Mueller Ultra-Stick vs. All-Clad Corded Side-by-Side Comparison

Despite being a low-priced blender, the Mueller Ultra-Stick wasn’t any slower than the others we tested. It took about 30 seconds to yield two servings of pureed soup packed with carrots, pumpkin, and parsley.

That said, it wasn’t so good at drawing ingredients toward its blades, so we needed to move it around for an even blend. Moreover, it sucked tightly to the pot’s bottom, which didn’t cause as much spatter as the Cuisinart, but did cause small scratch marks on our cookware’s surface. It also made it very challenging for us to stir with the blending wand.

Our Mueller soup’s texture was acceptable but not the silkiest; there were still several large chunks of veggies left behind.

The All-Clad’s strong motor pulverized carrots and pumpkins easily, but it fell short in handling leafy veggies. After 30 seconds of blending time, several chunks of celery remained quite intact because they got lodged in the blade guard’s holes. The blender somehow couldn't draw them toward the blades. Ultimately, the soup failed to reach the perfect texture. At this price point, we expected a restaurant-quality soup rather than this grainy one.

To ensure this portable machine can do the work of a full-sized blender for making smoothies, we designed this specific test for it. We would award it corresponding points if it could create a homogeneous mixture of just kale and frozen fruit. Disappointingly, we found that the Mueller Ultra-Stick isn’t great at blending solid fruit and leafy vegetables. 

In this task, it had a very hard time breaking up the ingredients. This caused it to demand up to 1 min 15 secs to finish the test. 

And although the Turbo mode is intended to give the blender ​​an extra boost at max speed, we noticed the speed increment wasn’t enough to make any difference. Our smoothie came out pretty smooth, but there were many unprocessed chunks of mango. It was also a bit grainy due to a mass of tiny leafy bits. For about $35 more, you can upgrade to the better Braun MultiQuick-5.

As this blender shouldn’t run for longer than 60 seconds at the time to avoid damage, we took a break after 30 seconds. In the meantime, we used a spatula to dislodge the food that lodged in the blade guard.

In this test, the All-Clad 10942212300 blended the thick mixture without struggle. It completed its task in about one minute, which was much faster than average. All the frozen fruits were broken down into the finest of bits. There were a smattering of kale flakes in the final smoothie, but that didn’t affect our taste buds.

Although the Mueller’s whisk attachment has thin, floppy wires, it got the job done in less than two minutes. That was 10 seconds faster than the Braun, whose whisk is more sturdy and springy. It was nearly as fast as the high-end Vitamix and handily beat the cordless KitchenAid by a full minute.

It was also easier to clean. For the most part, its mayonnaise tailings rinsed off easily under our running tap. Using the blending shafts, on the other hand, caused the food to get clogged in the blade housing. As such, it was very challenging for us to scrub off the residuals on the blade’s backsides.

For this test, we tried to whisk together three egg yolks and 240ml oil using the blending wand. To avoid broken mayonnaise, we ran mostly at medium speeds and only sped up once the oil started emulsifying. Each blender is put through the same testing procedure. However, this was the only hand blender that couldn’t reach the emulsion stage. After about 2 minutes of operating, all we got was a jumbled mixture that looked more like broken eggs than an emulsion.

Technically, it’s hard to conclude whether or not the All-Clad can make mayonnaise in the real kitchen since there are many external factors that prevent the emulsion from forming. This also means that the emulsifying capability of this blender is still an open question.

Grinding raw nuts shouldn’t be a challenging task for any hand blender. However, our Mueller couldn’t perform any worse, though part of the reason is due to our blending jar — its small size caused the liquid to overflow all over the countertop every single time we moved the blender. So if you intend to use this blender to prepare watery drinks, it’s best to use a bigger container. 

None of the blenders we tested could avoid suction, but the Mueller’s was so strong that it was hard to stir or withdraw the wand, and when we lifted it up the container came with it. These things caused the liquid to easily overflow.

Not only that, but this blender didn’t grind finely enough for a creamy drink. Our almond milk was drinkable, but quite watery and not as sweet as others.

Considering how evenly and easily it blended frozen fruits, we weren’t surprised that the All-Clad had no trouble pulverizing raw nuts. After the mixture reached our preferred consistency, we extracted the liquid using a nut milk bag. The pulp was finely ground, so the final drink looked creamy and very milk-like. It tasted rich and almondy, exactly as it should. The whole procedure lasted one minute, which was 50 seconds faster than the worst one, the Chefman 6-in-1.

Before we began this test, we presumed that all the whisk attachments would perform well at  beating egg-whites, though some may be more efficient than others. Surprisingly, Mueller's performance proved us wrong.

First, it had an advantage over the blending wand in incorporating enough air into the egg whites, allowing the egg-protein to form a stiff, airy foam. What was until its motor seriously overheated several times, requiring us to let it stop and cool down. This issue didn’t regularly occur with the other blenders, and spending so long with the Mueller was tiring.

Even worse, after this test the whisk attachment had lost its original bulbous shape. The strands of looped wire were all out of their initial order, which would impair its performance in the next emulsifying and beating tasks.

Any whipping task will likely exceed your All-Clad’s capability, but that’s mainly because it doesn't include a whisk attachment. We haven’t tried a single hand blender that could whip egg whites using just the blending wand. More often than not, the whites never even reach the soft-peak stage. In the end, we were left with a cloudy liquid composed of two separate layers of bubble film and eggy water.