5 Best Hand Mixers of 2026, Lab-Tested and Reviewed
Models from brands including Breville, Cuisinart, and KitchenAid beat the rest in our tests
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Love to bake, make pancakes, or top desserts with fresh whipped cream—but don’t have the money or counter space for a stand mixer? A highly capable hand mixer can perform many of the same tasks for a fraction of the cost.
“Hand mixers are best at light-duty jobs like whipping cream,” says Ginny Lui, who oversees mixer testing for Consumer Reports. But some models are equipped with dough hooks to handle heavy-duty tasks, such as mixing bread dough.
In our performance tests, we time how fast a hand mixer can whip heavy cream to where it’s light and fluffy. We also mix pancake batter to judge a hand mixer’s ability to produce consistent and frothy results. And when we whip egg whites, we evaluate how quickly and to what extent they increase in volume. Each hand mixer is also scored for noise and convenience.
Not sure whether you prefer a hand or stand mixer? For information on the features of both types of mixers, read our mixer buying guide. You can also find out which stand mixers excelled in our tests.
For details on how all the mixers in Consumer Reports’ ratings perform, members can access our full mixer ratings. And if you click through to individual hand mixer model pages, you’ll see details on special features, such as storage cases, beater types, or retractable cords. Not a member? Click below to become one and access all of our ratings and reviews for products we buy and test, including dishwashers, fridges, TVs, and cars.
Below, listed in alphabetical order, are the top five hand mixers from our tests. Prices on some models have recently increased, possibly due to new tariffs on imported parts, says Stacy Canova-Turner, CR’s market analyst for mixers. “Some of the American companies, like KitchenAid, assemble certain models in the U.S. but get their components from China or other sources overseas,” she says.
In our tests, the Braun HM5100 9 Speed hand mixer handles light tasks with ease, earning excellent scores in creating light and fluffy egg whites and airy whipped cream quickly. It earns just a middling score for noise at its highest speed, however. This mixer comes with a dough hook for tougher tasks, plus a three-year warranty.
The Breville Handy Mix Scraper BHM800SILUSC is a champ at producing fluffy egg whites and frothy pancake batter. But if you’re a fan of making whipped cream from scratch, this one might not be your best choice; it earns just a middling score in that test. We did find it convenient, however, meaning that its controls are easy to use and it’s easy to change settings and swap out the beaters.
The Cuisinart Power Advantage HM-6P1 quickly produces light, fluffy peaks in our egg white test and aces our evaluations of the frothiness and consistency of pancake batter, earning excellent scores. It did nearly as well with whipped cream and isn’t as noisy as many other hand mixers we’ve tested. This top-rated mixer offers another big plus: It comes with built-in cord storage.
The 7-speed KitchenAid Architect KHM7210 hand mixer aces our egg white test, producing voluminous egg whites quickly. It also receives very good scores in the rest of our tests, whipping up cream and mixing pancake batter with impressive consistency. Testers also found this model’s controls easy to use, plus its wire beaters and whisk attachment are easy to insert, use, and remove.
Like many hand mixers in our tests, the KitchenAid KHM6118CU 6 Speed excels in our egg white test, creating fluffy peaks in little time. Beyond that, this mixer earns very good results in the rest of our performance tests and evaluations, proving it is capable, convenient, and not too noisy, even at its highest speed. Like the other KitchenAid models on this list, it’s available in several colors—in this case, red, teal, and gray.
