Russell Hobbs Desire Matte Black RHSM5BLK

Wouldn’t purchase again – Mini chopper lid started leaking smelly brown liquid after washing it. I used a knife to pry it open (which is not instructed to be done). The white mould and water inside was such a health hazard. I hate to think how many times I’ve used the mini chopper and not known how vile it was. Show details

Great blender - Does so much and solves all the problems of older style blenders – We are very happy with our Russell Hobbs Desire 3-in-1 Hand Blender. There are so many add-ons with this blender, plus it happily solves many of the problems we have experienced with previous blenders. The design around the blade seems to have corrected many issues with blenders such as the Bamix. Some of the improvements include smooth blend,… Read more

not leaving any lumps, super quiet, super quick, incredibly powerful, no spray/splash, is dishwasher safe and a 2 year warranty to boot!

One of the best benefits with the Russell Hobbs 3-in-1 Hand Blender is that it eliminates the need to have three individual appliances stored in your kitchen.

The Russell Hobbs hand blender has two speeds and the quick speed is much better than you will expect. In fact, you will probably assume this blender can't do certain things until you try them for yourself.

My wife loves how when you use the Russell Hobbs to blend drinks with sugar and honey it leaves no sediment/lumps collecting at the bottom. With a bullet type blender the heavier items like sugar and honey will just sit at the bottom and not blend into the drink. The Russell Hobbs design over the blade ensures that everything is sucked in and blended in super quick time.

Blending smoothies with ice is super super quick and very quiet. It only takes a few seconds and you honestly won't believe the drink is finished blending, when in fact it has. The super speed blending is helped by the 500W motor which spins at 12,000rpm. This level of power is incredibly good.

We often make crepes in a large mixing bowl and with old style blenders, when you try and bring the blade towards the surface to eliminate any lumps you can easily end up with mixture sprayed all over yourself or the kitchen walls. With the Russell Hobbs hand blender, even when you try and spray the mixture, it is almost impossible.

Even though there are two speeds to the blender we usually use the fast one. In the past we would use the slow one to stop splash/spray but that really isn't an issue with the Russell Hobbs blender.

The Russell Hobbs hand blender produces food that is super smooth and will do a great job with things like mashed potatoes and pumpkin soup. It is also great at blending any sort of baby food you might imagine.

The whisk is a great addition and super helpful when mixing eggs, cream etc. The blender/mixing cup is also very useful and absolutely no spray comes out when using this for a variety of things, including smoothies. The Russell Hobbs hand blade and the design over it somehow keep all the contents pushing down rather than spraying all over the place like my old Bamix.

The Russell Hobbs mini chopper is fantastic and can be used for all sorts chopping, whether it be something as soft as herbs or crushing ice for a cold slurpee type drink for the kids. The chopping bowl even comes with a non slip base that easily comes off and doubles as a lid for the same chopping bowl. The lid seals air tight.

The one negative with the chopper is that you need to line the parts up to begin chopping. It is not difficult but it is worth noting it doesn't line up automatically and you need to look when doing it.

The Russell Hobbs Desire 3-in-1 Hand Blender is super easy to clean as all the parts disconnect from the motor and are dishwasher safe. That said, all the parts are super easy to clean so either way life is much easier. To cap it all off, the blender comes with a 2 year warranty.

Overall, we love our Russell Hobbs Desire 3-in-1 hand blender. It will hopefully be our family hand blender for the next 10 to 20 years.

Compact and convenient surprise package – Many different recipes are cooked in this household of five, which includes three adult sons who are looking to maintain a healthy diet for fitness and gym purposes, a dairy intolerant father and a mother who is coeliac. The household has the main kitchen appliances deemed necessary to create a range of meals. A hand blender is not something I… Read more

have owned previously, as we have mainly relied on a quality brand food processor and a large sturdy blender, when it comes to everyday cooking and recipes.

Although marketed as a hand blender, this unit by Russell Hobbs is more than just a hand blender. The box in itself would suggest that there is more to this product than just a traditional hand blender, as it contains several other parts making it a 3-in-1 hand blender. Opening the box reveals not just the hand unit with a blending leg, but also includes a mini chopper, a whisk and a beaker. Some hand blenders are just that – hand blenders – consisting of the hand unit and the leg, which you then use with your own containers and bowls. This package includes two containers appropriately sized for the unit.

The hand unit is easily connected to the three attachments provided in the pack. Each attachment easily cups onto the hand unit and is secured into place by rotating it counterclockwise until you clearly feel and hear a click. The counter-clockwise rotation is somewhat counter-intuitive, and it has taken me a couple of days to get used to it. I find that I have a natural tendency to rotate things clockwise when expecting to connect and secure them in place. After a little while you learn to do it without even thinking about it anymore. The counterclockwise locking is done due to the rotational direction of the motor – that is, so it does not come undone while operating.

