We have had a Cuisinart hand held stick blender before and used it happily for years until we wore it out. Next, we tried another brand which had a wide range of speeds but it did not work well for us at all and we returned it to purchase the current Cuisinart stick blender. We will not leave this brand again and are very happy with our purchase.
The best part is it comes apart and mixing part can go in the dishwasher. It took a few times to figure out how to get it started though. My last on had 2 speeds and that was a nice feature as well. But all in all I love it!
This was given to me as a birthday present. So far I've only used this to make smoothies, but it's done a great job and is nice to have in the kitchen for future use.