Aquaphor water filter review 2026: is it any good?

Reading time: ~10 minutes

What is an Aquaphor water filter?

Aquaphor is an international filter brand best known in the Netherlands and Belgium for its filter jugs: a jug with a cartridge in the funnel, where you pour in tap water and pour out filtered water. The brand also makes under-sink systems with activated carbon cartridges, and a reverse osmosis line. That's three completely different techniques under one name, and that's exactly where the confusion begins.

According to Google Ads search volume data for the Netherlands, "aquaphor waterfilter" is searched around 70 times a month, with a peak of 110 in September 2025 and a measured difficulty score of 7 out of 100. The search intent is commercial: people typing this are about to choose something. At PureFilter, we see the same question come back in our inbox, almost always in the form "I already have a jug, is that enough?". If you want to take that comparison further, our overview of the best water filter for the home sets out the main types side by side.

One honest disclaimer upfront: we sell an under-sink filter ourselves, so we have an interest. That's why we stick to facts you can check yourself in this piece, and we also point out what Aquaphor does well.

The Aquaphor models and what they cost

The prices below are the listings visible on Google Shopping for the Netherlands on 31 August 2026, from sellers such as bol.com, Amazon.nl and specialist webshops. They vary by seller and by week, so use them as an indicative price.

So the spread is wide: from a twelve-euro jug to an osmosis installation of nearly three hundred. That also means "I have an Aquaphor" says nothing about what's actually being taken out of the water. For comparison: the PureFilter Mineral+ costs €149.00 including the first filter and sits in the price bracket between Aquaphor's fixed systems.

Aqualen and Maxfor+: what's in the cartridge?

Aquaphor sets itself apart with a proprietary material it calls Aqualen: a fibre material that exchanges ions and, according to the brand and its Dutch resellers, sits alongside activated carbon in the cartridge. The idea is that the fibres give a larger contact surface than loose carbon granules, so the water makes better contact with the filter material. The cartridges are called Maxfor+ for most jugs, with the version marked Mg releasing magnesium into the water.

Important to know: these are brand claims. We found no independent Dutch test of these specific models for substances such as PFAS or pharmaceutical residues. There is an objective yardstick for filters, though: the certification standards from NSF International: standard 42 covers taste, odour and chlorine, standard 53 covers health-related contaminants, standard 61 covers materials that come into contact with drinking water, and standard 372 covers lead-free components. So always ask, for any brand, which standard a model is tested to, not just whether it's "certified". The PureFilter Mineral+ is certified to NSF 42, 53, 61 and 372.

That distinction between taste filtration and health filtration is the crux of this whole topic. It determines what place each filter type has in a kitchen, and it explains why two filters that look the same do completely different things.

What does an Aquaphor filter, and what doesn't it?

The product descriptions from Dutch resellers are strikingly consistent on this. The jugs are always described as reducing limescale, chlorine and heavy metals and improving taste and odour. That word "reducing" isn't a marketing trick but an accurate description: a carbon cartridge in a jug binds part of the substances flowing past it, depending on contact time, water temperature and how full the cartridge already is.

What the jugs are good at

• Chlorine taste: activated carbon binds free chlorine well, and that's the most noticeable taste improvement.
• Odour and off-flavours: organic compounds that affect taste are also partly removed.
• Limescale perception: ion exchange lowers the hardness of the filtered water, so there's less white film on tea.
• Price and barrier to entry: for twelve euros you have something in the house. That's a real advantage.

What the jugs aren't made for

• PFAS: a jug filter isn't the route for tackling this. Look at the certification for that, and at our page about a water filter against PFAS.
• Continuously filtered water: only what you pour is filtered. What you draw straight from the tap for cooking or coffee isn't.
• Nitrate and fluoride: dissolved substances that don't bind to carbon largely remain.
• Mineralising: apart from the Mg cartridges, these filters remove substances; they don't add anything.

What that means for Dutch tap water

Dutch tap water isn't problem water. According to Milieu Centraal, tap water is the cheapest and most sustainable drink you can choose, and the quality is strictly regulated. The Watergebruik Thuis (Water Use at Home) study by Vewin shows that a Dutch person uses just over 117 litres of water per person per day on average, of which only a couple of litres are actually drunk. It's precisely those couple of litres you want to get right.

Two Dutch characteristics determine what a filter delivers here. The first is hardness. According to Vitens, hard water is simply water with a lot of calcium and magnesium, and the law requires drinking water companies to retain a minimum hardness of 5.6 °dH. So they can't remove the limescale completely, and limescale build-up only appears once you heat that water. Limescale is therefore a permanent theme here, which explains why Aquaphor explicitly targets hardness with a model like the Crystal Soft. We explain how that works for the drinking water itself in our piece on filtering limescale out of your tap water.

