We’re creeping (slowly, slowly) into cold weather here in Florida, and one of my favorite wintertime activities is sitting outside with a steaming bowl of soup or chowder or bisque or whatever else.
What I hate, though, is using blenders. The problem is that a lot of recipes call for blending either all or a portion of the soup. I’m considering an immersion blender. Do any of y’all have one? Do you like it? Is it a huge pain to use or clean? Do your ears hang low?
After the Great Tomato Soup Explosion of 2011, I got an immersion blender. I have the Cuisinart one. It’s dead easy to use (immerse, press the button) and extremely easy to clean - 99% of the time I just rinse it off under running water, but if it gets really greasy somehow, I immerse it in hot soapy water and press the button, let it vroom a bit, and it comes clean.
I could live without it for sure, but it is handy.
Have one, love it, very easy to clean.
I love mine. To clean it, just run water over it as soon as you’re done using it. If there are bits sticking to the blades, hit the go switch a couple of times while the water is running on them. That’ll get most of it and you can sponge it with soap later. It’s a lot easier to clean than a blender or food processor.
(Should have previewed, but I was racing.)
Love it, I wouldn’t want to make many soups without it.
Mmmm…squash soup…
Have one myself - a Cuisinart model. It works well for most soups, but if you’re making tomato basil soup it will NOT puree the basil. It just gets all gummed up in the blade guard. 
I consider an immersion blender nearly indispensable in the kitchen. It it so much easier than dealing with and cleaning up a regular blender. I use the immersion blender ten times for every one time I use my regular blender. (I pretty much only use the regular blender for pureeing chile sauces and for chicken bones that get pureed up into bone meal for the dog.)
Have one, love it, use it often. One day I want to use the one I saw on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that looked more like a trolling motor than a blender. They used it to blend about 25 gallons of whatever they were making.
Have one. Love it. Blender bad. Bad blender!
Love mine. Use it all the time, on all kinds of things. I think it’s a KitchenAid, but I could be wrong.
Dead easy to use, never caused any problems or mess like you can with a blender or mixer. So far, of course; I’ve probably jinxed myself now.
Wipe down the handle and toss the blade-section in the dishwasher.
Get one, soon you won’t know how you lived without it.
My ears sit high. 
I have one that collects a lot of dust. It’s good for puréeing certain soups (specifically, soups that don’t need to be completely puréed), but I generally use my real blender much more often. The carafe goes in the dishwasher when I’m done.
I made 21 quarts of vegetable juice this summer, and there is no way I would have even attempted that task without my trusty immersion blender.
As others have said, it’s dead easy to clean. I fill a plastic cup with soapy water and let her rip for 10 seconds - done.
Like Labrador Deceiver says - they’re great for things that don’t need to be fully pureed. Need to grind up that tomato sauce to get rid of the big chunks? Perfect. Want to make Butternut Squash soup? Get out the blender.
I use my blender a lot more, but there are some things that the immersion blender does really quickly and seeing is it’s a relatively cheap piece of kitchen gear, I think it’s well worth it. But if I had to choose one or the other, it’s the blender all the way.
Er… this makes me ask, just what kinds of problems and messes have you gotten yourself into with blenders and mixers?!?
Sometimes it happens that when the soup is forced upwards in the blender, I am not strong enough to keep the lid on – leading, on at least one oocaision, to boiling hot tomato soup all over me and the kitchen, and some very atrtactive burns. Plus, I’m still finding tomato soup spatters a year+ later.
I realize that what I should have done is let the soup cool before blending it, and stage it in smaller batches. But fuck that Silent Bob! With the immersion blender I blend directly on the stove top with the soup still in the pan. I’ve hardly used my blender since getting the immersion blender. For larger tasks I use a food processor.
Hehe, yeah I know exactly what you mean.
There’s a trick to blending hot liquids in case you ever want to try again. As you’ve found, you can’t really fill the blender up more than about halfway if you’re doing hot stuff. The blender top also needs a vent on it, to let steam escape. You don’t want to get in the way of that steam cuz it’s hot, but at the same time you need to hold the top down, so you put a big kitchen towel over the top of the blender and hold it down tight.
That pretty much does it. Of course, an immersion blender makes it a whole heck of a lot easier, but won’t really puree the way a blender will (and neither does a food processor.)
I love mine and I’ve had no problem pureeing things with it. Stuff comes out very smooth and non-chunky. I also just wipe down the handle and put the blade part in the dishwasher.
My immersion blender purees things as smooth as any countertop blender. Maybe it’s a particularly high-powered one or something - it’s a Brun that I bought unused in its box at a yard sale.
I use it all the time and I love it. I can make tomato basil soup for two in a jiffy, without getting anything dirty but the saucepan and the business end of the immersion blender. And it cleans as easily as everyone says upthread.
It came with a type of mini-blender-jar appliance, in which I can whir up a half a cup of caesar salad dressing easily.
Yeah, I’ve never had an issue, except with leafy things and with dried whole peppers that have been reconstituted. Those don’t blend as well with an immersion blender, in my experience. Anything that I need silk smooth gets pushed through a chinois or wire mesh strainer, anyway, so it’s not been a problem.
The inventor regular, stand-up blender should be sainted. How else do you make frozen margaritas?
(I received an immersion blender for Christmas last year, at my request. I can think of SO many cool uses for it. It’s still in the box.) 