Hand blenders/a blender for bananas (UK)

MrsPixelbark

Right, my blender has just died. To be fair to the poor thing, it was a £4.13 jobbie from Asda, and for the last month or so I've put it through blending an awful lot of frozen bananas. To say it wasn't keen on blending those bananas would be an understatement, it made a right racket, but it did the job.

Now, I really do need a new blender, preferably a hand blender as having tried making ice cream in our stand up blender it was a pain to get the ice cream out of the blender from between the blades. However, I'd be happy to accept any other types of blender: it just needs to be able to blend frozen bananas and be easy to scoop up the ice cream afterwards without too much mess. (Hence why the hand blender was so good- I could just do it in a plastic jug, and there wasn't any fiddling about transferring the bananas from the blender to a bowl).

Now, I'll use the blender mostly for bananas, we have a stand up blender for soups/smoothies. Does anyone have any suggestions of a good blender? My old blender was only 100 watts, would going up to a 300 watt blender help at all? The blades didn't actually go in my old blender, it just refused to do anything when I pressed in the button- so I presume it's short circuited/something along those lines.

Thanks in advance!

KarenJanine

I bought this one 6 months ago to replace a cheapo plastic stick blender that died:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-MSM7700GB-Hand-Blender-Red/dp/B0027FFR0Y/ref=sr_1_6?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1357131540&sr=1-6

It's at the pricier end of the spectrum but I bought it because it has 'ice crushing capabilities' so it is able to make good smoothies. I also use it to whizz frozen bananas and other frozen fruit. I've been very happy with it so far.

The whisk attachment is also handy for making cakes etc.


ETA: It's a 750W blender so is pretty powerful. It also comes with the handy measuring jug whcih I use to make my smoothies in then glug straight out of it so I've only got one receptacle to wash

MrsPixelbark

I don't mind paying if it's a solid machine: that measuring jug certainly sounds handy- the less washing up, the better.

I hadn't realised some brands advertise as being able to crush ice: I'll go have a good scout around amazon now.

Thank you very much!