Dr. Brown Microwave Sterilizer

Despite its size, which is fairly compact, the Dr Brown’s Microwave Steam Steriliser can actually handle taller standard bottles plus, it has a custom-made tray for any Dr Brown’s bottle components. Dr Brown is a recognised brand because of Dr Brown’s Natural Flow bottles, famous for having a venting system to help reduce colic. In actual fact, Dr Brown’s offers a complete feeding system, including a wide range of cleaning products for your feeding kit. The Dr. Brown Microwave Sterilizer is part of this range of baby feeding products and is the only steriliser Dr Brown’s has in his line of products.

Dr Brown’s Natural Flow Microwave Steam Steriliser includes the main unit (base and cover), an insert tray that is specially designed for Dr Brown’s bottles and component parts, tongs and two 240ml wide neck bottles. As mentioned before, it can fit four wide-neck bottles or four taller standard bottles. The steriliser takes five minutes in a 1000-1100 watt microwave, six minutes for 800-900 watt, and eight minutes for 500-700 watt to sterilize bottles. As with other brands of sterilisers, three minutes cooling time is recommended for all microwaves. So the quickest you’ll get your bottle back is eight minutes and we think that is fair.

What we love about it

The fact that there is no descaling because it is made of plastic is a huge plus for us. Compare this to the pain that you have to go through when dealing with electric ones with all the metal elements. Bug plus for this. One other thing we really like is that the Dr Brown Microwave Sterilizer is also quite compact. What this means is that it will not only take the bottles but also parts and smaller accessories. Due to its overall size, you will be able to use it with smaller sized microwaves, making it a more universal product. And, take the lid off, pop it back in its box, and it’ll take up a tiny amount of room in your car if you have to go on the road on a trip or holiday.

The tray has been created with specific cut-outs and grooves to show you how to arrange Dr Brown’s bottles and their component parts inside the sterilizer. As standard bottles are taller than the steriliser itself, in order to fit them in you just push the bottle into the crescent-shaped cut-outs in the tray, so they’re supported at an angle in the steriliser. It’s great to be able to fit these in without needing a taller steriliser. We think it is quite a clever solution and it does work, which is ultimately the whole point of it.

The tongs that come with the Dr Brown Microwave Sterilizer are good, easy to hold and handle. They give you quite a bit of dexterity and offer a tight grasp compared to some of the plastic tongs other brands provide, which can be shockingly bad. Also, the rubber ends help you grip bottles and parts. No more dropping bits and then re-sterilising.

Things we didn’t like that much

The cover doesn’t lock on, it just sits on top, so you can’t lift it by the handle on the lid. For most people, this won’t be a problem for some reason we were hoping (expecting) a firm lock. Again, this does not affect the operation of the unit and for the purpose of travelling, it kind of makes sense. The side handles you’re meant to use to move the steriliser in and out of the microwave are tiny, so it’s hard to balance the shifting water inside. This can be annoying for some, especially if your microwave is at a fair distance from the water supply. Not a deal-breaker but worth mentioning it.

One other thing we noticed is that when trying to get the Dr Brown Microwave Sterilizer out of the microwave, one handle always seems to be around the back. If you have a small microwave where there’s no room to move your hand around the steriliser to reach it, it could be a bit of a hassle. You essentially have to slightly drag out the steriliser, balancing the hot contents til you can get to it. We can imagine that the whole purpose of these smaller parts is that so these parts heat up less than the rest of the unit hence avoiding potential burns. Like everything in life, there are two sides to every argument so we let you choose the one that makes more sense to you.

The instructions showing how to arrange Dr Brown’s bottle parts (if you use Dr Brown’s) make it all seem rather complex when it actual fact it isn’t, so that might baffle a few people. Persevere through the first read of the instructions though, because once you know where to pop the bits, it’s really easy to arrange your feeding kit correctly.

Verdict

Dr Brown’s Natural Flow Microwave Steam Steriliser is slightly smaller in size than other microwave sterilisers on the market, which makes it ideal for those with a smaller microwave. The sterilisation cycle is fairly fast and cleaning the unit is very simple. The small side handles and unlockable cover make it a little challenging to move around with the steriliser when it’s full so worth being aware of that. Overall, it does the job really well.