# Brita Replacement Filter

# Brita Replacement Filter: Thirteen Cents a Gallon, Forty Gallons a Cartridge

**strong** The Original cartridge is rated *em* or about *em*, and Brita names chlorine for taste and odor plus *em* as the reductions. Our record for the listing carries **strong** and the standard number is not printed on the box, the listing or the product page. It sat at rank **strong** the day we last checked, which makes it the most bought cartridge we cover.

[Brita Replacement Filter Specs](#specs)
[Brita Replacement Filter Score](#score)
[Who the Brita Filter Fits](#who)
[Brita Filter Pros and Cons](#proscons)
[Brita Filter Cost Per Gallon](#cost)
[Brita Replacement Filter vs the Field](#compare)
[Brita Replacement Filter FAQ](#faq)
[Where the Brita Filter Lands](#verdict)

**strong** This article contains affiliate links. **strong** at *em*. **strong** retail prices move daily, so we quote ranges and send you to the live figure on the listing. **strong** *em* Every number on this page traces to manufacturer documentation, a certification record, or our own catalog records, held against the claims on the box. No free products, no paid placements, no manufacturer relationships. Scoring rules are public on our [methodology page](/methodology).

[](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004SU18?tag=waterfilternerd-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1)

## Brita Replacement Filter Specs: What a 40 Gallon Cartridge Covers

**strong** It is the consumable that made the brand, and it is the one most households buy without reading anything.

Forty gallons, about two months, and a rinse under the tap before it goes in. For how it compares with the rest of the aisle, our [replacement cartridge comparisons](/best-replacement-cartridges) hold the running list, and the [rest of the Brita range](/brita-review) shares the same body fit.

- Certification: our record for this listing carries NSF/ANSI 42 alone, and Brita's own Performance Data Sheet contradicts the record: the sheet for this cartridge, model OB03, states the system was tested to NSF/ANSI 42 and NSF/ANSI 53. The listing says only WQA NSF/ANSI certified and the product page prints no standard at all, so the numbers live in one PDF and nowhere on the box.

- Named reductions: Brita lists chlorine for taste and odor, copper, cadmium and mercury. There is no lead claim on this cartridge; Brita reserves that for the Elite filter in the same housing.

- Rated capacity: 40 gallons per cartridge, or about 2 months, and Brita notes that hard water shortens the interval.

- Media: coconut based activated carbon plus ion exchange resin in a housing made without BPA, which Brita says preserves healthy minerals and leaves a healthy level of fluoride in the water.

- What the sheet measures: under standard 42 the sheet records chlorine at 95 percent and zinc at 64 percent. Under standard 53 it records cadmium at 91 percent at pH 6.5 and 94 percent at pH 8.5, copper at 89 percent and 73 percent, and mercury at 86 percent and 82 percent. No lead number, no asbestos, no volatile organic compounds and no 401 list. That is the whole certified list, and it is the shortest one any pitcher cartridge in our records publishes.

- Cartridge size and weight: 4.12 by 2.31 by 2.31 inches and 0.13 pounds, model OB03. That is a little over two ounces of media and housing doing the whole job.

- Install: rinse under cold water for 15 seconds, drop it in, and discard the first three pitchers of water. No presoak, no tools, no soaking overnight.

- Fit: every Brita pitcher and dispenser except the Stream, which is the same fit statement the Elite cartridge carries.

- Pack sizes: sold singly and in packs up to six. This page prices the three pack, which is the listing the catalog resolved.

- Flow rate: not published, by Brita for the cartridge or by the listing for the pitcher it goes into.

- Guarantee: a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee on Brita filters, per the listing's own warranty statement.

- Price band: $14 to $17 for the three pack at our last check, in stock, sold and shipped by Amazon.com, buy box winner. That is about $5 per cartridge. Brita's own store lists the same three pack in the $18 to $19 band, so the listing is the cheaper route and the manufacturer is not pretending otherwise.

