Tommee Tippee vs Baby Brezza: Which baby formula bottle prep machine is best?

Buy now £129.99, Johnlewis.com

• Rating: 9.5/10
• Bottle prep time: 1 minute 36 seconds for 4oz
• Bottle ounce options: 4-11oz
• Water tank capacity: 1l
• Powder container: No
• Dimensions: H 33cm x W 30.6cm x D 21.6cm

What is it?

Tommee Tippee’s perfect prep day and night machine is an updated version of the brand’s perfect prep machine (£99.99, Johnlewis.com). Just like the original, it is designed to take all the hassle out of making a bottle for your baby, at any time of day or night.

According to the brand, it can whip up a bottle in just two minutes and is also night-time friendly with added features specifically designed to make dream feeding so much easier, such as a glowing nightlight. The company also claims its latest gadget is 10 times faster than a kettle, meaning there’s no more waiting around for water to cool, and that it can work with most bottles and formula brands.

The machine allows you to make one bottle at a time and comes with a 1l tank that you can fill with water straight from the tap. It also has a unique filtration membrane that removes bacteria and other contaminants which can be found in water, ensuring it is clean and safe to make a bottle. Plus, the machine comes with a filter included, as well as a 150ml bottle and milk storage lid.

Design

Those familiar with the brand’s original machine will notice that this newer version looks strikingly similar, but there have been some slight tweaks to improve not only its looks but usability.

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Available in a choice of three colours – white, grey or black – the machine is made from plastic but it feels surprisingly sturdy. We tested the black version and found it looked rather sleek alongside our other kitchen appliances and, although it is rather wide, the machine is slender enough not to take up too much worktop space.

Replacing the manual dial found on the original version, the day and night prep machine has a digital display that, once in use, has a blue backlight that makes it easy and clear to use. It also has a bottle stand that can be moved up or down depending on the size of the bottle you’re using and we also really liked the addition of the soft-glow light here and on the tank – this makes it easy to see if the machine needs refilling and lets you prepare your feed in the dark.

Speaking of the tank, it does hold a fair amount of water – 1l in fact – so you’re sure to get a couple of feeds from a full tank before it needs a top up.

Setup

Before you can use the perfect prep machine for the first time, you need to run a cleaning cycle and fit your filter. A surprisingly simple and quick task that took us just 10 minutes to complete, all you need to do is press the select button and then follow the directions on your screen.

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Once you’ve fitted the filter – which clicks into place – you fill the tank with ordinary tap water, wait a few minutes for it to filter through, do a final flush, and then you’re ready to get going. It really couldn’t be easier to set up.

How to use

Making a bottle is a breeze, even for complete novices, as the digital display takes you through every single step. Once on, the perfect prep day and night machine will ask you to select a feed size using the left and right arrow buttons to increase or decrease the ounce – the smallest feed is 4oz and it goes up to 11oz.

Next, the machine tells you to add your formula and place your bottle onto the tray before it delivers a 70C hot shot – an ingenious feature that ensures any bacteria in the formula is killed. Once done, you put the lid on your bottle and give it a gentle shake before placing it back on the tray so the machine can top it up with cool water. The feed is now body temperature (just like breast milk), meaning it’s ready to drink straight away.

At each step the machine makes you confirm that you’ve completed the previous action, so it’s fairly foolproof but we can imagine having to press the button every time could become tedious once you’ve got it nailed. However, it’s a great feature if you have friends or family coming to babysit, as you’ll feel confident they can’t go wrong.

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We were seriously impressed with the results, as it took us just 1 minute 36 seconds to make a 4oz bottle, which is incredibly quick compared to making one with a kettle and cooling it down afterwards. The machine is also relatively discreet in terms of noisiness – it does make a distinct churning sound when in use but we found it to be quieter than our coffee machine and it’s nowhere near loud enough that it would disturb your household during night feeds.

Other features that stood out to us included that you can adjust the volume of the beeping on the machine and that it alerts you when it’s time to replace your filter and descale, which gives you one less thing to worry about. It’s worth noting that the filter needs replacing around every three months, depending on the amount and size of bottles you use and these cost £13.29 each (Tommeetippee.com). This means that you’ll be spending an extra £53.16 a year.

Cleaning

Cleaning takes about 10 minutes and, again, is super easy as the machine tells you exactly what to do. Tommee Tippee recommends that you clean it before you first use it, and then every four weeks, when you replace the filter, or if it hasn’t been used for a week.

To clean, you simply select “clean unit” from the settings menu, press select, follow the directions on the screen and wait – the machine will do the rest for you. While it doesn’t tell you how long is left, the machine does alert you when it’s halfway through as you need to empty the container you’re filtering water into.

