I need a manual egg beater that doesn't jam more often than not.

March 2, 2024 7:32 AM

Every manual egg beater I've personally used and can find online have reports of jamming except this one which instead has reports of breaking after a couple of years of use.

Does a design of manual egg beater exist where it can be used on pancake batter without the gears popping, causing the blades to jam against each other until I manually intervene and get one more spin before jamming again?

posted by derbyshire to Home & Garden (20 answers total)

Yes it does.

I got mine forty years ago from an op shop for a dollar. It's green everywhere that the one I linked is yellow. Absolute pleasure to use.
posted by flabdablet at 7:57 AM on March 2 [2 favorites]

Why not use a whisk? Very little to go wrong.
posted by rd45 at 7:57 AM on March 2 [7 favorites]

I vastly prefer my elderly Persinware hand beater to a whisk because it does the same job at three times the speed with much less effort and is easier to rinse clean afterwards.

It struggles with cake batter but pancakes? No problem. Scrambled eggs? Fluff city. Whipped cream? Keep a close eye on it or it's going to make butter.

It sucks that the same excellent design is not still being manufactured.
posted by flabdablet at 8:04 AM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Is there a reason you don’t want to use a whisk? They last essentially forever. If it’s a matter of hand strength and mobility, or speed, why not look for an electric appliance instead of a manual one, for better assistance?

When making small amounts of pancake batter and similar things that have a runny consistency I usually just use a fork and a spatula to scrape down the sides. It takes about the same amount of effort as a whisk for me but fits much better in the dishwasher. Thicker more difficult stuff gets upgraded to a regular big whisk or the whisk attachment on my cuisinart immersion stick blender doohickey, which is also how I do whipped cream. Mashed potatoes and other chunky things that need breaking down get a run through the food mill first.
posted by Mizu at 8:07 AM on March 2 [1 favorite]

I really like this Ekco hand mixer I bought at a rummage sale 30 years ago. It comes in other colors, too.
posted by dywypi at 8:08 AM on March 2 [2 favorites]

I've also owned one of these, also from Persinware. It was a piece of shit, constantly jamming up. You want the one with bumps on the drive wheel and matching dimples in the plastic driven gears, not the all-metal slotted thing.

I have the same kind of relationship with my good Persinware egg beater as Milton has with his Swingline stapler.
posted by flabdablet at 8:12 AM on March 2 [3 favorites]

The handle has a metal thumb rest riveted onto the end that faces the crank, which makes keeping the machine stably oriented easy and comfortable even while cranking furiously. And that rest is is double sided so it works equally well for both left and right handed users.

Seriously, I cannot say enough good things about the care and skill that's gone into that design.

No batteries. No cords to wrap up. No motor to whine and overheat and smell bad. Just a robust, trouble free, beautifully engineered kitchen hand tool that I feel very, very lucky to own.
posted by flabdablet at 8:34 AM on March 2 [2 favorites]

Here's another one on eBay
posted by flabdablet at 8:49 AM on March 2

Okay so that’s an electric whisk, but it sounds like you want something sturdier, so why not an electric hand beater? I use my small electric beater for lots of things (including one beater at a time to mix natural peanut butter, the most genius use). It’s great for waffle and pancake mix. And yes, I think I got it used at some thrift store. It’s old and reliable.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:31 AM on March 2

There are a few reviews saying otherwise so I guess it can happen occasionally, but I have had this one for like 20 years, and it has never jammed, as I've made pancake batter*, and beaten eggs with it a lot. I've even used it to mix jam into stuff, and still it didn't jam.

*My Mom's pancake recipe:

1 cu buttermilk
1 cu flour
2-4 Tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together the dry ingredients.
Add all the wet ingredients. Combine.
Medium-heat up a skillet, put a bit of butter on it (maybe not necessary for nonstick). Lift up an edge to check for it periodically but you know you've got the perfect heat if the bubbles are starting to stabilize on the top when the underside is a nice golden brown.
Serve with a piece of Camembert on top.
posted by aubilenon at 12:00 PM on March 2 [4 favorites]

Why not use a whisk? Very little to go wrong.

Add the largest bowl and it's faster than an electric mixer. Big bowl is the secret.
posted by sammyo at 12:45 PM on March 2

I have one like this, made in Japan, stainless steel, comfortable side handle, it does have a couple of plastic looking gears which look like they would be a weak point but it hasn't failed yet in a few decades of use.

They just don't make new stuff like this anymore.
posted by Lanark at 1:03 PM on March 2

Possibly the egg beater market has declined because the more popular option now is the battery powered hand mixer. The range in price seems to be $12 to $150.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:25 AM on March 3

Just a comment on aubilenon’s pancake recipe—a way to tell the heat is right is when a drop of water just skitters around a bit instead of quietly boiling (too cool) or exploding immediately (too hot). I’ve used this to regulate my two-burner griddle for forty years and it becomes quite easy after a bit of practice. Also, you *do* need a bit of oil (I just use a schmear of canola) even in a nonstick pan if you enjoy the lacy pattern of browning on the cakes. Otherwise you can skip it.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 8:00 AM on March 3

Lehman's sells a stainless steel egg beater that's similar to vintage Persinware.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:27 PM on March 3

Are you lightly beating eggs or trying to whip them? I use only a standard fork for “regular” jobs. I have a big manual hand mixer (no brand, probably bought at a specialty store in Manhattan years ago) that I’ve used mostly for egg whites but since I have an immersion blender that’s my go to device.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:41 PM on March 3

Response by poster: I'm getting a lot of good data here and am seeing better designs. Maybe persinware on ebay is the way to go.

• I used to use a fork, but I've been making lots of pancakes lately and getting tired. Once I started using an eggbeater, I got addicted to the effortless uniformity it gave the batter. Only issue is fairly quickly it started jamming all the time. I get that a whisk might be more appropriate, but now I'm addicted to the mindlessness of using the eggbeater.
• I expect the nylon gears aren't a sign of low quality. Probably a good thing. Just that's the part that's jamming on my version.

posted by derbyshire at 6:51 PM on March 5

Response by poster: I unfortunately live in North America, so the shipping's a bit high on these Australian beaters. Maybe I want one with this mechanism. I looked around for one that worked like the persinware ones with plastic dimples vs. metal knobs, but couldn't find one in North America.
posted by derbyshire at 7:08 PM on March 5

Vintage hand mixer with plastic gears in blue, red, pink, white; vintage hand mixer with encased gear, also in red; new Norpro Manual Mixer with nylon drive gears. derbyshire, you could experiment with non-electric batter mixers, and blender bottles for smoothies (manually shaken, or USB rechargeable)? Ancient off-grid DIY; a non-electric hand mixer Pinterest board.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:14 PM on March 5

Response by poster: That batter mixer is actually what I keep the pancake mix in once I've made it. It's great for remixing the batter that settles a bit in the fridge. But not nearly effective enough at mixing the initial ingredients.
posted by derbyshire at 5:09 AM on March 6