5 Best BDSM Pinwheels In 2024, Reviewed by a BDSM Educator

Getting “to the point” of it (pun intended), of all the pinwheels we examined, we unanimously agreed the highest scoring, most stimulating, pleasurable, and the overall best was Bondage Boutique’s Wartenberg Pinwheel. Made from durable, easy-to-clean, and stylish stainless steel and designed by some of the kink community’s most respected artisans, we agreed no other product rivaled its versatility and safety.

Why You Should Trust Us

Hi, I am M.Christian. Beginning with my initial, somewhat tentative explorations into the world of kink back in the late eighty’s, I’ve since enthusiastically spent close to thirty-five years exploring every nook and cranny, trying to learn and then teach everything I can about BDSM and the amazing people who enjoy it.

Experience, which I’ve also put to good use as an erotica writer, sex tech journalist, and sex educator. But I’m the first to admit I can’t know everything, which is why I’ve assembled my carefully selected team of sex toy reviewers, BDSM experts, and sexologists—without whom I couldn’t have assembled this guide to this year’s best Wartenberg pinwheels for sensation play scenes.

How We Picked The Products

Even with my own quite considerable experience in BDSM and pain playthings and relying on a carefully selected team of BDSM enthusiasts and toy testers, choosing our review samples, shall I say, more than a little challenging. At least it would be if I hadn’t previously developed a helpful five-point selection process. Which, as you’ll soon find out, can also do wonders when it comes time for you to buy your own Wartenberg wheels. After having a thorough discussion with my trusted testers and colleagues, I defined test criteria that we could measure on a scale from 0 to 100. These factors included the following:

• Manufacture: First and foremost, we only considered pinwheels made by BDSM community-approved companies such as The Stockroom, Extreme Restraints, and Bondage Boutique due to their dedication to creating the finest, most durable, comfortable, and safe BDSM toys.
• Material: Equally important is what each of these five review samples was made out of because each has its positives, like if it makes cleaning easier or can be disposed of at the end of a sensory scene.  Also, discuss skin sensitivity, how much pressure you enjoy, and if you want a pinwheel sex toy made to roll or graze your or your partner’s skin.
• Design: Extreme Restraints, Bondage Boutique, and The Stockroom are also famous for not just constructing but conceiving many of the kink community’s most popular gear, particularly sex toys like Wartenberg wheels.
• Safety: More than anything, my testers and I picked the highest-scoring Wartenberg wheels regarding their safety. It’s one more reason we’ve ranked Bondage Boutique, The Stockroom, and Extreme Restraints so high: every BDSM toy must be safe first and enjoyable second.
• Versatility: My criteria are whether a Wartenberg wheel is good for more than one type of sensory play scene. Not that we penalized Wartenberg wheels, which were made for a single sort of kink-related activity; we just gave a few extra marks for multipurpose ones or single-wheel ones with evenly spaced pins or extra sharp spikes.

I began by picking the twelve best-selling wheels. During testing, we rated each review sample based on the criteria listed above starting from 0% (Worst) to 100% (Best). Each score was calculated using different weighted metrics depending on what we deemed most important. The majority of the total rating comes from Manufacture (30%) and Material (30%). After that comes Safety (15%), Design (15%), and Versatility (10%). Utilizing my five-point system, I knocked them down to eight, which I next sent to my team of sex toy testers.

Those five great Wartenberg wheels were passed to some sexologists, BDSM experts, and sex educators. Using their opinions, I then looked at how well or not these last wheels were reviewed online. The result is this guide to this year’s highest-rated BDSM sensory pinwheels.

Everything We Tested

In this chapter, you can see a comparison table with all the products we tested. As you can see, each row has the test criteria our team used during the testing. To make our testing process even more transparent, we also included the raw test data so you can see how the products performed with each test criteria.

