A hand mixer is great for small baking tasks like whisking egg whites and mixing cake batter – saving you from getting your mixer dirty or putting in the elbow grease.
We put each hand mixer through the wringer to help you sort the good from the bad. Here's how we do it.
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Our expert testers
There's no doubt our home economist Fiona Mair knows her way around a kitchen.
With 30 years of experience, Fiona has endless knowledge about kitchen appliances and has seen lots of new technology come and go. She is a whiz in the kitchen and knows how to put any appliance through its paces.
Our test coordinator Chantelle Dart joins Fiona in testing popular kitchen products to see if they're worth a spot in your home.
How we choose what we test
With a range of products on the market, what makes us test one hand mixer over another? As with most of our product testing, our aim is to test the most popular models on the market and what you're most likely to see in stores.
We survey manufacturers to find out about their range of models, check market sales information and also look out for any member requests to test specific models.
From this information, we put together a final list that goes to our buyers. They then head out to the retailers and purchase each product, just as a normal consumer would. We do this so we can be sure the products are the same as any consumer would find them and not 'tweaked' in any way.
How we test
Performance
Accounts for 60% of the CHOICE Expert Rating.
Fiona and Chantelle conduct two main performance tests:
- Whisking egg whites – we use the beaters to whisk egg whites to form stiff peaks. Where supplied, we also use the wire whisk attachment.
- Beating a cake batter – the beaters are used to assess how well the hand mixers combine dry and wet ingredients to form an even and smooth cake mix.
We no longer test the dough hooks, when supplied. In previous tests, we've found that hand mixers don't have the power required to knead dough.
Ease of use
Accounts for 40% of the CHOICE Expert Rating.
Fiona and Chantelle assess ease of use by checking how easy it is to:
- use the controls
- read the labelling
- insert and remove the mixing tools
- stand the mixer during operation
- store the unit with its accessories
- clean the hand mixer.
They also assess the general comfort, balance and control, hand grip and strain on the wrist during operation.
Our test lab
We maintain a kitchen lab that is up to date with the latest reference machines and calibrated measurement tools for our testers to bring you the right results.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
