Best bottle warmer for glass bottles: three warmers, ranked

Our pick, if you don’t read another word: the best bottle warmer for glass bottles is the Baby Brezza Electric Baby Bottle Warmer. It was a gift, it is very quick, and it has warmed both our Dr. Brown’s Options+ and Thyseed glass bottles. We like it so much it may have overtaken our Philips Avent. The Dr. Brown’s Deluxe comes second, based on another parent’s experience, and the Avent third.

Two honest notes before the rest. First, we review gear. How to store, thaw and warm your baby’s milk, and what temperature it should reach, is a question for the CDC and your pediatrician rather than a blog. Second, we have not owned the Dr. Brown’s warmer at number two. A parent who uses it shared their experience with us, and we label that clearly wherever it appears.

What a glass bottle asks of a warmer

Glass bottles are heavier than plastic ones, and glass holds and gives up heat differently. That changes what to look for in a warmer.

Fit comes first. All four glass bottles we feed with are wide-neck, including the Dr. Brown’s Options+ and the Thyseed. A warmer whose chamber or basket will not take a wide glass bottle rules itself out before speed or features matter at all. Check the warmer’s compatibility list, and if you can, try your actual bottle.

A bottle material setting comes second. Because glass behaves differently from plastic, a warmer that asks what the bottle is made of can time the cycle to suit it. Without that, you are relying on a dial and on trial and error.

Getting the bottle out comes third, and it is easy to overlook. A glass bottle is heavier than a plastic one, so how easily you can lift it out of the warmer matters. The parent behind our number two pick has a strong opinion on this one.

For the full buying checklist, including the things that matter whatever bottle you use, see how to choose a baby bottle warmer.

The three, side by side

These ratings are for glass bottles specifically. They are our judgment, not a score added up from this table.

1. Baby Brezza bottle warmer: the best for glass

5 / 5our rating

The Baby Brezza has two warming modes. Steady Warm uses a warm water bath to warm or defrost milk. Quick Warm uses steam and warms formula or baby food in as little as 2 minutes. On top of that you choose from 9 pre-programmed settings based on the number of ounces, the starting temperature and the bottle material, and the warmer picks the warming time and shuts itself off when it is finished.

For glass bottles, the basket is the other half of the story. It fits virtually all types and sizes of bottle, including glass, plastic and silicone, plus frozen or thawed milk storage bags and plastic or glass baby food jars. In our house it has warmed our Dr. Brown’s Options+ glass bottles and our Thyseed glass bottles. A measuring cup comes in the box for filling the water.

The bottle material input is why it tops a glass list rather than just a speed list. Telling the warmer you are using glass, along with the volume and starting temperature, means it sets the time for you instead of leaving you to work it out. It also warms milk storage bags, which the Avent does poorly.

The unit is 6.5 by 6.5 by 11.5 inches and weighs 2.3 pounds, with a 9 fluid ounce capacity, so check your largest bottle against that before you buy.

Buy the Baby Brezza if you feed mostly with glass and want the warmer to handle the timing for you.

2. Dr. Brown’s Deluxe warmer: the steam one with a sterilizer

4.5 / 5our rating

We want to be clear about this one before anything else. We have not owned the Dr. Brown’s Deluxe Bottle Warmer and Sterilizer. A parent who uses it shared their experience with us, and our 4.5 rating rests on that account. If that is not good enough for you, skip to the Baby Brezza, which we use ourselves.

It is a steam warmer for breast milk and formula, with a built-in sterilizer for whole bottles and small parts such as nipples and pacifiers. An LCD control panel offers preset warming modes that adjust for bottle type, size and starting temperature, and it warms from frozen, refrigerated or room temperature, and warms a room temperature bottle in as little as 4 minutes. It gives an audio and a visual alert when a cycle is complete, and shuts off 60 seconds afterwards.

If you choose this one, keep a pot holder or a cloth next to it, especially if your bottles are glass and therefore heavier to lift out.

Consider the Dr. Brown’s if you want warming and sterilizing in one machine and do not mind keeping a pot holder nearby.

3. Philips Avent Fast warmer: simple, but not our glass pick

4 / 5our rating

On every other page of this site the Philips Avent is a 5 out of 5, and it is still the warmer on our dresser. It is a circulating warm water bath with one dial and three modes, it fits narrow bottles, wide bottles and food jars without adapters, and we timed a fridge-cold 5 oz bottle at about 3 to 4 minutes. For glass bottles specifically, though, we rate it 4.

It is not a weak warmer, and nothing went wrong with it. It rates 4 here simply because the other two do more for a glass bottle. The Baby Brezza is faster in our use, and both it and the Dr. Brown’s offer more settings, including presets that account for the kind of bottle you are warming. Against that, a single dial is less to work with.

There is no bottle material setting on the Avent. The dial gives you settings rather than temperatures, so with glass you are finding the right mark by trial and error. Older units also have no automatic shut-off. Everything else about it, including the step-by-step routine, is in our Philips Avent bottle warmer review.

Buy the Avent if you mostly use plastic bottles and want speed and simplicity, and see how it does against other warmers in Momcozy vs Philips Avent.

Ratings compared

Every product on this page, ranked by our overall rating. These are considered verdicts after living with them, not the average of any table above.

#	Product	Our rating
1	Baby Brezza Electric Baby Bottle Warmer	5 / 5
2	Dr. Brown's Deluxe Bottle Warmer and Sterilizer	4.5 / 5
3	Philips Avent Fast Bottle Warmer	4 / 5

Which one fits your glass bottles

If you feed mostly with wide-neck glass bottles, start with the Baby Brezza. It has warmed our Dr. Brown’s Options+ and Thyseed glass bottles, it lets you set the bottle material, and it is very quick.

If you want one machine that warms and sterilizes, look at the Dr. Brown’s, bearing in mind that our view of it comes from another parent rather than our own use, and that the bottle comes out hot.

If you use a mix of glass and plastic and value a single dial over presets, the Avent is still a good warmer. It is just not the one we would pick for a house that feeds mainly with glass.

If you also want a warmer that thaws and sterilizes with a bottle material setting, our Momcozy has one, and we cover it in our Momcozy bottle warmer review.

The glass bottles we feed with

We feed with four glass bottles: the Philips Avent Natural Response, the Tommee Tippee Natural Start, the Dr. Brown’s Options+ wide-neck and the Thyseed anti-colic. Three of them are ranked in the best glass bottles for breastfed babies, and we put the Avent and Tommee Tippee head to head in Philips Avent vs Tommee Tippee glass bottles. If you are still deciding on the material itself, glass vs plastic baby bottles sets out where each one wins.

The bottom line

For glass bottles, the Baby Brezza is the one we would buy. It is very quick, it lets you tell it the bottle is glass, and it has warmed our Dr. Brown’s and Thyseed glass bottles without fuss. The Dr. Brown’s Deluxe is a solid second if you want a sterilizer built in, based on another parent’s experience. The Philips Avent remains a great everyday warmer, but for a house that feeds mostly with glass it comes third. For our full lineup, including travel warmers, see the best baby bottle warmers we have used.