Customer Reviews

Playtex Embrace Breast Pump System

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I own this pump and the Medela Pump in Style Advanced. There are pros and cons to each. I will share my thoughts on both so that hopefully you can make an educated decision about which one to choose.

The Playtex pump breast shields are made from soft silicone, so they imitate the nursing baby more closely. The Playtex silicone shield gently presses the areola while drawing the nipple out and expressing milk. The Medela pump comes with hard plastic shields, so they do not press the areola while drawing the nipple out. As you may know, the gentle pressure on the areola is what stimulates both milk production and letdown. This feature of the Playtex pump was important to me because I pump exclusively (5-6 times a day) and it is vital that I keep my supply up. Using the Playtex pump seemed to increase/stabilize my supply.

Also, because both pumps come with clear breast shields, I am able to see exactly how many nipple openings are releasing milk. Hands down, more openings are engaged with the Playtex pump.

Another advantage of the Playtex over the Medela is that it comes with a car charger and several organization bags, as well as an ice pack for about the same price as the Medela or cheaper. One of the cons of the Playtex pump is that the breast shields themselves are larger than the Medela, and have more parts to assemble (4 parts make up one breast shield). I found that if I have not assembled the shields just right, it interferes with the suction. The Medela shields are smaller (easier to hold, especially for those with small hands), and only require two parts to assemble them. This also helps out when traveling.

Another con of the Playtex pump is that I was unable to find many accessories for it in stores for immediate purchase. I had to go to [...] to order extra breast shields and other items, therefore I had to wait for them to ship. Lastly, I have had to contact both manufacturers for help with my products. When I contacted Playtex, they overnighted me the equipment I needed (I called at about 2pm one afternoon and got it at 8am the next morning...WOW!!! Great service). When I contacted Medela, they sent my items via Priority Mail, so it took 3 days for me to receive what I needed.

Both pumps are excellent, but if I had to choose, I would choose the Playtex over the Medela simply because the soft silicone breast shield allows me to maintain my supply more easily. Sorry for being so long-winded, but I just wanted to share my experience with you about these products to help you make a better decision. Happy nursing, and remember: Breast is Best!!!

I bought this pump at the last minute at Babies R Us. There were no more Medelas on the shelf and I saw this one. It was brand new and no one could tell me anything about it. I took a chance and have not regretted it. I have been back to work full time for a month now and work a different shift every week. The pump and accessories are so convenient and stylish, the pump itself is gentle and hospital grade. It is east to clean and all parts can go right into the dishwasher. Disposable Playtex Drop In liners are great and the One Step storage kits are a godsend. I can not say enough about all of the Playtex nursing products. This company truly understands women!

I bought this pump because it looked more comfortable than the others and it is! The cups don't pull on my nipples, which is always a good thing!

The kit comes with everything that I need. It is nice and quiet too. I was skeptical, at first, because it was new and untested. Overall I am very pleased with it and would recommend it to my friends.

After reading the other reviews, I have a couple things to add.

I want to clearly state I do not have a lot of experience with other pumps. Here's my experience... My daughter was having a lot of difficulty latching on. (For any other mom's having that problem-- get help, hire a lactation consultant. It was BY FAR the best $100 I've spent in regards to my baby.) I bought a Medela manual pump because I wasn't sure how long breastfeeding was going to last and I didn't want to spend a lot. I used it a few days, then brought the lactation consultant in and rented a hospital grade Medala from her for a week or so. After the first visit from the L.C., my daughter figured it out, and for two months we had little need for a pump. The manual pump worked just fine for as often as I used it. About a month ago, I bought the Playtex to return to work because of the positive reviews here and because it looked nicer than the Medela.

