Product review (2 stars): Price Is Truly Obnoxious
I love my Essick Air humidifier, but am seriously displeased with the absurd price for these filters. The margins on something like this must be in the stratosphere. Also, I am beginning to question the design of the humidifier itself. It is impossible, especially given the use of water decontaminant, that the impurities that clog the filter simply materialize like magic in the water. They come from the room atmosphere itself. The degree to which the MA0800 is exposed is unnecessarily high and causes additional impurities to be pulled in by the inspiration of the fan, clogging the filter (which is not high enough to prevent these same impurities from being kicked right back out into the air) to just collect filth faster, leading it to clog and prevent the humidifier to function effectively.

The box indicates that the filter should be changed "once per season." This is nonsense. The first filter clogged to the point of basically rendering the humidifier totally ineffective after only a month. It worked flawlessly again as soon as the filter was replaced, but I'm pretty dismayed at having to order more of these things after such a short time. There is nothing extraordinary about the room I've got this thing in, nor is the water I'm using (purified tap) particularly hard. Within a few months, I will easily spend more on filters than I did on the humidifier itself. Pretty ridiculous and annoying.