My wife has had two babies. We hired this the second time around. First time around we struggled through with the Swing, which is effective enough however too slow for regular expressing.

The symphony has a good adjustable strong suction, comfortable an easy to clean. Consider how long you need to express for, 2 months for us and to hire the symphony costs about as much as buying a Medela Swing. Time saving however for nightly expressing, easy choice in our case. It uses a type of membrane as part of the suction process, which i assume is meant to mimic natural sucking. Missus seemed happy enough with it.

However, on the other hand, the Swing is battery operated and small enough to be portable, handy if you need to travel and express.

Average pump with bad quality parts that always gets faulty customer service is shocking beyond belief. Seriously do yourself a favour and STEER CLEAR of this overpriced crap.regret ever having used it and dealing with those people at the company. I can't say it enough to stay away and steer clear!

Have been using this pump for 8 months to exclusively express! It is the only pump that works for me! (Also have spectra s2 and portable 9 (spectra))
I just wish it had a timer :)
It's gentle and effective.... love it! My bank balance doesn't but it's worth every cent

Overall, quick and efficent and easy to use. Supported by many maternity hospitals meaning that I could pump at home and in the hospital while visiting NICU without needing to purchase additional equipment. Easy to clean.
Quick and simple. About to double pump, thereby decreasing the time to express. I have given birth to 2 premature babies so I expressed exclusivly for several weeks so it was really important for me to be able to express quickly and effectivly.
Expensive. Pump sets also expensive. Large bulky machine, not great for taking out and about. Needed manual pump to assist with that. As I exclusivly expressed, my nipples quickly become sore with using this several times a day.

Very happy with this pump as I used it in hospital after my daughter was born and continued to use it once at home hired from a chemist for $40 for 2 weeks. However, unless you plan to use it long term it is too expensive to buy to use just for a few weeks.
Great unit. Easy to use. Effective at expressing milk. Can express both breasts at the same time, effectively halving the time it takes using a single pump.
Price. Too expensive to buy for home use. For the ongoing cost of hiring the unit you might as well buy a cheaper unit to keep.

I loved this machine and wished I could take it home with me. Can't justify the cost though. Renting might be a better option, just depends on your budget.
This is great. Electric not hand powered and you can adjust the intensity. It also has two modes to simulate the baby's sucking, a faster mode to aid in the let down and a slower mode for the real feeding. It also has a timer so that if you haven't had a let down in the first 5 minutes it will automatically switch over to the slower mode. You can switch back and forwards at any time.
This is really expensive.

This machine helped me decide to purchase a smaller version electric pump. It's ease of use was fantastic for increasing supply which I could then freeze in case I was sick or unable to breastfeed.
The two phases with variable speed was excellent- I used a smaller version which did not have the two phases & this was far more effective for 'let down'. The external pieces that you buy are interchangable between Medela models.
Hired one thru the ABA - still quite expensive but with membership it is half price.
Not very portable.

I am grateful there is a product like this available as it is nice to be able to express and not take forever. I was told in hospital to just use for 10 mins and when you are doing this each feed this is how long you need it to take. It was easy to hook up and turn on and everything was easy to wash/keep clean. I think if they were cheaper they couldn't keep up with demand!
Quick and easy, never had any trouble figuring it out even when I was half asleep!
Cost way too much, I hired one for 6 weeks and even that cost a fortune

In the early days I couldn't have lived without this pump. I really was a lifesaver back then. Now that my supply has settled I don't find that I need an electric pump anymore.
I rented this one from the hospital and it was great for those early days. I had an oversupply of milk and this breast pump made it quick and easy to express at all hours of the day and night. It's not too noisy. It comes with different sizes of handsets for differently sized breasts.
It's big and bulky, you wouldn't be able to take it to work with you.