- Not published: a certificate or listing number and a flow rate. Those two absences cost this cartridge Nerd Stamp points below.

**strong** *em*

**strong** At the 240 gallons a year Brita publishes for a household, that is *em*, which is $28 to $34 on this band. *em*

Think of it this way

**strong** Two ounces of carbon and resin against a year of jug refills is the whole reason this cartridge family still outsells everything else on the shelf. *em*

One 40 gallon cartridge against a household year of drinking water
Bar chart showing one Brita Original cartridge at 40 gallons against 240 gallons, which is the household volume Brita itself assumes for a year of drinking water.
One cartridge against one household year, in gallons
240 gallons is Brita's own household assumption, about 11 cups a day

- 0 50 100 150 200 250 gal One cartridge One household year 40 gal, about 2 months 240 gal, six cartridges Rated capacity per manufacturer documentation, household volume per Brita's own published assumption. One cartridge against one year of drinking water at the volume the manufacturer publishes. The navy bar is the cartridge. This is the picture the three pack hides: six of these bars are what a year actually takes, which is why the annual column on this page matters more than the pack price. Forty gallons a cartridge? Open the Original spec sheet ## Brita Replacement Filter Score: 4 of 7 Every product in this index is rated 1 to 7 across seven verifiable criteria. One point per criterion. No partial credit. I am an enthusiast with a long memory and a spreadsheet, not a lab, and the scorecard below is the published rubric in one table. Each line asks two questions: is the number on the record, and does it hold up against the rest of the class. The line stays at zero when the document is missing or the figure is the worst in its class. Three of the seven lines sit at zero, which is 3 of the 7 points, and the first of them is the certificate number this cartridge never prints. Criterion Points Evidence Certified removal scope0 pointsChlorine, zinc, cadmium, copper and mercury are the whole certified list, published on the sheet under 42 and 53, and there is no lead claim while the Elite cartridge in an identical body carries lead Certification and test transparency0 pointsThe data sheet prints standards 42 and 53, and names no certifying body and no certificate or listing number Filter life and rated capacity1 point40 gallons and 2 months, both published, which is six cartridges in a household year Cost per gallon1 pointAbout 12 to 14 cents on the three pack, the cheapest certified pitcher gallon in our records Flow rate and pressure drop0 pointsNo flow rate published for the cartridge or the pitcher, while ZeroWater publishes 6.5 ounces a minute Install and footprint1 pointA 15 second rinse and it drops in, no presoak, no tools, and it fits every Brita body except the Stream Maintenance burden1 pointSix changes a year at Brita's household figure, twice the Elite interval and a quarter of the ZeroWater one Three lines sit at zero, and the first is the list that stops early. The data sheet does print the standards, 42 and 53, with a percentage beside each substance. What it does not print is a number a reader can look up, and what the list does not carry is lead. Our own record carries 42 alone, which the manufacturer's own sheet contradicts, and the sheet is the better document of the two. The flow line is the same missing sentence, and it is worth 1 of the 7 points on its own. ZeroWater publishes a 6.5 ounce a minute trickle and collects the point for honesty. Brita publishes nothing, so there is nothing to measure. Want 53 and 372 in writing? The Clearly Filtered ## Who the Brita Filter Fits The question is never which filter is best. It is which filter matches your tap, your jug, and the contaminant you actually named before you started shopping. This cartridge answers the chlorine question for about 13 cents a gallon and answers the lead question by not making the claim. Pick your side. If lead is the reason you are buying, the Elite cartridge in the same body is the one to price, and the pitcher filter rankings compare the two. The taste and odor household: chlorine is what 42 covers, and this is the cheapest certified route to better tasting water in the index.

- The jug you already own: the cartridge fits every body but the Stream, so the jug does not need replacing.

- The low maintenance household: a 15 second rinse and it drops in, with no overnight soak and no tool.

- The fluoride keeper: Brita says the resin leaves a healthy level of fluoride in the water, which matters if your utility adds it deliberately.

