Cost data
The Filter Price Index
What every water and air purifier consumable sold in India actually costs, how often it genuinely needs replacing, what that adds up to per year — and, for each one, what happens if you leave it. This is the part of ownership nobody quotes at the point of sale.
Note
A purifier is sold on its purchase price and owned on its consumables. A ₹12,999 RO system with ₹4,000 of annual servicing costs ₹32,999 over five years, and the second number is the one that decides whether the purchase was sensible.
The reason this is hard to research is that consumable pricing is deliberately opaque. Brand AMC bundles parts and labour into one figure that cannot be decomposed. Marketplace listings for the same membrane range from ₹900 to ₹3,200 with no way to tell which are genuine. Service technicians quote per visit rather than per part.
This index does not pretend to resolve that with exact figures. It publishes honest bands, states what drives each replacement interval, and — the column worth reading — sets out what actually happens when each one is deferred. Because the answer is almost never 'it stops working'. It is 'it keeps working and quietly stops doing the thing you bought it for'.
Water purifier consumables
Indicative annual total for the individual consumables below: ₹2,607–₹14,883. A bundled brand AMC covering the same work typically runs ₹1,800–5,500.
| Part | Part price | Interval | Indicative annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sediment pre-filter (spun / pleated) | ₹120–₹450 | 3–6 months | ₹540–₹3,400 |
| Pre-carbon block | ₹250–₹900 | 6–12 months | ₹400–₹2,600 |
| RO membrane (75–100 GPD domestic) | ₹900–₹3,200 | 18–36 months | ₹367–₹2,533 |
| Post-carbon / taste polisher | ₹200–₹700 | 12 months | ₹350–₹1,050 |
| UV lamp (with quartz sleeve cleaning) | ₹400–₹1,600 | 9–12 months | ₹600–₹2,800 |
| UF membrane module | ₹500–₹2,000 | 12–24 months | ₹350–₹2,500 |
| Annual comprehensive service (all filters + labour) | ₹1,800–₹5,500 | 12 months | ₹1,800–₹5,500 |
Part by part
- Sediment pre-filter (spun / pleated)₹120–₹450Estimated
Removes suspended particles before they reach carbon and membrane. The cheapest part in the system and the one protecting the most expensive.
- What sets the interval:
- Turbidity, not time. On a monsoon-affected or borewell supply this can clog in weeks; on clean municipal supply it may genuinely last six months. Inspect it rather than trusting the schedule.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles are widely available and entirely sensible here. A sediment filter has no health claim attached to it, so certification adds nothing.
If you skip it: Flow falls, and the carbon and membrane downstream take the particulate load instead. This is the cheapest possible way to shorten the life of the two expensive components.
- Pre-carbon block₹250–₹900Estimated
Removes chlorine before the RO membrane, and adsorbs organics and taste compounds.
- What sets the interval:
- Chlorine load and total volume treated. Carbon capacity is finite and exhaustion is invisible — there is no colour change and no drop in flow.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles are common. Carbon quality varies considerably and a cheap block may exhaust much sooner, which matters because the membrane is what pays for it.
If you skip it: The single most expensive false economy in domestic RO. Once carbon is exhausted, chlorine reaches the polyamide membrane and oxidises it irreversibly. An exhausted ₹600 cartridge takes a ₹2,500 membrane with it, and the damage shows up as rising treated-water TDS rather than as a fault.
- RO membrane (75–100 GPD domestic)₹900–₹3,200Estimated
The component that actually removes dissolved solids, fluoride, nitrate and metals.
- What sets the interval:
- Feed water quality, above everything else. Iron, high turbidity or chlorine breakthrough can end a membrane in months. Clean municipal feed with intact pre-treatment can exceed three years.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles are widely sold and quality varies enormously. This is the one water part where a certified OEM component is defensible, because rejection performance is the entire function and you cannot see it failing.
If you skip it: Rejection falls silently. Output volume stays normal while treated-water TDS climbs, so the household keeps drinking water it believes is treated. Nothing on the unit reports this — only a TDS meter does.
- Post-carbon / taste polisher₹200–₹700Estimated
Final taste and odour polish on the treated water before the tap.
- What sets the interval:
- Annual, and it is genuinely a hygiene item as much as a taste one — an old carbon cartridge in a warm, wet housing is a bacterial growth site.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles are fine.
If you skip it: Taste deteriorates, and the cartridge can become a source of the bacteria the rest of the system removed.
- UV lamp (with quartz sleeve cleaning)₹400–₹1,600Estimated
Inactivates bacteria and viruses in the treated water or in the storage tank.
- What sets the interval:
- Operating hours. UV-C output falls to roughly 60–70% of new by around 9,000 hours — about a year of continuous use — long before the lamp visibly stops glowing.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles exist. Output specification matters here and is rarely published for cheap lamps, which is a real reason for caution.
If you skip it: The most deceptive failure in household water treatment. The lamp still glows, the indicator stays green, water still flows, and the delivered dose has collapsed. A household running the same lamp for four years has an ornament.
- UF membrane module₹500–₹2,000Estimated
Physical barrier removing bacteria, protozoan cysts and turbidity without electricity.
- What sets the interval:
- Turbidity and fouling. UF modules foul rather than expire, so a supply with sediment shortens life considerably unless there is a sediment stage ahead of it.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles available; fit and sealing quality is the usual differentiator.
If you skip it: Flow falls progressively as it fouls, and accumulated organisms on a neglected module become a contamination source in their own right.
- Annual comprehensive service (all filters + labour)₹1,800–₹5,500Estimated
The bundled figure most households actually pay, covering the routine consumables and the visit.
- What sets the interval:
- Contract terms, not condition. AMC pricing varies more with brand and city than with what your water is doing to the system.
