Reasons for Willow Go Woes
Update as of March 2023:
It’s been almost a year since this pump launched and the Willow Go Woes continue. I would in fact argue that the woes have dramatically increased. No sooner had we worked through the early user related issues that continue to plague this pump and cause a rapid motor death, but firmware updates seem to have brought us problems without solutions.
Is the Willow Go a good pump?
Yes- to date it’s one of the best options we have on the market especially at this price point. Currently we have no wearable options on the market that are designed to last for more than 1-2 years at most, and most can be expected to exceed rated motor life in 6-9 months for the average user. Wearables continue to be expensive technology that falls short of consumer expectations. But of the available options Willow’s suction and speeds make it one of the more successful options available for most parents. And if you have the warranty the issues are handled for the duration of your warranty.
Does it have issues?
100% Yes. The hubs have an extremely short motor life compared to traditional pumps (and compared to the original Willow Generation Pumps). There is some quirk in the design or firmware that causes this pump to predictably brick itself over time with circuit boards that appear to be overheating.
Is there a fix?
Nope. All you can do is try to treat the pump gently to prevent your pump dying sooner. There is no way we are aware of to keep these pumps running long-term like moms want. These are not the pumps you buy to use for multiple babies.
New Issues Noted:
Decreased suction strength. Original hubs tested at 270-280 mmhg suction as advertised. Current hubs test at 240-250 consistently. Something in a firmware update reduced the suction and there does not appear to be a fix on the way as Willow denies this issue to customers.
Firmware deaths- firmware for Willow is notorious for killing pumps. Every update is a gamble. And if you don’t have a warranty there is no recourse for this issue.
Increased costs- prices for the replacement parts have risen at least twice since launch. This is not a cheap pump to operate.
Willow Go has been on the market for about 6 months now. It was a much anticipated and hyped up pump that MANY parents chose to buy. Now, we have quite a bit more information to share with you about the quirks of the Willow Go Pump.
To a pumping parent, there is nothing worse than a dead or dysfunctional pump - well, maybe spilled milk. Pump malfunctions ruin your pumping day and can take your anxiety up to levels no one enjoys. Whether your pump loses suction, stops holding a charge, or just straight up dies, it leaves you with a disorganized schedule and an infuriating paperweight. Sometimes, you get a pump with a dud motor. It happens.
Across ALL industries, we see a certain percentage of manufacturing issues and defects including cell phones, televisions, and even breast pumps, wearable and portable. Manufacturing defects, material defects, and in-transit damage will happen to a certain percentage of units. If you get a bad one, it’s just bad luck.
And then, we have issues that manufacturers catch during the initial release of any new or updated model that were not detectable until widespread real life use occurred. This is a hazard of buying the latest and greatest - remember this is essentially signing up for a “trial” but at your own expense. It’s the price we pay for access to the latest and greatest. Typically, we note that these manufacturing or design issues either manifest as an issue unlikely to reoccur repeatedly for a limited number of individuals or issues that occur almost universally. This isn’t a unique issue to breast pumps, but the tolerance for the issues with breast pumps is significantly lower than what we observe in other industries.
Then, we find issues related to use as we troubleshoot and identify trends. These are issues we see occurring not on a widespread basis, issues that resolve with active troubleshooting and change for the user, and issues that repeat themselves with a select group of users. These issues are particularly challenging as they are not easily reproducible for many people, and they can cause parents to become defensive when it sounds like someone is saying it’s their fault, but it isn’t an issue of fault as much as it is issues that are within your control to change.
Willow Go is one of the newer wearable pumps on the market, and it exploded with popularity because “it is the newest latest and greatest pump” that offers:
Lower price tag than willow 3.0
No real learning curve for most
Gentle and Effective Suction
Less issues for elastic nipples than elvie or elvie stride
Less leaking than the Elvie
No tubes at a price point comparable to the Elvie Stride
So, latest and greatest pumps were bought and problems were had.
We’ve dealt with mechanical and material issues with defective backings and duckbills, the normal dud motors, and parts that warped. We’ve found some pumps had side clips that were tighter than others making assembly trickier until they were broken in. We’ve found normal variance in motor sounds that made people nervous. We’ve had pumps that just died. And, like all new pumps, these were easy issues - we identify the issue and send you to customer service. It’s a headache, but they take care of their customers.
And then, there were the inevitable issues that came with use - these are the parts and motor failures we found related to how the pump was being used, stored, charged, and cared for. These are the trickier problems because if we don’t identify the root issues, and help you correct them, we are just going to see you back shortly with the same problems reoccurring.
