It is true that each pump was desighed to function with its own kit. You may find a way to rig up another brand of kit, but the physics of vacuum willgive you problems.
Best thing with a Medela kit is to ALWAYS leave the motor running, with maxed out vacuum, while washing the personal pieces. By the time you are done washing and setting it out to drip dry, the tubing should be dry and you can turn the motor off. It is repeated use without drying it out that allows an accumulation of moisture that will inevitably travel into the PIS motor and cause trouble.
I have found tubing so wet that when I removed the little round caps off the Symphony diaphragms, then peeled off the soft silicone liner, water just poured out! (Yes, I replaced the tubing for the patient. Hard to do when Medela won't sell it separately. It's not in their hospital/WIC catalog.)  But they were put there solely to protect the Symphony motor. If they weren't there, the moisture would invate the motor thru the tiny little air hole in the diaphragms and you would have mold problems with the Symphony, too. Aside from a much more durable motor, that thin silicome liner allows that machine to be taken from user to user (always cleaning the surface in between) with no cross-contamination.
If only Medela would come up with a similar moistu;re barrier for all of their PIS models, their customers would not be having these problems.
Just my opinion.
Phyllis



---- R M WAHL <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 

=============
Dear Lactnetters,
I think that I am going to disagree with with some of you about the mold problem in some of the Medela pumps.  I think that mold appears in these pumps (or in the shower) because of the presence of water or excessive humidity.  If the tubings are dried out and water droplets are not allowed to go into the motor area, mold growth shouldn't be a problem.  
 
There has been alot of discussion in the past on Lactnet about using different brand tubings on the breast pump.  I believe that this could cause excessive suction and possible injury to the woman using the inappropriate tubing.
 
I have not seen mothers having a problem getting milk in the tubing unless the bottle has been tipped over.  This is just my 2 cents.  Have a good day.  Rachel Wahl RN IBCLC
 
 
 --
Phyllis Adamson, BA, IBCLC
Glendale, AZ.
[log in to unmask]

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