Best UV/UF Water purifiers in India

If you are in the market for a water purifier and are still trying to decide which type is best for you - consider watching this detailed video. But I will still summarize UV/UF in this video for you.

WATCH INSTEAD OF READ?

DO I NEED A UV/UF WATER PURIFIER?

Let’s get started. If your TDS is below 200ppm - you can make do with a UV/UF water purifier. How to measure this? There are TDS meters available for 200-250 rupees, I’ve linked to a few in the description. I’ve also linked to the best UV/UF and RO water purifiers in the description. If you go for an RO water purifier, it is an unnecessary upfront and running cost as well as RO wastes water during purification. So unless absolutely necessary, you should not go for RO water purification.

The other key aspect to understand in regards to water purifiers is UV kills bacteria and viruses and UF removes bacteria / virus (both dead and alive) and other suspended particles from the water. UF can also remove benzene, chlorine, pesticides, proteins, rust, and viruses as these particles pass through the UF membrane. But it only partially removes copper, lead and mercury. If your water contains these - then you may need to go for an RO water purifier. TDS will not be able to show you that, you may need to get your water tested. As an alternative, a sediment filter would be useful to remove suspended particles as well but UF is better. So ideally - it would be useful to have both UV and UF in a water purifier and that will be one of the criteria we will look at while comparing.

COMPARING KENT, AO SMITH, EUREKA FORBES, HUL, HAVELLS UV/UF WATER PURIFIERS

So let’s jump right into the comparison. The models I’m comparing today are

1. AO Smith X2

2. KENT Maxx

3. Eureka Forbes Aquaguard Deluxe

4. Eureka Forbes Aquasure from Aquaguard Aquaflo D

5. HUL Pureit Marvella UV Water Purifier

6. Havells UV Plus

7. Kent Ultra

8. Kent Ultra Storage 7 Ltr, UV and UF Water Purifier

9. Eureka Forbes Aquaguard Vista

10. Eureka Forbes Aquaguard Aura

11. AO Smith Z1 HUL Pureit Classic UV+

12. Kent Sterling UV.

Firstly - they are all available in various different price points. Generally the ones with the largest storage capacity or special features like hot water dispensers are more expensive and the ones that have low or no storage are less expensive.

Talking about storage - these water purifiers have different ranges of storage - from 0 all the way to 10 Liters. Almost always the storage tank is food grade plastic. None of these have a stainless steel tank. The ones that have instant claim to have a fast fill of about 2 liters per minute.

Coming to the most important aspect - the purification. Like I said above, having UV + UF or a sediment filter is ideal. Except for the Eureka Forbes Aura, none of the other Eureka Forbes models offer neither a UF nor a sediment filter. The HUL models offer a sediment filter. Rest of the models offer UF. Since these require the filter to be changed frequently, it would be ideal to have a filter change indicator. Most newer models do come with that. Only the Kent Ultra - which is a basic purification system - does not offer that. So if I were looking from a purification perspective alone - the best models to consider would be the ones highlighted on the screen.

Let’s talk about some salient positives about some of these models -

• Eureka Forbes models have a Mineral Guard and UV e-boiling. Also have a chemical block to remove chlorine and organic impurities. Not clear what benefit the mineral guard has as UV/UF normally do not strip off of essential minerals. In addition, the Eureka Forbes Aura looks really nice - one of the best in this segment

• Havells UV Plus can be mounted in the corner as well as a flat mount.

• AO Smith Z1 is great if you need hot water

• Kent Sterling UV is good if you are considering an under the counter UV/UF water purifier.

All of these models reviewed give a 1 year warranty and have a rating of above 4 (except for Kent Ultra - which is almost 4).

Some of these models are quite old - so you may want to consider that when you are purchasing. These are based on the dates published on the marketplaces.

After sales service - A quick note on after sales service - this depends a lot on the area you stay in and the network a specific brand has in your area. Amongst all of the models Kent seems to have the best after sales service followed by Eureka Forbes. The rest of the brands - AO Smith, HUL and Havells do not seem to have great after sales service as per the reviews.

RECOMMENDED UV/UF WATER PURIFIERS

OK Now that we have seen the comparison of all the models - what are my top recommendations? My recommended models are models that have UV + UF - as we want to make sure that most impurities, pesticides, chlorine etc can be removed from the purified water, have a decent customer service.

1. Eureka Forbes Aquaguard Aura

2. Kent Ultra Storage

3. Kent Maxx

UV/UF WATER PURIFIER WITH HOT WATER DISPENSER

I’d like to call out two other models which do a good job with filtration and solve specific usecase - if you have that.

• If you are looking for hot water dispenser, consider the AO Smith Z1

• If you are looking for an under the counter UV/UF water filter or a filter to connect to your fridge, consider the Kent Sterling UV. There are very few other models and this model is the best available today.