The hand unit is made of plastic and feels like plastic in the hand; however, it is quite heavy indicating that it has a substantial motor and metal components internally. Its mass makes it feel quite sturdy when using it.

The whisk attachment requires an adaptor to be attached to the hand unit and the metal whisk is then placed into it. The adaptor connects to the hand unit similar to the blending leg, clicking into position by rotating it counterclockwise, and is a sturdy connection. The whisk, on the other hand, is pushed into a plastic slot and does not have an obvious or assuring click. At first, I wasn’t sure if it had been inserted fully or was secure enough. However, once used a couple of times you become used to it and realise that it is secure enough. What is important to realise is that this attachment is only a whisk, which does not do any heavy work and therefore should be well and truly secure for this purpose.

The whisk does feel a little bit wobbly, which is understandable as such attachments are not designed to be perfectly balanced. Using against the wall of a container makes it feel stable and is actually necessary to produce the best results. The whisk attachment is an excellent inclusion. I live in a household that uses a lot of eggs for omelets, scrambled eggs and for making cakes. The whisk makes it fast and simple. It is also easy to clean making it a highly effective and useful attachment.

The blending leg is metal and appears to be stainless steel with a finely brushed finish. It feels strong and has shown no signs of staining or rust, nor any signs of wear so far. It has a two-blade cutter which at first seemed as though it may not be strong enough. However, the unit has been used to blend some hard ingredients, including frozen foods. It has handled well and has not shown any signs of damage or any blunting of the blades.

The blending leg has been working well. The only suggestion for Russell Hobbs to consider, would be the option to make it slightly longer which would allow it to work better in taller jugs and containers. The blending leg is appropriately sized for the beaker that is provided with the unit. However, a longer leg would allow it to be used with some of the taller containers I have at home.

The mini chopper is compact, handling around 500ml. It does feel and appear quite plastic, but once used you realise that it is actually quite strong and sturdy. It has a removable rubber base that helps to keep it from slipping on the bench. The container’s lid actually doubles as the adaptor that connects the hand unit to the mini chopper. The blades are removable and sits loosely on the spindle at the bottom of the container. It is spring loaded so that when the lid is placed on top the whole mechanism is then held in place.

Sometimes when it is put together it does not fit well, but this is because the teeth have not perfectly aligned. This is not a problem as when the unit is spun the spring loading ensures that the teeth mesh together.

The lid does not have any locking mechanism. This is understandable as this is a hand blender which requires you to hold the unit to operate. The lid has a sticker that reminds the user that the lid needs to fitted level and properly into the container.

Because the unit is relatively small and appears plasticky, I was initially concerned that it would not be able to handle anything that was too hard. Once I started using the unit I realised that it is very capable. I have tested the unit with a variety of nuts and frozen ingredients and have found it to operate well with no issues or any signs of damage or wear.

The only concern is the fact that the container is perhaps too small to make any larger cooking quantities. However, it should be understood that this is not meant to be a full-sized food processor. This is a hand blender that has an added bonus of also being able to be used as a mini chopper and food processor. The unit is actually a good size if you are looking for something that is portable – for example, if you are looking for something to take away with you on holidays, or if you are single or a couple living in an apartment and do not want anything large that takes up limited space.

I have used the unit successfully for a range of recipes and ingredients. This includes preparation for baking cakes, including gluten free recipes. I have also crushed walnuts for various recipes, made icecream, mashed bananas for a banana cake, beat eggs for a cake and made great omelets and scrambled eggs.

The instructions include four recipes that each use a different aspect of the unit. There is so much more that can be done with the unit if you are a capable cook, and I suppose that these recipes are there to help some people start out.

The unit is relatively simple with not much to it. The most complex part about it is the fact that there are different attachments. Operating the unit, it only has two speeds. I have found that I mainly use the higher speed, but the lower speed is also useful depending on what you are using it for.

The best aspect of the unit is how easy it is to clean. The unit easily disassembles into its various components and can be either easily washed in a sink and running water or can be thrown into the dishwasher. Note that the parts are dishwasher safe.

One thing I have noticed is that the mini chopper lid has a small amount of water inside from washing it. When shaken it can be heard. I am not sure whether this will be detrimental to the unit, but so far there has been no issues or signs of problems as a result of it.