Name	Bondage Boutique's	Stockroom's	5-Wheel
Category	Best Overall	Budget	Experienced
Average Rating	96%	94%	93%
Design	96%	89%	92%
Safety	95%	93%	90%
Manufature	97%	93%	95%
Versatility	94%	93%	90%
Price & Value	93%	96%	92%
Price Tag	$16.99	$5.00	$30.00
Material	Steel	Plastic	Steel
Color	Silver	White	Silver

1. Bondage Boutique’s Wartenberg Pinwheel: Test Winner!

Why I love Bondage Boutique’s Stainless Steel Wartenberg Pinwheel:

Simple, though they may appeal, it takes a huge amount of hands-on experience using these types of toys, combined with years spent perfecting how to make and design them to create an elegant, pleasurable, versatile, and especially safe Wartenberg pinwheel.

All this and more is on full display in my team, and I’s number one and highest-ranking bondage pinwheel from kink experts over at Bondage Boutique.

It’s got everything good, or more accurately to say, inarguably great Wartenberg wheel should and more. From its super high grade, chrome-finished steel to its smooth-turning and twenty-two perfectly shaped spokes—not to mention its ergonomically shaped handle—it beat every other manufacturer’s pinwheel hands down.

Minor Issues I Found During Testing:

Let’s face it: some people think Wartenberg pinwheels are the best thing since our earliest ancestors used a tree branch to spank their mate. Others, though, can take or leave them, while a few kinksters would rather do anything else than use a Wartenberg wheel or have one used on them.

If you love or merely like Wartenberg pinwheels, Bondage Boutique’s is what you can–and should get. But if pinwheels aren’t for you, then there are plenty of other great BDSM toys out there for you to try and enjoy.

Why Bondage Boutique’s Stainless Steel is the best Wartenberg Pinwheel:

My testers and I had nothing but good things to say about this pinnacle of sensation play toy-making brilliance. Each of us said the same thing: no other Wartenberg pinwheel comes close to Bondage Boutique’s Stainless Steel Wartenberg Pinwheel’s flawless design, high-quality materials, or expert craftsmanship.

Impressive as all that is, it barely scratches the surface of why we enthusiastically ranked it number one on our list:

• Manufacture: Bondage Boutique’s toy-making expertise is on full display with this, the finest Wartenberg wheel they or any other competing BDSM-related company has created or perhaps will ever make. All of us impressively whistled when spinning its twenty-two sharp spokes, totally blown away by how smoothly they rotated: a true test of any gear, which Bondage Boutique’s wheel passed with flying colors.
• Material: When making sensory toys, nothing beats the hypnotically gleaming, lusciously heavy, and arousing warmth of metal. Whether you’re into medical or intensive role-play scenes or a million other kink-related activities, Bondage Boutique’s Stainless Steel Wartenberg Pinwheel is what you’ve been waiting for.
• Design: Proving yet again it requires a lot of skill, experience, and training to make a BDSM sensory toy that’s simply effective and effortlessly enjoyable; as several of my testers put it, this Wartenberg Pinwheel is so thoroughly well-designed this wheel feels like an extension of your hand or body—high praise indeed from kink enthusiasts who’ve practically used every BDSM plaything imaginable.
• Safety: Pinwheels are one of those BDSM gear that needs to be treated with respect, as all it takes to turn a sensory scene into a trip to the emergency room is forgetting just how sharp its spokes can be. Fortunately, Bondage Boutique realized this and made their Wartenberg wheel to be as safe as possible.
• Versatility: Name a body part—any body part—and you can sensually stimulate it with Bondage Boutique’s Wartenberg Pinwheel. Breasts, nipples, thighs, feet, hands, arms, even your or someone else’s nose, if you’re into that sort of thing, make this pinwheel an awesomely versatile plaything great for millions of different BDSM activities. As one of my testers said, it’s easier to say what you can’t use this Wartenberg pinwheel for rather than trying to list everything this product is fantastic for.

Features:

• Material: Steel
• Measurements: It’s A 7.5 Inch Long Wheel.
• Colors: Silver

Pros:

• It’s a great pinwheel for a huge variety of BDSM scenes and activities.
• It costs just $16.99.
• Steel sex toys like this pinwheel are easy to clean.