The second is PFAS. All Dutch tap water meets the statutory limit, but the RIVM also applies a stricter indicative guideline value of 4.4 nanograms per litre, expressed in PFOA equivalents, because people also take in PFAS through food. The same research shows that people take in roughly three times as much PFAS through food as through tap water, and that the RIVM advises bringing down the concentration in tap water made from river water. Sixty per cent of our tap water comes from groundwater, which on average contains less PFAS than tap water made from surface water. If you live in an area that runs on river water, this is therefore more than a theoretical question.

Then there's the pipework side of things. According to Milieu Centraal, older homes can still have lead pipes, in which case the lead only enters your water after the water company's measuring point. That's one of the few situations where filtering at the tap genuinely adds something on top of what the standard already covers.

The downsides of an Aquaphor water filter

1. You have to keep pouring

Every litre of filtered water starts with an action. In practice, that means: a half-full jug right when you're thirsty, and unfiltered water in the pan because it's quicker. This is the objection we hear most often from people switching over, and it applies just as much to jugs from other brands. See also our Brita water filter review and the explanation of what a water filter dispenser does.

2. Replacing cartridges, every month or two

Jug cartridges have a short lifespan, usually a few weeks to around two months with normal use. If you forget, performance drops and the cartridge sits damp in the funnel. We correct this misconception often: a filter you don't replace doesn't filter better, it filters worse. More on that in how often you should replace a water filter.

3. Standing water at room temperature

Filtered water sitting in a jug on the counter for a day is standing water without chlorine. Keep the jug in the fridge and use it daily. This isn't an issue with an inline filter, because the water only passes through the filter the moment you turn on the tap.

4. The osmosis line also removes the minerals

Choose the Aquaphor osmosis version and you get very clean water, but reverse osmosis doesn't distinguish between what you don't want and what you do want. Calcium and magnesium go down the drain along with everything else, and such systems also flush water away. We've set out what that means for your health and your taste in whether osmosis water is healthy or unhealthy and in the technical explanation of an RO water filter.

Aquaphor versus an under-sink filter

The table shows this isn't a fight between good and bad. An Aquaphor jug is a fine entry point for anyone mainly wanting to lose the chlorine taste and not keen to spend a hundred and fifty euros straight away. A fixed filter wins once you want filtered water to be the default rather than an action. Installation is also simpler than people expect: our guide to installing a water filter walks through the steps, and a 3/8 connection is included as standard.

What does it cost per year?

This is where it gets interesting, because the low purchase price of a jug says little about the annual cost. Working with the prices above: a set of three Maxfor+ cartridges costs €14.59, and if you replace them every six weeks, you need around nine a year. That works out at roughly €44 on cartridges per year, plus the cost of the jug in the first year. Use more water and the cartridges wear out faster, pushing that amount up.

With the PureFilter Mineral+, a replacement filter costs €65.00 and lasts around twelve months for a household of 1 to 3 people, which works out at roughly less than one cent per litre. For 4 to 6 people, a filter lasts around six months, working out at roughly €0.27 per day. So the annual cost is in the same order as a jug with cartridges, while you don't have to do anything for it, and the filtered water also comes out of the tap when you're filling a pan.

Which choice is best for whom?

Choose an Aquaphor filter jug if you mainly want to get rid of the chlorine taste, live alone or temporarily, aren't allowed to or don't want to make a fixed connection, and want to keep the cost low. That's a sensible choice for a student room or temporary home. Keep it in the fridge and replace the cartridge on time.

Choose an Aquaphor osmosis system if you deliberately want extremely low levels of all dissolved substances and don't mind that the minerals go too, that rinse water runs to waste, and that the system needs more space and maintenance. Why minerals do matter is covered in our piece on minerals in drinking water.

Choose an inline under-sink filter if you simply drink Dutch tap water and want every glass, every pan and every cup of coffee to be filtered without anyone having to think about it. That's why we make this type: purify first, then mineralise as the final step with Swedish Mineral Rock™. In what we supply for households, the Mineral+ and its replacement filters are listed together. If you're still torn between types, what the healthiest water filter is helps sharpen the health angle.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

An Aquaphor water filter isn't a bad product, but it also isn't a single product. The €12 to €42 jugs do what they promise on taste, odour, chlorine and limescale, and for many people that's already a win. They're not built for PFAS or nitrate, they only filter what you pour, and you have to swap the cartridges every four to eight weeks. The fixed systems and the osmosis line go further, but then you're in the same price bracket as an inline under-sink filter, and with osmosis you lose the minerals.

If you just want filtered water to be the default in your kitchen, the sum is simple: €149.00 one-off and then €65.00 a year for a household of 1 to 3 people, or less than one cent per litre. More than 100 contaminants out, magnesium, calcium and potassium in, installed in 5 to 10 minutes without a plumber. With 40 days free returns and a 5-year guarantee, you can put that next to your current jug risk-free.