- The three pack buyer: six months of cartridges in one order, which is the smallest sensible purchase for a household at the manufacturer's usage figure.

- The budget household: this is the pick on our budget water filters shortlist, and at about five dollars a cartridge it earns the place.

#### This Is Not Your Cartridge If

- You need lead reduction. Brita reserves the 99 percent lead claim for the Elite filter, and this cartridge does not carry it.

- You drink more than 240 gallons a year. Six cartridges a year becomes eight or nine, and the pack math changes with it.

- You are on hard water. Brita says the interval shortens, so the 40 gallon rating is a ceiling rather than a promise.

- You want a certificate number you can check. It is not on the box, the listing, the product page or the data sheet.

- You want the fewest changes a year. The Elite cartridge lasts three times as long in the same body for about the same annual money.

The way I see it

**strong** A branded three pack on one side, a six pack that copies the fit on the other, and most of the price difference, about two dollars a cartridge, is the badge rather than the carbon. *em*

Price per cartridge across four pitcher cartridge options
Bar chart of price per cartridge: the Brita Original works out to about 5 dollars per cartridge in the three pack, an aftermarket AQUA CREST six pack about 3 dollars each, the Brita Elite about 16 to 20 dollars each, and a Clearly Filtered cartridge about 58 to 65 dollars each.
Price per cartridge, in dollars
Unit price, which is the number the pack size is designed to blur

- 0 20 40 60 80 AQUA CREST 6 pack Brita Original 3 pack Brita Elite Clearly Filtered about $3 about $5 about $16 to $20 about $58 to $65 Unit prices from the pack bands in our records and Brita's own store. Prices move, bands are indicative. Price per cartridge across four options, which is the column the pack sizes are built to hide. The navy bar is this cartridge. The aftermarket copy undercuts it by about two dollars, and the two premium cartridges cost more per unit than the pitcher that holds them. Six a year? Start with the three pack ## Brita Filter Pros and Cons #### What You Get The cheapest certified pitcher gallon in our records: about 12 to 14 cents, against 100 to 120 cents for a ZeroWater cartridge.

- A fit that needs no thinking: every Brita jug and dispenser apart from the Stream takes it.

- Fifteen seconds to install: rinse, drop in, discard the first three pitchers, done.

- Fluoride and minerals kept: the resin leaves the additive in, which is unusual in this category.

- Six months of cartridges in one order: the three pack at about five dollars a cartridge is a small commitment.

- A real guarantee: 30 days, unconditional, on Brita filters per the listing's warranty line.

#### What It Costs You

- Six cartridges a year: at Brita's household figure, which is three times the Elite interval.

- 40 gallons a cartridge: the lowest rated capacity in the Brita family, and a sixth of a household year.

- No lead claim: lead is the Elite's job in this ecosystem, and this cartridge does not carry it.

- No certificate number: the data sheet names the standards, and nothing on any surface names the certificate.

- No flow rate: the number this category most often publishes is absent here too.

- Hard water shortens it: the interval moves up while the rating stays at 40 gallons.

[Keep the six pack for the same fit](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G7BT8QV?tag=waterfilternerd-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1)

## Brita Filter Cost Per Gallon

**strong** I have run this arithmetic across every cartridge in the index, and the Original and the Elite land within a few dollars of each other across a year: *em* Our [replacement cartridge comparisons](/best-replacement-cartridges) exist to make that visible before you buy rather than after.

- The pack: a $14 to $17 band for the three pack at our last check, which is about $5 per cartridge.

- The charted figure: about $5 a cartridge divided by 40 gallons is about 12 to 14 cents per gallon.

- The annual column: 6 cartridges at the 240 gallon household volume is about $28 to $34 a year, roughly 8 to 9 cents a day.

- The Elite cartridge in the same body: about $16 to $20 each at 120 gallons, so two a year is about $32 to $40. That is the same annual money for a third of the changes.