You'd think after using their manual and hospital-grade pumps I would have stuck with the Medela, but it wasn't the most comfortable experience and Playtex advertised how comfortable the Embrace is (and the reviews here echoed that). I agree. This pump is comfortable and fast. But that comfort comes at a price-- the cups also have a lot of ridges and folds in the plastic. If you are experiencing supply issues, this pump loses a little milk in the transfer (maybe a ½ teaspoon). It gets stuck on the ridges, and the hard plastic storage bottles that come with it are difficult to get all the milk out of. (Plus they are a pain to clean and dry because water gets in the ridges too.) If you pump directly into one of their drop-in liners, you won't lose as much. Also, sometimes I need a little more pressure to get the milk out, and the "massaging" cups just don't do that for me. I have to hand express some to get things moving again. None of this is my real complaint though.

The organization part of the pump is great. I love the multiple bags, etc. That part of the pump is very well thought out... no complaints. (UPDATE: while all the seperation is nice in theory, now that I'm working and have open and close the bags a few times a day it is a pain in the b*tt!)

The major complaint is the motor is REALLY loud. Again, I admit I don't have a lot of experience with other pumps, and I have never used a comparable grade Medala to compare it to. They create this very discrete carrying bag and then put a loud motor in it.

So, when I first got the pump I called Playtex to complain. I hadn't even used it yet, just plugged it in. The woman on the phone said that yes, in fact the machine may make "chirping" noises (it does) and that it is loud. I come back with, but my husband was two rooms away and could hear it. The woman got her manager and they quickly decided to send me a new pump. It came the next day with a Fed Ex return label for the original pump. That part could not have been more convenient. But guess what, the new pump was as loud, if not louder, than the first. I kept the first one and returned the replacement.

We'll see how the pump holds up to daily use as I am returning to work in a few days. If we have any problems I will edit my review and let you know.

Overall, the pump woks as advertised and the storage and organization were well thought out and implemented (thus 4 stars) but it is loud.

Best of luck breastfeeding your little one!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ UPDATE ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Playtex called me to tell me they had made "modifications" to the pump to quiet the motor-- would I be willing to try it? Of course!

The new design/improvements are incredible! The pump is so quiet now, I have no fear of being heard by co-workers and am quite comfortable pumping at work.

As for Playtex... they already had my money, and certainly didn't need to contact me about improvements. But they did. I'm so impressed with their service, and highly recommend the improved/quieter motor.

If I could figure out how to change my 4 Star rating to a 5 Star I would!

I am a working mother of 3. The pump I used with my other children was big, bulky, loud, difficult to clean all the parts, and you could tell what it was when I brought it in to work.

This pump is much smaller, quite, the cups come apart for easy cleaning (great design, both functional and comfortable), and comes in a great carring case with everything you need (even a car power adapter). Playtex took their time to release this, but it shows in the design, comfort and function of this pump, you just can't beat it.

I love this pump. I've tried Medela and hospital grade pumps and this is by far the most comfortable pump ever.

I'm the proud mom of almost 5 month old twin girls and I used hospital pump which got me bleeding on second day. Problem, flangies were too small for me and they didn't have anything larger. Embrace is the right size for me and after getting home from the hospital on the 3rd day I have been married to my pump 24/7.

We had latching problems so I was never able to fully nurse my babies, but with Embrace I'm still going strong after 5 months and pump 50-60oz/day. I have had NO problems with my pump, no motor failures, no tube problems, nothing. I've pumpped with it like I said, almost 5 months on average 5 times a day. It may be a bit noisy... my husband calls it a respirator :) But I would not switch my pump to Medela or any other for anything.

I'm sorry some of you have had bad experience with your Embrace, not everybody's body is made the same and not every manufacturing lot is the same, I'm sure of that. This pump has been a life saver for me and my girls and I have no plans on stopping pumping.

I started with the 4oz bottles that came with the system and eventually graduated pumping into Dr.Brown's 8oz bottles. I love the fact that I can pump directly to both narrow and widemouth bottles. I've never cleaned my pump nor bottles in the dishwasher, but wash them by hand.

I started working when my girls were 9 weeks old, so I guess I can be called a WAHM (I'm a web developer and work from home) and I didn't notice any drop in supply during the work day compared to the weekend.

WORTH EVERY CENT! Try, compare... Not every Medela user is happy with their pump either. There is no product out there that is going to satisfy everybody. Embrace just is better!

