Why can't an immersion blender do what a Pacojet does?

[Rasmus]

My understanding of how a Pacojet works is that it has a blade that moves up and down at a very high rotation speed.

But isn't that what a hand blender does, with the difference that a person has to do the up and down movement?

If so: why can't you get the same result with a good quality hand blender?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

22 minutes ago, Rasmus said:

My understanding of how a Pacojet works is that it has a blade that moves up and down at a very high rotation speed.

But isn't that what a hand blender does, with the difference that a person has to do the up and down movement?

If so: why can't you get the same result with a good quality hand blender?

 

I suspect because the contents of Pacojet containers are frozen like a brick.  Hand blenders are not noted for blending bricks.

 

[liuzhou]

Why can't a hammer be a saw?

They are designed for very different jobs.

[Anna N]

51 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Why can't a hammer be a saw?

They are designed for very different jobs.

And yet you have surely seen someone use a saw as a hammer. 😂

[cdh]

Safety regs, lack of interchangeable parts and lack of sufficient power.  To commandeer a hand blender into pacojet service you'd need a new snap on pacojet blade with no guard around it, which would be a liability nightmare so nobody would manufacture one.  If you hack together a DIY pacoblade to snap on to your hand blender, the gearing in the pacojet would indicate it is putting out a lot more torque than a vanilla hand blender could muster, so it might not go anywhere even if you do muscle it straight downward into your brick of slippery frozen stuff. 

[Kerry Beal]

So in somewhat the same vein - I got to thinking 'why shouldn't my pacojet make excellent mayo?' - like an immersion blender it goes up and down. And it makes fabulous whipped cream and amazing meringue with egg whites and sugar. But it doesn't make mayo! Probably because it doesn't start it's spin at the bottom and work it's way up. 

[FlashJack]

10 hours ago, cdh said:

a lot more torque than a vanilla hand blender could muster

This may be true. I don't have a dog in this fight.

 

But what about a strawberry handblender? Or chocolate?

[paulraphael]

Even a powerful countertop blender makes slush, not ice cream. A paco jet has a very sharp blade that shaves ice into fine enough bits to have a smooth texture (which is surprisingly fine) and aerate it the right amount. It's also designed to do it without heating it up significantly.