Philips Avent Twin Electronic Breast Pump

I highly recommend this product. I pumped at work 2-3x per day for 18 months with 2 children, I am now a stay at home mom and only pump occasionally for my 3rd child. This pump has never failed me, is easy to clean, and I love how you can set your own rhythm and suction strength. Very easy to use. I have owned this product for 5 years this spring, and I have not had to replace any part. This pump was a lifesaver!
Posted on 3/19/12

I have used this through 2 children and LOVE it. I use it approx 12x a week for 8 months each time without difficulty. And the best part?! I dishwash all the parts and they have all held up without a single one breaking. I call that remarkable! It is fast and comfortable. Like any pump, it takes a little bit to figure out the fastest way to set up/tear down, etc. My only negative comment would be that it doesn't have the possibility of use off of a battery. It has to have a plug or car adapter. I've learned to work around this easily though.
Posted on 2/28/12

I have been using this pump for 14 weeks. I love the efficiency and it is very comfortable. It is easy to use, but does have many parts to clean.

Unfortunately after only 9 weeks of daily use it suddenly quit working. The light is green but it does not pump. I called customer service, they were fantastic and sent a replacement out next day. Of course it was Saturday so it took 4 days. Here I am 4 weeks later and have finally re-built my milk supply enough to get through the 5 days at daycare. Tonight I sat down to pump and surprise it's suddenly broke again. Same problem as the first time.

I have taken extra precautions to take care of both pumps, especially the second time around. I always package it carefully in the bag/s provided by Avent. I expected this pump to last 6 mos at a minimum. I love this pump when it works, but I can't rely on this pump for daily use.
Posted on 12/16/11

I couldn't get my son to latch on, so i had to pump everything! this pump made it fast easy and comfortable! I love the pack it comes in, makes transporting easier and convinent! the pump is kinda quite but not to bad! i love this pump and i will recommend it to everyone!
Posted on 11/14/10

This product is so great! It is so easy that it pumps right into the bottles. It comes with everything you would need to be a BF working mom!
Posted on 7/26/10

As a working new mother I am happy to have a pump that is quiet and easy to use at work with minimal cleaning. The whole unit can pretty much be left in the travel case while in use making storing it between feedings a breeze. I love this breast pump!
Posted on 6/25/10

Works just as it's supposed to. I am quite large-breasted and have had no trouble. Not too loud or uncomfortable. Easy to put together. Also, I have the microwave sterilizer which makes taking care of the parts in between uses a breeze. And I just bought some of the Via cups so all my bottles aren't constantly in the freezer. So far, so good!
Posted on 2/4/10

I absolutely love my Avent IQ Isis Duo. I am a working mother and have been pumping 2-3 times per day for the last 2 months. I would definitely recommend it to anyone I know.

Pros:
-Quiet (much quieter than Medela, in fact the milk splashing into the bottles is louder than the motor)
-Gentle
-Easy to use
-Completely closed system, no tubes to clean (I would feel comfortable buying it used)
-Great BPA-free bottle/nipple system (I've continued to use the newborn nipples that came with it for my baby. My baby still loves to breastfeed because the flow is similar. And he even has less spit-up when bottle-fed)
-Carrying case is nice and easy to pack/unpack.

Cons:
-It only has one size funnel, but if you have larger nipples, you can remove the "massage cushion" of the funnel. If you need a larger funnel than that, you're out of luck.

I plan on pumping for a year and hope to use this pump when breastfeeding additional children, so some review I've read about the pump breaking after 6 months worry me. I'll update this review to let you all know how that goes.
Posted on 12/3/09

I love this pump! It's fast and very efficient. Extremely easy to use! It's not very loud at all. I like that it is 3 pumps in one - it allows you to single pump, double pump, or manually pump. You are set for any situation. The fact that it allows me to control the rate and suction level is great. The only thing is that milk tends to collect in the let down massage cushions. This can get a little messy.
Posted on 11/14/09

I bought this for my second baby after having a really bad experience with the Medela electric pump with my first. This pump was awesome. It was extremely quiet, I could use it at work and no one was the wiser. Being able to set the speed and pressure is incredible, you can set it how it feels best and change mid-session if you need to. This gets the most milk out the fastest, too!



I would (and have!) recommend this product to anyone and everyone I know. It's simply amazing. If you have to breastfeed and work, or just if you want Daddy to be able to feed the baby once in a while (a major help!) it's worth the price.



The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was that the car adaptor didn't come in the package. I bought it separate for a few dollars and it was also worth it.
Posted on 11/6/09

Good product. Probably the best on the market. Only issue is that sometimes the nipple seal on the bottles leak slightly. I think this is a known issue with many of these bottles. My wife tells me that the pump works great, doesn't hurt, and you can set the pressure/speed easily. cleaning the unit is a lot easier with the microwave sterilizer (NOT INCLUDED) but you can get it here or at target...best ~$30 you will spend.

Posted on 9/7/09

I AM SO GLAD I PURCHASED THIS PUMP!! Here is why:

It was quiet!!! No roaring motor. I could pump right next to my sleeping babies and not wake them. I borrowed a friends pump that was so load I couldn't even watch TV while pumping.

