We’ve reviewed dozens of warming drawers and listed our 10 best options
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Warming drawers are great for so many reasons. The best warming drawers not only keep your crockery warm but will also maintain the temperature of food too – ideal when you are preparing a meal with several parts and you’re not quite ready to assemble.
They can also remove some of the stress when it comes to plating up. We are not all professional chef’s, yet on t.v. they make it look so easy and seamless, not quite so at home – especially if you accidentally forget to prepare your garnish! And for me who has a teenager who on many occasions fails to appear on time, I can just pop his plated dinner in the warming drawer unit to keep warm.
Our team have analysed what we think are the best warming drawers available in the UK and reviewed our top 10 picks for 2022.
This product has a large capacity, holding up to 192 espresso cups or 40 plates. It has been designed to make your life easier, not only keeping your plates warm but also enabling you to pick a temperature between 40°C and 80°C for the attention of food preparation.
It smoothly functions with a push-pull mechanism, which has busy kitchens in mind as there are no faffing or complicated steps to get it up and running. It also rids the need for a handle, making it a sleek touch to any kitchen. Thanks to the smooth telescopic runners, you won’t get any jolts or jams, so the contents of the drawer will remain firmly in place.
There are five settings, including defrost, hold warm and plate warming settings, so it does a lot more than just help to serve your food at a nice temperature. And because it can provide a gentle low heat, it is also great for anyone who would want to prove dough.
Again, we include one of the most famous brands when it comes to kitchen appliances. In fact, Bosch is largely celebrated throughout a number of industries and once you try out this warmer drawer you’ll soon see why.
It deserves its place in this lineup, and is a good value price too. It brandishes 20-litres of capacity and is capable of fitting in up to 25Kg of weight, providing more than enough room for plates and cups.
And with a temperature range of between 40 and 80°C, you can even warm foods or keep anything already cooked warm, so it is ready to serve without relying on nuking it in the microwave.
For any bakers out there, there is a dedicated dough proving function which will help it rise in safe conditions and quicker than leaving it out. There’s also a defrost option for when the chicken hasn’t quite defrosted. This warming drawer is designed to fit in to an eye level cabinet, and is comfortable to use in this position too.
This Neff N50 warming drawer arrives with a capacity load of up to 15kg, built to hold up to 30 plates at once. That’s dinner parties sorted – but that really isn’t all. This well-sized unit even has a double life as a defroster, making it a real go-to system if you have little jobs that need finishing up, or if you need to prep for dinner.
Neff is a great brand and the N50, while on the premium end, does offer simplicity and style. You should have no problem introducing this into your kitchen suite.
This super-sleek warming drawer will look fantastic in any modern kitchen, and with warming tech that allows you to keep things cooking over or proving from between 30 and 80 degrees C, this Siemens model is likely to be leading the way in this market in many different respects. It can hold bulk of up to 25kg, and is able to hold around 12 plates in total, making it an asset for smaller kitchens or dinner parties.
Whether you want to warm plates, prove dough or simply keep dishes warm, this is a multi-function system with five simple modes, meaning that it should always be pretty easy to tailor it to your own needs and demands. It’s extremely easy to wipe down, keep clean and maintain, and what’s more, if you already have a Siemens cooking range in place, it will fit in nicely alongside and underneath – it’s got a fantastic aesthetic to it.
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Bosch’s leading warming rawer is nice and easy to set up, and boasts a pretty impressive 25kg in max weight capacity, making it fantastic value. You’ll benefit from a feather touch push and pull operation, as well as a series of different functions to help you prove, cool down and warm up.
Bosch is a brand that dabbles in all kinds of home and garden wares. The engineering here is pretty great – it’s convenient, it’s stylish, and it won’t eat up lots of space.
Belling do more than cookers, as this small but mighty warming drawer proves. This eye level drawer is easy to build into your kitchen and can be used at eye height, making it fantastically convenient. You can set up heat in your drawer from anywhere between 40 to 80 degrees.
The light feature will let you know when your plates are good to go, meaning that you can get right back into cooking for the family without any fussing about.
The Rangemaster Eclipse really does it all, offering you control over warming, thawing and more besides. This drawer allows you to quickly defrost food without having to leave it out on the side for hours at a time. What’s more, it’ll hold a more than reasonable 20 litres in capacity.
The dials on board this warming drawer are especially easy to manage and handle, making it one of the best entry-level drawers on our list. We love it!
