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Loading...How to choose the best bottle warmer for breast milk or formula?
With all baby bottle warmer brands now available you may be wondering what the best baby bottle warmer may be.
We have gone through Amazon’s best sellers and compiled a list of top rated baby bottle warmers.
We will also go through the criteria to choose the best baby milk bottle warmer.
Hopefully this guide will help you find the option that is right for you.
| Image | Product Name | Heating Method | No. of Reviews on Amazon.com | Rating | Check Out on Amazon.com |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dr Brown's Bottle Warmer | Steam-heat | 2,400+ | [usr 3.7] | Check Out on Amazon.com |
 | Tommee Tippee Travel Bottle and Food Warmer | Water bath | 2,000+ | [usr 4.3] | Check Out on Amazon.com |
 | Philips AVENT Bottle Warmer | Water bath | 1,500+ | [usr 3.9] | Check Out on Amazon.com |
 | Babebay Bottle Warmer & Sterilizer | Water bath | 500+ | [usr 4.1] | Check Out on Amazon.com |
 | The First Years 2-in-1 Simple Serve Bottle Warmer | Steam-heat | 3,200+ | [usr 3.7] | Check Out on Amazon.com |
Best bottle warmer for formula AND Best bottle warmer for breast milk
Once your baby is born and you get into breastfeeding or bottle feeding, it’s the best time to make a decision about a bottle warmer.
For some mothers that are mostly breastfeeding, getting a bottle warmer may not be essential.
If you are occasionally bottle feeding your baby, you can get away with warming bottle in hot water.
However, for mothers that only bottle feed their babies, a baby bottle warmer can be a lifesaver, offering speed and consistency with every feed.
Hopefully our list of best bottle warmer reviews will guide you choose the best baby bottle warmer for you.
Advantages of bottle warmer for all bottles
An electric baby milk bottle warmer can offer the following benefits
Bottle warmer with temperature control
A bottle warmer operates via temperature control settings that will give you consistency in bottle temperature for every feed.
It may take some feeds to get used to your selected bottle warmer and understand at what point it reaches the perfect baby bottle temperature.
Once you get used to your baby bottle warmer you will achieve that desired consistency, especially important at night feeds when you feel tired and need a bottle FAST.
Remember that to achieve consistency, you need to be precise with the amount of milk you warm up, the baby bottle brand and the temperature of the milk.
All these factors will influence the time it takes for your baby’s bottle to be at the right temperature. A glass baby bottle may not take the same time to heat up as a silicone one.
Frozen milk will not heat up as fast as cold breast milk from the fridge.
A piece of advice to help you achieve consistency is to run different tests on your bottle warmer using water and take note of the settings used with different amounts of water at different temperatures.
If you know approximately what amount of milk you feed your baby and you have a set routine where you know you will be using either frozen milk or one that is refrigerated, you will be more likely to gradually get it right.
Fastest Bottle Warmer
Using a bottle warmer will be fastest way to warm up a bottle.
Bottle warmers tend to be much faster than using a stove or warm water from the faucet.
This is especially important for night feeds, when you need to stop a crying baby as quickly as possible.
We have reviewed the fastest baby bottle warmers in this article.
Generally steam-heat technology is faster than water bath, but it can overheat your milk as well as warm your bottles unevenly.
Always test the temperature of your milk before giving the bottle to your baby.
Convenience
When you have a newborn baby, every little help counts, especially in the middle of the night.
If you are wondering how to use a baby bottle warmer, we can guarantee that they are straightforward and easy to operate.
No need to boil water or turn on the stove.
Using a bottle warmer is useful for new parents and an important aid to warm baby’s milk and avoid using a stove or running water from the faucet.
Some designs come with a cooler so that you can leave the bottle warmer unit in your bedroom with the bottles ready to be heated once you need them.
Can you warm a baby bottle in the microwave?
You may be wondering why have we not mentioned microwave ovens up to this point.
‘Can I warm baby bottle in microwave? is quite a common question among parents.
Experts do not recommended to use a microwave oven for warming up breast milk bottle (nor formula).
