OH MY GOD

Published on August 15, 2006 in life. 7 Comments

okay! this is THE WORST thing I’ve had happen to me in a -long- time. I’ve basically outlined the whole story in this email I sent to Evenflo, the company who made the breast-pump I’ve been using.

To Whom It May Concern (and feel free to forward this to your engineers!),

I purchased the following pump:

417294

2272BF35

042700521416

5214111

I’ve been successfully using it for the past month, with it increasing in slowness the longer I’ve had it. I use it regularly as I am a working mother. Tonight, while I was pumping, the motor portion of the unit started smoking. Imagine the horror of a woman and a mother who has her breast in a smoking pump. Even now, an hour later, my heart hasn’t gone back to normal.
I don’t have any suggestions as far as replicating the situation, and I’m sure you’ve had similar complaints come across your desk in the past. I was exceedingly happy with the pump until it started flagging in performance, and then with this last episode I am no longer going to use Evenflo/Elan products. I refuse to be terrified like this again.

-Laura Figueroa

I AM STILL FREAKED OUT
what kind of company lets their products OUT on the MARKET when they know they’ll start SMOKING!?!
it’s one thing if you’re a cigarette company. THIS COMPANY MANUFACTURES BABY PRODUCTS.
no way, no how — sorry folks, I don’t want my breasts -or- my baby smoking. thanks very much.

first thing tomorrow morning I’m getting a medela. they work, and don’t stop working the more you use them. their products are used in hospitals everywhere, and I guess the hospitals wouldn’t let a company whose PRODUCTS START SMOKING around their patients.

-freakoutfreakoutfreakout-

  • joeshadows

    Aw, c’mon hun. Its just something that electric motors do on occasion, when you overwork them. My brother was into R/C stuff, and it’d happen sometimes. Very rarely dangerous. Heh, man, I remember power supplies going “bang” and emitting sudden puffs of smoke, that’s fun times, right there. ;)

  • lorikitty

    yea yea. keep your fun times away from my boobs.
    considering the device is in such close proximity to -sensitive areas- they should’ve taken precautions. for instance! the medela motor connects to the plastic pump portion from -faaar awaaaay- !!
    it’s -over there- and the air-hose dealies are all that connects it to the pumps.
    ingenius! who’d have thunk!

  • lorikitty

    as far as overworking — I wouldn’t overwork it if it actually maintained a steady suction. =-.0= when the suction is near to non-existant, it’s hard to get any milk out, unless you’re engorged. which I will be tomorrow morning. I will not, however, be using that pump. ever again. EVER. or any from that company, or of the variety that have the motor ON the pump.

  • joeshadows

    Awww, you’re making too big a deal with it- its not like the thing would have exploded or started shooting flames. Did you feel anything hot in direct contact with your skin? All the directly dangerous components were housed inside the plastic casing, from which the smoke emerged. Heck, the little plastic cup isn’t even conductive, you wouldn’t even have gotten shocked ;)

  • lorikitty

    I’m one of those strange people who likes to detach themselves from smoking electronics >.>
    I removed the device as soon as I realized it was smoking — other people might be asleep, or something. I’m not kidding, it takes -that long- to pump

  • jill_mbs

    I can understand if you had this problem after 6 months because testing a product like that for that long would cost way too much. But after only a month? That is scary. Especially for a popular company like they are.

  • lorikitty

    I’d say 90% of the mothers who breastfeed do so for 6 months, and go back to work after the baby is 3 months. Thus, they should’ve tested for at least 3 months. The device is really only intended for occasional use, but it never says that anywhere. Even for an occasional use pump it’s really slow with pumping milk. you have to be engorged for it to get anything out. with that, it gets even slower the more you use it! whee :P
    I really didn’t expect it to start smoking like that, cause when people say “motor stopped working” I don’t imagine clouds of smoke.
    (if you check babies r us, you’ll find nothing but bad things people’ve said about it).
    donno bout the Elan, which is the medela-like version of the evenflo, but I think it also got bad user-reviews.