Cons:

• Its extra-sharp spokes may not appeal to novices.

View On Lovehoney

2. The Stockroom’s Disposable Plastic: Budget & Beginner Pick!

Why I Love The Stockroom’s Disposable Plastic Pinwheel:

If you’re new to the delights of sensation play scenes or are just looking to save a few bucks, The Stockroom, those masters of all that is kinky, has the most affordable and beginner-friendly Wartenberg pinwheel ever.

You heard me right because here’s a tough yet delicate, intense but not too-intense Wartenberg wheel that retails for the shockingly low cost of just $5.

However you want to slice it, that’s an amazingly low price for such a well-made and surprisingly arousing sensory play toy. My testers and I agreed this high-scoring Wartenberg wheel is ideal for novices due to its short, sharp points. While it’s still necessary not to harm whoever this Wartenberg pinwheel is used on, it’s far safer than others with much longer spokes.

Minor Issues I Found During Testing:

Not so much a problem, but a couple of my testers felt The Stockroom’s Disposable Plastic Pinwheel sex toy didn’t feel as “pointed”—as in not quite as intense—as some of the other ones they tried. I agree with them, but I also want to mention how stimulating a sensation toy like a wheel has less to do with what it is and more about how skillfully a toy like this fun Wartenberg wheel is employed during sensation play scenes.

Nonetheless, if you want that “sting” feeling you might as well go with impact play toys like spanking paddles or canes. You’ll get the right amount of pain and pleasure combination to fulfill your craving using these toys instead.

Why The Stockroom’s Disposable Plastic Is Our Budget Pick:

After sampling what must have been fifty different Wartenberg pinwheels, my testers and I had no choice but to award The Stockroom’s plastic disposable pinwheel our prize for not only being the most affordable and the highest-scoring beginner’s Wartenberg wheel but also because it outdid most, if not all of its competitors for many other, equally important reasons:

• Material: Stainless steel is a great choice when making a Wartenberg pinwheel, but only The Stockroom could create one as pleasurably intense but for a fraction of the cost out of body-safe plastic. Not only that but its low price of just $5 means that rather than wasting time trying to clean it, you can chuck it in the trash and move on to better, more enjoyable activities.
• Safety: Though steel can be sterilized, reducing the possibility of spreading or contracting various nasty diseases, what’s even safer is—as I just mentioned—not to use a Wartenberg medical device for more than one person. After all, nothing prevents the possibility of contamination more than using a disposable toy like this awesome Wartenberg wheel from The Stockroom.

Features:

• Material: Disposanble, Body Safe Plastic
• Measurements: Its Spokes Are Positioned A Quarter Inch Apart.
• Colors: White

Pros:

• Great wheel for sensory play novices, BDSM experts, or those looking to save money.
• It’s an extremely safe wheel that can be thrown away after being used.
• It’s a comfortable wheel to hold and ideal for slow, steady BDSM activities.

Cons:

• It may not be appealing to people looking for more extreme sensations.

View On Stockroom

3. The Stockroom’s 5-Wheel Pinwheel: For Experienced Kinksters

Why I Love The Stockroom’s 5-Wheel Pinwheel:

If you’re craving not one but five exceptionally sharp spokes from a pinwheel, then The Stockroom’s got you covered with this wilder-than-wild, steel sensory play toy.

Because one sometimes doesn’t cut it for edge-play scenes, this Wartenberg wheel sports five, guaranteeing it’ll stimulate everything you like all at once. Run this pinwheel over your partner or yourself, and they’ll feel what they’ve never felt before.

Minor Issues I Found During Testing:

Though my testers and I gave this five-spoke Wartenberg wheel our highest marks for giving more than every other sensory toy we reviewed, its enhanced, super-stimulating, and finely-honed points may be too much for some people to handle. And there’s no shame in that, you can always opt for other BDSM toys for now like nipple suckers and nipple clamps. You can check our full reviews for them by clicking their respective links.

