Best Water Filter Jug 2026: 10 Ranked by Cost Per Litre

Run the arithmetic that nobody puts on these listings and this wins outright. One cartridge, rated at more than 200 gallons or 757 litres, in a £15.49 jug. That works out at 48.9 litres of filtered water for every pound you spend, against 4.2 for the BRITA XXL tank at the bottom of this page. The cartridge is also rated at three months rather than the four weeks BRITA quotes, so you will handle it a third as often.

The certification is the other reason it sits first. This is NSF 42 certified for chlorine, taste and odour reduction, and NSF 372 certified as lead-free in its materials. Those are named, checkable standards from a recognised body, which is more than most of this guide offers, and the 3.5 litre body holds a litre more than the standard BRITA Marella. With 17,391 ratings at 4.6 the evidence behind it is deep.

Two things to know. It uses the Waterdrop WD-PF-01A Plus cartridge, not BRITA MAXTRA, so the cheap third-party MAXTRA cartridges do not fit and you are tied to Waterdrop for refills. And the listing is candid that reducing TDS is not what this filter is for, which is a fair warning rather than a fault. Check the 25.5 x 13.5 x 25.5cm dimensions against your fridge door before ordering.

If you want a BRITA, and plenty of people sensibly do because the cartridges are stocked in every supermarket in the country, this is the bundle to buy. Twelve MAXTRA PRO cartridges at 150 litres each gives 1,800 litres of filtered water in one box, which is the largest volume in this guide by a distance and works out at 40 litres per pound spent.

The comparison inside BRITA own range makes the point sharply. The same Marella jug with three cartridges sells for £19.99. This one, with twelve, is £44.99. So the nine extra cartridges cost £25, or £2.78 each, against roughly £5 apiece bought individually. Buying the annual pack rather than the starter pack is close to a half-price deal on the consumable that actually costs you money.

The MAXTRA PRO cartridge is also a genuine improvement on the older MAXTRA+ that ships with the cheaper Marella listings further down: four-stage filtration, a micro-mesh that BRITA says blocks microparticles of 30 microns four times better than its predecessor, and 150 litres of life against roughly 100. The jug itself is the familiar 2.4 litre Marella that fits a fridge door and holds 1.4 litres of filtered water, with a digital Memo indicator on the lid.

Philips has quietly built a strong position here and 7,440 ratings say buyers have noticed. Four Taste+ cartridges at 150 litres each gives 600 litres in the box for £23.91, or 25.1 litres per pound, which beats every BRITA listing in this guide except the twelve-cartridge annual pack.

The filtration claims are also more specific than the category norm. Where most listings talk vaguely about impurities, Philips names microplastics, chlorine, limescale, heavy metals and PFAS. It also claims 20 percent faster filtration than comparable jugs, which sounds like marketing until you have stood at a sink waiting for a slow filter to drain. A digital timer on the lid tracks the cartridge rather than leaving you to remember, and the jug is shaped to fit a fridge door.

Two small things. The listing gives the cartridge life twice, once as 30 days and once as approximately one month or 150 litres, and those are not quite the same claim: 150 litres in 30 days is five litres a day, which is more than most households filter. Use the litre figure. And the specification table lists the product dimensions as 25 by 11 by 24 millimetres, which would make it a jug the size of a matchbox. It is centimetres.

The Liscia is built around one idea, which is fitting where other jugs do not. The profile is slim enough for a fridge door shelf rather than needing a whole rack space, and if you have ever tried to wedge a round BRITA into a door and given up, that alone may decide it. Six Evolve+ cartridges at 100 litres each puts 600 litres in the box for £22.00, or 27.3 litres per pound, second only to the Waterdrop and the BRITA annual pack.

The five-stage Evolve+ cartridge is a step above the simple carbon-and-resin designs, reducing limescale, chlorine and microplastics, and Aqua Optima is clear that each cartridge is rated at 100 litres. That is the shortest life in this guide, so you will change it more often than a Waterdrop owner, but the six in the box cover the best part of a year for a modest household.

One inconsistency to note. The first bullet gives the dimensions as H240 x W260 x D100mm, which is 24 by 26 by 10cm and matches the slim-fit claim. The specification table says 26 by 20 by 24 centimetres. The depth is the number that decides whether it fits your fridge door, and the two figures disagree by 10cm. Measure your shelf and treat the bullet figure as the one to check against.

If the problem you are solving is a household that empties a 2.4 litre jug by lunchtime, the Onyx is the sensible answer. At 4.2 litres it is the biggest jug here, nearly double the standard Marella, and the countertop shape is designed to be left out rather than crammed into a fridge. Three Maxfor+ cartridges come in the box, the flip-top lid fills one-handed, and the whole thing is dishwasher safe apart from the lid.

