How do you choose a good bottle warmer if you want to use it to travel? It depends. There are some bottle warmers that you can use in a car and plug into a cigarette lighter.

For example, The First Years Quick-Heat Travel Warmer is a great way to warm bottles while traveling in the car. This model comes with features to prevent overheating and works well with all types and sizes of bottles. I have used this one to warm different size bottles: 3 oz bottles, 4 oz bottles, 6 oz bottles, and 9 oz bottles and it works great with all of them. The unit is a “wraparound” unit that heats bottles on the go in the car without the use of water or steam. It’s like a bottle sleeping blanket that plugs into a cigarette lighter. They are very easy to use – just place the bottle on the rim and adjust the velcro strap to fit snugly around the bottle and then press the power button. Once you put it on, you can put the bottle warmer in any cup holder in the car. If your family likes long car trips, this one will be flexible enough to fit your travel bottle warmer requirements.

The Sunshine Kids Warm N Go Insulated Travel Bottle Warmer that you can find on Amazon.com is absolutely fantastic. This insulated unit is made with neoprene that is stretchy and has a very different type of heating system. Because it’s so stretchy, you can wrap it around any size bottle. It plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter and you can put it in any cup holder or you can even hang it on your dashboard. The good thing about this bottle warmer is that it includes an indicator and a thermal fuse that prevents the unit from getting too hot.

The bottle warmer with the best reviews is the Dex Products car bottle warmer. Just like the others, you can heat bottles in the car by plugging them into the car’s cigarette lighter. You can pop a bottle in when you start the car and when you’re ready to roll you’ll have a wamr bottle! I tried this one and would probably say the unit works best at room temperature. If you travel by car, this product is amazing. Another thing about this product is that the bottles must be completely round for the unit to work very well. If they are not round, the bottle cannot properly contact the belt that heats the bottle. In fact, we use this for a few months when my husband and I travel during the summer. We were on the highway and it was very convenient.

So, in general, the travel bottle warmers listed above are for warming bottles of cold milk when traveling with your baby. You can use it in cars, SUVs, minivans, airlines or cruise ships. Some of them are self-powered, so you can use them in restaurants or if you spend the day outdoors. I think it’s important to realize that travel bottle warmers are not as efficient as home units that run on electricity. They tend to take longer to warm bottles, and you can expect anywhere from 5-20 minutes, depending on the quality of the warmers. What can you expect to pay? I would say in the same range as the household, in the range of $10.00 to $35.00. You can find them used on amazon.com.

There are several that I didn’t mention, like the Hot Pack Travel Battery Heaters that contain thermal energy in the liquid chemical that retains heat until you activate it. There are also butane travel bottle warmers that you can buy. I think one of these products is from a company called Second Nature. Butane causes a small flame to generate heat to heat your bottles. You can buy refill butane cartridges. You can also buy a power inverter (not a converter) that converts your car’s 12 volts to regular voltage so your normal bottle warmers from home can be used in the car.

There are many great travel bottle warmers out there – take a look at Amazon and I’m sure you’ll find the one you need.