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See why.Warming Trays
Warming trays can be a godsend for serving and entertaining—but do they really keep food at a safe temperature?
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See Everything We Tested
What You Need To Know
Warming trays are portable flat surfaces that are designed to keep food piping hot as it sits out. They plug into the wall like electric griddles and, after preheating for about 10 minutes, can be topped with fully cooked food, either directly on the tray or in a serving vessel.
We loaded four models (from about $40 to about $125) with a saucepan of tomato soup, a ceramic dish of spinach-artichoke dip, a glass casserole of macaroni and cheese, and small quiches set directly on the trays, tracking their temperature over 4 hours to see if they remained above the food safety threshold of 140 degrees. We also noted how easy they were to handle and clean.
One model was a complete failure, allowing foods to cool to a lukewarm 128 degrees after just 1 hour. We became wary of another model when its metal sheet popped in and out during use and its heating element burned light marks onto the steel surface after just a few uses. But we found two models worth considering. One featured a heat setting that kept food hot in all but the deepest pots—and its low price earned it our Best Buy recommendation—while the other offered a range of heat settings, the highest of which did a better job in our final head-to-head test: keeping a Dutch oven full of chili piping hot for 4 hours.
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Safety: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Warming: 3 stars out of 3.
Thanks to its range of temperature settings, this tray kept food (including a deep pot of chili) not just at a safe serving temperature but piping hot for 4 hours. Its cool handles make it easy to maneuver, it easily wiped clean, and it cooled after use in 20 minutes for quick cleanup.
- Safety: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Warming: 2.5 stars out of 3.
With only one heat setting, this tray doesn’t get as hot as our winner, but it kept food appealingly warm and above the 140-degree safety cutoff for 4 hours—only deep pots of soup lost heat during the testing period—and does so at a fraction of the cost. It’s also user-friendly, with handles that are cool to the touch, a surface that readily wipes clean, and a light, maneuverable frame. Plus, once unplugged the tray cooled completely in just 15 minutes.
Recommended with reservations
- Safety: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Warming: 3 stars out of 3.
This tray kept foods plenty warm; cleaned up easily; has roomy, safe handles; and cooled in less than 30 minutes. And yet, there were some concerning drawbacks—namely that the metal sheet gently popped in and out during use, making a disconcerting thumping noise. Plus, after just a few uses, the heating element burned faint marks onto the surface that didn’t rub out during cleaning. None of these flaws disrupted the food or threatened user safety, but they did make us question the tray’s long-term durability.
Not Recommended
- Safety: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Warming: 1 stars out of 3.
This tray is heavy, with handles positioned too close to the hot metal plate. Plugged in, it kept food warm for an hour; longer, and the dip and soup stayed only lukewarm. The keep-warm feature backfired in two ways: First, the tray is designed to stay warm for an hour unplugged, but food started to lose heat after a half-hour; second, that the tray retained heat at all after unplugging meant that it was too hot to handle for an hour, delaying cleanup.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
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