After my 15 year old Braun immersion blender developed a crack in its fixed plastic shaft, I decided to do a little research on a new blender. I looked at the Cuisinart, Viking and Kitchen Aid blenders and saw a common complaint regarding the detachable shaft's gear mechanism stripping out after extended or heavy duty use. These blenders seem to employ a plastic gear which couples with the motor housing unit. It seemed odd to me that they would use such a method especially considering these models also have powerful 200w motors. One thing I also noticed was that people were using these blenders to crush ice and other really hard substances, which I would never even consider to do with an immersion blender. Immersion blenders were originally invented to blend sauces and soups in the saucepan, so you didn't have to transfer the contents to a conventional upright blender. I know that these manufacturers claim that you can chop ice and other things that a food processor or upright blender can do, but honestly, I think this is a reach for this type of appliance and you're only flirting with disaster if you use this device for purposes other than simply blending softer foods.
Back to the Waring immersion blender. Waring has a respected name in the commercial restaurant appliance market for many years and in fact, invented the first commercial electric upright blender. Fred Waring was a band leader from the swing era and prime investor in the original company, which is where the name comes from. Actually, I started looking at the professional, restaurant version of this model (WSB33) which retails at over twice this model's price and saw that the specs were identical except that the restaurant's version has a fixed, non-detachable shaft, a grounded 3-prong plug and only a 1 year warranty. This model (SB10) has a detachable shaft for convenient cleaning and a 5 year warranty. I was a little concerned about how the shaft attached to the motor housing, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the metal shaft that the blade is attached to is directly inserted into the motor, much in the same way the rotor blades on a hand-held mixer is inserted into the mixer's motor housing. A logical approach and much more efficient way of transferring the energy of the motor to the shaft and blade.
Overall, this is an excellent value for $30, even though its motor is only 100w compared to some in this price range with double the wattage. Plus, Waring is well known in the commercial restaurant business for its high-end immersion blenders (some in the $600+ price range), so I figure they must know a thing or two about blenders considering their pedigree. This model works great if you respect the appliance for what it is: a pulse-style immersion blender for soups and sauces and light chopping; not a blender for making Daiquiris or frozen Margaritas. Leave that to the upright bar-style blenders.
