Easy to use but quite flimsy (Tommee Tippee Electronic Steam Steriliser)

Member Name: Dribblekitten

Product:	Tommee Tippee Electronic Steam Steriliser
Date:	09/11/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fits lots in, bargain if bought on offer

Disadvantages: Needs frequent descaling

When my daughter was born I had not bought a steriliser as I intended to breastfeed. As this wasn't as straight forward as I planned and I needed to express some milk I needed to buy a steriliser and some bottles asap. Therefore my husband purchased this as it was 1/2 price and had free bottles with it.
One first opening it is easy to understand and use and can fit lots of bottles and other equipment in it. However after a few weeks of being used 6+ times a day it does get a bit tired. If you live in a hard water area the element gets clogged quite quickly. The instructions say to use citric acid to descale, but this is difficult to get hold of - we found some in the tesco pharmacist but had to ask for it and it wasn't clear how to use it. We eventually bought some descaler sachets from mothercare which were ok but didn't quite clean it.
After about 4 months of continuous use (switching to about 3 runs a day) and error kept occuring (on the reader below) and it gave up the ghost so it had to be replaced. If I'd paid full price for it I would have felt quite grieved.
A good buy for occasional use (if this is possible with a tiny baby) and is easy to use but doesn't seem robust enough to last.

Summary: Good basic model but don't expect longevity