- Third-party parts:
- Independent service is typically 30–50% cheaper than brand AMC. The trade is verifiable parts and a warranty relationship against price — ask specifically whether parts are OEM and get it in writing.
If you skip it: Consumables run past their life quietly. Nothing fails visibly, which is exactly why deferred service is so common and so costly.
Air purifier consumables
Indicative annual total: ₹2,000–₹37,400 for separate stages. Combined 3-in-1 cartridges are usually more expensive per year, not less, because the whole assembly is discarded when the carbon exhausts.
| Part | Part price | Interval | Indicative annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washable pre-filter (mesh) | ₹0–₹600 | Clean every 2–4 weeks | ₹0–₹14,400 |
| HEPA filter (H13) | ₹1,200–₹6,500 | 6–12 months | ₹1,200–₹13,000 |
| Activated carbon filter / panel | ₹800–₹5,000 | 6–12 months | ₹800–₹10,000 |
| Combined 3-in-1 cartridge (pre + HEPA + carbon) | ₹1,800–₹8,000 | 6–12 months | ₹1,800–₹16,000 |
Part by part
- Washable pre-filter (mesh)₹0–₹600Estimated
Captures hair, lint and coarse dust before they reach the HEPA.
- What sets the interval:
- Usually washable rather than replaceable, and it needs cleaning every two to four weeks in a dusty Indian city — far more often than the manual suggests.
- Third-party parts:
- Rarely needed; most are washable for the life of the unit.
If you skip it: A clogged pre-filter cuts airflow, which cuts CADR, which cuts everything the unit does — while the HEPA behind it takes coarse dust it was never meant to handle. This is the highest-value five-minute maintenance task in air purification and the most commonly skipped.
- HEPA filter (H13)₹1,200–₹6,500Estimated
The particle filter — PM2.5, pollen, dander, spores and smoke particulate.
- What sets the interval:
- Particulate load and operating hours, not the calendar. The same filter in a Delhi winter and a Bengaluru monsoon reach very different conditions at the same age — and most filter-life indicators are timers that cannot tell the difference.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles are widely sold and the failure mode is subtle: a filter that does not seal in its housing lets air bypass it entirely, which no amount of filter medium quality compensates for. Check gasket fit, not just the HEPA rating printed on the frame.
If you skip it: Capture efficiency actually rises as a filter loads, but airflow falls — so delivered clean air drops even though each pass cleans better. The unit gets quieter and less effective at the same time, which is easy to mistake for it working well.
- Activated carbon filter / panel₹800–₹5,000Estimated
Adsorbs gases and odours — smoke, cooking, VOCs. The only stage that does anything about gases.
- What sets the interval:
- Gas load and carbon mass. A thin carbon-coated mesh saturates in weeks under real odour load; a granular bed of several hundred grams lasts far longer. The price band here is wide because the products in it are barely the same category.
- Third-party parts:
- Highly variable. Carbon mass is almost never printed on a compatible, which makes the saving unmeasurable.
If you skip it: Worse than useless. A saturated carbon bed stops adsorbing and, in a warm room, can desorb — releasing back what it captured. There is no visual indication of saturation at any point.
- Combined 3-in-1 cartridge (pre + HEPA + carbon)₹1,800–₹8,000Estimated
A single replaceable unit containing all three stages, common in mid-market purifiers.
- What sets the interval:
- Whichever stage exhausts first — which is normally the carbon. The other two stages get discarded with it whether or not they were finished.
- Third-party parts:
- Compatibles common. Sealing is again the risk: a poorly fitting cartridge lets air bypass the whole assembly.
If you skip it: Combined cartridges make the running cost higher than the equivalent separate stages, and that is the point worth checking before buying the machine. Look up the cartridge price before you buy the unit, not afterwards.
Check the consumable price before you buy the machine
This is the practical conclusion, and it takes two minutes at the point of purchase rather than two years of regret afterwards.
- Look up the replacement cartridge price for the exact model before you buy. A unit ₹3,000 cheaper with a cartridge ₹2,000 more expensive is the worse purchase before the second year is out.
- Check whether the filters are separate or combined. Combined cartridges are convenient and structurally more expensive to run, because the HEPA is discarded whenever the carbon exhausts.
- Check that compatibles exist at all. A model whose consumables are only available from one supplier has no price discipline on it, and a discontinued model with no available filters is scrap.
- Ask what the AMC covers and get the inclusion list itemised. “Comprehensive” means different things to different brands, and the membrane is the item most often excluded.
- Buy a ₹300 TDS meter alongside an RO system. It is the only instrument that tells you whether the membrane you are paying to maintain is still doing anything.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to maintain a water purifier in India per year?
Why don't you publish exact prices per brand and model?
Are third-party compatible filters safe to use?
What is the most expensive mistake in purifier maintenance?
How do I know when a filter actually needs changing?
Sources
Every limit and standard quoted on this page comes from one of the documents below. Where a figure is not in one of these, we have not published it.
Indian marketplace listings and brand service tariffs, surveyed for range-setting
BestPurifier editorial survey · checked 2026-08-01
Bands are set from observed spread across marketplace listings, brand service pricing and independent service quotations. They are ranges for budgeting, not quotations, and they are labelled as estimates throughout.
NSF/ANSI 58: Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Treatment Systems
NSF International / ANSI · checked 2026-08-01
Relevant to whether a replacement cartridge carries a verified reduction claim. A compatible part is almost never certified, which matters for health-effect claims and not at all for sediment.
These are indicative Indian market ranges for budgeting, last reviewed 2026-08-08. They are not quotations, and prices move. If you have paid a materially different figure for a part — tell us what you paid. Enough real invoices and this page can be republished as measured data with a stated sample size instead of estimated bands.