Ordering a water filter together with your neighbours: how to arrange it

Reading time: ~8 minutes

1. What does ordering a water filter together mean?

The question often comes up in a street or apartment complex where the water tastes the same, because it comes from the same pipe. Someone buys a filter, the neighbours taste the difference, and then the question is on the table whether you could not simply do it together.

You can, and it is more practical than it sounds. But the word “together” refers to the process, not to the appliance. That distinction determines everything that follows, so it is good to have it clear straight away.

2. Why you cannot share one filter

An under-sink filter is connected with a hose to the angle valve under your sink, between the cold water supply and your tap. The water flows through it the moment you turn the tap on. The filter is therefore physically fixed in one home, behind one tap.

That means three things:

• One filter per home: no pipe runs from your kitchen to your neighbours’, so a shared filter would not reach anyone.
• Own usage, own lifespan: a cartridge lasts up to 12 months for 1 to 3 people and up to 6 months for 4 or more. Two households of different sizes therefore replace at different moments.
• Own kitchen, own connection: one kitchen has more room under the sink than another, and the connection size can differ.

You sometimes see this differently with collective schemes for solar panels or insulation. There you buy together because you need an installer and economies of scale. A €149.00 water filter that you connect yourself in 5 to 10 minutes does not have that problem. That is why there is no buying collective for water filters like there is for energy.

3. What ordering together does deliver

First the honest part: the price does not change. There is no sliding scale and no group discount, and shipping within the Netherlands is free anyway, with no minimum order. Three households ordering together pay exactly the same as three households ordering separately.

The gain lies elsewhere, and it is more concrete than it sounds.

Finding it out once instead of three times

The questions are the same for everyone in the same street: which water comes out of the tap here, how hard is it, does the filter fit under my sink. One person who finds that out saves everyone else an evening. Start with the water hardness in your municipality, because it partly determines what you notice about the water.

Learning to install once, then routine

The first installation takes the longest, because you work out how the angle valve is fitted. By the second and third kitchen you are done faster. Anyone who has gone through the steps for installing a water filter once does the rest on routine. You do not need a plumber; for the installation you use one pair of water pump pliers.

Reminding each other

Replacing the cartridge is the point where it usually goes wrong with a filter: not because it is difficult, but because you forget. If you order together, the schedule runs roughly in step and you remind each other. How to work out when the time has come is explained in how often you need to replace a water filter.

4. Step-by-step plan for a neighbourhood order

1. Look under your own sink first. Is there an angle valve for the cold water, and is there enough room free? That is the only real requirement. Ask everyone to take a photo and you will know in one evening.
2. Check the connection size. A 3/8 connection is supplied as standard. If someone has a different size, an adapter is needed.
3. Count the households, not the people. Each address orders one filter. Whether someone lives alone or with five people does not change the number of filters, only how often the cartridge is replaced.
4. Let everyone order for themselves. That is simpler than it seems, and important: the order is then in the resident’s name, with their own warranty and their own 40-day trial period. If you collect everything under one name, a return or warranty claim runs through that one person.
5. Set an installation afternoon. One pair of water pump pliers is enough and you can pass them on. Allow 5 to 10 minutes per kitchen once you have done the first.

5. What it costs per household

The PureFilter Mineral+ costs €149.00 including the first filter. After that a replacement filter costs €65.00, or €115.00 for the duo with two cartridges. If you would rather not have to think about it, it runs through the Filter Plan: €48.00 a year for 1 to 3 people, and €86.00 per delivery of two filters for 4 to 6 people.

That amount is separate from what the water itself costs. Tap water is cheap in the Netherlands: the weighted average tariff in 2026 is, according to Vewin (the Dutch association of water companies), €2.71 per cubic metre including taxes, or roughly €0.003 per litre. We calculate bottled water at €0.40 to €1.00 per litre. For anyone currently lugging bottles, that is the comparison that counts, and it does not change by ordering together. More on that tariff is in what a cubic metre of water costs, and the full five-year calculation is in what a water filter costs per household.

6. Points to watch

• Rented homes: if someone in the group rents, different arrangements apply there. Read what is allowed with a water filter in a rented home before you plan the installation afternoon.
• Apartments: if you live in a complex with a VvE (Dutch homeowners’ association), first look at a water filter in a VvE or apartment. In short, permission is rarely an issue, but the room under the sink all the more so.
• A filter does not disinfect: the Mineral+ is made for Dutch tap water and makes it better and nicer-tasting, but it is not a solution for a boil water advisory. If a boil water advisory applies in your street, always follow the water company’s advice.
• Hardness does not change: a water filter is not a water softener. If you have trouble with limescale in your street, that is a different appliance and a different question.
• Own trial period: everyone has 40 days to try it and the filter housing has a 5-year warranty. These run per order, so per household.

7. Ordering alone or together

8. The PureFilter Mineral+ in a neighbourhood order

The Mineral+ connects to the cold water supply under your sink and filters the water you drink and cook with. The filter has been tested by Equinox Labs, an independent laboratory (2026), and removes all 40 chemical substances tested, from 75% to 99.97%. In the last filter stage, Swedish Mineral Rock™ adds calcium, magnesium and potassium, so that the water does not taste flat.

For a group the installation is the most relevant part: five filter layers in one housing, connected in 5 to 10 minutes, and you change the cartridge later with the key that is supplied. So you only need a pair of water pump pliers once, for the first connection. If you are unsure which type suits your homes, see what a water filter does per household. In a filter in the cold water supply you can see what we supply, and best water filter explains what to look for when choosing.

9. Frequently asked questions

10. Conclusion

You can perfectly well order a water filter together with your neighbours, as long as you understand what you are sharing. Not the appliance: that is fixed in one home and belongs to one address. The research, the installation afternoon and the reminder to replace the cartridge, however, you can share, and that is precisely the part where people normally drop out.

Do not expect a price advantage, because there is none. Do expect it to go faster, that you do not have to work it out on your own, and that in a year’s time you still have someone who remembers. If you first want to know what to look for in the choice, read what to look for when buying a water filter.