Why The Stockroom’s 5-Wheel Pinwheel is best for advanced users:

The Stockroom’s at it again, using their kink community-recognized toy-making expertise to give us a truly awe-inspiring, intense sensory wheel that’s sure to tickle every die-hard kinkster’s fancy.

My testers and I raved about how The Stockroom’s 5-Wheel Pinwheel racked up point after point for delivering what no other competing BDSM company could: a Wartenberg wheel that took the already-pleasurable thrills of a single-pointed wheel and upped the sensation play ante five-fold.

But that’s not the only reason why we gave The Stockroom’s 5-Wheel Pinwheel such a high score—and why this wheel more than earns its position on our top list:

• Design: Making a five-wheel Wartenberg wheel isn’t just taking a regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill separate wheel model and sticking four more wheels to it. But only The Stockroom could knock its competitors out of the ballpark with a Wartenberg pinwheel sex toy that does precisely that but also with style, comfort, and especially safety in mind. It’s a great addition to your BDSM gear bag.  Roll this wheel along someone’s body and they’ll squeal with delight.

Features:

• Material: Steel
• Measurements: It’s 5.5″ In Length, And The Pinwheels Are 4″ In Circumference.
• Colors: Silver

Pros:

• It’s the most intense and arousing Wartenberg wheel we’ve ever had the pleasure to use.
• It’s a wheel that can be used on various body parts and for a wide range of BDSM activities.

Cons:

• Its five wheels require careful cleaning to be safe.
• It may be too much or too intense for medical kink play beginners.

View On Stockroom

Other Good Alternatives

The Stockroom’s ElectraStim Infinity for juicing things up a bit. Merely plug this brilliantly made and awesomely fun Wartenberg wheel in and watch the sparks fly as its electrically conductive points do their shocking and insanely stimulating thing. Electro-sex toys may not appeal to everyone, but if electrical play makes you smile, moan, scream, or other exuberant exclamations, charge on to The Stockroom and pick up their ElectraStim Infinity Pinwheel.

Extreme Restraints’ Spikes Double Finger Pinwheel because while BDSM is sometimes about extreme sensations, it’s not about hurting yourself or those you play with. Enter Extreme Restraints and their Spikes Double Finger Pinwheel, a unique and impressive well-designed toy created to maximize pleasure and minimize discomfort. Take our word for it; if you have mobility concerns like joint pain or arthritis, then this Wartenberg wheel is the answer to your prayers.

What Is A BDSM Pinwheel?

A BDSM Wartenberg wheel, named after Robert Wartenberg, is a medical device with a handle and a rotating, pin-tipped spoked single wheel commonly used to assess neurological sensory function in patients or for neurological testing. In the BDSM community, pinwheels are frequently part of medical or sensory play scenes. Pinwheels are rare because the ones used to produce intense sensations aren’t made by the BDSM scene but bought by medical device manufacturers like Doc Johnson or others. Wheels can be made from many different materials, like steel or plastic [2].

Note: The product above, which is the Kinklab’s Wartenberg Pinwheel,  isn’t in this particular review but it’s one of the best medical fetish toys we tested. Kinklab’s expertise in creating medical fetish toys truly shines in their Wartenberg Pinwheel. Some of my testers described this toy as a precision instrument, while others saw it as a form of sexually-oriented art.

Wheels aren’t recommended for impact play as it’s too easy for their spines to puncture a person’s skin or their various body parts. If you like impact play, you can still use wheels before or after to give an extra pleasurable experience by increasing your partner’s sensitivity.

Types Of Pinwheels

There are several different types of pinwheels, though the most prevalent ones are the following:

Stainless Steel Pinwheels: Often repurposed medical devices, these pinwheels are made from high-grade, chrome-plated steel, making them extremely durable and, when properly sterilized, can safely be used by more than one person. If you’re into temperature play, these are a better choice than plastic wheels. Some wheels have single or three rows of spikes which are ideal for unique sensation play scenes.

Disposable/Plastic Pinwheels: A favorite among kinksters who want an affordable and enjoyable sensory toy they can use without cleaning, they are designed to be tossed in the trash after a scene or kink-related activity.

