Water cooler rental: price per month and per litre

Renting a water cooler costs your company 18.50 to 62.23 euro a month, according to the suppliers that published a price on 13 October 2026. That is the rent for the machine. The water, the CO2 and your own time are paid separately, and only those three together give you the price per litre.

How much does it cost to rent a water cooler per month?

Between 18.50 and 62.23 euro, before the water. On 13 October we read the websites of six suppliers and noted what they say. Three give an amount. BRITA (with the VIVREAU), Aqualex and PHIL do not: there you get a tailored quotation.

Read the word "from" twice. At Fountain it sits in front of every model, without the site saying what the final price depends on. For comparison: the quotation platform Companeo gives a market range in its September 2026 price guide of 15 to 25 euro for a countertop model, up to 40 to 80 euro for a high-capacity mains-fed cooler.

What does the rent include, and what not?

Delivery, installation, maintenance, filters and repairs. Nearly every supplier promises that, though the wording differs. Culligan lists periodic maintenance, cleaning, filter replacement and call-outs for breakdowns. Habitat Solutions puts an annual service, an annual filter, a replacement machine and collection at the end of the contract on the Kalix. Spadel counts delivery, installation, technical support and free collection for the SPA Fountain, and writes that no hygienic maintenance is needed.

What is almost never included is the water. And that is where it starts.

In the small print, with the amounts Companeo published in September 2026 unless stated otherwise:

• a filter set at 60 to 80 euro, once or twice a year, if the filter is not part of your rent;
• a 5-kilo CO2 cylinder for sparkling water, around 30 euro plus deposit, good for about 800 litres;
• a plumber for the connection, 100 to 300 euro if there is no water connection at the chosen spot;
• cups at 2 to 4 cents each, if your team has no glass or bottle of its own;
• the water itself for a machine without a connection: 0.60 to 0.90 euro per litre for large bottles according to Bobex, 1.20 to 1.35 euro for SPA Reine in 10-litre packs, calculated on the pack price at Bruneau (see below);
• your own time: drip tray, taps and outside cleaning, which we put at 7 hours 20 a year in the piece on cleaning a water cooler.

Add those items to the rent before you compare quotations, and ask for the annexes of the contract too, not only the quotation.

How much does a litre from a rented cooler cost?

Back to the litre, with our own calculation: ten employees, 1 litre each per working day, 21 working days. That is 210 litres a month and 2,520 litres a year. Amounts exclude VAT.

We priced mains water at 1.79 to 4.85 euro per cubic metre, the rate for non-household customers according to callmepower.be (updated on 25 May 2026), without wastewater charges. We set the bottled cooler's rent at 15 euro, the bottom of the range Companeo gives for a countertop model. The packs at 11.95 to 13.49 euro each, the price we read at office supplier Bruneau on 13 October 2026, where the product was listed as out of stock. For the SPA Fountain, the two free months are counted in the first year.

Two things stand out. With a mains-fed cooler the rent is almost the whole bill, and the water costs you less than 13 euro a year. With the SPA Fountain it is the other way round: the rent is 6 to 7% of what you spend each month, the rest is mineral water.

60 months for a mains-fed cooler, 3 months' notice for the SPA Fountain

The Kalix at Habitat Solutions runs for 60 months. That is 3,219 euro of rent, excluding VAT, before you can stop. Shorter terms are possible on request, the web shop says. Culligan lets you test for two weeks free of charge and talks about "flexible contract formulas", without a term on the site. Fountain says nothing about it.

The SPA Fountain is a monthly subscription with three months' notice. No plumber (the same goes for a bottled cooler with large bottles), no five-year contract, and the lowest rent on the list. In the small print: the machine only gives still water at 9 °C, you order the packs separately from a distributor of your choice, and 21 packs of 10 kilos a month need storage space and someone to lift them. Per litre it is the most expensive formula in the table, well above the large bottles. You pay for mineral water, not for a cheap litre.

Rent or buy: when is buying cheaper?

After two to three years, and only if you want to handle the maintenance yourself.

The SPA Fountain countertop model costs 490 euro to buy. That is 26.5 months of rent, and almost 29 once you add the two free months. The freestanding model costs 590 euro, or 29.5 months of rent. A mid-sized mains-fed cooler costs 500 to 800 euro according to Companeo, against 25 to 40 euro of rent, so about 20 months. A buyer then pays for the filters and the technician, which pushes the break-even point further out. A machine you buy moves with you. So does a 60-month rental contract, and people forget that.

Which formula suits your office?

For the machines themselves, side by side with a verdict: the ranking of mains-fed water coolers and the ranking of office water coolers. Why tap water and mineral water sit so far apart per litre is explained in tap water or bottled water at the office.

Sources

Consulted on 13 October 2026. The cost per litre, the yearly amounts, the break-even points and the totals over the contract term are our own calculations, based on these sources and the assumptions in the text.

• SPA Fountain (Spadel), product pages with rent, purchase price, VAT, notice period, water temperature and maintenance: countertop model and freestanding model
• Culligan, renting water dispensers (rent, included services, trial period): culligan.be
• Fountain, water dispensers to rent or buy (rent per model): fountain.eu
• Habitat Solutions, Kalix mains-fed cooler for rent (rent, VAT, term, included services): habitatsolutions.eu
• Companeo, water cooler price guide, updated on 23 September 2026 (market rental range, purchase price, filters, CO2, plumber, cups): companeo.be
• Bobex, price of a water cooler and of large bottles: bobex.be
• Drinking water rates per water company, updated on 25 May 2026: callmepower.be
• Federal Public Service Employment, canteens, drinks and rest rooms: werk.belgie.be
• Flemish Environment Agency (VMM), drinking water quality 2024: vmm.vlaanderen.be
• Bruneau, product sheet SPA Reine 10 litres (ref. 793-286), price read on 13 October 2026
• Own time for cleaning: our calculation in cleaning a water cooler