Issues with the Willow Go and the reasons moms are struggling to hear what we are saying:
Bra Fit
Bad bra fit kills suction short-term and long-term by working the motor too hard. You know how Willow 3.0 demands the precise sizing, well the Willow Go demands accurate bra sizing. We’ve actually learned a lot from this pump about how bras need to fit, and it’s benefitting all wearable pump users, but the Willow Go demands it.
Moms struggle to hear this because they aren’t clear on how a bra should fit. Bras aren’t cheap, trialing several bras is a big expense, and they just don’t know what to do when it can be a more subtle fit issue. Add in the fact that most moms are not measuring for bras accurately, and unfortunately old and outdated bra sizing info still circulates. It’s hard.
Flange Sizing
We have more wiggle room with the Willow Go and standard sizing, but it still needs to be right, or we can’t get adequate output without suction issues and risk overworking the motors.
Moms struggle with flange sizing because they have been led to believe it’s simple. It’s just not simple for many people. They feel they should know how to do it themselves when there isn’t a dang part of pumping and flange sizing that is intuitive. Or, they consult with a lactation consultant who is super sweet and confident in their incompetence. They may not have any concept of the failure they are setting parents up for with their crappy advice. It sucks, you have every right to be upset. You did the right thing and sought support, and they failed you, but sticking to their advice isn’t helping you, and if their advice was great, why are you still struggling?
I’ve done thousands of successful flange sizings, and I still routinely come across nipples doing something unexpected, sizings that leave me baffled, and unicorn type issues that are hard to contend with. I’ve cleaned up hundreds of crappy sizings from other LC’s. My best advice - DIY size once (maybe twice) if you are confident you know your anatomy. If you are still having pump challenges, book a professional consultation so I can either help you get it dialed in, or rule it out, and point you in the direction of the actual issue to solve. Riding the struggle bus here is just unnecessary.
Extended Run Times
Convenient and comfortable pumping combined with the burning desire to make more milk is inspiring moms to pump for long periods of time. Poor sizing, bra fit, alignment, or understanding of how to adjust to a new pump leads to long pump times. What we have learned is that the tiny motors just can’t handle that long of run time. The motors overheat which leads to decreased future suction, strange noises, and eventually, motor failure. Pumping more than 30 minutes can be a source of immediate or future motor failure. The more factors that align here, the quicker the pump death.
This one really seems to get moms on the defensive as it directly indicates their use of the pump in the failure, but the fault here lays in the industry handing you fragile and expensive equipment in a society that feeds you crap information about how to effectively manage your breastfeeding journey with this tool. What we need to do is help you get the basic information you need to know as well as how to use this tool in a way that supports your goals and protects your expensive pumps.
Milk fat residue:
Willow Go uses the same silicone material we see in the Original Elvie and Elvie Stride. We knew the material was vulnerable to milk fat residue. Willow Go ups the anty on the war against milk fat residue by using silicone that contacts other silicone, and a design that makes milk fat residue hard to detect but easy to fail due to the residue.
This issue upsets moms because it sounds like what we are saying is, “You don’t clean well,” and we associate poor cleaning with being dirty. And, “Dirty moms are not good moms.” It’s a whole spiral of societal shame for your perceived shortcomings as a mother. I get it, I felt similarly when I realized my Willow 3.0 containers failed because I wasn’t cleaning them correctly.
But, this isn’t about your cleaning skills. It’s chemistry. Milk fat is hard to fully break down, and it easily remains behind. It turns out, milk fat can combine with minerals in water to form a cloudy dry residue. On clear silicone, we can see it, and on colored silicone, we can’t. This residue is something we can remove, but we have to be intentional about it or it sticks.
Moisture:
The Willow Go Pump despises moisture!! It loathes wet parts, and the tiniest bit of moisture causes the diaphragm to stick, the duckbills to slip, and in some cases, the flanges to pop out. That means when you clean them, you can’t just shake them off and put them back in use. And, the fridge hack with its condensation certainly makes this issue a big one for most people.
Moms thankfully don’t take this issue personally (aside from the frustration if you are a fridge hack lover) to find out this new fancy pump demands fresh and frequent cleans like a house guest from hell.
Warped Parts:
We still don’t quite understand the warped parts issue, but we suspect some dishwasher and bottle sanitizers may be heating the parts past the temperature that increases flexibility. Warped parts struggle to create seals correctly and ruin parts prematurely.