Microwaves heat up foods and liquids unevenly, this may end up being dangerous for your baby. The development of “hot spots”, in milk may burn your baby’s mouth during a feed.
Apart from that, if you microwave breast milk, important nutrients and vitamins may be lost during radiation. In which case, your baby would be deprived from all the benefits of breast milk.
Probably another important point sometimes overseen on microwaves for warming up breast milk bottle or formula, is that there may be high number of bacteria inside the microwave.
When we use the microwave to cook meals, defrost frozen meats, re-heat diner left overs, more often than not, the microwave is not sanitized appropriately. This creates an environment for bacteria and germs to grow and multiply, hence not ideal for heating up a baby bottle.
For all these reasons, a baby bottle warmer or warming your baby bottle under warm water on the stove, may be preferable.
Bottle Warmer that fits all bottles
This may sound like a rather obvious point but worth highlighting if you happen to be sleep deprived.
There is a wide variety of bottles and bottle shapes available. Regular Dr. Brown’s bottles are long and thin, whereas Tommee Tippee / Closer to Nature bottles are wide and short.
Once you know what bottle your baby is comfortable with, it will be easier to pick the top baby bottle warmer for you.
Special mention about baby bottles: every baby is different.
We have seen babies taking any baby bottle brand given to them at random, whereas other babies are happy to take some baby bottles and not others.
This is based on the teat or nipple of the bottle and as you will see, different brands offer different designs.
There are as many baby bottles & teat designs as brands out there. Whether your baby will take the baby bottle brand chosen by you, it is totally unknown. Like everything else in motherhood, just be prepared for anything.
This point is important because some baby bottle warmer brands are not suited to hold some brands’ baby bottles. It is better to ensure you know which baby bottle brand is your baby’s choice before spending money in a bottle warmer.
If you are unsure on how to find the best baby bottle for you, you can refer to our 3 part article on baby bottles. Read our tips on how to introduce a baby to the bottle, baby bottle types and also what are the best bottles for breastfed babies.
Types of baby bottle warmers
Once you have decided that you need and want a bottle warmer and you know what baby bottle is preferred by your baby, you are ready to move onto the next point, which is types of baby bottle warmers. We have categorised the bottle warmers by the way they warm milk and portability
- Warm Bath: consists in a reservoir of water that warms up to heat the baby bottle
- Baby Bottle Steamer: the water reservoir heats up and generates steam that will heat your baby’s bottle
- Portable Bottle Warmer: these are baby bottle warmers for moms on the go.
Bottle Steamer vs. Water Bath vs. Portable Baby Bottle Warmers
We have seen that most baby bottle warmers use either a steam-heat or water bath technologies.
Steam Bottle Warmer
Steam-heat technology is faster than water bath.
Some milk bottle steamer brands can warm up a bottle in seconds. However, there is a drawback to this… Take into consideration that the bottle will then be extra hot to give to your baby straight away.
If you are using breast milk, heating it up at high temperatures, may result in the loss of valuable nutrients. So always make sure you understand your steam-heat bottle warmer and know how to set it to safe temperatures.
Steam-heat technology can also warm the bottle unevenly, so make sure you shake the bottle well and test the milk temperature properly before giving the bottle to your baby.
Water Bath
Water bath is the traditional way to warm up a baby bottle.
Traditionally, placing the bottle under hot faucet water or using a stove would be the solution for parents and the best way to heat up baby bottle.
Nowadays, the same method is used in baby bottle warmers where warm water circulates underneath the bottle to warm it up.
A water bath is gentler so many parents prefer this method to preserve the valuable nutrients of breast milk. The drawback is that it takes longer to warm the milk.
Portable baby bottle warmers
A portable breast milk warmer may be the ideal option for parents on the go. Plus, some models operate as a portable baby food warmer as well.
From our research we have found that most portable baby warmers are water bath and consist of a thermal unit with a lid or cover large enough to place the baby bottle.
Thermal units are ideal to keep water warm for long periods of time and take with you wherever you go.
Probably a drawback would be that thermal units can leak, which is a hazard with boiling water.
Another technology used for baby bottle warmers on the go are portable bottle warmers battery operated.
