How Many Fluid Bottles Fit in a QED Fluid Warmer?
One of the most common questions we receive is: “How many fluid bottles can I store in each warming cabinet?”.
While this may seem like a straightforward query, the answer is dependent on a number of factors, including:
- Size of fluid bottle
- Shelf configuration
- Whether cabinets are filled conservatively or optimistically
With these factors in mind, we've put together this blog post to help you understand and determine which cabinet size might be best for your specific needs.
How To Store Your Fluid Bottles
Should I Store My Fluid Bottles on Shelves or in Baskets?
Before we get into how many fluid bottles can be stored in the cabinets, it's first important to establish simply how they should be stored.
Whilst the QED Fluid Warmers come with shelves as standard, there is the option to swap these out for baskets, or have a mix of both shelves and baskets in your cabinet. You can learn more about this in our QED Fluid Warmer FAQs.
Shelves provide a stable, flat surface that is ideal for neatly arranging bottles upright, which is important to prevent leaking whilst making it easy to see labels and access fluids quickly. This setup also maximises capacity when you’re storing a consistent bottle size.
Baskets, on the other hand, may offer greater flexibility, as they allow you to group different items together (i.e. bottles and bags) and can make handling easier when stocking the cabinet.
In short, if you value order and maximum storage, go for shelves; if ease of handling and versatility are priorities, baskets might be the better option.
Can I Store My Fluid Bottled On Their Side?
Fluid bottles should always be stored upright. This is important to prevent leaking, which not only wastes the fluid inside the bottle but could also impact the performance of your cabinet. Not only that, but storing bottles upright is also the most efficient way to maximise the number of bottles that can be stored on each shelf.
How Many Fluid Bags Fit in QED Fluid Warming Cabinets?
Fluid Bottles Per Shelf
With the aforementioned considerations in mind, let us look at approximately how many fluid bottles the QED Fluid Warmers can hold.
On average, each shelf roughly holds around 25 bottles. Of course, the size of the shelf also comes into play. Larger cabinets like the FW575 come with bigger shelves, so will naturally fit even more bottles, whilst smaller cabinets like the FW50 feature smaller shelves, so will fit less. But remember, these figures are based on standard 1-litre bottles measuring around 225mm by 90mm by 90mm, so your actual numbers may vary.
Fluid Bottles Per Cabinet
Based on these figures, here's an approximate example of how many fluid bottles you could store in some of our most popular QED cabinet models:
| Cabinet Model | Typical Capacity | Maximum Capacity |
| FW50 | 8 | 15 |
| FW75 | 12 | 20 |
| FW150 | 32 | 50 |
| FW240 | 48 | 75 |
| FW355 | 80 | 125 |
| FW575 | 120 | 240 |
These figures are based on a simple grid layout, where bottles are arranged in neat rows on each shelf. As you can see, we have included two figures for each cabinet: typical capacity and maximum capacity. The maximum capacity represents the maximum number of bottles that can fit using this layout, whilst the typical capacity allows for a 10 mm clearance around each bottle.
In real-world usage, ensuring a small spacing around each bottle helps maintain good airflow and promotes even warming throughout the cabinet. In practice, then, the actual number of bottles each cabinet can hold may vary slightly depending on how you arrange the bottles on the shelves, as well as the types of bottles used.
Choosing the Right Cabinet for Your Space
Ultimately, while bottle count may seem helpful, we recommend focusing on internal dimensions and shelf layout when choosing a cabinet. That way, you’ll get a setup that truly fits your workflow - not just your fluid bottles.
Need some help? We'll calculate it for you! Simply get in touch with us and and let us know which cabinet models you're interested in, then provide the details of the fluid bottles you're looking to store in a warming cabinet (i.e. volume, size, quantity) and upon request we'll happily calculate how many of your bottles could be stored in each cabinet model.