This is obviously frustrating as the pump is advertised as being dishwasher safe, but for most, the temperatures plus increased residue render this convenience useless, and for some moms, hand washing pump parts is just too much on top of everything else they have going on. So, to tell moms the pump is for convenience, but adding an unplanned task, is always painful.
Stretchy Parts:
This was discovered by chance, but I am really glad we found the issue. It turns out the diaphragms and duckbills stretch and lose their tension with use - and they need hot washing to restore them to their more springy, original shape. This was discovered by someone who has tested many of the wearable options and noticed a trend of people complaining about periodic and predictable suction loss. If the diaphragm doesn’t get wet with milk, it doesn’t need to be washed every time. So, moms were finding after 2-3 pump sessions suction would drop but was restored after washing again, miraculously. Once the recommendation was to wash the diaphragm and duckbills in the hottest tap water or add boiling water to the wash basin, the problem rectified.
This was such a simple fix and didn’t make anyone feel bad which was great!
Assembly:
The Willow Go Pump is one of the hardest to assemble on the market today. The Original Elvie, in the early days circa 2019 before a few design changes were made, still holds the finickiest wearable pump assembly title.
Willow Go is tricky to assemble because there are multiple points of failure, and we had to quickly adapt instructions to find methods that reduced the opportunities for failure and provided more safety checks. I’ve personally spent hours assembling and disassembling the pump learning how many ways it can be done wrong.
The good news is, you CAN learn to do it right, but it will require accepting it’s wrong now and learning a better way. That can be a challenge in a stressful situation for any postpartum parent.
Milk on the Diaphragm:
This issue has been a colossal pain trying to troubleshoot because it turns out any and all combinations of the above issues can cause this!
Bra fit too tight?
Excess tissue being shoved in the flanges means less room for milk to pool away from the vent hole until it goes through the duckbill.
Flanges sized wrong?
Again, all the tissue where tissue doesn’t belong is reducing the space for the milk. Once fluid reaches capacity, it seeks the path of least resistance right through the vent hole.
Parts warped?
The issues with suction reduce the ability to move milk where it needs to go, and boom, up the air vent it goes!
Residue or moisture?
Bye bye suction and hello air vent full of milk!
Assembled wrong?
Compromised suction and boom… well you know what happens now. Sometimes, you may even end up with the vent more exposed for more milk flow. That’s never failed to deliver a mess.
Most times this just makes a mess, but if its bad enough, milk enters the motor likely killing the pump shortly thereafter.
This issue has set off more than one pumping parent as it’s frustrating! It’s messy! It’s not a happy thing. The good news - most of the issues are in YOUR CONTROL to LEARN to do differently.
Battery Issues:
We’ve seen an abundance of batteries fail early on this pump - and it turns out, the directions didn’t emphasize the issues as well as we would have hoped!
A perk of this pump is that you weren’t tied to the Willow brand chargers. The usb micro charger is common! Yay for easy charging, but Boo for learning these cords vary in quality, and some may actually burn the battery out. Double boo for finding out they need to be charged long enough, but not too long, or you kill the battery. The small batteries on this pump mean that you need to pay attention to when you are charging them, how long you charge them for, and what you use to charge them.
Plugging the Air Holes:
Brand identity is huge in the world of breast pumps, and Willow’s initial pumps gave the brand a reputation as leak-free, or at least very leak resistant in the case of the containers. Willow Go uses a wildly different design, and the leak concern is larger compared to the Willow Generation pumps. It’s in line with other wearable pumps and cups - there is an air hole at the top of the unit that is 100% NECESSARY FOR AIRFLOW. The design of the pump uses this air hole to prevent air pressure from building up and causing motors to overheat, or in some cases, the bowl to separate causing milk leakage.
It took less than a week after launch for users to start sharing how to plug the hole on the pump to make it leak free. We had furniture hole plugs, putty, duct tape, regular old packing tape, and ear plugs, all to create a feature the pump simply can’t sustain without damage and eventual death of the motor. And with the Willow Go, the only shock with this was the speed at which the motor could overheat. Do not block the holes on the Willow Go! If you want leak-free, you need to invest the money and energy the Willow 3.0 requires to achieve.
Is the Willow Go Worth It?
While some of the revelations aren’t fun for a majority of parents, we have fixes and practices in place that should make it work. Doing your research ahead of time, joining our Wearable Pump Paperweight Prevention Group which is loaded with tons of pump specific tips and tricks, and knowing when to call in a professional when you’ve done all you can, are all things you can do to make sure Willow Go works for you.
