4 ms·

I realize that air filters are the perfect candidate for a subscription service... but it's just insane the that every product in existence has a business prepa

I realize that air filters are the perfect candidate for a subscription service... but it's just insane the that every product in existence has a business prepared to ship some of it to you monthly.

nthj 6y ago
As long as the markets value ARR at a 3-10x multiple, subscription businesses will continue to appear :)
bfuclusion 6y ago
It's not super easy to be in the filters subscription business. People have odd size filters (I'm one of them, it's 1" shorter than the standard size), so it's a bit labor intensive. This is the sort of thing you should really be able to subscribe to when you get your furnace.
kelnos 6y ago
Even with filters, it annoys me from an environmental perspective that the default flow leads you into having them ship you the exact number of filters your house needs, every two months. Do filters have a shelf life? If not, or if it's sufficiently long, I'd rather they just send me six filters once a year, instead of one every two months, or something like that. I get that some people might not have enough storage space to pre-order like that, but it's otherwise completely unnecessary to send one at a time. (The only plus I can think of to the one-at-a-time model is that getting a new one in the mail is a nice reminder to replace the filter. But I also have this thing called a "calendar" that I can use.)
- bfuclusion 6y ago
  You can totally do the six filters once a year, that's how I usually do it, but the smoke is destroying filters pretty quickly. If you want minimal brain power, getting them every 3-months (or what your normal cycle is) is fairly optimal, since getting new filter === time to change the filter.
- scruple 6y ago
  I keep extra filters in the garage for about 6 months before they rotate into use. I'm not sure if they have a shelf life or not but we've never noticed any difference and neither have our indoor air sensors.

I realize that air filters are the perfect candidate for a subscription service... but it's just insane the that every product in existence has a business prepared to ship some of it to you monthly.

nthj 6y ago

As long as the markets value ARR at a 3-10x multiple, subscription businesses will continue to appear :)

bfuclusion 6y ago

It's not super easy to be in the filters subscription business. People have odd size filters (I'm one of them, it's 1" shorter than the standard size), so it's a bit labor intensive. This is the sort of thing you should really be able to subscribe to when you get your furnace.

kelnos 6y ago

Even with filters, it annoys me from an environmental perspective that the default flow leads you into having them ship you the exact number of filters your house needs, every two months. Do filters have a shelf life? If not, or if it's sufficiently long, I'd rather they just send me six filters once a year, instead of one every two months, or something like that. I get that some people might not have enough storage space to pre-order like that, but it's otherwise completely unnecessary to send one at a time. (The only plus I can think of to the one-at-a-time model is that getting a new one in the mail is a nice reminder to replace the filter. But I also have this thing called a "calendar" that I can use.)

bfuclusion 6y ago
You can totally do the six filters once a year, that's how I usually do it, but the smoke is destroying filters pretty quickly. If you want minimal brain power, getting them every 3-months (or what your normal cycle is) is fairly optimal, since getting new filter === time to change the filter.
scruple 6y ago
I keep extra filters in the garage for about 6 months before they rotate into use. I'm not sure if they have a shelf life or not but we've never noticed any difference and neither have our indoor air sensors.