The Maxfor+ cartridge is well regarded and AQUAPHOR makes a point of its longer contact time, which is what allows a filter to do more per pass rather than just running water through carbon quickly. It reduces chlorine, limescale, pesticides and heavy metals including lead.

What we cannot tell you is how long it lasts, because AQUAPHOR does not say. The fourth bullet promises a longer filter life and offers no number, in litres or in weeks, anywhere on the page. In a category where the entire cost of ownership is cartridge life, that is the one figure a listing has to publish, and it is why this sits fifth rather than higher. There is also a small contradiction worth a smile: the second bullet advertises a battery-free filter life counter, while the specification table lists the power source as Battery Powered.

This is the default purchase in the category and the numbers explain why: 20,468 ratings at 4.6 is more feedback than any other jug in this search, the Marella shape has been on British fridge shelves for two decades, and MAXTRA cartridges are stocked everywhere from Tesco to the corner shop. If you want the option you can replace in five minutes on a Sunday, this is it.

The reason it sits sixth is what comes in the box. One MAXTRA+ cartridge, with an indicator that flashes after four weeks. MAXTRA+ is the older cartridge, rated at roughly 100 litres against 150 for the MAXTRA PRO in the twelve-pack at number two, so you are starting with the smallest amount of filtered water of any listing here and buying refills almost immediately.

That is easily fixed, and fixing it is the actual advice. Either buy the annual bundle at number two, or buy this jug and pair it with third-party cartridges: the search returns an Amazon Basics six-pack at £19.80 with more than 16,000 ratings and a Maxblue twelve-pack at £19.99, both declared compatible with MAXTRA+, working out at £3.30 and £1.67 per cartridge. The jug is good. It is the starter cartridge count that makes the sticker price misleading.

The Style is the Marella in a squarer, taller body, and for a lot of fridges that shape works better: it sits flat against a shelf back rather than rolling, and the narrower footprint leaves room beside it. At 4.7 from 10,632 ratings it holds the highest score in this guide, which is not nothing across a sample that size.

Everything else follows the Marella. The same 2.4 litre capacity, the same MAXTRA+ cartridge with the same four-week lid indicator, the same German build and the same universal cartridge availability. It costs £2.01 more than the Marella for the shape and a slightly different lid, which is a fair price for a preference.

And it inherits the same limitation. One MAXTRA+ cartridge in the box, quoted only in weeks rather than litres, on a listing that costs £26.00. That is the least filtered water per pound of any BRITA in this guide bar the tank at number ten. The remedy is identical: pair it with a multipack of cartridges, own-brand or third-party, and the running cost drops to something sensible. Judged on the jug alone it is excellent. Judged on what arrives in the box, it is a starter kit.

The complaint everyone has about filter jugs is the waiting: you fill the funnel, then stand there while it drains. The ED61B replaces gravity with a pump, so you press a button and filtered water comes out immediately through a 5 micron carbon block. If that irritation is the reason your current jug lives at the back of a cupboard, this is the product that fixes it.

It keeps the Waterdrop advantage on running cost, with a filter rated at 200 gallons or three months, the same 757 litres as the manual PT-07B at number one. It claims reduction of 98 percent of chlorine and more than 20 contaminants, holds 3.5 litres, and charges over USB-C with battery-powered standby so it is not tethered to a socket.

Two caveats keep it at eight. It costs £38.99 against £15.49 for the manual jug with the same filter, so you are paying £23.50 for the convenience of not waiting. And it holds 711 ratings, comfortably the thinnest sample in this guide, on a product with a pump and a battery, which are two more things to fail than a plastic jug has. The listing is also refreshingly blunt in its first bullet that this system does not lower TDS, and directs you elsewhere if that is what you want.

The Flow solves a real problem for larger households. An 8.2 litre tank holding 5.2 litres of filtered water means one fill covers a family day rather than three trips to the sink, and the tap on the front means nobody has to lift a heavy jug to pour a glass. It sits on a fridge shelf rather than in the door, and the sliding lid makes refilling and cleaning easy.

The MAXTRA PRO cartridge inside is BRITA current generation, rated at 150 litres over four weeks, with the four-stage filtration and the micro-mesh that blocks particles down to 30 microns. The digital Memo indicator tracks the cycle. As a piece of kit for a busy kitchen it is well judged and 6,094 ratings at 4.6 back that up.

The value is where it falls down, and by this guide measure it falls a long way. One cartridge in the box, 150 litres of filtered water, for £35.95. That is 4.2 litres per pound, the worst figure in this guide and less than a tenth of the Waterdrop at number one. You are paying for the tank and the tap, which is fine if that is what you need, but understand that the running cost starts immediately. One small oddity in the specification table: the Included components field contains the literal word FALSE.