Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer Review
As a mum to twins, it not only meant that I had to shell out A LOT of hard earned moolah on bottles but the time spent on of dissembling bottles to wash, steam/sterilize them and reassemble them was crazy – especially with my boys feeing every 2-3 hours in the early months. Being a super kisau first-time mum, sterilizing was a big thing to me because I didn’t want my babies to fall sick often (and then spreading to each other) and making sure they stay well enough to build up their immunity was one of my priorities.
After doing research between boiling bottles and buying a sterilizer, I came to the conclusion that a sterilizer was definitely on my shopping list. And because most of my mummy friends back then only had experience with steam sterilizers, I couldn’t get much personal experience from them about UV Sterilizers. So when I was sent the Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer to test, I was certainly excited!
Unboxing!
Before we road test the Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer, I thought I’d give you a bit more details about it! Chickabiddy is a Taiwanese brand with over 40 years of history and the Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer is fitted with original Europe manufactured Philips TUV 6W ultraviolet tubes and with effective use can kill 99.9% of harmful bacteria and germs. The inside is made of stainless steel and this ensures the UV rays are reflected into the interior of the bottles (since they are placed facing downwards in the sterilizer). The 5mm tempered glass is designed to prevent UV radiation from getting out and if the glass door is opened during the sterilization process, the sterilizer automatically pauses.
Size and Storage Capacity
The Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer is 25cm x30 cm x 40 cm and doesn’t take up that much space on my counter top and also has double tiered racks (did someone say STORAGE SPACE!!). I only have 6 bottles in it but it can go up to 8 bottles with all its caps and teats etc. I went through two steam sterilizers during my journey and even then the max either of them fit were 4 bottles... despite them being double tiered sterilizers.
Testing out the storage capacity
Ease of use and convenience
The Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer is a 3-in-1 –sterilizing, drying and storing system. So all you need to do is wash the bottles well, pop the parts into the sterilizer and hit the auto button. Each UV sterilization cycle is just 10 minutes compared to roughly about 15 minutes in steam sterilizers and another 10-15 minutes waiting for the steam to dissipate.
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been scalded by hot steam while trying to retrieve bottles from my steam sterilizer and when you desperately need a bottle, you just don’t have the time to wait for it to cool down. Because steam sterilizers generally don’t have a big storage capacity, this means you need to buy additional drying racks or containers to keep the sterilized bottles so you can use the sterilizer again for pump parts or more bottles. The Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer solves all this because you can leave the bottles in the sterilizer until you need them! A feature that I thought was really cool is the auto-sterilizing function that activates for 5 minutes every 4 hours so you don’t have to worry about contamination. After all, we mums have enough to worry about already lol!
Another two things I thought were worth mentioning. The first is that with the UV sterilizer, I don’t have to worry about descaling. With my steam sterilizers, there was often rust forming at the bottom of the metal plate and it was very troublesome to keep descaling it. I was also concerned if the rust would contaminate the bottles if it could not be removed. :S
The Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer also has a sliding tray which I thought made things super convenient because you just need to open the door, slide the tray out and you’ll have access to both tiers at the same. This is unlike the steam sterlisers where you have to take out the top tier first to reach inside (normally this is where you’ll find hot steam :x ) the bottom tier.
Price
The Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer is about $300 versus steam sterilizers which cost anywhere from $100-$180. And when you add the cost of drying racks, storage containers etc, it does add up and make it comparable to that of the Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer, which is already on a lower price point in the UV sterilizer market.
Conclusion
The Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer is so easy to use and convenient and while I laugh at the times I took 5-10 minutes trying to get my faulty steam sterilizer to work by pressing the start button at different angles, I look back and wish I had discovered the UV Sterilizer much earlier!
Good news! Get 10% off the Chickabiddy UV Sterilizer on www.mumsandbabes.com.my when you check out with the discount code.
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