To activate this technology you need power from your car or some other source, and it takes some time to warm a bottle.
If you plan your feeds 30 to 45 minutes in advance and are travelling by car, this can be a suitable option.
Best Baby Bottle Warmer Reviews
Dr. Brown’s Bottle Warmer
The Dr Brown’s electric bottle warmer uses steam technology to warm up your baby’s bottle.
What we liked about Dr Brown’s warmer is that it can be used to warm up baby food, as well as breast milk and formula. Which means you can continue to use the bottle warmer once your baby transitions to semi solid foods.
The Dr brown’s baby bottle warmer has an integrated water chamber on one of its sides that can warm up several baby bottles before it needs to be re-filled.
It comes with an adjustable basket to fit different sizes of baby bottles. This is an important point, as your baby may or may not use Dr Brown’s baby bottles.
Dr Brown’s milk warmer comes with an auto-power off after 10 minutes of non-use, which comes handy for busy parents who may forget to turn off the baby bottle warmer, attending their baby.
There is no need to read complicated instruction manuals, as the Dr brown bottle heater can be activated with the push of a button, making it super easy to operate. Plus, you will know how warm your bottle will be as the unit remembers the last setting of operation, and repeats it.
If you need to change the settings, you can easily do it by adjusting the heating time.
This Dr Brown’s steamer comes with an LCD control panel and integrated audio and visual alarms that indicate when your baby bottle is ready to use.
Heating time may vary depending on the bottle type you use, the amount of milk you need and if it just cool or frozen. Overall it is quite fast, warming up bottles in between 3.5 and 6 minutes.
Key Features
- LCD Control Panel
- Audio and visual alarms
- Auto shut off
Pros
✓Warms up several bottles before refill is needed
✓Easy to operate
✓Memory settings
Cons
✕Does not work with wider bottles
Tommee Tippee, Comotomo, bottles
Dr Brown’s Bottle Warmer Reviews
The Dr Brown warmer has been reviewed by over 2,400 parents on Amazon.com, giving it an overall score of 3.7 stars out of 5.
Dr Brown’s bottle warmer is easy to use. Besides, it offers the possibility to customize bottle warmer temperature to a precise value using the arrow buttons, which is a feature parents love.
In addition the digital display is great for night feeds, and the fact that the bottle warmer remembers your favorite setting, speeds up the process.
The Dr Brown’s baby bottle warmer may need to be cleaned quite frequently to prevent mold issues. We recommend using a baby bottle brush for this.
Some parents have reported that their bottle warmer leaked from the water chamber or reservoir and that there has been inconsistency in time needed to heat milk.
Overall, reviews are positive for this product, but be careful if your baby uses wide short bottles as they may not fit.
Tommee Tippee Bottle Warmer
The Tommee Tippee travel bottle warmer securely stores hot water for warming baby bottles on the go.
It is a simple designed, consisting of a Tommee Tippee thermos with a wide hard plastic container to pour water and hold Tommee Tippee / Closer to Nature bottles.
Tommee tippee warmer thermal flask is made of stainless steel, so it keeps water warm for hours. It is ideal for travel as it doesn’t require electricity to function.
The baby bottle warmer Tommee Tippee is great to use if you are travelling as it is fully Portable.
It can also be used at home. Simply by boiling water in the morning and keeping it in the Tommee Tippee flask.
This can be a great option for parents looking for a simple design, it is easy and straight forward to use, with little to no maintenance required.
To use it, simply place your baby bottle with milk inside the plastic lid, which acts as a container. Then pour hot water from the thermos and wait until the baby bottle is ready to feed your baby.
Key Features
- Made of stainless steel ans plastic materials
- Security lid to prevent water leaks
- No electricity required
Pros
✓Simple Design
✓Lightweight
✓Fits all standard size bottles
Cons
✕May be bulky to take around
✕No cover for the plastic container when in use
Tommee Tippee Bottle Warmer Review
Thanks to its simple design and easiness of use, the Tommee Tippee breast milk warmer scored 4.3 stars out of 5 among nearly 2,000 Amazon parents.
Sometimes simplicity can beat the most modern and sophisticated designs. This is one of those cases, which makes this design one of the best travel bottle warmer for breast milk.
