Sterilizing baby bottles is a must to prevent your baby from ingesting potentially harmful bacteria. While you can sterilize baby bottles on the stove, you can also add a baby bottle sterilizer to your babycare product arsenal to do the job quickly and efficiently without the guesswork.

Many parents consider baby bottle sterilizers a necessity because sterilizers can quickly disinfect all pieces of their baby's bottles, pacifiers and teething rings. Using steam (or sometimes UV light), baby bottle sterilizers can prep your baby's bottle for use quickly. The Wabi Baby Steam Sterilizer and Dryer Plus keeps your baby's bottles clean, dries up to three times faster than a drying rack and takes the guesswork out of preparing baby bottles for use.

There are two types of baby bottle sterilizers: sterilizers that require a microwave for use and sterilizers that plug into an outlet. If you don’t have a microwave, you will need to purchase the kind that can be plugged into the wall. While the microwavable sterilizers will cost significantly less than their electric counterparts, they offer far fewer features.

When picking a baby bottle sterilizer, you will want to consider the size of the appliance. Some baby bottle sterilizers can be bulky and, if you plan to leave it out on your countertop, you will want to consider whether or not you have enough space. If you are short on counter space, you will want to make sure the baby bottle sterilizer is easy to lug into and out of a cabinet or storage area.

Most baby bottle sterilizers can disinfect up to six baby bottles at one time. If you have multiple children using bottles or regularly disinfect a large number of baby bottles, you will want to consider the capacity of the baby bottle sterilizer that you choose. A larger sterilization reservoir means fewer cycles overall.

Some baby bottle sterilizers can complete a sterilization cycle in as little as two minutes while others take up to 30 minutes to complete. How quickly you want to be able to use your baby’s bottles after they have been properly disinfected will help you determine which baby bottle sterilizer is right for you.

Baby bottle sterilizers can be fairly straightforward while others come with many bells and whistles. Here are a few of the features you may want to look for when you purchase your baby bottle sterilizer.

Not all baby bottle sterilizers come with a drying feature. Some simply require you to transfer disinfected baby bottles to a drying rack (or dry by hand) to complete the disinfecting cycle. Other baby bottle sterilizers come with a drying feature that will leave your baby bottles ready for use immediately after the cycle is complete.

If you select a baby bottle sterilizer that is electric and plugs into the wall, you may appreciate an auto shut-off feature, which guarantees that the appliance won’t stay on for longer than necessary.

Many sterilizers rely on steam to disinfect baby bottles. You pour water into a chamber or reservoir and then the sterilizer heats the water to boiling to disinfect your baby bottles with steam. Some newer models of baby bottle sterilizers also use ultraviolet light to sterilize your baby bottles.

Baby bottle sterilizers vary widely in price depending on which features you select. They can cost as little as $20 or up to $150.

A. A baby bottle sterilizer is a nice product to have to properly disinfect your baby's bottles. While you can disinfect your baby's bottles on the stove, baby bottle sterilizers take the guesswork out of the process. Because several models are available for less than $30, they are a worthwhile purchase.

A. Both types of sterilization are great for zapping any harmful bacteria. However, the downside of UV sterilization is that it only kills bacteria on surfaces that light touches. This means that any part of a baby bottle that can't be touched by the UV light won't be properly disinfected. Steam sterilization, however, will kill bacteria on all surfaces within the sterilization chamber.

Wabi Baby Steam Sterilizer and Dryer Plus: available at Amazon and Buy Buy Baby

Our take: This baby bottle sterilizer sanitizes and dries your baby's bottles so you can ensure your baby's bottles are safe for use.

What we like: The large chamber on this baby bottle sterilizer can disinfect up to eight bottles at once.

What we dislike: The drying feature on this baby bottle sterilizer can take up to a full hour.

Philips Avent Microwave Steam Sterilizer: available at Amazon and Buy Buy Baby

Our take: At less than $30, this baby bottle sterilizer is easy on your wallet and great at disinfecting your baby's bottles.

What we like: This baby bottle sterilizer can disinfect baby bottles in two minutes using steam sterilization.

What we dislike: You will need a microwave in order to use this product may not fit in small microwaves.

Tommee Tippee Steri-Steam Electric Sterilizer: available at Amazon

Our take: Sterilize up to six bottles in as little as five minutes with this slim baby bottle sterilizer.

What we like: You can use the trays from this baby bottle sterilizer as a drying rack after your baby's bottles are disinfected.

What we dislike: Some users report that if you don't use distilled water with the baby bottle sterilizer you drastically decrease its lifespan.

Stephanie Jarrett is a writer for BestReviews. BestReviews is a product review company with a singular mission: to help simplify your purchasing decisions and save you time and money.

BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers. BestReviews and its newspaper partners may earn a commission if you purchase a product through one of our links.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.