In daily life, the disinfection method we often use is high-temperature disinfection. This is also the easiest way to disinfect in our lives, so most parents directly scald the bottle with hot water to achieve the disinfection effect in order to save trouble. But many times, we scald the bottle with hot water, just pour the hot water into the bottle and shake it, and the sterilization step is completed.
However, this type of disinfection is not in place. Although hot water can kill some bacteria, some bacteria and viruses that are resistant to high temperatures can still survive. In addition, the hot water disinfection time is not long enough to ensure that the bacteria are completely killed, and if the bottle is sterilized while boiling in boiling water, it is easy to reduce the life of the bottle, pacifier and other products and even produce harmful substances at high temperatures. Disinfection is an important measure to protect the health of the baby, in order to disinfect more effectively and ensure that the baby uses safe and hygienic bottles, it is recommended that parents use a professional bottle sterilizer.
1. What is a bottle sterilizer and is it necessary to buy it?
The boiling I mentioned earlier does serve the purpose of sterilizing baby bottles, but there are two conditions that limit it:
- Supplies such as feeding bottles need to be boiled in boiling water for more than 20 minutes to achieve the purpose of sterilization
- The storage of the bottle after boiling is also a very important problem to consider, if it is not used for a short time after boiling, there is still the possibility of microbial infection.
Newborns' intestines are fragile, and if we don't use steam sterilization thoroughly, babies can easily get microbial infections that cause diarrhea in babies. It is recommended to buy a bottle sterilizer, and you have to buy a bottle with good disinfection effect, a large capacity to store milk bottles, and a storage function after disinfection, so that you can take it at any time and do not have to worry about microbial infection.
2. Can the household sterilizer replace the bottle sterilizer?
Some mothers have doubts about whether the household sterilizer can replace the baby's bottle sterilizer. The disinfection cabinet at home can also be disinfected, why buy an extra bottle sterilizer?
In fact, the disinfection method, the strains to be sanitized, and the materials to be sanitized are different
1. Different disinfection methods
Household disinfection cabinets
The disinfection methods of household disinfection cabinets are mainly infrared high-temperature disinfection, ultraviolet disinfection and ozone disinfection. Now the best-selling household disinfection cabinet on the market is ultraviolet + ozone disinfection, the advantage is that the requirements for tableware are low, and most of the tableware can be disinfected with low loss. However, compared with baby bottles and silicone nipples, it is not resistant to high temperature loss, and ozone also has the risk of gas leakage.
Baby sterilizer
In order to prevent damage to silica gel products, most of the special disinfection cabinets for infants and young children use ultraviolet disinfection lamp beads for sterilization and disinfection. It also belongs to the light wave pasteurization method, which not only retains the problem of high disinfection efficiency, but also does not produce ozone, no peculiar smell, and the baby will not resist when using the bottle.
2. The strains to be sanitized are different
Most of the household disinfection cabinets are two-star national standards, and the bacteria they can destroy are those that most people can come into contact with, such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Helicobacter pylori and other bacteria.
The bottle sterilizer mainly disinfects 15 kinds of norovirus, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and other 15 kinds that can cause harm to infants and young children, and the sterilization types are more targeted.
3. The material of sanitization is different
The disinfection method is infrared high temperature disinfection, ultraviolet disinfection and ozone disinfection of household disinfection cabinets, at a high temperature of 125 degrees, the baby products used to disinfect silicone materials are easy to deform, resulting in damage to the items. Ozone disinfection will cause the aging of PPSU bottles and shorten the service life.
The sterilization method of the bottle sterilizer generally does not use ozone and high temperature disinfection, which will not damage silica gel, plastic, etc., and the bottle nipple is not easy to yellow, and the service life of the bottle nipple will be longer.
3. Purchase skills of bottle sterilizers
1. The first choice is the two-star national standard elimination number
According to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China and the China Standardization Committee jointly revised the "Safety and Hygiene Requirements for Tableware Disinfection Cabinets", the disinfection level of the disinfection cabinet is divided into two levels: one-star and two-star, which indicates the number of levels of disinfection effect of the disinfection cabinet, of which the two-star is the best. Specifically, the one-star representative disinfection cabinet can effectively kill general bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, etc., and the two-star representative disinfection cabinet can effectively kill recalcitrant viruses and bacteria, such as norovirus, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, etc. When we buy a bottle sterilizer, we try to choose a two-star product.
2. Disinfect the light source
The common disinfection light sources of ultraviolet bottle sterilization cabinets include ultraviolet lamps, ultraviolet integrated lamps and ultraviolet lamps.
Why do the current bottle sterilizers use ultraviolet lamps?
