I too have been using them over a year. They work fine and are generally conveniently disposable. That said, I keep a pleated filter and clarifier on hand for periods of heavy use by people not normally in a tub. When it's just us in it, it generally keeps the water acceptably clear with a little foam eventually but not enough to warrant clarifier or defoam. It will recover from heavy use, but not quick enough for me. So if you constantly entertain oily shedders, you're probably not going to be happy and will have to switch a pleated in to run clarifier. You risk imploding your filter if you use clarifier with it.
Judging by how narrow the pleats are on an equivalent sized 50 sq ft filter for an Arctic, I really wonder how you can really get one clean by soaking and rinsing. The gunk produced by using a clarifier is pretty sticky nasty stuff and not easily removed from anything to which it's attached. I'm with Bosco. Generally, it's a pretty convenient filter.
