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I have a braun too. I use it all the time. I use my immersion much more frequently than my conventional blender. I do a lot of soups, chilis, sauces. The clean up is so mcuh easier than the conventional.

I use mine a lot. I love to make cream-of-something soups, which it is perfect for. I originally bought it after a couple of bad experiences trying to blend hot liquids in my bar blender. The immersion blender is much easier to clean, and you don't have to worry about fitting your recipe into the jar of the blender or doing it in batches.

If you decide to buy one, make sure you get a good quality version; a weak motor will make it very difficult to smoothly puree some things.

Ive got one I bought years ago, it was an elcheapo brand. I use it all the time and it's great. I dont like buying preserves so I always make my own small batches of referigerator preserves. Not to mention using it for soups and smoothies. I wouldnt get the cheapest one out there, but unless youre doing huge amounts, you probably wont need to spend more than 30 or so. You will find that the more you use it the more you wont be able to think of not having one. As everyone says the clean up alone is worth the price!

Worth it, but not as a replacement for a blender. Great for the quick jobs mentioned above. I have a $70.00 model and a $1.00 (from a garage sale) model. Guess which one I use more?

Make sure you get one that plugs in like my garage sale version rather than the rechargeable cordless model like my spendy version. I think you can buy a decent model at Target for 20-30$.

Also, as long as it has the flat plastic disc attachment, any immersion blender will whip skim milk into a whipped-cream consistency.

Another vote for having one. I have a Braun, and love it. It also comes with the whisk attachment and the mini-chopper (I use it mostly to mince garlic and it does a great job). I use it quite often for all kinds of stuff that I wouldn't use a regular blender for due to what I perceive as extreme messiness (hot soups, tomato sauces, roasted eggplant salads, etc), and at this point, can't imagine my life without one.

I was ridiculously infatuated with mine--it was one of the first kitchen purchases I ever made (in college) and I thought I was so much more enlightened than the masses (they were hard to find back then). I used it for everything, and then I burnt the motor out after 5 years. Being totally broke at the time, i was devastated.

But it's been 2 and a half years since then and I still haven't replaced it. I use my blender a lot, and it's just so much more powerful. However, the immersion blender is a great complement to a traditional blender. As Kersoena mentioned, it's not a replacement.

fwiw, I blend mostly soups and smoothies. I don't know if an immersion blender could crush ice.

Like sobriquet, I have a stainless steel Cuisinart with attachments (this one is called the SmartStick). It was on my Christmas wish list. I read a lot of reviews before specifying this one. I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't be powerful enough, but this hasn't turned out to be the case at all (~4 months). This one was on sale for $32 (from $50, I think). Some reviewers were recommending Bamix models (start around $100, I think), but I decided to start with the Cuisinart and see if I needed or wanted a higher end model.

I mainly wanted it for pureeing roasted vegetables to turn them into soup. I disliked using and cleaning the blender for this purpose and realized I made soup less often because of it. Or at least, that was my excuse, :).

Since Christmas, I have been making different kinds of roasted veg soups at least once a week. It has just been great! Now even though it's clearly spring and warming up here, I am excited about new vegetables coming to the farmer's market and playing with turning grilled vegetables into soups.

The other frequent use I make of the IB is to puree canned whole tomatoes for various sauces. I used to do this in a mini food processor, but clean up is way faster with the IB.

I still use the blender for some things, as well as the food processor for others. But I find I am using those two appliances even less often with the addition of the IB to the kitchen.

Totally worth it - I use it to puree tomato sauces, soups, and other hot stuff I am too afraid to handle while hot.

My mom got me the Cuisinart SmartStick for Christmas. I adore it. It is great for soups and sauces, and I used it a ton to make baby food for my son with mininal clean-up. Love it!

I am with bessfour - Buy one!

I have a regular blender and an immersion blender. My immersion blender is a cheapie made by Toastmaster, but it works fine.

I made soup ONCE using the transfer-in-batches-to-the-blender method. This was so inconvenient and messy and generally horrible that I didn't make soup again until I bought an immersion blender. Since I bought the immersion blender, the only things I've used my regular blender for are crushing ice and making bread crumbs.

Buy an immersion blender. They aren't expensive and you will LOVE it! And as everybody above has pointed out, the cleanup is so quick and easy it's worth the price by itself.

You'll love it, just like the others said I've found it invaluable for making soups and we had soup at least once a week this fall and winter because they are so easy to take out, plug in, use a few minutes, and even clean up takes under a minute.

Just watch for the spraying at some points if the soup isn't high enough to cover it! I get sprayed just often enough that I wish there was some type of cover made for pots while using the immersion blender so it could catch the fly ups.

KitchenAid is also Cooks Illustrated recommended model, so good choice! If you get some attachments (and don't have a food processor) you can make some quick salsas, and try making hollandaise too!

I use mine nearly every day, sorting out a miserable lumpy sauce, making hummus, all kinds of things!