Ultraviolet lamp filaments emit light and contain heavy metals such as mercury, which will be released when broken. Ozone will be produced during disinfection, which accelerates the aging of silicone products such as feeding bottles and nipples;
The ultraviolet integrated lamp beads are wrapped in the lamp, which increases the blind area of irradiation, but one lamp bead burns out, and the entire lamp needs to be replaced;
The ultraviolet lamp beads are mercury-free design, do not produce ozone, have stable wavelength, strong penetration, and can effectively sterilize without damaging the nipple of the feeding bottle.
3. Look at the lamp bead arrangement and liner design
Ultraviolet disinfection mainly relies on light irradiation for sterilization, and there will be objects to block the effect, so try to choose a multi-faceted arrangement of lamp beads, and there are lamp beads irradiated in all directions to avoid disinfection dead ends.
It is recommended not to choose a plastic liner, but to choose a multi-faceted stainless steel mirror as much as possible, so that they can refract each other in the face of ultraviolet multi-faceted light sources to avoid objects blocking and causing disinfection in some places.
4. Whether there is a separate drying and storage function
After 6 months, the baby does not need to sterilize the bottle every day, generally 2-3 times a week. Every time the bottle is washed, it should be dried and stored in time to avoid bacteria in a humid environment, and the baby will have diarrhea if you don't pay attention to it, so it is important to have a separate drying function. In addition to drying the bottle, you can also dry the baby's clothes, toys, dishes and chopsticks at home, etc.
If you don't take out the nipple of the bottle in time after drying, it is important to have an automatic storage function in the sterilizer. Now the high-end sterilizers on the market will have a storage function, we have to choose a longer storage time, can be continuously sterilized during the storage process, to ensure that our bottles are sterile and clean.
5. Look at the filter
The filter screen is mainly used to filter the air inlet during drying, so as to avoid the dirt of the air from entering the disinfection cabinet and causing secondary pollution. Generally, the disinfection cabinet will put a filter, including a HEPA filter, a sponge, and a mesh filter. It is recommended to choose a HEPA filter, which can efficiently filter bacteria, dust particles, PM2.5, chemical smoke, etc., with high filtration accuracy, and this filter material is generally used in high-end air purifiers
6. Look at the capacity
Try to choose a large-capacity bottle sterilizer, the baby's supplies will be very much, in addition to the bottle nipple, there are complementary food bowls, baby tableware, bite, toys, cloth books, baby clothes and other supplies can be dried and disinfected. Try to choose a capacity of more than 20L, which can hold more items, buy big rather than small.
Fourth, the actual measurement of the Lanbao milk bottle sterilizer
1. Appearance
As soon as I opened the delivery box, I was fascinated by the high-end color scheme of the Sapphire sterilizer, which is a milky white tone as a whole, and the front face is matched with a soft pink functional menu, the overall tone is soft and comfortable, and the soft pink functional menu is embellished on the main tone of white, which just adds an elegance and romance. This sense of design makes people attracted at a glance and indulge in the visual feast brought by this high-end color scheme.
In the upper left corner is a circular visualization window, and the color scheme is very simple and advanced. And the size is moderate, covering an area of about 33 square centimeters, like a super mini vertical refrigerator, whether it is placed in the kitchen, dining table or baby supplies counter is very suitable, and it is completely integrated with the style of my home, as if it is a member of our family.
In the upper right corner is the display of the time when the program is running, so you can clearly see how many minutes are left in the program to be executed. At the bottom right is the menu button, which includes 5 functions: automatic, double-effect sterilization, fast drying, soft drying, and storage. The button adopts the touch control mode, and the corresponding function can be started by pressing it, and the operation is very simple, and the elderly at home have mastered the use of it only once after teaching.
2. Look at the capacity of the inner tank
The capacity of the Blaupunkt sterilizer is 25L large capacity, which can sterilize 16 sets of baby bottles at one time. The double-layer shelves are detachable, and can be arranged according to needs, which can be matched to different sizes of items, and can be placed more flexibly.
The advantage of large capacity is that the baby can also be used to disinfect cups, dry the baby's underwear, comfort dolls and even disinfect the whole family tableware and other supplies, in short, there is a need for disinfection can be put into disinfection and drying, as long as the machine is not broken, there is no idle problem.
3. Disinfect the light source
Disinfection is of course the most important indicator of the disinfection cabinet, if the disinfection effect is not good, no matter how bells and whistles the appearance is, it will not be able to move my heart. When I received the sterilizer, I wiped the liner with a soft cloth, and couldn't wait to take a few freshly washed cups, measuring spoons and other supplies to test the disinfection function. The Lanbao bottle sterilizer uses UVC mercury-free lamp beads, and the ultraviolet wavelength of the lamp beads is fixed at 270-280nm, which has a stable sterilization effect and long life.
The test results can be seen on the UV test chart below, with a small square in the middle showing a deep purple color. It's a few degrees darker than the standard hue of the rectangle on the left. This shows that the machine has 6 sides, up and down, left and right, front and back, and the irradiation intensity of all ultraviolet lamp beads is more than 90um/c㎡, and the disinfection effect is good.