I have been using the unit for several weeks now and have found it to be very convenient. It is compact, easily assembled and disassembled, does not take up much space and packs a lot of punch. What is important to note is that this is a compact unit that is actually very capable. It can do the basics of a larger purpose-built food processor, just in smaller quantities. It can seem a little bit flimsy and a little bit undersized at times, but this is because it could easily be thought of as a mini food processor rather than just a 3-in-1 hand blender. This fact alone actually makes this a good value proposition.

Russell Hobbs Hand Held Blender, small on size, big on performance and power! Very nice product! – Although we have an industrial quality blender we've now been using for many years making lots of smoothies and large blending jobs, sometimes it's nice to have a smaller unit for ease of use and handling. Especially when doing recipes that call for several small blending steps as part of them. This is where the Russell Hobbs hand held blender… Read more

comes in. Apart from being an attractive and well designed appliance as Russell Hobbs are known for, it actually performs really well, and comes complete with a range of accessories that help to complete any desired blending operation you could want.

In use despite being small, it's more than powerful enough for pretty much everything we threw at it, from seeds to nuts and fruit, including cocktails with fruit and ice, and does an admirable job on the blending as a result. It was a hit with our daughter who loved using it for frozen fruit and ice cream recipes.

Ergonomically it's not too large and is easy to grip, and my wife and I found it very comfortable to manage, and very comfortable in use. Likewise, the accessories are nicely designed and very practical. In particular the Blending Leg as it's called, (strange name to us!) is well thought out, with this attachment you can stab at the items to be blended without risk of the blades contacting the sides of the container, and the scoop of the base also helps to push the food into it to be blended. Our old blender didn't have his level of design and used to contact the sides, so this was very nice to see.

It came a whisk attachment which our daughter made great use of for eggs, and I must admit as being a lover of Irish Coffee myself, found it absolutely fantastic for thickening the cream instead of the usual half an hour of shaking the cream bottle!

All the accessories including the mixing bowl connect very solidly without fuss, and hold well, no awkward trying to fit things together only to come apart under use here. The whisk and blending leg have a detent that holds them very firm in use, but a simple twist pulls them apart. And cleaning is a breeze, better than cleaning our large benchtop blender we found.

The only thing we would have liked even though it was adequate in general, is for the power cord to have been a little longer, another 2 feet I think would have been perfect.

All in all, we were very impressed with the speed, handling, and quality of the blender and the accessories, very well worth every cent, and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. This unit was far superior to our old Bamix, and more versatile, producing better results. A very practical and well thought out and designed product!

I have used many mini choppers, this is superior – This was received to review along with a Russell Hobbs kettle and toaster so read those reviews and my other reviews, all very honest and not always positive! I probably use a mini food processor almost daily. I have had many over the years and some I have used once and even returned for a refund being not fit for purpose. Some are so poorly… Read more ·  2

designed but this one being the Russell Hobbs 3-in-1 hand blender, I absolutely love. Big statement from fussy me!

Every brand offers the same attachments all doing the same things but this unit is superior.

Firstly, the mini chopper lid does not have a specific locking method. Instead it quickly lines up with the bowl. Clever!

The removable base of the bowl becomes the lid for the bowl. Shame the beaker does not have a lid. I make mayonnaise in the beaker and a lid is a necessity for fridge storage.

The mini chopper lid is a clever design being smooth so easy to keep clean. I have added a photo of another brand to compare both (see last photo).

The mini chopper blade cut carrots, onions and garlic well. Breadcrumbs not so good.

I found connecting the motor unit tricky but only because I am left handed. My other units have never been a problem.

I have not tested the whisk as that is a feature I dont use as I hand whisk instead.

The two speeds for the motor are very different in speed which is great. Often you cannot feel much difference in other brands.

My only negative comment is the mini chopper lid. Yes being flat is good and easy to clean however it fills with water. I suggest hand washing where possible or if you dishwash, place on the drainer to drain or you will end up with a puddle of water where you store it. At around $90 (March 2024) it would make a excellent gift.

A great appliance for blending, chopping and whipping – I was actually pleasantly surprised by this appliance. When I took it out of the box it felt a little light and the chopper only had a single blade so my expectation was that it would struggle with a few things. The connection of some of the parts seemed like they weren’t locked into place very securely but maybe I was expecting it to have more of… Read more

a stronger click. First I tried the chopper, which has a good sized non slip bowl with a wide opening. its a perfect size for making sauces, pesto, chopping cookies etc. It chopped up tomatoes in nice even chunks, then just as easily chopped red peppers and onions. I then chopped coriander and other herbs and it chopped them up nice and fine. It took a bit of scraping the bowl quite a few times but I’d say that was because it only had a single blade. I’ve had this appliance for a couple of weeks and I’ve really put it through its paces. It has 2 speeds which is great and that came in handy when I made a protein shake that contained ice. I wasn’t expecting it to just blitz it like it did. In fact, I kept blending thinking it couldn’t have blended that so quickly, but it did. I also made mayonnaise with the stick blender and jug and that worked out beautifully. The best way to make mayonnaise and I’ll never make it any other way. Whipping cream was a breeze. It was super easy to clean and because of that, I didn’t even bother putting it in the dishwasher. Overall, this 3 in 1 hand blender/chopper was easy to use, it did what I needed (and more) and thank goodness it was also easy to clean. I would definitely recommend this product.