How To Use A BDSM Pinwheel

Because pinwheels frequently have extremely sharp pins, you should never apply too much pressure when rolling them along someone’s body. Failure to do so can result in possibly serious injury, sometimes requiring a trip to the emergency room. Laying a single finger along the handle is a good technique, as it provides greater control when rolling a wheel across your sub’s body. To create different sensations, try using a bit more pressure but think less pain and more stimulating a person’s sensitive parts. The single-finger method is also good with similar toys or for solo play scenes [2].

As I said, wheels aren’t good for impact play. But if you roll it along someone’s skin, a sexual pinwheel can create a wide range of sensation experiences. Just be sure not to use too much pressure, especially after a flogging or caning scene, as your partner’s skin may be too sensitive or delicate. Even when used lightly, pinwheels can cause bleeding. The pressure applied often determines how much will flow. That’s why I recommend paying close attention to how much pressure is being used, as even a light tickle is enough to puncture your partner’s skin.

Note: This may take some time to get used to, but once you feel accustomed to it, you can enhance the sensation by adding sensory deprivation play using a BDSM hood.

If you’re using a classic wheel on your own body, you still should apply little rather than more pressure to be safe. Due to this, you have to carefully negotiate your scenes beforehand with a special focus on whether you or those you are playing with have any infectious diseases such as HIV or hepatitis. Be extra careful when using a pinwheel on the inner thighs or with people who have sensitive skin.

Always gently roll the pinwheel along your partner’s body and do not use too much pressure. If you’re into drawing blood, take care to have emergency supplies at hand in case of an emergency. At the end of a pinwheel scene, you should either throw the pinwheel sex toy you used away or, if it’s made of stainless steel, sterilize it with boiling water [3].

How To Clean A BDSM Pinwheel?

Unlike many BDSM toys, stainless steel pinwheels can be placed in very warm water, eliminating most infectious diseases. However, I still suggest consulting with the company or site you purchased yours from to see what they recommend. For plastic, non-disposable pinwheels, warm water, sex toy cleaner, or mild soap can be effective.

Even so, I still think tossing them out is better than trying to clean plastic pinwheels because they tend not to be expensive, and it’s a surefire way to ensure they won’t accidentally draw blood or spread any illnesses. Read our guide on how to clean sex toys for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How To Store BDSM Pinwheels?

According to many BDSM enthusiasts, the most effective method to protect a plastic or stainless steel Wartenberg wheel from dirt, dust, or other contaminants is to place it in a plastic bag or container without exposure to direct sunlight or excessive moisture.

Under a bed or in a dark closet is a fine place to start; completely dry your pinwheel after washing so it won’t rest or pick up any nasty germs. More about storing your BDSM toys in this guide.

How To Make A BDSM Pinwheel?

Under no circumstances should you or anyone else attempt to make your own DIY BDSM pinwheel. Value your safety by avoiding homemade BDSM toys. The ones sold by community-approved companies such as The Stockroom, Bondage Boutique, or Extreme Restraints are designed and made by experts who understand everything about these types of sensory toys—and how to make sure they are safe and fun.

Are BDSM Pinwheels Safe?

When used by people who are extremely aware, not to mention thoroughly educated, in everything to do with a BDSM wheel, they can be safe to use. However, pinwheels can be potentially dangerous in the hands of those who don’t know how risky they can be. That’s why you and those you play with should do your best to learn everything you can about pinwheels and how to use them safely [2].

Primary Sources

1. Fetish.com How to Use a Wartenberg Wheel and BDSM Gloves

2. Keepingitkinky. Wartenberg Pinwheel

3. Rebeccaxnewman. Sex Shrink: On Pinwheels (May 2014)

M.Christian

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M.Christian

M.Christian loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology. They regularly appear on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Killing Kittens, Sex for Every Body, Future of Sex, and dozens more on topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, as well as reviewing numerous sextech products and adult entertainment sites.
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