Product Review: Evenflo Comfort Select Performance Dual Auto-Cycling Breast Pump

After having a conversation on twitter with a few other moms about Evenflo breast pumps, I was contacted by a brand manager at Evenflo and given the opportunity to test their new Evenflo Comfort Select Performance Dual Auto-Cycling Breast Pump.

By way of background, I should mention that I have a lot of experience pumping. My son was unable to latch on until he was 7.5 weeks old, so I was exclusively pumping until then. I returned to work when he was 3 months old and continued pumping for him while at work until he was 12 months old. With my daughter, I pumped at work from the time she was 6 months old until she was 18 months old. For comparison purposes, I have extensive experience with the Avent Isis, Medela Harmony and Medela Pump in Style Advanced. I was also previously the moderator of the Pumping and Relactating Message Board on the kellymom.com message boards.

About the Product

The Evenflo Comfort Select Performance Dual Auto-Cycling Breast Pump is the new breast pump just released by Evenflo. According to the company, it is the result of extensive testing and listening to lactation experts and breastfeeding moms.

Some of the key features include:

Increased number of cycles per minute (compared with previous pump) with a gradual vacuum curve for gentler, more effective pumping
Tighter range adjustment to increase production on lower settings.
Dual motors in the dual pump for maximum production on both breasts.
Adjusted AC/DC adapter to deliver consistent power.
Does not contain bishenol-A (BPA)

What I Liked

There are some things that I thought were particularly good about this pump, including:

The bag that the pump comes in is nice and compact. If you have a large purse or a backpack, you could probably fit it in there. There is one “cooler” compartment to keep the milk cold and freezer packs to go with it and then another compartment for the other parts.

The pump was comfortable to use.

The price point – the pump retails on Amazon.com for $46.63 currently, making it very affordable for a double electric pump.

No BPA

You can use the pump on batteries or electrical power, which makes it very portable.

There are a few things that I liked that are not specifically about the pump, but that I think are important and commendable:

Last year, Evenflo became the first baby bottle manufacturer to become compliant with the World Health Organization’s International Code for the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes

There was a Breastfeeding information and support card included with the pump that had the URLs and phone numbers of some excellent resources for breastfeeding and breastfeeding at work. This is a departure from many bottle/formula manufacturers that tend to provide their own 1-800 number for not so great support.

What I Didn’t Like

Unfortunately, there were many things that I didn’t like about this pump:

The pump was very loud. I was blown away by how loud it was as soon as I turned it on. It would have made discreet pumping at work impossible even in a closed office. I couldn’t hear the TV above the sound of the pump.

You can adjust the suction, but you can’t adjust the speed. With high-end double electric pumps, moms can adjust the speed on a dial. With manual pumps, you can adjust the speed manually. With this pump, there was no opportunity to adjust the speed at all. I usually like to have shorter faster cycles at the beginning to get letdown and then switch to deeper longer cycles. With this one, it was unfortunately stuck somewhere in between, which meant it took a long time to get a letdown and performance after the letdown was not as good as it is with pumps that have deeper longer cycles.

The motor for the pump is attached to the bottles/horns and is very heavy. This creates a few problems:
- There are little “feet” for you to place the bottles in and if you do that, they don’t tip over when placed on the counter. However, if you forget to put them in the feet, your pump is going to topple over and possibly spill the milk out all over the place and maybe break the pump too (if it goes crashing off your desk onto a hard floor or something).
- The weight of the pump makes hands free pumping impossible. To me, the real value of a double electric pump is the ability to pump hands-free while doing something else (eating lunch, working at my computer) and that is not possible with this one since you need to hold the horns while pumping or perch yourself at exactly the right position (chair and table at exact right height) to have the horns sit in the little feet while you pump and then not move an inch. Also, the fact that you need to hold the horns while pumping makes it impossible to do breast compressions while pumping unless you are only pumping one side at a time.
There are a lot of small pieces that have to be put together. This is often the case, but with most pumps they stay together once you put them together. With this one, the valve keeps falling out unless you have the whole contraption put together. For me, that meant the valve hit the floor 4 times in the process of putting the pump together. Not ideal if you are trying to keep things sterile.

Recommendation

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this pump. Although the price is right, I think that moms that are only pumping occaisionally would be better off with a quality manual pump, like an Avent Isis (which recently became BPA free) or a Medela Harmony. Moms that are working and pumping should get a quality double electric pump that can be used for hands-free pumping, such as the Medela Pump in Style Advanced, the Ameda Purely Yours or the Lanisoh Double Electric.