Ditch the food processor – My kids live for homemade peanut butter balls, so I figured I’d put this to the test (multiple times a week) to see how this went with the chopping up of the ingredients. I must be honest and say, I use this every single time over my food processor now! It’s so much easier and it blitzes everything effortlessly. Works 100 times better than my… Read more

massive food processor. Makes the ingredients that’s much smaller and finer, choc chips and oats practically disappear!

Using this there’s wayyyy less dishes and so much quicker. So easy to clean, a quick wipe down of the actual hand unit. I chuck everything I can in the dishwasher (bowl, blades) and the rest I hand wash (wand and whisk)

I have also been using this to blitz pasta sauce to hide the veggies I sneak into it to hide from the kids. So smooth!

The whisk it so much better than beaters, anytime I can use the whisk in place of the beaters I will, just because it does such a good job. Gets rid of lumps better and makes everything that much fluffier.

Buy it, do it! Get rid of the food processor, you don’t need it!

I’ll attach a photo of the butter peanut butter ball dry ingredients.

So handy – Love this! I have the mini chopper which is great but the bowl on this one is slightly bigger so I can blend enough biscuits for a whole cheesecake in about 30 seconds. It’s great for smoothies too. It’s stylish and has a soft touch finish on the handle,easy to put together and pull apart to clean. All in all I would highly recommend this as a kitchen must have.

Very good hand blender, although not all parts can be washed in dishwasher – I really like this hand blender, with its easily interchangeable attachments for blending, whisking and small chopping, but there are a couple of little issues that stop me from giving it 5 stars. The stick blender is excellent, both for blending things like veggie soups, and making smoothies, and the two power settings are handy. The pouring… Read more

lip on the beaker is very handy for pouring my smoothies into a glass after preparing.

The mini chopper is also good for chopping up small volumes, when I don't want to get out my large food processor, and even though the blade is small, it has also handled chopping up harder items like nuts as well as things like onions. One slightly irritating feature is that the little blade in the mini chopper doesn't sit straight without the lid on, so it sometimes takes a bit of fiddling to get the lid aligned properly, but otherwise it works very well. I haven't bothered to use the whisk, because I already have a hand beater with two whisks, so I can't see the benefit of using this single whisk.

The biggest annoyance of the hand blender, and the reason I've taken one star off, is that neither the blender leg attachment, nor the mini chopper blade or lid, are dishwasher proof. This makes it much more of a hassle to clean, particularly for the chopper lid (and the whisk holder), which the manual says should be kept dry because they contain the gearboxes. When I've used the chopper the lid has got food debris on it, so to only be able to wipe down the bottom of the lid, and not even immerse it fully in the sink when washing, is a nuisance. With my old Braun stick blender, I could at least put the blender leg into the dishwasher, so it's disappointing that I can't wash everything so easily with this new blender.

Every day user – I am pleased with the Russell Hobbs stick blender. So far I have used the chopper function to make shortbread and blend up baby food. I use the stick blender to make myself a protein shake with frozen fruit and to blend summer soup. It has two functions, slow and fast. A minor inconvenience is that I cannot put the stick blender together with one… Read more

hand. The cup has a spout for easy pouring which is a nice feature. It is easy to clean. Quiet - kids sleep through it. The stick blender can blend frozen fruits without the motor struggling. It blends really well without a heap of sediment. I dont use the whisk function as the stick blender whips cream faster. Overall, I am pleased with the Russell Hobbs stick blender, I use it at least once a day.