It was Comfortable and More Natural.
The Avent breast pump has massage cushions. Unlike the other pump I used that just suctioned my nipples, the Avent pump was massaging the whole areola, helping with let down. It as close to natural as a pump can get.
It was also easy to hold and not heavy.

It's named IQ because it has an electronic memory. You set the rhythm and then the pump keeps it. This allows you to begin at a quick/short rhythm to stimulate letdown and then switch to slow/long rhythm that expresses more milk. You can stop and reset the rhythm anytime, allowing you to re-stimulate letdown.
The buttons are right at your fingertips, so you can start and stop the pump without breaking your suction.

Great Value- comes with a lot of extras!
I loved the manual pump that comes with it. I thought it was just as efficient. I actually have recommended the Manual pump to friends looking to buy an inexpensive pump (mothers of single babies). Philips Avent ISIS Manual Breast Pump - White

Pumping is not the `funnest' thing to do. In fact, it can be quite boring, and takes up valuable time, but the Philips Avent ISIS iQ Duo Twin Electric Breast Pump helped make pumping a bearable experience.
Posted on 9/7/09

I had a Medela Pump In Style Original that I used for about 3 months before it suddenly seemed to lose suction/power and I could no longer pump as easily as I once had. I was already pleased with all the Avent products I had - bottles, pacifiers, the microwave steam sterilizer, and the bottle warmer - the Avent breast pump seemed to get good reviews and I liked the idea of pumping straight into the feeding bottles, so I took the plunge. It *is* a lot of money, but so is any other dual electronic breast pump. I only wish now that I had bought this one first so I wouldn't have wasted money on the Medela.

I've been using this pump for two weeks now and I just hope it's lifespan is longer than the Medela because I absolutely LOVE this pump!

Compared to the Medela PiS the Avent Isis Duo is:

Quiet
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The Medela was like a piston engine. One of the ways I new it was losing power was because it was no longer as noisy as it used to be. The Avent pump is MUCH quieter. If I wanted to, I could probably pump right in my cubicle and no one would be the wiser.

Comfortable
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Again, the Medela was like a piston engine. I felt like a cow hooked up to an automatic milking machine and it certainly didn't feel like my baby nursing. All the suction was concentrated on the nipples, not the areolae and, while not necessarily painful, it wasn't comfortable. It was supposed to have the two-phase suction that simulated the early, light sucking that stimulates letdown, followed by the deep, nutritive sucking, but I can't say I ever noticed a change in the suction or the rate. Sure, you could adjust the speed and intensity of the suction, but only to five specific presets.
The Avent, however, has the cushions that "massage" the areolae and I think this really does help with letdown and subsequent flow. If you know anything about proper latch-on, you know that baby is supposed to get the areola in his mouth, not just the nipple, so the Avent is much closer to nature in that respect. Plus, the intensity and duration of the suction are completely customizable and can be reset at any time. So you can really mimic the quick, soft letdown sucking before moving on to the long, deep sucking. I've gone entire pumping sessions without really feeling the suction, which is just like nursing - it doesn't generally feel like the baby is trying to tear your nipple off, but that's what the Medela felt like!

Efficient
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So Medela only had the preset speed and suction options and no matter what setting you chose, the suck part of the pump was the same duration as the release. But because you can completely control the rate of the Avent pump, you can do a very long pull (the instructions even say to depress the handle that creates the vacuum and hold it there for 3 seconds). The first time I tried this, I was amazed! The milk poured forth, a steady stream for the whole 3 seconds! It was really satisfying to hear the plop of all that milk fall into the bottle over and over again. I can finish a pumping session in much less time than I ever could with Medela. Also, because you can reset the rate at any time, you can restimulate letdown or change to a longer pause between pulls as you get to the end. With the Medela, I used to be able to still hand-express milk after the pump had long since stopped producing any, but I seem to get every last drop with the Avent pump!

Other things to keep in mind:

- The Avent funnels have more parts to disassemble, clean, and reassemble than the Medela funnels. Factoring in cleaning and assembly, while the actual pumping takes less time, my pumping sessions are overall the same amount of time from start to finish as they were with the Medela PiS.

- The Avent funnels are easier to clean by hand. When I'm at work, I use sterilizing wipes between sessions and I can actually reach all the places milk touches with my fingers. I couldn't do this with the Medela funnels.

- The Avent pump isn't integrated into the bag and it's cord is longer. This makes it a little more portable.

- The Avent tubes are stiffer than the Medela tubes. Be sure to use the bottle stands or those tubes will pull them right over.

- Avent includes funnel covers and screw bases that seal up the funnels between uses to keep them sterile. BIG plus over Medela in my book.

- The trigger and button for adjusting suction and speed are right at your fingertips instead of on the pump housing. With Medela, when you were double pumping you had to start the pump with one hand and then try to position that funnel over the breast while it was sucking, and you also had to try to break suction while the pump was still going and both hands were full - not easy!

- The included Avent manual pump is FAR superior to the manual pump included with Medela PiS.

All in all, if you're considering Medela, do yourself a favor and get this Avent pump instead! Your breasts will thank you!
Posted on 9/7/09