Let’s just rip the band-aid off on this one. "Thank you, next!" is all I have to say about this pump. By thank you I actually mean, no thank you, give me my money back. I ordered this pump to appease the bemybreastfriend community, as it was in high demand for review. I knew this was going to be a waste of my money but Annabella has their checkbooks doing all the talking in the US market right now. It’s likely because they bombed so badly in their home of Israel that they need someone else to buy up their stock, cue the Western pumping culture. So let’s take a moment and chat why this pump is not the right choice for you.
Where do I start? I think with the obvious, what in the world is that “tongue” thing. So the people over at Annabella thought we need a mechanical tongue to help move milk out of our breasts. To make this happen the flange assembly must be large enough to house this odd rotating mechanical attachment. This thing has 9 suction levels and 9 tongue speeds, allowing the pressure and speed setting to “push” further into your breast tissue, paired with suction to adjust to draw milk out. With this combo of madness they must have thought they knocked it out of the park. WRONG. This mechanical attachment does nothing more than overstimulate my senses and stretch out my nice pumping bras. This mechanism is as awkward as it looks. You'll notice a knob on the side of the oversized flange, this is supposed to help dial in your flange size with the turn of the knob. The flanges come in ranges and the knob is supposed to dial that in. If you want to define the word gimmick, well Annabella hit the nail on the head here. Breast pumps will never replace a baby feeding at the breast, they just won’t. I’m sorry, I said it. Pumps are mechanical and babies, well they’re humans. Shocking, I know. Do I think pumps can adequately remove milk from our breasts? Hell yes I do. I have over 50 months of pumping under my bra strap, I will whistle this all day long. However, when we compare the feeling of baby at boob when compared to electric breast pump, I’m sorry they’re just not the same. I think we need to give up this reach of, “more like baby” breast pump dreaming. Just provide the best breast pump you can without the unnecessary add-ons.
Let’s drive it home, this motor is only spec’d for 250 hours- per their manual.
Who likes math here? Let’s just say you are a nursing mom, let’s not even dabble with an actual pump schedule because then you might get real mad. Okay, so you’re a nursing mom looking to use this pump, let’s say two times a day, each for 30 minutes.
2 x 30 = 60 min a day (1 hour)
30 days in a month
30 x 1 hour = 30 hours
250/30 = 8.333
Just over 8 months of use of 2x a day
Okay I’m feeling sassy, let’s say you’re pumping 5x a day at 30 minutes a session, this motor will last you:
5*30 = 150 minutes a day
150/60 = 2.5 hours
250/2.5 = 100 days
100/30 = 3.333
Just over 3 months of use at 5x a day- assuming you're using the double option.
No matter which way you spin it, this pump has a very short motor life expectancy and the assembly as a whole is nothing more than a gimmick and a money grab.
Want me to say something nice about this pump? Okay, I will. The suction is not that bad, I can certainly express milk with this pump but at a turtle's pace. It’s very slow to go, but it’s not a completely lost cause. This is not in any way, shape, or form, encouragement to try this pump. But if you’ve already ordered it, #1 try to return it immediately, #2 if you’ve opened it, I’m sorry. Just know there are worse pumps out there, but this one is pretty bad. So definitely look at replacing it with something more reliable and realistic.
I used this pump for 16 minutes and expressed the same amount of milk I was able to express in half of the time with the Baby Buddha. So I'll say it again, the suction isn't as ineffective as some pumps I have used but it is super lack luster and considering I have the single pump, well I'll never not be found pumping if this was my primary.
The assembly of this contraption is just silly. Gosh, I really can’t stop. It all ties together with overpriced items. First things first, everything about this pump is proprietary, so don't go looking for a hack to save a few bucks. The bottle neck is more narrow than your run of the mill narrow neck bottle and I have found it hard to get my favorite bottle brush down into the bottle for adequate cleaning. Time to replace your flange? That will cost you $49.90. These flanges come in two options: 25-28mm range and 18-24mm range. I’ll give them an A for creativity there, but $50 to replace ONE flange?!? Thank you, next. Wait wait, you know you’re going to need to change your duckbill and vacuum seal (backflow protector), that will cost you $25.00 even.. don’t worry this only gets you ONE OF EACH!!
How do we make this end?! Where’s the return option. Okay, lets wrap this up before I really fly off the handle. The single pump option will cost you $249 or you can buy the double flange set for a whooping $379. I took it upon myself and checked the manuals for both options and it appears that the motor is the same for both options, they just added a mechanical TEE option - why mechanical? Because this tubing is not run of the mill. It looks like a an umbilical cord, the main tubing for suction and the power cord wrapped around the main tube to power the mechanical tongue mechanism.
Overall, this is not the worst pump that I’ve ever reviewed, but the Annabella is absolutely the second worst pump I have ever reviewed. Between the gimmick, misleading advertising which is luring us vulnerable moms in, and then throw in the price of the replacement parts is all just criminal and I will have nothing to do with the sale of this pump.
