Prep machine questions

[Peonyyyy]

We got a prep machine second hand as we didn’t use one last time (second baby). I wondered if anyone who uses them all the time could help with some questions I have?

Should we keep the water in the hopper filled up all the time so it doesn’t dry out the filter?

Should we use water from the fridge to make it cold enough or is tap water ok? I just did a cleaning cycle with boiling water and when we did a test run afterwards the water seemed too warm?

is the hot shot supposed to be quite spluttery when it comes out?

thanks x

From what I remember with mine now 3.5 is that a) tap water is fine b) I think it was quite spluttery when it came out and c) I think we kept it topped up as it was being used frequently.

hope this helps!

The hot shot is spluttery. We don’t use fridge water just normal. I top it up daily but good to let it run down sometimes to keep water fresh I think.

Thank you all!

Don't top up the water without replacing all the current water

@TempuraCustard ok thanks, so do you usually unplug it and tip out the whole lot?

I imagine as we’ll be using it a million times a day at first the water will probably not be in there longer than a day, do you think? Or is it to do with the temperature?

We empty ours completely every other day by unplugging and tipping up over sink, just top up as needed in between times. Water from tap is good, hot shot always splutters.

Basically you have to make sure the oldest water in there is being used otherwise it just mixes with the new water

I'm not sure which model you have but ours tells us when to fill up with water because the display screen goes red. I don't keep the hopper above the filter full. I found it actually leaked when we put too much in. There's no need to keep emptying it if you use it every day. It will only tell you to add more water when it's really low so no worry of mixing days old water.

Also have you done a sterilising clean if you've got it second hand? I know the unit says to clean it using only boiled water but online tomee tippee now advise to use distilled vinegar or cold water steraliser (Milton) to clean with as well.

And yeah the hot shot always splutters. Sends formula flying sometimes too so when you run a clean cycle (every 4 weeks minimum) clean all round the prep machine including the spout etc.

@Lijay1 yes have done a Milton clean today! Didn’t actually know this as I just followed the official tommee tippee boiling water clean video on YouTube, but underneath someone had done a Milton one, so I did that today.

It’s much louder than I thought it would be, so I think we’ll be going downstairs to do the feeds rather than upstairs as we originally thought so as not to wake our first son.

Is your first son in a different room or in your room? We have our prep machine in the room with us and baby, it never wakes our son (2) in the room next door. It's actually sent my 2 month old back to sleep a couple of times 🤷 it's an odd white noise but he seems to like it!

I actually keep mine upstairs all day. Makes me feel like I'm doing more exercise by running up and downstairs all day.

@Lijay1 oh that’s good to know, maybe we can have it in the room? Our son is in the room next door and I’m already worried the newborn cries will wake him, he has white noise but I feel Iike in our house you can hear everything through the walls. Our house suddenly seems so small and cramped!

Our walls are really thin and babies cries have never woken our son 😊
Haha I felt like we suddenly ran out of room as soon as we had our second too.

That is good to know! Can’t believe it’s happening tomorrow! 😅

Tomorrow!? Oh my gosh how lovely, good luck! I found going from 1-2 so much easier and any worries I had in pregnancy were for nothing ☺️