- The aftermarket option: a six pack in our records sits in the $15 to $19 band, which is about $3 per cartridge. It is cheaper per unit and it has no filter life recorded, so this site cannot score it.

- The same math on a ZeroWater cartridge: $15 to $18 at 15 gallons, which is about 100 to 120 cents per gallon and something like sixteen cartridges for a household year.

*em* **strong** Six of them against two of the long one is about the same annual bill, roughly $32 to $40 a year, with four extra rinses and four extra pieces of plastic for the privilege. *em*

For the intervals by filter type rather than by brand, the [replacement schedule](/filter-replacement-schedule) lays the whole grid out.

Think of it this way

**strong** One of those options has you rinsing a cartridge by the sink four extra times a year. *em*

Cartridge cost per year at 240 gallons, three pitcher cartridges
Bar chart of annual cartridge cost at 240 gallons: the Brita Original costs about 28 to 34 dollars a year for six cartridges, the Brita Elite about 32 to 40 dollars for two, and a ZeroWater cartridge about 240 to 288 dollars for sixteen.
Cartridge cost per year, at 240 gallons
the manufacturer's household volume, about 11 cups a day

- 0 70 140 210 280 Brita Original 3 pack Brita Elite ZeroWater cartridge about $28 to $34 about $32 to $40 about $240 to $288 Cartridge bands from our records and Brita's own store, at Brita's published household volume. A year of cartridges at the household volume Brita publishes. The navy bar is this pack. The two Brita bars are within a few dollars of each other, which is the most useful thing on this page: the upgrade to the Elite is nearly free in annual terms and saves four cartridge changes. Price a household year, not the box Six cartridges in a year, or two if you move up to the Elite in the same body. ## Brita Replacement Filter vs the Field Every row below is a cartridge from our own index, with the certification and the rated life taken from our records. Nothing here is a manufacturer comparison chart, and the figures are bands rather than live prices. Cartridge Certified Rated life Price per cartridge Brita Original 3 packNSF 42 in our record40 galabout $5 AQUA CREST 6 packNSF certifiednot recordedabout $3 Brita Elite42, 53, 401 in its sheet120 gal$16 to $20 PUR Plus 3 countNSF 42, 5340 gal per cartridge in the pitcher range$9 to $11 Clearly Filtered 3 packNSF 42, 53, 372100 gal$58 to $65 Two things stand out. First, the NSF certification explainer is the page to read before choosing any of these rows, because two of the certificates here are described in the listing as certified without naming a standard, and one names 42, 53 and 372 outright. A certificate you cannot read is a certificate you cannot compare. Second, the aftermarket six pack undercuts the branded cartridge by about two dollars a unit and carries no rated life in our records, which is exactly the field that turns a product from writable into a research project on this site. Its per gallon figure cannot be computed and the page will not guess at it. You are choosing between a cheap certified gallon and a wider certificate. This cartridge wins the first and politely declines the second, and it does not even print what its own certificate says. Compare the pitcher that takes the Elite filter Same fit, 120 gallons a cartridge, and the lead claim this pack does not make. ## Brita Replacement Filter FAQ Does the Brita replacement filter remove lead? Not this one. Brita names chlorine for taste and odor plus cadmium, copper and mercury on the Original cartridge and reserves the 99 percent lead claim for the Elite filter, which fits the same pitchers. If lead is your reason, price the Elite and expect about three times the cartridge life for about three times the unit price. How often do I change a Brita Original filter? 