I almost listed this as mine. The design is still really good for the cost. Ease of use / cleaning / disposing of grounds is a smart design. I accept that the seal will wear, I actually think not over-engineering the seal and making it triple the price adds to the design.

It's not too hard to get a replacement rubber seal, and easy to swap in the new part.

They say it will last longer if you don't store it with the seal compressed in the tube, but I always leave it like that and it still lasts years.

If you just push it all the way through, the tip of the seal won't be compressed. No effort to do it like that.

I don't really understand why you'd do that though, do you not rinse the press after every use? Just stow it with the pieces separated unless it's in "travel mode" no?

Well, the beauty of aeropress is that you don't have to rinse the inside of the cilinder every time. It cleans itself. Most of the time I just clean the rubber. Also, storing them separated takes more space in the cupboard.

replacement seals are cheap $6

Do you know if you can get a real one on Aliexpress? I’ve looked at replacements but wouldn’t want to get a fake that will leech at high temps. I’m not in the US.