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As well as cleaning, you’ll also need to descale the machine every now and then to remove calcium and other minerals that might affect its performance. But don’t worry, the machine practically does it all for you again via the “descale unit” option in the settings menu and takes around 30 minutes to complete.

Buy now £234, Johnlewis.com

• Rating: 9/10
• Bottle prep time: 12 seconds for 4oz
• Bottle ounce options: 2-10oz
• Water tank capacity: 1.5l
• Powder container: Yes
• Dimensions: H 38cm x W 17.5cm x D 31cm

What is it?

Designed to make bottle feeding, quick, easy and fuss-free, the formula pro advanced mixes, heats and dispenses formula and water to the perfect consistency and temperature.

The brand states that the machine can make a bottle in 15 seconds, saving you up to 30 minutes every day. Making one bottle at a time, it comes with a roomy 1.5l water tank that keeps the water at a constant temperature at all times and an airtight power container where you can store your formula.

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The formula pro advanced also allows you to customise the perfect bottle for your baby by choosing an amount of formula from 2oz to 10oz in 1oz increments and there’s a choice of three temperature settings or water dispensing only. It also works with virtually all brands of formula and all bottle brands and sizes.

Design

The formula pro advanced has a completely different look to Tommee Tippee’s machine as it’s much more slimlined and fits perfectly in corners, making it a great option for those short on space. We also liked that it has wheels on the front which mean it’s easy to move around and access the water tank, which is located out of the way at the back for a sleeker profile.

One major difference in its design is that the formula pro advanced comes with a handy formula compartment. This has a clear refill indicator so you know when it needs topping up and a swirl wheel that ensures formula is dispensed without any clumping. It also has a bottle stand that can be adjusted depending on the size of the bottle you’re using.

Setup

Initial setup of this machine is quite involved, as it comes with seven removable parts that all require manual cleaning with warm, soapy water, which should be air dried. The instruction booklet that comes with the formula advanced pro is really helpful here though, as it features clear instructions with a visual guide, so you can be confident that it has been cleaned thoroughly. It took us about 20 minutes to disassemble, wash, and reassemble the machine, but this doesn’t including drying time, which can vary.

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The inside of the machine also needs to be rinsed. To do this, you fill the water tank, place a large container under the funnel, press the “ml” button until the screen shows the largest amount and then press the “water only” button.

It’s worth noting here that Baby Brezza recommends filling the water tank with bottled water suitable for infant formula preparation or pre-boiled water that’s been cooled to room temperature as the tank does not have a filter.

Before you can prepare your first bottle, you also need to make sure you have the right formula number inputted into the machine’s powder setting. To do this, you go to the Baby Brezza settings finder and answer a series of questions about the type of formula you are using.

Once you fill out this information, you will be given a number to enter into the “powder setting” on your machine. The machine will save this number, so you don’t have to do this step every time you make a bottle, but you will have to repeat this step if you change formula brands. Finally, you simply need to pour your formula into the powder container, ensuring it’s nice and level.

How to use

Once you’ve added your formula to the machine and entered the correct powder setting, making a bottle using this machine is relatively easy. While the principal measurement on the formula advanced pro is millilitres, you can switch to ounces by holding down the “ml” button for six seconds. Then you can select your feed size by pressing the same button repeatedly to increase or decrease the amount, which ranges from 2oz to 10oz.

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You can choose the temperature of the water, too, using the “temp” button, which includes three options – room temperature, body temperature and slightly warmer than body temperature.

Ready to go? This is where the machine really ramps up. Place your bottle on the stand, press start and you’ll see the machine rapidly mix the right amount of powder and water together before stopping automatically when dispensing is complete. The length of this process depends on the size of bottle you’re making, but all are seriously fast.

In our tests, we made a 4oz bottle to make it comparable with Tommee Tippee’s model and found that it took an incredible 12 seconds from the moment we pressed start. So, while the initial set up is lengthy and somewhat complicated, doing so means that all the wheels are set in motion to deliver a bottle at record speed.

Cleaning

The formula pro advanced does require a bit of maintenance, including daily wipe downs, and monthly sterilisation. According to Baby Brezza, the funnel piece needs cleaning after every fourth use to remove any formula build-up. But the good news is that it is super easy to remove, making doing so a quick process (it took us two minutes), and the machine even has an indicator on the digital display to remind you when it’s time.

Every month, you also need to fully disassemble the unit and sterilise the water tank, formula tank and individual funnel and mixing components of the unit, just like you did on initial set up.