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See why.The Best Hand Mixers
From whipping cream to beating egg whites, these mixers lend a helping hand. Which model is best?
By Updated Mar. 1, 2023
We recently tested two additional hand mixers, including a new cordless model from KitchenAid. While we liked the KitchenAid mixer more than the other cordless model that we previously tested, it still didn’t have the power required to muscle through dense cookie dough. We think the Breville Handy Mix Scraper and the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer are the best options for most people.
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
Hand mixers are a useful addition to any baker's kitchen. We often use them to whip cream, cream together butter and sugar for baked goods, and beat egg whites for meringue. They also take up less storage space than a stand mixer and are much easier to maneuver. We were looking for a mixer that was powerful and easy to use and had a range of speed settings, and we found all that and more in our new winner, the Breville Handy Mix Scraper. We also love our Best Buy, the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer with Storage Case, which offers similar mixing prowess without the bells and whistles of our winner.
What You Need to Know
Hand mixers strike a happy medium between combining ingredients by hand and hauling out a heavy stand mixer every time you want to mix. We use them in the test kitchen for whipping cream; beating egg whites into meringue; and combining ingredients for single batches of cookies, cakes, or pies. We think a hand mixer is an especially good option for people looking to get into baking without making a huge investment, people who don’t have much storage space, and people with arthritis or certain disabilities that prevent them from lifting a larger mixer. While hand mixers make many baking projects much easier, we’ve found that they are not powerful enough to mix most bread or pizza doughs, despite some manufacturers’ claims. Still, we think they can be an important and convenient addition to your kitchen arsenal.
All hand mixers include two standard beater attachments; some also include one or two whisk attachments and a pair of spiral-shaped dough hooks. After first testing all the models with their beaters, we tested the models equipped with whisk attachments by preparing an additional batch of meringue. Finally, we outfitted our top two models with their dough hooks and mixed Bagel Bread (more on this below).
What to Look For
- Wide Beater Heads: Beater heads with wider diameters (at least 2 inches across) mixed most efficiently, since they were able to move a larger volume of ingredients at once. They also trapped less cookie dough, since chunkier ingredients such as chocolate chips and rolled oats were able to pass through the broader gaps between the tines more easily.
- Simple, Intuitive Controls: The mixers came with analog or digital controls (a couple mixers had both). We liked both styles, as long as the controls were simple: a single wheel to scroll or two buttons for adjusting speed up and down.
- Wide Range of Speed Settings: Every mixer supposedly offered a range of slow and fast speed settings (from five to nine). But the slowest settings on some mixers were much too fas...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This mixer performed exceptionally well. It was speedy, creaming butter and sugar and whipping meringue faster than any other model, and it muscled through dense cookie dough with ease. Its beater heads are the widest in the lineup, making for efficient mixing and zero clogging, and they’re rubber-tipped, so they didn’t clang around in the bowl. This mixer is thoughtfully designed with several features that make mixing more efficient and convenient, including a timer, a light that shines into the mixing bowl, a pause button, a well-positioned display screen, and a plastic storage case that locks onto its base.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This mixer performed the same as our winner, just without the bells and whistles. It offered a wide range of speeds, from slow to lightning fast, allowing it to tackle both lighter and denser ingredients with ease. Its controls, which consisted of a simple on/off button and two buttons to select speeds, as well as a small display screen, were the most intuitive to operate in the lineup. It was also one of the fastest models, losing only to our winner when creaming butter and sugar and beating egg whites for meringue. While it doesn’t offer all the special features and conveniences of our winner, it is a fantastic option for home bakers.
Recommended
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This mixer's lowest speed was ideal for whipping cream or adding flour without flinging those ingredients everywhere. We were able to adjust the speed easily using a simple slider. This mixer ran into a bit of trouble when mixing oats and chocolate chips into stiff cookie dough—even at its fastest speed it took a few seconds to really get going—but it eventually powered through and mixed everything efficiently and effectively. We especially liked how light it was, which made it easy to maneuver while mixing.
Recommended with reservations
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This mixer offered a wide range of speeds between its lowest and highest settings, making it ideal for both delicate and difficult tasks. It whipped cream and creamed butter and sugar efficiently, and we liked how light it felt in our hands. But its controls, which consisted of a horizontal switch and multiple buttons, were confusing and difficult to master, and we accidentally turned off the machine in the middle of mixing almost every time.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
We liked that this powerful mixer was speedy and efficient but found its slowest speed to be much too fast, spraying flour and heavy cream everywhere. Its narrow beater heads occasionally got clogged, but it powered through stiff cookie dough well, and we liked how easy it was to adjust the speed with its simple scrolling wheel. It emitted a faint smell of burning plastic during its first few uses, but the odor faded over time.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease Of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
We liked that this model was lightweight and cordless, two characteristics that made it convenient to maneuver. With a single switch to turn the machine off and on and control speed, this mixer was straightforward to operate. While it performed a bit more effectively than the other cordless model we tested, this model still wasn’t as fast or powerful as our favorite mixers. It had particular difficulty with stiff, oat and chocolate-laden cookie dough, struggling to thoroughly incorporate the mix-ins and leaving undermixed patches. Its hard plastic handle was also uncomfortable to hold.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This lightweight machine was a breeze to handle, but its lowest speed was a bit too fast, so it sent cream flying as we whipped. It powered through dense cookie dough without slowing down or its beaters getting clogged, but it gave off fumes that smelled like burning plastic during its first few uses. We also wished it came with a way to wrangle the cord, though this was a minor quibble.
Not Recommended
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease Of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
We liked this mixer’s comfortable handle and the simple power switch that made it easy to turn on. We were also impressed by its wide, spacious beaters, which rarely got clogged. While this model performed well on slower speeds, it couldn’t summon the power of our favorite models and was easily bogged down by firm cookie dough. We also disliked its speed adjustment wheel, which was separate from its power switch. If we turned the mixer off after operating at full speed and forgot to readjust before mixing again, the mixer flung flour or cream everywhere.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This powerful mixer combined ingredients effectively, but its lowest speed was too fast for delicate work and sent flour and cornstarch flying in all directions. It was also the only mixer in the lineup whose beaters had center bars; they often trapped ingredients, which slowed things down. The beaters were also a bit difficult to remove, even with an eject button. That said, we liked its straightforward scrolling wheel, which made selecting speeds easy.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This cordless model, which is battery powered and charges using a USB cable, promised convenience, but it was sluggish and frustrating to use. Though its lowest speed was similar to those of models we liked, its highest speed was the slowest in the lineup, rendering it wholly inefficient when whipping cream or beating egg whites for meringue. This model’s buttons were often unresponsive, requiring multiple pushes to activate, and its speed selection scrolled up but not down, so the only way to reduce the speed was to cycle through to the highest speed and start at zero again.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Chase Brightwell
Chase is an associate editor for ATK Reviews. He's an epidemiologist-turned-equipment tester and biscuit enthusiast.
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