Hand mixers, commercial blenders, floor mixers, immersion blenders – they all just combine things together, right? Why are there so many options? Each of these pieces of equipment is very different and each is best for differing applications.
A blender turns things into liquids while a mixer combines ingredients and is not best for turning the ingredients into liquids.
Let’s explore the differences between each product and the best applications to make your commercial kitchen successful.
Traditional Commercial Blender
Traditional commercial blenders are great for their simplicity – perfect for blending consistency. Blending frozen drinks and chunkier foods are good uses for such blenders. The disadvantage? They take up more space and are much harder to clean.
- Blending consistency
- Great for frozen drinks and ‘chunky’ foods
Immersion Blender
An immersion blender is lightweight, easy to handle, and allows ingredients to be blended anywhere because operators take the blade to the food instead of taking the food to the blender. Big pros – compact size and easy-to-clean parts. Perfect for smaller tasks or when you’re creating a product that needs more texture. Good uses include making creams, dressings, soups, and salsas. These aren’t so great with harder items, like frozen fruit or ice.
- Compact size and easy to clean
- Great for ‘liquids’ – milkshakes, dressings, soups, etc.
Have You Heard of This?
Immersion blenders are also sometimes known as Bermixers. This term comes from the professional series originally created by Dito-Electrolux. The term Bermixer has been used to refer in place of “immersion blender”.
Hand Mixer
A hand mixer is great for combining dry ingredients and batters, but it is not optimized to turn ingredients into liquids. Imagine trying to make a smoothie with a hand mixer – doesn’t work! But cake batter? Absolutely. Hand mixers are lightweight and easy to handle.
Hope has been a Content Specialist since November 2015, where she brings to the table years of experience in the food service industry in a variety of roles. Throughout her time with Central, Hope has focused on learning all things possible about everything from cooking equipment to concession and specialty products in order to empower operators with education on commercial equipment and supplies. Hope is a wife, new mom, avid crafter, and food lover (french fries please!).
