***Update: After 8 months of heavy daily use, the timer stopped working reliably. I contacted the company via their website, and after filling out a problem report, they are shipping out a new one. Customer service is extremely important in any product which is more expensive than the competition, and this does not disappoint. In all fairness, it's not easy to engineer a product that handles this combination of conditions with longevity. Electricity, tap water, heat, spilled food, mineral buildup, etc - it's tough to make it last.***
We do a mixture of breast-feeding and formula supplementation, and for starters I bought a Philips AVENT Express Food and Bottle Warmer as a respectable trade off between quality of reviews and cost. This worked okay, but I found myself running into a few problems. The Avent warmer gets very hot - which heats things quickly, but makes timing all the more important. If you forget to set a timer, or have to address something (like a screaming/pooping baby) it is very easy for your bottle to get overheated. In a persistent state of sleep deprivation, this is very easy to do. This is at least an annoyance, and potentially quite dangerous. The other problem is forgetting to turn it off, which leads to wasted energy, all the water evaporating, rapid buildup of mineral deposits, and this is all to say nothing of a significant degree of faith in the auto-shutoff to keep from burning the house down.
The Kiinde Kozii really addresses most all of these things quite well. The heating occurs on a timer, and the water itself isn't as hot. The water is circulated by pump, which compensates somewhat for the lower temp of the water bath. When the timer shuts off, the heating stops.
Caveats:
The Kozii does take about 1-3 minutes longer than the Avent warmer.
You have to more carefully manage water levels in the Kozii (I keep a small container of water next to it for little top-ups)
There is apparently a safety mechanism which kills the device permanently if you let it run completely dry 3 times. The flipside argument is that you would have to be quite oblivious for this to happen, as even a slightly low water level causes all manner of bubbling sounds.
Price - this is the main reason I didn't bite on this from the beginning. It seemed excessive and frankly a bit nuts to spend this much on something that could be done with a much cheaper device. Arguments to this effect are still valid, but I think that in the balance, you could skip a few of the cute newborn outfits your baby will outgrow in a few days, and put the money into this instead. It doesn't quite hold the same emotional gravitas as the bunny onesie, but you will thank yourself repeatedly at midnight, 2am, 4am, etc... when you are feeding the baby safely instead of throwing out the liquid gold your wife pumped and you somehow managed to cook in the lesser warmer.
| Product Dimensions | 5.19 x 7.4 x 7.4 inches |
|---|---|
| Item model number | KK-R1-NA |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Material Composition | 100% Plastic |
| Number Of Items | 1 |
| Style | Warmer |
| Batteries required | No |
| Dishwasher safe | No |
| Is portable | No |
| Item Weight | 1.85 pounds |
| Country/Region of origin | China |
