Mypurmist vs Vicks Sinus Inhaler (2026): Which to Buy

This is the difference that matters, and it is binary rather than a matter of degree. The Mypurmist Free is a battery-powered handheld unit. The Vicks Sinus Inhaler plugs into a wall. If the place you want to steam has no outlet within reach, one of these devices works there and the other does not, and no discussion of price changes that.

The useful test is concrete rather than aspirational. Picture the next three times you are realistically going to use a steam inhaler. If any of them is in bed at 11 p.m., on a couch across a room from a socket, or in a hotel, the Mypurmist earns its price, because a device you cannot use where you want to use it gets used a handful of times and then lives in a cupboard. If all three are at a kitchen table or a bathroom counter, the cord is a non-issue and $136.97 is a great deal of money to spend removing a constraint you do not have.

This is the axis where the comparison gets uncomfortable for Mypurmist, and it is worth spelling out precisely. Mypurmist markets its steam as ultrapure and sells a dedicated Mypurmist water refill at $19.95 (verified September 5, 2026). What is not published in our verified data is how many sessions a refill supports. Without that figure, nobody can calculate a cost per session or a cost per year, and we will not estimate one, because a guess here would be the most consequential number on the page.

The Vicks position is fully priceable by contrast. Its consumable is a scent pad, it is optional, and the device runs perfectly well on plain water with no pad at all. VapoPads original menthol were $14.97 for 20 pads and the Plus sinus relief 20-pack was $23.55 on the same date, one pad per session. You can work out exactly what a season costs before you buy, and you can decide the answer is zero.

Here is the part that should shape your expectations of every review you read on these two devices, including this one. In our verified data, neither Vicks nor Mypurmist publishes a warm-up time or a steam output figure. Mypurmist additionally publishes no session length and no per-charge runtime. That means four of the numbers a careful buyer would most want to compare simply do not exist in published form, and any article presenting them as facts has invented them.

What Vicks does publish is a session range: 5 to 15 minutes for the Sinus Inhaler. That is genuinely useful, particularly to a first-time owner, because the most common mistake in this category is running a session far too long in the belief that more steam means more relief. It does not; the comfort arrives in the first few minutes. In the absence of a Mypurmist figure, that same 5 to 15 minute range is the sensible ceiling to apply to the cordless unit too. The full routine is in how to use a steam inhaler.

On warm-up specifically, the practical instruction for both is identical: switch on, wait until steam is coming steadily from the mask or wand, and only then bring your face near it. Watch the steam, not a clock.

The Vicks Sinus Inhaler has a VapoPads scent pad slot with one pad in the box. Mypurmist publishes no scent pad slot anywhere in its line, at $159.95 or at $199.95. If menthol or sinus-relief scented vapor is a meaningful part of what you want from an inhaler, the decision is already made and the cheaper device is the one that makes it.

It is worth being clear about why this cannot be worked around. There is no correct way to add scent to a device that was not designed for it. VapoSteam is a medicated liquid formulated for steam vaporizers with a medicine cup, not for handheld inhalers. VapoRub is a topical ointment. Essential oils belong in a diffuser. Putting any of them into a heating chamber a maker never validated for it risks damaging the device, voids the warranty, and aerosolizes a product that was not intended to be inhaled that way. A pad slot is not a luxury feature; it is the only sanctioned answer to a question most buyers ask.

$179.95 against $42.98 is a gap of $136.97, which is enough to buy the Vicks four times over, or to buy the Vicks plus roughly five 20-packs of Plus sinus relief pads and still have change. Framed that way, the cordless premium is substantial for a device whose benefit is symptomatic comfort during a handful of weeks a year.

Framed the other way, it is $136.97 once for a device that will be used, versus $42.98 once for a device that stays in a cupboard because using it means sitting at a table when you feel awful. Which framing is correct depends entirely on the honest answer to the outlet question, which is why this page keeps returning to it. There is no third framing where the price gap is small.

Worth noting on the Mypurmist side: the Mypurmist Classic is a plug-in handheld at $159.95, which saves $20.00 by removing the only thing that justifies the brand. If you find yourself considering it because $179.95 feels steep, that is a signal that the Vicks is your device. Our full assessment of the line is the Mypurmist review.

Buy the Vicks Sinus Inhaler at $42.98 if: you will realistically use an inhaler sitting at a table or counter; you want scented steam, now or later; you want a consumable you can price before you buy, or none at all; or you are buying your first inhaler and want to find out whether you will actually use one before spending real money. This covers most people, which is why it is our pick in the best steam inhalers guide.

Buy the Mypurmist Free at $179.95 if: cordless use is the requirement rather than a preference, because you steam in bed, you travel with the habit, or a long sinus season means daily use and the cord is the thing that stops you reaching for it. Also buy it if you simply want the best-built object in this category and the price is comfortable. Go in knowing the $19.95 refill has no published session life.

Buy neither, and get the Beurer SI30 at $39.99, if: you want the cheapest credible unit, from an established German health-device maker, with no consumables of any kind and no scent pads to think about. It is the plainest device here and for a lot of buyers that is exactly the specification. Full write-up in the Beurer SI30 review.