I also have a KitchenAid, which I bought at Goodwill for $2.00. Elery has a Braun. They both are more than 10 years old, and both work fine.

Annie

I agree that the Cuisinart is not a good choice. Whatever you get, make sure that it has a cord and does not run on batteries, as those will not give it enough power. I have a KA immersion blender, which has 10 speeds, but five speeds should be enough. I can't remember how long I've had mine, but I use it a lot, and I also use the small chopper attachment that came with it, which is great for making relishes.

The first one I had many years ago was a Braun and it didn't last very long. Since then, I've just bought them at rummage sales whenever I see one for a couple of dollars. The one I 'm using now is a two speed Rival; this one seems to have lasted longer than any of the previous ones.

my kitchenaid has been reliable though I don't use it daily. $35 I think.

I have an inexpensive Hamilton Beach. It's corded, has 3 attachments (puree, whip, and something else I've never used) and two speeds. It's plastic so it can't go into boiling soup but does a great job with pureeing or whipping. Both my mom and sister liked it so much that they each bought one too. It's several years old and still works fine, though it only gets sporadic use--certainly not daily or even weekly.

I love my Braun, which was a Costco special a bazillion years ago. Braun was bought out and is only a brand for shavers or something like that nowadays. I'm sure it was one of those items that is made by a no-name company and sold under many brand names. It came fitted out like this one (which looks like a slightly updated version of the same thing). Your daughter might not need the extras, but the little chopper is really fantastic, if it's like mine. Great for herbs an other tiny portions. This Cuisinart looks like aheavier version of the exact same thing with double the price. This Proctor Silex looks just like the Braun without the gizmos and a teeny price.

Mind you, this isn't high power, but it's lightweight and really easy to use and clean.

KitchenAid has been the best. I also have the variable speed one and it's way better than the others I've tried, but the newer ones are different. I hope they're still proportionately the best, but reviews from people who've had the old ones say they're not as good as they were.

No matter which brand you get, I would for sure get one with a metal shaft. It would drive me crazy to have to wait for stuff to cool first.

EDIT I recently tried a Braun and it was such a wimp in comparison to the KA. The soup I was puréeing takes about 2 min with mine and after 6 min with the Braun it still wasn't as smooth. Sorry, plllog.

I don't trust bad reviews that much.

Given that fact that users with good experience don't write good reviews as often as users with bad experience writing bad reviews.

If blender X sells at $30 each, they can sell 100,000 units there will be many bad ones proportional to 100,000 units.

If the same blender X is sold at $ 150 each, they can only sell 1000 units, there will be many fewer bad ones sold and fewer bad reviews. Same identical blender.

Whoever sells blender X at $150 each will be very happy to send you free replacements and get good reviews for good customer service.

I bought a hand blender for $35. 300 Watts of power with 23,000 RPM speed.

I refuse to pay $200 for a Bamix at 150 Watts of power with 14,000 RPM speed.

dcarch

DD has a mini food processor. She's just looking for an immersion blender without any attachments. I suspect it is for smoothies and such. They consumer a lot of those. Consumer Reports rated the the top three: Breville, Miallegro, and DeLonghi, I"m sure they are all way more than she wants to pay. I suspect she'd like to keep it under $50.

Under $50 and 300-399 watts, Amazon has 3 I've never heard of - Ovente, Epica, and Chefman. If you go over 400 watts or under 299, I've heard of most of them. If you go over $50 and 300-399 watts, they also have DeLonghi and Waring.

I have a Braun, no idea how many watts, had it for well more than 20 years, use it mostly for soups, gravy and an occasional smoothie.

I have a Cuisinart, about $30. Bought it 3-4 years ago. Never used it and still in the box. I use a blender for smoothies and just never had the need to use this.

Plllog, Braun still has a site with a lot of different appliances, but I don't think any are sold in the US anymore. I have one of their hand mixers. I use it to mix bread dough among other things.

Braun

A purchase has been made. She went with the $30 Cuisinart. The advantages for it were price and Prime shipping from Amazon. She'll have it day after tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your insight and opinions.

Writersblock, there's no reason to be sorry. The bigger units tend to be too heavy and go unused by a lot of people. That's one reason why I love my little Braun. :)

CindyMac, you're right. I was imprecise. It's the American unit of Braun that has been limited.

Bbstx, Congrats to your DD on the purchase.

I am happy with my Cuisinart Smart Stick. It is not battery operated, but plugs into the wall. It has two speeds. There may be other variants out there, but two speeds is fine for me. I've used it for smoothies and for "juicing". (Someone somewhere seems to have decided that the term juicing means all the pulp gets removed -- they never met my mother back in the day who used to juice oranges for us using a hand citrus fruit juicer...)