There have been some instances in which the thermal unit leaked, which is not ideal when you have boiling water stored inside.
There are also some design improvements that could be made on the lid material, to make it more durable. Also the thermos doesn’t fit into a car’s cup holder.
Depending on the water temperature, it may be hard to measure the time it takes for the milk to be ready, which can be challenging.
However, overall we’ve read positive Tommee Tippee travel bottle warmer reviews, making it one of the best on the go bottle warmer for parents.
Philips Avent Fast Bottle Warmer
The Avent Bottle Warmer for breast milk is one of the best baby bottle warmers on the market.
The Philips Avent express bottle warmer, heats milk gently and evenly thanks to its water bath technology.
The unit has an on/off switch at the back. To operate it all you need to do is add water, turn it on, and regulate temperature by operating the dial.
Water circulates inside the Avent food and bottle warmer, preventing the creating of hot spots, which can be dangerous for baby.
The Avent warmer has an integrated neon light that is ON when the unit is functioning and flashes when the milk bottle is ready at a safe temperature for consumption.
What we liked about this bottle warmer is that it has a wide diameter of 78mm, which makes it suitable for most baby bottles. In particular, Avent baby bottles (of course), cups and most food jars.
By using the Avent baby bottle warmer, 5 ounces of milk can be warmed up in just 3 minutes. This is a great timing, considering the device uses a water bath technology (not steam, which is faster).
The Avent milk warmer includes a defrost setting for frozen milk and baby food, which can be selected by just turning the dial. However, as the bottle warmer heats up baby bottles gently, it may take up to 1.5 to 2 hours to defrost. That would be depending on the amount of milk you need to warm up.
Key Features
- Water bath technology
- Heats 4 Oz of milk in 3 minutes
- Simple design and operation
Pros
✓Compact design
✓Defrost setting available
✓Fits most baby bottles
Cons
✕Does not feature timer
✕Does not shut automatically
Philips Avent Bottle Warmer Reviews
There are over 1,550 Avent bottle warmer reviews on Amazon.com, giving this product 3.9 stars out of 5.
Overall, it offers good water temperature control, to keep operation at a safe level for mother and baby.
There are a few design improvements that have been highlighted by parents. For example, the Avent milk bottle warmer does not feature a timer or display screen.
The neon light blinks once the milk is ready, however, it is hard to calculate how much time is left for the milk to be warmed up.
The auto-shut off feature is another feature parents are missing in this unit. If it is not turned off, it will keep the water inside at a safe temperature.
Being a gentle baby bottle warmer, means it does not reaches high temperatures. Hence, some users have found it to be a bit slower than what they would like.
The good thing about that, however, is that you can’t really go over and overheat a baby bottle.
The Avent Fast warmer comes with Bottle warmer instructions showing a temperature guide and times, which is useful.
There is also an adequate choice of temperatures to choose from, including a defrost setting.
This Philips Avent bottle warmer has a compact size, which makes it suitable for the kitchen bench as it does not take too much space.
Babebay Bottle Warmer & Bottle Sterilizer
The innovative design of the Babebay warmer can save valueable time and space from your kitchen bench.
The Babebay bottle warmer warmer consists of a 4 in 1 product, which can warm baby’s milk, formula, baby food and sterilize your baby bottles, with one single device at an affordable price.
What we loved about this design is that if by any chance you make a mistake when setting up the bottle warmer and the water chamber boils the water where the breast milk is being heated, the unit will automatically shut off. Hence, you will not overheat breast milk.
This baby bottle warmer sterilizer can be considered one of the best bottle warmers for twins, as you can warm up 2 bottles in simultaneous. Plus, you can sterilize baby pacifiers and breast pump parts in the compartment as well.
The Babebay Deluxe uses a water bath technology that warms baby bottles evenly. So you can be sure there won’t be any hot spots in your baby food or milk and that no nutritional qualities may be lost during the heating process.
The Babebay bottle warmer Deluxe has a dial for easy operation with 4 different settings, so you don’t need to learn complicated instruction manuals.
