Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer Review: This One’s a Must-Have

Two things you’ll find yourself doing over and over again as a parent of a newborn are sterilizing bottles and warming breast milk or infant formula.

And unless you’re keen on sterilizing in a pot with water, which, let’s be honest, hardly anyone does these days, chances are you’ll be using a baby bottle warmer that doubles as a sterilizer.

My wife and I bought the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer three months ago in preparation for our son’s birth. We have been using it several times a day, every day, since the day he was born (as the creator of Dad’s Picks, where we review baby gear, I’ve tried and tested quite a few).

Still, there is a caveat or two when it comes to this baby bottle warmer that you should know about before hitting the “Buy” button, which I’m going to discuss in this review.

The Review in a Minute

The Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer can warm two bottles at once or sterilize one bottle with all the parts, including the green parts of Dr. Brown’s anti-colic vent system.

It’s among the better baby bottle warmers I’ve laid my hands on: it’s compact enough to be used on a night stand or cabinet for bedside feeding, shaped so it doesn’t cause water to leak and damage your furniture, and capable of reliably heating breast milk or formula to a decent temperature every time.

The touch panel is clear and intuitive enough to not require referencing the owner’s manual in the middle of the night, which is definitely a plus:

I find the Grownsy easy to use even in the middle of the night, when I’m tired and sleepy.

Other bottle warmers have buttons with icons whose meaning I need to remember. That’s not great at, say, 4:03 AM, particularly when I’m running on way fewer brain cells due to dad brain.

I’ve even had to hold some bottle warmers steady while pressing buttons to keep them from shifting on my nightstand. That’s not the case with this one; there are words instead of icons on the touch panel and the panel itself responds instantly to the touch.

To warm or sterilize baby bottles with the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer, I simply place the bottles in the anti-scald basket, fill the appliance with water, then turn it on and select the desired setting.

When warming milk, I can select the volume from three options: 60–120 ml, 120–180 ml, and over 180 ml (for those of you stateside, that’s 2–4 fl oz, 4–6 fl oz, and over 6 fl oz).

For quick warming or sterilization with steam, I set my desired time — sterilization typically takes between 15 and 20 minutes, and I have the option to choose the exact duration that suits my needs.

When my baby boy starts eating solids, this bottle warmer also offers a dedicated food heating mode. So far, I’m not using this actively. However, since this is a review, I tried this setting with a banana puree just to test if it would work as well as the other settings. It did.

Last but not least, my favorite setting of them all: 24-hour warming, which gently warms milk and maintains its temperature at 37°C (98.6°F) for as long as you need it to, so you can feed your little one as soon as they get begin fidgeting and crying for food.

It’s important to note here that although this setting is labeled as “24-hour warming,” the CDC recommends discarding baby formula if it’s been left at room temperature for more than 2 hours after preparation (and 1 hour from the start of feeding). For reasons of safety, I only use this setting to keep bottles warm when I know my baby will need them within the next 1-2 hours.

One thing to keep in mind, even though this isn’t specific to the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer, is the need to empty the water from the appliance if you have to sterilize a baby bottle after warming one for the last feeding session.

Sterilization requires only 80 ml of water, while warming requires you to fill the water all the way up to the “Full” indicator. This means that you’ll either have to keep a bowl nearby for the water or unplug the device and take it to the bathroom or kitchen sink before plugging it back in.

All in all, this is a superbly simple, super easy to use baby bottle warmer that heats breast milk, baby formula, and puréed foods effectively, sterilizes bottles and their parts reliably, and doesn’t take up too much space on your cabinet or countertop.

As far as I’m concerned, the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is the best baby bottle warmer in its price range, and it’s the one I recommend to family and friends when they ask (and now, to you, my readers).

Who This Baby Bottle Warmer Is For

Whether you’re about to become a parent or recently became one, a bottle warmer can be a godsend during the first few months to the first year of your child’s life. It helps you ensure that the breast milk or baby formula you’re giving to your little one is at body temperature, and that the bottles it’s in have been properly sterilized.

Of course, there are other ways to achieve this. For example, you could warm milk in a pot using water, and sterilize bottles in the microwave. However, using a dedicated appliance allows you to perform this task more consistently and with less hassle. This convenience proves invaluable in the middle of the night when you’re tired or sleep-deprived.

The Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is great at sterilizing bottles and warming or thawing milk just before feeding time. It can also maintain the milk’s warmth for 1–2 hours between individual feeding sessions.

And while it doesn’t offer the large capacity of, say, the Grownsy Bottle Sterilizer and Dryer, it’s more compact and fits on a nightstand or stashes away neatly in a drawer.

Specs

Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer Review

Looks

The Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer has a sleek, minimalist design that would look well in any room in your home.

It’s available in three color options: all white, white with a green rim, and white with a pink rim.

There are two generations of the white option: The first generation, which I’ve covered in this review, uses text labels instead of icons and has a smaller LCD screen that shows either the time or temperature. The second generation has icons instead of text labels, a bigger screen that shows the time and temperature at the same time, and displays the selected cycle more explicitly.

The first generation has fewer bells and whistles, so I find it easier to use than the second.

The design of this appliance is simple and straightforward. It’s evident that whoever made it prioritized utility and ease of use — two qualities I seek in a baby bottle warmer, which must be practical above all else.

One thing I really like about the Grownsy compared to other baby bottle warmers is how easy it is to store. By flipping the lid over and placing the anti-scald basket inside it, you can reduce the device’s height by almost a half for hassle-free storage in a cabinet or drawer.

Another aspect I appreciate about this device, purely from a practical view, is the length of the power cord. At one meter, or 39.9 inches, it is about as long as power cords generally are for baby gear. This means you won’t need to place the device right next to a power outlet.

There’s a reference chart on the back, but unless you’re using the quick warming function — the only function covered in the chart — it has limited utility:

I don’t necessarily understand why Grownsy did that. The chart would have been more useful if it covered every function of this bottle warmer instead.

Ease of Use

Setting up the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is incredibly easy, making it perfect for use at the hospital.

This baby bottle warmer is the easiest to use among all I’ve tested, and that’s thanks to its horizontal design.

Not only is it easier to spread out the bottles and their parts — rings, nipples, caps, and, in the case of Dr. Brown’s, green anti-colic vents — in the anti-scald basket, but it’s also easier to top up the water and ensure that it’s at the right amount every time. You just don’t get that ease of use with vertical baby bottle warmers, which require you to closely examine and awkwardly tilt the device every time you use them.

The anti-scald basket has a “Max” line that indicates the appropriate water level for the regular and quick warming modes:

The only drawback I find with the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is the lack of a marked line for the 80 ml (2.71 fl oz) needed for sterilization, which means you have to measure the water either with the baby bottle or a separate measuring cup.

I view this as a nuisance — not necessarily a dealbreaker — but I would nevertheless like to see improvements in this area in future generations of the device.

Baby Bottle Warming

The Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer warms baby bottles in a warm-water bath. This is my preferred method because it heats the milk or formula gradually, with reduced chances of overheating.

This appliance does a great job of warming bottles. I can choose from three options: regular warming, which I use most often; quick warming, which I rarely use but nonetheless good to have; and continuous warming, a real boon for when I need to keep milk or formula warm and safe for 1-2 hours.

The quick warming setting, which uses steam to heat milk rather than a warm-water bath, is perfect for when you haven’t had time to plan a feeding and your little one becomes fussy. That said, I don’t use it all the time; I prefer the gentler heating provided by the warm water bath with the regular warming function.

Compared to other bottle warmers I’ve used, this one takes slightly longer to warm bottles, probably because it holds a larger volume of water. However, with it I get the temperature almost perfectly right every time. I attribute this to the fact that timing the warming is stupid-easy and the large lid allows me to remove the bottle ad-hoc for a quick test.

When using the continuous warming setting, which Grownsy calls “24-hour warming” because it can keep bottles warm for up to 24 hours with just one loading of water, I can set the temperature between 37°C and 60°C (98.6°F and 140°F). There’s a trade-off involved here: higher temperatures technically ensure safer storage by inhibiting bacterial growth. At the same time, breast milk should not be heated above 40°C (104°F), as higher temperatures can deteriorate the nutrients.

The right thing to do here from a safety perspective is to not keep the bottles in the baby bottle warmer for more than 1-2 hours.

Baby Bottle Sterilization

As I write this, my baby boy is just under two months old. If I go by the CDC’s recommendations — and I do — his bottles still need to be sterilized for every feeding. Since he eats every two to three hours, on an average day, I sterilize between 8 and 12 baby bottles using the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer.

