used more than that on my jar blender (which does have 15) and can't imagine using them with the stick. I think it would be very awkward. Mine might have two, but it's probably just on/off. I wouldn't trade for more weight, but I do also have a Cuisinart (and the big old blender) so I don't need it to do more. Perhaps extra weight might be useful to you if you don't have either of those.

I have the KA, and like macybaby, I don't consider it a substitute for a hand mixer. It's a very nice machine for what it does, but I don't use it nearly as much as I thought I would, since there's not much call for smoothies or soups and such here. And pillog is right--the chopper bowl is nice, but it's no better for small things like herbs or nuts than a regular jar blender would be. You still have that aggravating untouched area at the very bottom.

My wife had a small Bosch set and loved using the little mini food processor attachment to grind our fresh herbs. Then I dropped it and the bowl broke. Couldn't find a replacement so I thought I'd pick up another for about $30 at Costco. First I had to read reviews at Amazon.com and everyone was saying the thing had a bad electric switch. One even said a blue arc came out from under the button. I started looking for a stronger Bosch since she liked her other. Wound up with a large 12 speed version that was very powerful. Now it and all its attachments sit on the top shelf of our pantry because it is too large and intimidating for her. I would just get a blender and a food processor instead now. I rarely take it down to get lumps out of gravy or something.