Pleasantly Surprised – The Russell Hobbs 3-IN-1 hand Blender has some interesting quality features. My wife and I liked the way it can be pulled apart for cleaning, and we liked that the jug has a non-drip pouring spout and calibrated measurements to 700 mls on 2 sides. And it’s a useful size. The whisk is very good for beating eggs, cream, and light batter but we… Read more

thought it could have difficulty with thick batters because the whisk itself is a light weight construction. However we have used it to whisk packet cake mixes and it performed very well. The blending leg did an excellent job making smoothies from fresh fruit, nuts and juice (see photos of before and after), and we liked that it can be removed from the motor for cleaning (see photo). And the mini chopper is excellent for chopping raw onion and garlic. The weight of the motor with attachments is light weight making it convenient for people who have trouble managing heavier appliances, and especially for people with arthritic hands. The motor is powerful at 500 Watts and has 2 speeds and a pulse setting so it can be adapted to suit various blending, mixing, and chopping tasks. Although the Instructions state that the mini chopper, its base, the whisk, and the jug are dishwasher safe, there is also a caution that the ‘harsh environment of the dishwasher will affect the surface finishes’. This it says is ‘cosmetic only’ and will not affect the operation of the appliance. So it's best not to use a dishwasher with any components. Also note that hot liquids, for example soups, must be allowed to cool before using the appliance to blend them. The appliance has a 2 year Warranty and comes well packaged and with comprehensive easy to read Instructions. We have rated the appliance as 'Excellent', but note that we mention that whisking thick batters might be difficult.

Very useful product – I recently (in the last week) was given this product to try and, admittedly, I was excited. I find anything to do with food prep the most tedious part of cooking, so any gadget that saves me time on chopping, blending, whisking, or the like becomes my new best friend in the kitchen. CHOPPING: I was initially uncertain about this one. I've… Read more

bought miniature food processors in the past, and when it comes to chopping, they puree everything.

I threw this gadget in the deep end by giving it a whole (unchopped) pear. It failed this challenge (I think I would have been surprised if it passed this test, but couldn't hurt to try).

Halving the pear didn't help either. The blades got stuck in the two halves as they're not the strongest when it comes to 'heavyweight' solids.

But quartering the pear before placing all pieces back into chopping produced better results. It didn't puree instantly which I loved (the Hello Fresh recipe I'm following calls for finely chopped pear for a side salad). A photo of results of pear is included in this review.

This gadget has only 2 speeds. I used only the lower speed and could 100% control how fine I wanted the pear chopped. Granted, one half of the pear took longer than the other half, but I think that was more a chopper space vs pear size issue.

The blades can be removed for easy cleaning and with the blades removable, the chopping container can also easily be cleaned without risk of injury.

The container also has a sturdy, non-slip base which to me is an added bonus.

BLENDING:

To test the blender, I decided to have an omelette for lunch (pictured). A traditional omelette (in my family anyway) calls for flour to be added to bulk up the egg for the omelette. As I've recently discovered I'm gluten intolerant, it once again meant throwing this gadget in the deep end by using cornflour in place of normal flour (anyone who has ever had to use cornflour would know just how messy this can be).

Turning on the power with much trepidation, half expecting the cornflour to end up on everything else in the kitchen and not in the actual egg, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cornflour never escaped the measuring jug (which comes with this hand blender and which I also used to blend the two ingredients) despite the fact that there is no covering lid.

However, the hand blender itself has a protective curved cover immediately above the blade, and I think that's what stopped the escape of the flour.

With the blender blade not removable from its limb and well hidden by its protector, I was then unsure as to how to clean it. This gadget almost got only 4 stars due to cleaning issues, but then I remembered something that my Blendjet gadget taught me. Just put water and soap in the blendjet and let it clean itself.

So in the same measuring jug I just used, I placed water and soap, plugged the blender back in, and whisked away for a couple of seconds. Sure enough, it cleaned itself! Problem solved! Just remember to not keep it in the sink without rinsing indefinitely and you won't have a problem cleaning this.

WHISKING:

I haven't tested this yet, when I do, I'll come back and edit this review.

OVERALL:

I LOVE that the electrical component is just one part of the whole thing and can be removed completely so that every other part can be safely washed. Just make sure that every part that needs to be attached to the electrical component is bone dry before re-attaching it.

I can see myself using this for every relatable task in the kitchen so it's not a gadget I'll be storing away in the cupboards for months on end forgotten about.

In the future, if I experience anything new, will come back and update this review.

Good for little kitchen setup – The Russell Hobbs blender is lighter, blades are sharper and surprisingly it does not produce much noise. The blender is not so big which is perfect for my small kitchen. Great for lighter tasks. It’s great for for chopping, blending,whisking or mixing.I really like that It has a chopping blade and a bowl, blender attachment with another bowl,… Read more

whisking attachment. I must say it’s my little kitchen helper. Made a perfect dips, milk cocktails,tomatoes paste, fruit smoothie, whisking eggs for omelette or egg whites, or mixing the cake mixture for cheesecake and also crushing the biscuits.