I appreciate how easy it is to use Grownsy’s bottle warmer for baby bottle sterilization compared to others I’ve tried. Thanks in large part to the horizontal design, there’s ample space in the anti-scald basket for me to place all the bottle parts, including rings, silicone nipples, and even caps.

The Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer requires 80 ml (2.71 fl oz) of water for sterilization. This is just enough for the water level to reach the bottom of the anti-scald basket without causing the bottle and its individual parts to float.

The only issue, as I’ve already mentioned, is that there’s no indicator to show you exactly how much water to add to the appliance. So, in the beginning, I had to measure the water either in the baby bottle itself or using a separate measuring cup. This is why I rate the Grownsy a 4 out of 5, rather than a full 5-star sterilization score.

Eventually, I got used to it — and now, I know exactly how much water to pour without measuring. Still, it was quite a nuisance, especially during the first few chaotic days after bringing my son home from the delivery room.

There have been a few occasions when I added too little water. The bottle warmer detected this and interrupted the sterilization cycle to prevent the heating element from burning out.

Build Quality

The build quality of the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is excellent, and everything about this appliance feels sturdy and dependable, even though it doesn’t come from a major brand like Braun or Philips.

I’ve used it for 60 days and over 200 times without any issues so far. The temperature of the water bath is consistent and configurable, and the heating is gentle enough to not destroy the nutrients in the milk.

Even when I added too little water and turned on the sterilization function, the appliance turned itself off to prevent burning out the heating element.

Noise Level

The Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer operates as quietly as I would expect from a baby bottle warmer.

Aside from the loud beeping sound that the device makes when I press the buttons or when it finishes warming or sterilizing, the amount of background noise is negligible.

As with all appliance reviews here at Dad’s Picks, I used a sound meter to measure the average amount of background noise generated by this baby bottle warmer. The results speak for themselves: noise levels of 30 to 34 dBs are barely noticeable and unlikely to wake a baby or annoy the parents.

Those beeps are pretty loud, though. They startled my baby boy a few times when he wasn’t sleeping deeply. I wish this bottle warmer had a silent mode where I could just turn them off.

Cost of Ownership

As a double baby bottle warmer, the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is priced slightly higher than its single-bottle counterparts out there. However, it falls within the mid-price range, and I find the cost reasonable given the level of utility it provides me with.

It’s a fantastic option for new parents who prefer not to warm and sterilize using a pot with water, and who also don’t want to splurge on a large appliance capable of handling four or even six baby items at once.

Maintenance is easy and no special detergent is required. Simply wipe down the interior of the device and lid with a solution of warm water and distilled white vinegar every now and then to kill bacteria, mold, and viruses.

This device does not require (or have) any add-ons. So your only expenses will be the purchase price, along with the cost of water and electricity to operate it. All in all, a solid deal cost- and value-wise.

The Verdict: It’s a Dad’s Pick

With an overall score of 4.6 out of 5, the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer is a definite Dad’s pick.

This is the baby bottle warmer to get if you’re in the market for an appliance that will warm and sterilize bottles reliably without costing a small fortune to buy or taking up space on your countertop or nightstand you simply don’t have.

I think it’s an equally great option if you’re about to become a parent and you want to go to the hospital prepared for any scenario, including one where you or your spouse don’t have any breast milk to feed your infant with, and therefore have to rely on baby formula.

Why You Can Trust This Review

Howdy, howdy,

I’m Dim Nikov, the author of this review and the founding editor of Dad’s Picks.

For one reason or another, it can be difficult to trust most things on the internet these days.

I suppose that’s why I wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading and to give you the behind-the-scenes story of how this review was produced.

My wife and I bought the Grownsy 8-in-1 Bottle Warmer to prepare for our son’s birth. It’s the baby bottle warmer we took with us to the hospital when she was about to deliver.

We bought this baby bottle warmer with our own money and have been using it for our own needs as the parents of a baby. Everything I’ve shared here comes from personal experience and weeks of using this product on a daily basis.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but the point is, this is a no-nonsense review by a real dad (and husband) who happens to own a baby gear website. I hope you found it helpful and am wishing you nothing but the best.

From my family to yours, with love.