Hey all,

The mystery is solved. I got a reply to my email from HTG this morning. They seemed to know what the issue was right away.

"If you shake the filter, does it rattle? The carbon is supposed to be packed real tight, shouldn't make a sound if you shake it."

I came home from work and shook it. It rattled alright. Big time.

Called them and they are exchanging it for free. Asked me to send the old one in, and they'll send me a new one. Um, no - then I'll have no filtration at all for about a week, and I'm supposed to have company over tomorrow night. So I've arranged to buy another one, and they will credit me when they get the defective one back. Overnighting the new one was another ten bucks, so I went for it.

Tomorrow evening will be burning a lot of incense and running around spraying Febreeze all over, but the issue is resolved. Lesson learned.

Thanks for all the help on this one folks.