Why Should/Shouldn’t You Rent a Water Purifier?
Since childhood, we’ve been told the necessity to drink enough water. When you keep your water intake adequate, you stay healthy, keeping diseases at bay. However, while proper water intake can keep you healthy, the same can cause diseases like diarrhea, cholera, jaundice, etc.
It’s not enough to drink water. What’s necessary is that you drink clean and hygienic water free of germs and contaminants. For years, we’ve relied on tap water, and it’s been good for us. However, considering today’s polluted environment, it’s no longer safe to drink water directly from the tap.
Even after some essential filtration, the water is not free from all its contaminants. The need of the hour is to purify the water before it goes into your body. That’s the reason most households install water purifiers in their homes.
However, water purifiers are costly, and you cannot always afford them. Moreover, you wouldn’t like to buy one in case you keep traveling or shifting places.
Today, everything is available for rent, and water purifiers are no longer an exclusion to that. Yes, you can get a water purifier on rent.
But should you buy or rent?
When getting anything on rent, you want to weigh the upsides and downsides.
So, let’s consider them and see if you should rent a water purifier, or if the traditional option works fine for you.
Why Should You Rent a Water Purifier?
Buying a water purifier is a costly investment, and renting is an excellent alternative to save that investment.
But should you do that?
Well, there’s nothing wrong with that as it seems. But since we’re reasoning out, let’s have a look at some significant advantages of renting a water purifier.
Saves Costly Investments
Buying a water purifier is a very costly affair. Not only do you incur costs when purchasing it, but there are overhead expenses as well, which go into the installation and maintenance.
When you rent a purifier, all these overhead expenses are borne by the provider. Moreover, there’s no upfront payment. You only pay monthly rent. So, you’re well saved from costly investments.
Flexibility
Renting stuff is not a new thing. We rent houses and furniture, so why buy a water purifier for a rented home? As and when you’d need to move places, you’d need to uninstall, move, and re-install a water purifier. That’s not a very convenient option.
Renting the purifier provides the flexibility to return it to the owner when you move places. This way, you don’t need to worry about damaging the purifier either, and it even reduces the cost and effort you would incur during move-out and move-in.
Click to read: How to Safely Shift Your Water Purifier
More Options to Choose From
When you buy a water purifier, you’re stuck with it until it’s reached the need for replacement, and that goes whether you like that purifier or not. However, when you rent it, you have more options.
If you are not happy with the purifier, you can replace it after the rent period, and you could do this until you find a purifier that you like. So, you have more options, and you can be sure that you won’t get stuck with something you don’t like.
So, renting a purifier is, after all, beneficial. But like everything else, it’s not all roses and no thorns. While there are upsides, there can also be some downsides to renting a water purifier. It’s important to consider that as well. So, let’s have a look.
Why Shouldn’t You Rent a Water Purifier?
Everything comes with a downside, and the terms at which water purifiers are rented could be a reason for you not to go for the option. Here are some reasons that you wouldn’t want to rent a water purifier.
Vendor Lock-in and Usage Constraints
Many providers supplying water purifiers on rent put time constraints; for instance, you’d have to rent it for a minimum period of six months or a year or more. In such cases, you get stuck in vendor lock-in.
Also, in most cases, the providers put limits on maximum usage. That’s also a risk factor since you never know how much water you’re going to consume over a month, and paying for the extra litres you drank can play with your monthly budget.
Lack of Ownership
While renting the purifier saves costs, you always lack ownership. You’ll need a water purifier all the time, and when you rent it, the rent you’d pay for several years would cover its entire cost. So, unless you need to move places and live in temporary residences, it isn’t worth renting a purifier.
If you have a permanent residence, it would be more feasible to buy a water purifier. If it’s not affordable for you and you can’t pay upfront, there are always EMIs. That does the same work as the rent.
Renting a Water Purifier in India
The water purifier rental market is still in its early stages in India. There are only a few service providers at the moment.
During our research, we could only find two reliable providers for water purifiers on rent. These two service providers are Livpure Smart and DrinkPrime.
Livpure Smart
Livpure Smart is the latest venture of Livpure, a leading name in the water purifier market.
Here is a list of locations/cities where their services are currently available* – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panchkula, Pune, Raipur, and Varanasi.
Livpure RO on Rent service offers two subscription plans i.e. 125 litres/month and unlimited litres/month. The cost of the plan depends on the water purifier model and the plan duration that you choose.
DrinkPrime
DrinkPrime, on the other hand, is a relatively newer brand that offers its smart water purifier for rent only.
List of cities where DrinkPrime services are available* – Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon/Gurugram, Noida/Greater Noida.
DrinkPrime offers four usage-based subscription plans starting from 125 litres/month to unlimited litres/month.
*as on 12th May 2023.
Conclusion
Renting a water purifier has both upsides and downsides. However, they’re based on your needs and requirements. If you want flexibility and convenience, it’s good to rent the purifiers. However, if you don’t wish to have constraints put upon your water usage and consumption and seek complete ownership, it’s better that you buy one.
It all comes down to weighing your needs thoroughly and then making an informed decision. Be what may; you must not compromise on safe and pure drinking water. So, decide well and get your purifier soon!