The disinfection cabinet usually uses traditional ultraviolet lamps for disinfection, while the maternal and infant disinfection cabinets use ultraviolet light for disinfection, and are also equipped with plasma generators, which can kill bacteria and viruses more effectively.
In addition, the disinfection cabinet of Lanbao is two-star certified by the national standard, which can effectively kill 15 kinds of baby susceptible bacteria + viruses, and ensure the cleanliness of baby products in an all-round and multi-dimensional way.
4. The safety of the light source
The details of the Blaupunk sterilizer in terms of safety are also in place, and the sterilizer is not worried about being accidentally opened by the baby when the sterilizer is working. The UV lamp is turned off at the moment you open the door, so you don't have to worry about the leakage of UV rays, and the UV rays will automatically turn on when you close the door.
5. Arrangement of lamp beads
From the picture, we can see that there are lamp beads arranged on six sides of the disinfection cabinet, of which there are 8 lamp beads (including 2 lights) on the upper and lower sides, and 3 UVC lamp beads on the front and back and left and right, a total of 28 mercury-free and ozone-free lamp beads, and each side is an 8k diamond-shaped mirror, which assists the lamp line reflection to achieve all-round sterilization without dead ends.
In this way, whether the baby's bottle is placed upwards or downwards, it is not afraid of disinfection dead ends, and the capacity of each disinfection is also larger. In addition, two of the 28 lamp beads are lighting beads, which will automatically light up when the disinfection cabinet door is opened, and it is also very convenient for mothers to get up in the middle of the night to get up and take the bottle.
And sometimes when you are in a hurry to feed, you will forget to close the door when you take the bottle, and the Blaupunk sterilizer will automatically absorb when the door is about to close
6. Liner design
The inner liner of the maternal and infant disinfection cabinet on the market is mostly made of 304 stainless steel, which can increase the refractive index of ultraviolet rays, and then achieve the effect of increasing the disinfection coverage area. If the internal material of an ultraviolet bottle sterilizer is plastic, there is no reflection of stainless steel, and there will be a blind spot for disinfection inside. But if stainless steel is only mirrored, the light can only be reflected from one angle in parallel, the angle of reflection is limited, and the refractive index is relatively low. The Lanbao disinfection cabinet is based on the 304 stainless steel liner with the addition of mirror + diamond mirror, which can increase the light reflection at various angles, expand the light coverage, penetrate the ultraviolet irradiation blind area, and is easy to clean.
7. Drying effect
The cheaper bottle sterilizers on the market generally only have a fast drying mode, which is difficult to cope with different drying needs, and the temperature of the fast drying mode is generally high, which is easy to cause the yellowing and aging of silicone products such as pacifiers.
The drying mode of the Blaupunkt sterilizer has two temperature levels to choose from: soft drying mode and fast drying mode. You can choose 60/90/120min for soft baking mode, and 30/60/90min for fast baking mode.
The drying temperature of the soft drying mode is 50°C±5°C, which is suitable for drying silicone products such as feeding bottles and nipples, which can prolong the service life of silicone products and avoid hardening and discoloration ±of silicone materials;
Seeing that the cup in their hands was clean, the parents were also relieved.
Moreover, the Blaupunkt bottle sterilizer also has a storage function. After the disinfection of the bottle is completed, it can be placed in the sterilization cabinet without taking it out, and it can be stored for 72 hours. In storage, the machine will automatically timed double-effect sterilization, first run the disinfection mode for 1 time, and then synchronize the ultraviolet + plasma generator every 2 hours for 5 minutes, maintain the sterile state in the cabinet, and take it at any time. Effectively avoid secondary contamination in the process of taking the bottle.
8. Look at the filter
The HEPA filter on the back can intercept 0.3μm PM2.5, fine particles, bacteria, etc. in the filtered air when the outside air is extracted from the disinfection cabinet, ensuring that the bottle is dried with clean air to avoid secondary pollution caused by dirty things in the air.
5. Summary
After browsing through the many bottle sterilizers on the market, I finally chose the Blaupunkt bottle sterilizer. Its disinfection method is better, double-effect disinfection + ultraviolet + plasma disinfection, it is a two-star disinfection cabinet with a national standard, which can sterilize 15 kinds of baby susceptible bacteria, so that novice parents can rest assured. The selection of materials of Sapphire is also very high-quality, plus the flexible function of soft baking/fast baking dual temperature, large capacity, simple operation, and it is also very convenient for the elderly to take and operate.
Let's summarize the tips for buying a bottle sterilizer:
- (1) Determine the disinfection effect: the number of lamp beads, the distribution of light sources, the material of the lamp beads, the number of sterilization types, whether there is plasma disinfection, whether there is constant temperature disinfection?
- (2) Safety: Does it contain mercury and ozone, and will it leak ultraviolet rays when opening the door?
- (3) Others: Is the capacity large enough?What is the material of the filter?Is there a separate drying function and storage function?