Product review (1 stars): What a mess
I bought the demineralization refill crystals at BB&B, using a 20% off coupon I got in the mail, which made this an economical choice. I was looking forward to giving this a go, despite the negative reviews here. I prefer to be frugal and environmental at the same time, and was hoping my experience would not be a negative one. Buying the prefilled cartridges are neither frugal nor environmental since they have to be replaced every 2-4 months, or more if your water is very hard and you don't want your unit ruined and white dust everywhere.

As a woman, who has small hands, I found gripping the tops of the cartridges extremely difficult, and almost impossible to open to refill them. I have 3 humidifiers all using the same type of demineralization cartridges. Of the two I attempted to refill, I couldn't do it. So, I ended up returning the refill crystals and buying 3 new prefilled ones. A couple weeks later, when it was time to replace the another one, I did manage to get that lid open, but only after knocking it on the counter a few times, which actually ended up cracking the lid making it useless. I'm glad I had bought 3 prefilled cartridges and am again running my humidifiers 24/7 with no white dust.

I wish this had worked out for me, but alas, my only other alternative is to buy many gallons of distilled water at about $1 a gallon, which frankly, since I refill all three of 2 gal. humidifiers every day, would wind up being far more expensive and really inconvenient.