The baby world is littered with gadgets. Some are legitimate parent parenting hacks that save time and make your life easier. The rest are wipe warmers, and in between is a range of parenting gizmos that can be nice to have but aren’t necessary.
Bottle warmers are in the game-changer category. Sure, you don’t absolutely need one. But for safety, ease of use, and consistency a bottle warmer is a parent’s secret to delivering a consistent feeding experience every time, whether with breast milk or formula. Plus, the best bottle warmers make great gifts to new and veteran parents alike.
The Best Bottle Warmers
- Best Overall: Momcozy Nutri
- Best Budget: Tommee Tippee Intuitive Bottle Warmer
- Best Sterilizing: Chicco Digital Bottle Warmer + Sterilizer
- Best for Travel: Bololo milk warmer
- Easiest to Use: Philips Avent Bottle Warmer
What to Consider
Safety
Child safety is always number one, so err on the side of the experts when considering temperatures and other features. Marth Lasley, the Nursing Operations Manager and Maternal Education Specialist at Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Children, advises that the best practice is to “Thaw frozen breast milk in the refrigerator (it should thaw within 24 hours) when possible. Avoid microwaving milk because it can become too hot overall or contain hot spots.”
Lasley also adds that parents should target 98.6 degrees for milk temperature, which mimics the temperature of the human body. She recommends that when in doubt, parents should tend towards cooler rather than warmer temperatures, like room temperature.
Ease of Use
Taking care of babies means midnight feedings and night upon nights of lost sleep. Too many bells and whistles or too many small dials can be prohibitively difficult through parental brain fog. Who amongst us hasn’t left their keys in the refrigerator? Don’t add one more complicated step to your routine if you can help it.
Multifunctionality
Some bottle warmers do exactly as advertised — warm bottles up. Others have larger capacities, from sanitizing to reheating frozen baby food. None is inherently better than the other, but consider your counter space and what other needs your baby will develop as they grow.
How We Tested
We tested every bottle warmer on this list (and more) head-to-head, negotiating counter space and different cord technologies to see what was easiest to use. As parents, we also tried these in the middle of the night on little to no sleep, a crucial piece of testing data. We used cow’s milk for the controlled head-to-head testing because we don’t believe in wasting formula, but in practical individual tests, we used both. We also spoke with pediatricians and child safety experts to learn more about best practices.
We also enlisted help. There are tons of parents at Best Products and many bottle warmers out there. We sourced feedback from the broader team and deputized friends and family (including parents of newborn twins, to whom bottle warmers are a critical link in infant mealtime).
Check out the 6 best bottle warmers for your little one’s next feed below!
Pros
- Easy to use
- Compatible with multiple bottle brands
- Nightlight feature for midnight feeds.
Cons
- No sterilizing option
Simple, easy to use, and effective, Momcozy’s Nutri bottle warmer is the best bottle warmer on our list because it executes the fundamentals well. You need a bottle warmer to be a good team player, and the Nutry passes this test with flying colors. It warmed room-temperature milk, cold milk, and frozen milk with equal aplomb and did a fair job on frozen baby food as well. Plus, it’s fairly priced.
Best Senior Editor Cat Bowen says in her review, “The Nutri is basically the modern, more convenient — not to mention safer — version of heating a bottle on the stove in a water bath. It’s a freestanding warmer that you pour water into, add the bottle or storage bag, and turn on. It’s pretty simple but also very high-tech at the same time.”
If you love the Mom Cozy design and want to take it on the go, the brand also makes a cordless MW03 bottle warmer. I found that it’s trickier to use than the Nutri, but the lack of cords makes it a great travel option or useful for small apartments with limited counter space and plug.
Pros
- Intuitive design
- Great cost-to-value ratio
Cons
- Cradle design doesn’t work with every bottle
What it lacks in bells and whistles, the Tommee Tippee makes up for in under-the-hood performance. This bottle warmer is a workhorse. Simple, intuitive, and easy to use, the Tommee Tippee has three warming modes you cycle through via button.
That said, our testers found that the cradle insert works best with the brand’s own bottles. Others did work, but some, especially larger glass bottles, were incompatible with the warming cradle. Overall, though, this is a great choice for parents on a strict budget or those who have already bought into Tommee Tippee’s bottle system (which is great, BTW).
Pros
- Removable basket for bags
- 2-in-1 functionality
Cons
- Touchscreen icons have a learning curve
Cleaning baby bottles is a hassle, a sisyphean task of endless proportions. Add to that the ever-present worry about bacteria and it’s easy to feel like most of your parental tasks involve a sink or a dishwasher. Chiccos two-in-one bottle and sterilizer takes the guesswork (and all of the boiling) out of sterilizing bottles.
There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth it for the features, which on top of sterilization include back-to-back bottle heating capacity for twins, timer delays, sound alerts and an automatic shutoff.
Our testers particularly liked the handy cover, which kept everything free and clear of dust and debris and was one more barrier between a potential spill for parents of bottle drinkers and older, rowdier children. We also liked that it was baby food jar compatible, making heating pre-made baby food a breeze.
Pros
- Sleek design
- Warms milk in 5 minutes or less
Cons
- Not dishwasher compatible
I was at a toddler birthday party the first time I saw Bololo, chatting to fellow parents about bottle warmers without ever realizing one was on the table. That’s because the sleek design resembles an adult water bottle or travel coffee mug. But boy is it one of the best bottle warmers we’ve seen.
Some of our testers found that they liked this travel version so much, they preferred it to traditional bottle warmers. And if you don’t mind keeping a charger at hand, the BOLOLO is totally capable of functioning as a day-to-day bottle warmer.
Pros
- Looks nice on the counter
- Keeps milk warm for an hour after heating up
Cons
- No time or countdown visual
Using the Avent is reassuringly simple. All you do is put the bottle in, fill up the warmer with water up to the milk line on the bottle, and adjust the knob to the corresponding oz measurement, then press the power button. One going, it only takes 3 mins to heat up. Once it’s completed, the light stops blinking and stays solid. This is a balm for tired parents who are too sleepy to keep track of buttons, settings, and gizmos.
Our testers found that once going, it took about 3 minutes to heat up, one of the fastest on this list. Once it’s completed, the light stops blinking and stays solid. We loved this, especially for tired parents too sleepy to keep track of buttons and settings and gizmos. Add to that baby food compatibility, and the Avent packs a surprising amount of functionality into a wonderfully simple package.
