Air Purifier Alternative Filter?

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41

This is true to a degree when speaking directly. Merchants can always choose the price they list something for.

Indirectly, Amazon sort of forces many sellers to raise their prices to compensate though. For example, Amazon charges Selling plan fees, referral fees (the percentage Amazon takes ranges from 8% to as high as 45%, though the average is about 15%, plus they have minimum referral fees), and then there are fulfillment fees on top of all that, which is the cost Amazon charges sellers for packing, shipping, and customer service on the orders (amazon says it’s “Free shipping” but that’s not true…Amazon still forces sellers to pay for it all. There is no such things as “Free Shipping” for any company. Any company that says shipping is free, is actually just adding the shipping cost to the original price, or averaging it out of the average profit margin. Always.

So, say that as a business, a product costs you $50 to make and break even. You could sell it on your own website for close to that amount, or you can list it on Amazon, but if you list it on Amazon, now you have Selling Plan fees, referral fees and fulfillment fees. So your costs for that product are no longer $50…obviously you need to adjust [increase] the price for that because Amazon is going to be taking lots of money from you for each sale and now you need to jack it up 15%-30% just to break even. So you can’t afford to sell it at $55 or you’re going to lose money and go bankrupt. Sure, a seller could technically choose NOT to increase their cost, but that would be suicide if you’re already operating on single-digit profit margins. The same thing happens for subscription type of companies that have an app on Apple App Store or Google Play. Apple and Google steal 30% of the cost of every subscription. So companies are basically forced to jack their prices up an extra 30% or more or refuse to let people add or change their subscriptions through their app. When you purchase something through a matchmaker platform (Apps on iOS or Android, Anything on Amazon, TikTok, Walmart Marketplace, etc, as much as up to 45% of the cost of everything you buy is going to the matchmaker platform, which means the thing you bought could’ve been 15%-45% cheaper for everyone if they weren’t being extorted by fees from the matchmaker platform business model. This is why I like to generally purchase as much as possible directly from a company.

Wyze almost always charges a flat $5.99 in shipping when they charge it at all. In my experience this shipping fee itself is rarely to never “inflated” unless the thing being shipped is abnormally large or heavy. For the most part they do like nearly every other physical product company that leverages a matchmaker platform and averages the shipping and any other costs/fees into the product price average.

I know Wyze has traditionally operated on EXTREMELY LOW profit margins. Way lower than competitors and most companies. I recently asked them in the last AMA if this is still the case and got a response:

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So, in over 6 years, they’ve operated at such low-profit margins that they have NEVER even broken even yet, let alone made a profit, even with their subscriptions included. When you buy a low-cost camera from somewhere like Amazon or TikTok, they don’t have a profit margin on that, and sometimes they’re in the red with negative profits on some sales like the OG sales they do a lot. They are not making a ton of extra money off all of that. So I certainly wouldn’t say they are ripping anyone off or inflating their prices. It’s one thing I have always loved about Wyze, that I can feel confident they aren’t ripping me off with high profit margins like some of the other competition. They have always operated on extremely low overall profit margins.

I like the foundation of your comment though. I would love for all companies to show what their actual estimated costs for everything are and the average estimated profit per product. I think it would be very eye-opening for a lot of people to see the profit margins between different companies and see who is actually inflating prices vs selling things near cost.

42

If wyze can’t provide the filters, this seems like a good business opportunity for someone else to step in. Ever since they launched the air purifier, they haven’t been able to keep the air filters in stock, which like someone else said you figure is where they make a lot of the money since it’s a reoccurring purchase.

Based on this I want to give the purifier a 1 star rating as without filters it is just a fan and I didn’t buy a just a fan. So disappointed in this.

Interesting, when I was first setting it up, it showed up as a different device in another companies app and looked the same, which means rebadged. I wish I could remember what it was so I could buy those filters.

43

Similar thread at https://forums.wyze.com/t/wyze-air-purifier-filters/277806/24

44

It’s too much work to make a filter only one machine uses, just too small of a market to be a “good business opportunity” for anyone. Wyze could have used filters that are common and readily available but instead they decided to be greedy and now they can’t even keep the filters in stock. Why even sell an air purifier if you can’t make enough replacement filters?! But here’s a thought…maybe they should make them in the US, instead of China.

45

Another thread states these fit perfectly.

And as for Wyze making a common filter, go to your WalMart or Auto Zone and look at all the filters available. When I started as a mechanic, Ford had one oil filter. GM had two. Can’t remember Chrysler. Then the foreign stuff naturally was different. Proprietary parts are commonplace.

46

I totally agree with this, and you made lots of great points/examples.

In this case, Wyze’s air purifier is definitely not using a proprietary air filter. I know there are dozens of companies that make similar air filters. There are actually several other air purifiers that use the same kind of air filter that Wyze does, but most of them charge a ton more money for them. I learned this a while ago, but forgot to post something about it in here.

For example, Xiaomi’s Anti-formaldehyde filter costs $99 compared to Wyze’s way cheaper rate for the same thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Purifier-Anti-Formaldehyde-Filter-White/dp/B07HLR9G7F

I believe the Xiaomi Mi Air Purifier filters are the same as the Wyze Air Purifier filters. There are a lot of 3rd parties making air filter replacements for those models and similar air purifiers.

If I was desperate for an air filter, I’d probably just go buy one of these off Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=xiaomi+mi+air+purifier+pro+h+filter&crid=FECW2YIMVROD

The benefit to doing it this way is that if it turns out the filter you bought isn’t actually the right size, you can easily return it to Amazon for a refund. No risk.

If a person doesn’t mind slow shipping, you can get the same thing a lot cheaper on Aliexpress or Temu, etc:

https://www.aliexpress.us/w/wholesale-xiaomi-mi-air-purifier-pro-h-filter.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.search.0

Some of them are only $9.78 and still include activated carbon antibacterial stuff. I honestly might order those the next time I make a Temu order.