I was in a unique position to compare the Playtex Embrace to the Medela Pump In Style, because I was in a scientific breastfeeding study comparing the two. My baby was between ages 3 weeks and 7 weeks during the study. I got to choose which pump I liked at the end of the study, and I kept the Embrace for over a year of pumping. I think different people could disagree about the comfort comparison, depending on their bodies, but if I had to tell someone to bet on one or the other being comfortable, I would bet on the Embrace. And I know it worked better for me. I used it while working as a P/T lawyer taking depositions at many different locations I had to travel to. Most of the time, hotels and office buildings had plug-ins in the public restrooms. When they didn't, I used adjacent rooms that were currently vacant (with a sign on the doorknob), or the car adapter, or the Avent Isis as last resort. But Playtex, if you're reading this, get us a battery pack, please!

The Playtex felt to me like it stimulated let-down better, because it had a silicone cup that was sort of massaging my breast, more like the baby's varying suction, as opposed to the Medela PIS, which just had cone-shaped hard plastic funnels. I thought the Playtex was noisy... until I tried the Medela! The Medela is so much noisier. Other women in the rooms adjacent to me would remark on how quiet I was, compared to the Medelas they used. (Maybe reviewers are disagreeing because they used the Medela on a lower suction level? It gets a lot noisier when you turn the suction up to at least just below medium level). When I started, I used the Playtex on only a "2" out of "5" for suction, and gradually worked up to about a "4" later on, so I never had a problem with not getting enough suction. I liked adjusting the suction with buttons, vs. the dial on Medela. I thought it was more comfortable to hold both suction cups with one forearm and hand, and have the other hand free, with the Playtex, because of the flat surface on the backs of the cups. Both pumps were clear enough to see the streams of milk. Both had advantages to their bag set-ups, but I liked the Playtex bag better. Playtex, if you're listening, I'd like an interior bag that fit both suction cups fully assembled including the bottles; that would have saved valuable time during my quick pumping breaks, since I could have pre-assembled them completely each morning.

The Playtex pump is more hygienic, because the pumping air is separate from the areas where milk and the air next to the milk go. This is why the Medela warns agains biohazard with two users, because the milk can actually get up inside the tubes and even into the pump casing with the Medela. (Maybe it's to Medela's advantage to make everyone buy a new one). So I like that I could share the Embrace with my sister later if she ever needs it. I rinsed the parts out, removing the silicone part and the valves, after each pumping break. I used the Avent Express steam cleaner in the microwave nightly, and then the dishwasher whenever I happened to be running the dishwasher. I called Playtex about why the manual said not to clean it in the microwave steamer, and they said they just hadn't tested it that way. After I had the Embrace awhile, I realized there's this little tube-shaped area at the base of the cups that is too small to get your little finger in. This makes it difficult to clean and dry without a tiny brush. I used Q-tips, actually, though I think pipe cleaners might be more durable.

My baby preferred wide-based Playtex nipples to Avent. I like the Playtex Ventaire bottles, but since I was using the wide-neck ones that curved, and since it took up less space, I decided to pump into ziplock bags inside the Playtex plastic open-ended nursers. Gerber bags worked, though they were a little tight and once in a rare while leaked. Then I switched to Lansinoh, because the milk antibodies etc. don't stick to the plastic as much, because they don't put the relaxers in the plastic to make it stretchy. Anyway, they also fit. With the Playtex drop-ins, I felt more milk was attaching to the harder plastic. I liked the soft Playtex bags better, but again, preferred the Lansinoh.

The first pump I ever tried was the Avent Isis hand pump (before the study), and I think it is the most comfortable of all, but I just used it as a back-up pump (during an evening at the theater after enjoying some wine I could pump and dump in the restroom, for example). And electric pumps vs. hand pumps are the difference between 10 minutes pumping both breasts at the same time, and 15 minutes on each side with the hand pump.

I was ambivalent about returning to work, and I never would have done it without this pump. I think without the study I would not have gotten in the habit of pumping, and it would have been hard for me to shell out the money without knowing I liked an electric pump. But an electric pump was crucial to my being able to take short breaks and do my job.

