What a water purifier really costs over five years

Water purifiers are sold on purchase price and owned on running cost. The gap between those two numbers is where most of the money actually goes.

What you are really paying for

• The unit. Typically ₹12,000–35,000 depending on tier.
• Filters and membranes. An RO membrane is a consumable with a service life, replaced on a schedule.
• Annual servicing. Most households spend between ₹2,500 and ₹8,000 a year.
• The water you discard. Rarely counted, because it arrives on a different bill.

A worked example

A premium RO at around ₹22,490 with servicing at ₹8,000 a year comes to roughly ₹62,490 over five years. The Rhion Super Premium is ₹47,999 with five years of maintenance included — so nothing further in that window.

At the low end of the servicing range the gap narrows considerably. That is the honest version, and it is why the calculator on the product page takes your own numbers rather than ours.

The cost that never appears on a bill

In the IAPMO series the Biofier recovered 54.6–72.7% of its feed water; the competitor RO 47.4–52.3%. For a household drinking eight litres a day that difference is around 15,600 litres over five years — roughly fifty trees' worth of water for a year.