I listed “Xiaomi” as an example because it’s a more well-known brand with lots of 3rd party companies making filters and tagging their name, but there are dozens of other brands that use the same filters, including a lot of lesser known brands you could search or buy filters from like Aslotus, Afloia, Druiap, Pureburg, Homedics, Levoit (a bigger air purifier brand) even has one that uses that filter, Welov, and many more…so the point is that it is not a proprietary filter in any way, it’s quite common, and there are many others who make them and use them. It’s actually a fairly generic and relatively widely available filter type. I just prefer to buy it from Wyze because I know they’re giving good quality at a great price with low-profit margins. Lots of the other places will rip people off IMO.

But I’m in no way worried about filters not being available. They’ll basically always be available. There are way too many companies that all use the same filter types even if Wyze ever stopped offering them at some point. I just know that I, and many others, would still generally prefer to buy directly from Wyze. So I do wish they would improve keeping them in stock, but it’s not the end of the world to me if they don’t.

47

While proprietary parts are indeed commonplace, they are also in stock. This is where Wyze screwed up. As I said before, if they can’t keep the filters in stock then they need to stop selling the purifier because that just puts more demand for more filters. And if no one can get them then what’s the point of having this product?! And yes we can pay more and buy them from Amazon, but seriously why should we? I don’t understand the logic in Wyze selling them on Amazon when clearly there is more than enough demand buying directly from Wyze because they always go out of stock, since day one it’s been like this. And it’s this out of stock situation is why they should have just made a common filter size.

48

From what little I understand about this, Wyze is a VAR that buys the air purifier and filter from another company (call them X)

X makes the air purifier and sources the filters from CoClean. If X doesn’t have the filters, Wyze isn’t able to buy them. There might be some rule stating Wyze can’t buy direct from CoClean. Again, I am just speculating.

It would make sense for Wyze to buy pallets of these but that would not be a decision that the finance department would approve.

49

So yet again Wyze just rebranded another product. Yet make it sound as if they designed it, just figures. But if Wyze is actually just buying someone else’s filters, then they shouldn’t have a subscription service for them and let use buy directly from that company.

50

Since Wyze cannot supply the consumable for the air filter that they are still selling, I believe that they should offer their customers their money back. This is a useless product without the filters! I have been trying to get therm for over 3 months now. This is unacceptable! I am starting to rethink using any Wyze products if this is an indication of their ability to supply necessary consumables.

51

@irishjd

Filters are available on Amazon. No one said you have to buy them through Wyze.

PUREBURG 2-Pack Replacecment True HEPA Filters Compatible with WYZE Smart Air Purifier,H13 4-Stage Filtration Activated carbon 2-in-1 Air Clean Dust VOCs Odor PM2.5 https://a.co/d/4cil5Ta

WYZE Smart Air Purifier - Standard Filter https://a.co/d/7LfrMAt

I live in Illinois and can have the Wyze filter tomorrow and the PUREBURG filters in 3 days.

I can verify the PUREBURG filters fit.

The PUREBURG filters are $64.49 for 2

The WYZE filter is $49.98 for 1

52

You really are missing the point aren’t you? Wyze has a subscription service for a product they are peddling as their own design. They have the filters to sell on Amazon at a higher price point but not for their customers directly from them. The fact is they lied to us and need to stop selling this the Air Purifier. I wanted this company to succeed but it’s very clear to me that they need to go out of business because they constantly lie to their customers.

53

I think the reason they can’t keep them in stock is that at the price point they sell for, they have to do large batch orders well in advance, and at the same time can’t reserve a large warehouse space because that is expensive. Most companies don’t have this kind of issue, but they charge 3x the price to cover these costs and make a bigger profit.

Yes, they should allocate inventory to subscriptions first if there is any chance of running out, but beyond that running out is part of the cost of keeping prices down.

54

Sounds like excuses of a bad company to me. If Wyze is going to sell a product that needs replaceable filters, and are selling the filters via a subscription model, then they need to keep them in stock. It’s that simple! Wyze knew this going in, so the fact that they can’t keep them in stock is unsatisfactory and shows how bad they are at business. And if they can’t fix this issue then they should stop selling the Air Purifier altogether.

55

I am not missing the point. I provided two links to filters.

I realize Wyze should have filter inventory ready to ship, but that is beyond our control.

If you need filters, they are available. When Wyze gets more inventory then your subscription will still be valid.

56

I’ve been waiting 3 months now for Wyze to get the filters back in stock, which is ridiculous. And sure I could buy a filter someplace else for a lot more money. Again, if a company is going to have a filter subscription service then they need to have them in stock. But they really need to stop selling this product until they can fix this issue.

57

I completely understand your view and the filters should be available especially for a subscription.

Wyze sells the filter for $34.99 plus $8.00 shipping which equals $42.99

Amazon sells the same Wyze filter for $49.98 with free shipping for prime members. You can get it for $47.48 with Subscribe and Save

So the difference between the Wyze filter from Wyze and the Wyze filter from Amazon is $4.49 that you are arguing about.

58

Look, $4.49 by itself isn’t a lot of money. However, when you add in all the other inflated costs due to our economy right now it really adds up significantly. For instance, in my area utilities have literally doubled in costs within the last 5 years. And at every turn memberships/subscriptions for Costco, Amazon, Netflix and Internet providers keep raising fees. So yeah, if I can get my filters for $42.99 out the door instead of $47.48 to keep more money in my pocket, I will.

59

They sold me 3 of them and then cancelled the order. I complained and got nowhere. I just placed a FTC complaint.
They need to stop selling products they can’t support.

60

Maybe a class action is needed.