40 gallons, or about 2 months, with Brita noting that hard water shortens the interval. At 240 gallons a year, the household volume Brita publishes, that is six cartridges, so a three pack is six months of water and a six pack is a year. Is the three pack the same cartridge as the six pack? Yes, it is the same Original cartridge in a bigger box, and the pack is where the price difference lives. The six pack in our records sits near $3 per cartridge, against about $5 in the three pack, so the bigger box is the cheaper unit if you will use them. Will an aftermarket cartridge work? Aftermarket packs are built to fit Brita pitchers, and the one in our records undercuts the branded cartridge by about two dollars a unit. It carries no rated life figure in our catalog, and this site does not compute a cost per gallon without one, so the comparison stops where the documentation stops. What is the filter certified to? The listing says WQA NSF/ANSI certified and prints no standard number. Brita's own Performance Data Sheet for the cartridge, model OB03, states it was tested to NSF/ANSI 42 and NSF/ANSI 53, with chlorine at 95 percent and zinc at 64 percent under 42 and cadmium, copper and mercury under 53. Our record for this listing carries NSF/ANSI 42 alone, so the sheet is the document to trust. No certificate or listing number is published anywhere. The certification explainer walks through what 42, 53 and 401 each cover. ## Brita Replacement Filter: Where It Lands, Cheap Gallons and a Blank Certificate The Brita replacement filter earns 4/7, and the three zeros are one missing certificate and two gaps in the record. It is rated 40 gallons and about 2 months, fits every Brita body except the Stream, drops in after a 15 second rinse, and works out at about 13 cents per gallon in the three pack. Its certified list reads chlorine, zinc, cadmium, copper and mercury across 42 and 53, which the sheet publishes, and it still offers no certificate number to look up and publishes no flow rate at all. Three points lost to a gap in the paperwork, and four points earned on price, fit and life. Buy it if chlorine is the complaint and the jug is already on the counter. If the annual column is what you are shopping by, the long life cartridges in our records cost the same per year and ask for a third of the changes. Cheapest certified pitcher gallon we carry, blankest certificate in the family, and both are on the record. Choose the cheapest certified pitcher gallon ### Where It Lands: Thirteen Cents and a Blank Label Forty gallons a cartridge, six in a household year, about five dollars each, and a fit that needs no thought. No certificate number and no flow rate are the two lines that hold it to 4/7. Check the Original cartridge price band ## Brita Filter Lexicon: Every Standard in This Review NSF/ANSI 42 The aesthetic effects standard, and one of the two this cartridge's data sheet names. It covers the chlorine that makes water taste and smell like a pool rather than anything about health. NSF/ANSI 53 The health effects standard. It covers lead, chromium, mercury and, since PFOA and PFOS were added, the two most studied PFAS compounds. This cartridge's sheet lists copper, cadmium and mercury under it, and the pack itself says nothing. NSF/ANSI 372 The lead-free materials standard, about the hardware rather than the treatment. It appears on premium cartridges in our records and not on this one. Ion exchange resin The media that swaps unwanted ions for ones it would rather release, and the reason a carbon cartridge can claim copper, cadmium and mercury at all. Activated carbon Coconut based carbon in this cartridge, which is what pulls chlorine and taste compounds out of the water. The media sets both the flow and the rated life. Rated capacity The volume a cartridge filters before performance is no longer certified, in gallons. This one is 40, and the interval beside it is about 2 months. Fluoride retention Brita states the resin leaves a healthy level of fluoride in the water. Most pitchers neither add nor remove it, and reverse osmosis does remove it. Aftermarket cartridge A third party copy built to fit a branded pitcher. It is usually cheaper per unit, and it is where a catalog tends to run out of documentation such as a rated life figure. Performance Data Sheet The document that ties a reduction claim to a standard and a result. On this cartridge it records standards 42 and 53 with a percentage beside each substance, and it is also where the trail stops, because no certificate number follows. ## Keep Reading: More Brita Filter Reviews Best Replacement Filter Cartridges: the parent roundup, OEM against aftermarket by certification, fit and cost per gallon.

- Brita Water Filters Review: the whole lineup, from this cartridge to the faucet mounts and the Elite filter.

- Best Pitcher Water Filters: the pitchers this cartridge fits, ranked by certification rather than by price.

- The Nerd Stamp Methodology: how the 1 to 7 rating is calculated.