The lowest tempearture setting is for breat milk. This is followed by the formula setting which heats the bottle at a slightly higher temperature, always safe for baby’s consumption. The unit acknowledges that baby formula may need more heat than breast milk, which is not the case in other baby bottle warmers.
There is also a warm food setting and finally the sterilization setting at the end of the dial.
Another great feature is that it has a 24 hour auto heat preservation button, which keeps the water in the container warm throughout the day, ready for you to place your baby bottles at any time.
The best part is that it has a display screen showing the temperature and also the target milk temperature, so you can estimate how long it will take for your milk to be ready, or even remove it before time if you like. The target temperature can also be adjusted by turning the knob. Temperature can be read in Fahrenheit or Celsius degrees.
There is also an option to shorten the warming time. All you need to do is turn the knob to warm baby food mode for 2 to 3 minutes and then turn it back to the “warm milk” mode.
Key Features
- 3-in-1 bottle warmer and sterilizer
- Twin bottle warmer
- Auto-shut off and beeping alarm
Pros
✓Easy to use
✓Large capacity container
✓Affordable price
Cons
✕No timer on screen
Babebay Baby bottle Warmer Reviews
This 4-in-1 Deluxe baby bottle warmer has been rated among nearly 500+ parents on Amazon.com and awarded 4.1 stars out of 5. A great score.
Parents love that it warms up food and milk evenly at a safe temperature for infants.
The versatility of the baby bottle warmer is great, as you can use one single device for many different things: warm baby food, fomula, milk and sterilize baby bottles.
It is not as fast as other baby bottle warmers. But the fact that the water in the main compartment can be warm during 24 hours, means that it is always ready to use.
The size is convenient as it does not take too much room from your kitchen and you can use it for several thing, which is great.
Overall parents are very happy with the design, functionality and benefits provided by this simple yet effective product.
The First Years 2-in-1 Simple Serve Bottle Warmer
The First Years bottle warmer offers a 2-in-1 functionality for parents convenience. The bottle warmer can be used to heat baby’s milk or food and it can also be used as a sterilizer for bottle nipples and pacifiers. So it is a bottle warmer and sterilizer in one.
The design an operation of the First Years baby bottle warmer is simple. All you need to do is fill the water compartment with water keep in “warm” and the unit is ready to use.
Parents love the compact design, which is small enough to fit on a bedside table. It also takes very little space from your kitchen bench.
The First Years warmer fits most bottle sizes and shapes. Plus, it features an auto shut-off for security.
We loved that it comes with an inert tray that fits baby food jars, but also pacifiers or baby bottle nipples for sterilization also using a lid.
It is more affordable than other baby bottle warmers on the market, and it offers an easy to follow chart to understand the time required to heat a baby bottle, based on its shape, size and capacity.
It is not only simple to use but FAST. Bottles can be warmed up in between 2 to 4 minutes, depending on the shape, size and amount of milk used.
Key Features
- 2-in-1 bottle warmer and sterilizer
- Fits most baby bottles
- Auto shut-off
Pros
✓Cheap bottle warmer
✓Compact Design
✓Fast bottle warmer
Cons
✕Water chamber requires refill before every feed
The First Years Bottle Warmer Reviews
The First Year bottle warmer is very popular among Amazon parents, with over 3,200 reviews and 3.7 stars out of 5.
Parents love that they can warm up their babies food or milk fast thanks to this cheap baby bottle warmer, that retails under $20 approx.
Some parents have complained about the need to refill the water compartment ahead of each use, as it slows down the process. However, for others it seems to be worth the price as it does the job.
Watch out not to burn the food holder tray that comes with the bottle warmer. Make sure you always pre-fill the baby bottle warmer with the right amount of water.
For the price, it does warm up baby bottles quite fast. However, you should always test the milk temperature before feeding your baby and ensure there aren’t any hot spots in the milk, to be safe.
Where to buy the best baby bottle warmer?
Bottle warmers can be found at major retailers, such as Target and Walmart and also in pharmacies.
If you are ready to buy online, you can also click on any of the Amazon links on this site to make a purchase.
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We hope you found this article useful in helping you choose the best baby bottle warmer! Please leave us your comments.