After 18 months, my pump died. It seems a lot of other reviewers had this happen to them. But Playtex overnighted me a new pump, which impressed me. The warranty is voided by multiple users, unfortunately. But I think this one would last me (or my sister) through another child. And if I had to buy another pump, I'd buy the Embrace again.

After reading the other reviews, I decided to give this pump a try. I had used a Medela one in the hospital and the cups were okay, but this pump looked more comfortable. I was not disappointed! Not only is it comfortable and easy to use, it is also very efficient. I am able to pump 4oz. (one side) in less than 10 minutes! It assembles and disassembles easily. The bag is very handy and has smaller bags inside to keep everything in its place. The motor can come out of the bag, or stay attached. The storage bag comes with an ice pack and 4 containers to store breast milk in. The disposable liners are a great route to go to...less time spent sterilizing traditional bottles! I also bought the Playtex Breastmilk storage kit for additional attachments to store milk in the freezer (not necessary to purchase, but also worth it). The price was more the the Medela one I was going to purchase, but I couldn't be happier with this pump!

******I had to come back to edit this and tell you all that I have been back at work 40+ hours a week since the first week of May (it's now August!). My son is now six months old and still getting breastmilk exclusively thanks to this pump! I pump at work...four times a day. In under 10 minutes, I set the machine up, pump a bottle, diassemble the cup, rinse it and have it back in the bag and ready for the next use. I have never had a problem with the motor, hoses, cups or any other part of this pump. As with many other things in life...it takes a little hard work and practice and you will get it down in no time!! I am very happy with my purchase!

This is a great pump! At first I was looking at pumps that cost around the $70 range. I am so glad that I decided to spend the extra money! My daughter was not too keen on breastfeeding and it just turned into a horrible experience that I'd like to forget.

The hospital that I was in provided the Medela pump. Ouch!!! My breasts were sooo sore from using that thing, it was not comfortable at all! The cups for the breast is this hard plastic and when it would pump, my poor nipples were getting so sore and then i had to use nipple cream to make them feel better. I actually could not have anything on my breasts while i was at the hospital because they were so sore. It made me so grouchy and I just let everything hang out. I didn't care who came in the room!!!

When I came home and started using the Playtex pump, it was such a relief! The cups for the breasts have a soft rubbery feel to them and they didn't stretch or pull my nipples while pumping. The 5 speed/suction controls are very nice to have. It does come with a storage kit but it only provides 4 storage thingy's. I had to buy 2 extra storage kits so that I had enough contraptions to use for storing milk. I really hope that makes sense! And then there's the liners. I had liners coming out of my ears! I guess that's how Playtex makes their money, you have to buy tons of liners (and don't forget the storage kits). The pump is a little loud when the suction is set higher. I used it for 4 months and everything worked great.

I definitely recommend this pump. I would have given it 5 stars but my only gripe is spending the extra money on storage kits and the countless number of liners you have to buy. BUT... It is a world of difference between Medela and Playtex.

I must have sat in babies r us for over two hours trying to decide which breast pump to purchase. I was really reluctant to purchase this breast pump because I knew for sure the Medela was a good pump. This was a brand new product and not much was being said about it here. Finally the sales rep talked me into it and I am glad she did.

I used a medela pump so I could compare the two and this one is MUCH more comfortable. It truly feels like my little one is breast feeding instead of pumping. I have rather large nipples and the cups fit me just fine. The openings in the cups are perfect for anyone in my opinion. Its just as quick as the medela and has the same warrantee. I was a little disapointed that you couldnt purchase replacement parts at the store but you can call an 800 number to order them if need be. The kit actually comes with a couple of replacement parts which is a plus.

I think its easy to clean and really isnt all that big a deal to put together. I like the fact that you NEVER have to replace or wash the tubing because it never comes into contact with the cups. The drop ins are a breeze to use and store.

I would HIGHLY recommend this pump to anyone that is searching for a pump.