Waterdrop vs Brita

Product Head to Head Comparison

Let’s see how the two brand’s products compare, in direct battle with one another.

We’ll compare like with like, this section should give you a very clear picture of the pros and cons of each model, and give you an easier choice than you’d otherwise have.

Hopefully this section can also give you a clearer insight into which exact models you should be comparing ie. which models are in direct competition, meeting the same need.

Product pages on online sites can be quite confusing with so many options, that you don’t even know how to start comparing them.

Waterdrop Elfin vs. Brita Marella

We’ll compare these two models as they are almost the same capacity, almost the same size, both are designed to fit in the fridge and they’re clearly targeted at the exact same customer base.

It’s interesting to see the two products have different strategies to ensure you can refill with one hand.

The Brita Marella has a flip top lid, just flip it up with your hand that is holding the jug and refill with water.

The Elfin model has an automatic water inlet, so you can refill it without needing to open the lid at all.

These little areas of attention to detail are the reason these two companies are two of the top water filter jug sellers; just a little reduction in faff and inconvenience can make people’s lives that little bit easier.

There’s one area that is a big advantage for the Waterdrop Elfin over the Marella, and that is flow rate. Water gets filtered through the filter media at a much higher rate in the Ludic, so it’s available for you to drink much faster.

The Elfin will give you your full 1.66L of filtered water capacity in just a minute. Even if that’s only in ideal conditions, it shouldn’t be too far from that.

The Marella’s flow rate is estimated at 3.2mL/s, meaning it’ll take just over 7 minutes to fill the full 1.4L of the jug’s filtered water capacity.

If you’re someone who’s often in a rush, this could be an important issue for you. No-one wants to hang around the house for an extra 7 minutes to get the filtered water to fill their water bottle.

Though of course, if it’s just a quick gulp of water you need before you go out, the Marella will also be fast enough to give you that within a minute.

This site is called Water Filter Geek, so what do we think of the quality of the water filters?

Both companies use high-end versions of activated carbon, and that’s by far the best option for a water filter jug. That gives you excellent removal of nasty tastes and odours, and things like chlorine and heavy metals.

If you want much more filtering power, consider a reverse osmosis system (here are the best RO filters), or an under sink filter. Though, beware, it costs a heck of a lot more than these filter jugs.

Marella’s filter, the MAXTRA PRO has proven ability to reduce limescale (by as much as 50%), not a claim made by Waterdrop. That may or not be something you need, but if you have problems associated with hard water, you can consider investing in a water softening machine. If you want a solution specifically to prevent limescale, here are some water filters that are highly effective at reducing limescale.

Waterdrop Lucid vs. Brita Marella XL

These models are the top-selling (as well as top-rated) 3.5L filter jugs offered by each company.

Both models preserve almost the same features for these bigger models.

So this Waterdrop water filter jug has a significantly faster flow rate than the Marella XL, not too far away from 10 times faster, in fact.

They’re almost the same size, except that the Marella XL has just over 1cm greater depth.