This lavish cooking drawer can be easily integrated into your stylish kitchen and will be sure to add lots of features to your home. If you need a little help keeping plates and meals warm in between serving then you may want to consider looking at this creation.
Smeg has done it again- they have produced the perfect addition for our kitchen. This time in the form of a warming drawer, that offers a safe haven to keep food and meals fresh, warm or to warm up our plates.
In terms of ability, this Smeg warming drawer is by far one of the most capable. As well as providing a tonne of heating features it also boasts a glass design front panel and an inside dial that makes it simple to use.The base material is steel and has stainless steel effect control knobs.
This drawer has been made to complement the Smeg wall oven but it can also easily mix with other ovens in any house. It is a stunning theme to incorporate into your home and certainly has its practical features. Choose from black glass or silver glass when picking out your warming drawer from Smeg.
It has lots of space and also has a non-slip silicone liner pad ensuring that your food stays fresh and heated for a preserved amount of time.
If you need a nice deep drawer for stacking plates or keeping large items of food warm, then this Neff is a fabulous option.
This item can prove to be very handy as you can simply transport cooked meals from the oven straight into the drawer if they aren’t ready to be served just yet. The drawer can keep the main course warm and maintain its crispy texture without losing its flavor while you are still eating the starter. It ensures the food is still warm until you are ready to serve it to your guests.
This particular Neff N1AHA02N0B warming drawer is 29cm tall and has enough space to fit large items in. The maximum weight it can hold is 15kg, which isn’t the best for a drawer of this size but will actually surprise you at how much you can fit in.
You can adjust the temperature settings between 40-80 degrees, catering to your particular crockery or food, and it opens with a push-pull mechanism for easy use and a sleek finish.
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Enjoy European engineering at its best with this De Dietrich warming drawer. If you are looking for something that will soon become a staple of your home but you’d rather something a little more understated then you may wish to enjoy this drawer.
You can adjust the temperatures between 30 degrees and 80 degrees giving you lots of leeway. It has been designed to specifically fit other De Dietrich ovens.
It comes in black and provides a simple, sleek and clean exterior that can easily fit into the theme of any kitchen. It is easy to use with its push door, rotary dial and adjustable heat.
Our reviews break down everything available with the listed warming drawers, but you should be aware of what’s required and the main features to seek out. Think about what you need when reading the pointers below. There is no need to overspend on a capacity of 25-litres if you only require warming up one or two plates at a time.
Here are features to look out for when purchasing your warming drawer:
A question that often crops up and that is because as buyers we want something that is quality, sure to last and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Often, it is the best-known brands which provide this.
We have managed to save you all of the trouble by listing the top warming drawers available in the UK, and have selections from a range of the best brands. We have taken the brand into account whilst also giving all individual products a fair trial.
Here are some of our favourite warming drawer brands, although they are not limited to the following:
A warming drawer will soon become an essential part of any 21st Century kitchen.
They can be bought as separate pieces or built into your oven or cooker (these are frequently found on Rangemaster range cookers). For the most part, people like to purchase matching warming drawers as part of their integrated oven set, so there will be matching appliances available for all of those listed above.
There are a number of uses for warming drawers, which go beyond heating plates and coffee cups, although this is their primary function.
Beside the cost, there are very few drawbacks. They aren’t the cheapest appliances and have very limited use, but can add a touch of luxury to any high-spec kitchen.
The pros by far outweigh the cons but not everybody feels they need a drawer. If you struggle with the timing of cooking up different parts of your meals and also serving the meal on time then you may want to look into buying one. It comes down to whether or not your oven is occupied and if you simply need to just keep a meal or crockery warm for minutes or hours.
I had the idea for Which Kitchen Appliance? In 2016 when a friend was planning a new kitchen and asked me to help her choose her new kitchen appliances. She knew that I had trained as a chef, had a passion for cooking and an interest in interior design.
After hours and hours of trawling websites looking for a double oven, built-in microwave, hob & extractor fan the excitement that was soon waned…we were bored and frazzled. But finally, we succeeded and she got her new kitchen.
This led me to think that there must be a better way of researching kitchen appliances, if only there were somewhere that you could go and find kitchen appliance reviews and helpful hints and tips on getting the best from and look after your appliance under one roof with information that was comprehensive, easy to understand and that you could trust…and so WhichKitchenAppliance? was born. I now work full-time on WhichKitchenAppliance?