Quooker CUBE review: price, filters and the real cost per litre

The CUBE is Quooker''s under-sink add-on that brings chilled still and sparkling filtered water to the same tap that already does boiling water. It costs £1,250 before installation. This guide works out what it costs to run, what a litre of sparkling water actually comes to, and how that compares with a SodaStream on the worktop or bottles from the supermarket.

Every number here comes from Quooker''s UK site and SodaStream''s UK shop, checked on 5 August 2026. Where a figure is a manufacturer claim rather than arithmetic, we say so.

What the CUBE is, and what it is not

The CUBE is a separate unit that sits in the cupboard under your sink, next to the boiling-water reservoir. It filters cold mains water, chills it, and carbonates it with a replaceable CO2 cylinder. You then draw chilled still or sparkling water from the same Quooker tap you already use for boiling water.

Two things it is not. It is not a standalone tap: you need a Quooker first, and the CUBE extends it. And it is not a soda maker for drinks: it carbonates filtered water only, not juice or anything with flavour in it.

The filter matters as much as the bubbles for some buyers. Quooker states that the CUBE''s filter removes bacteria, chlorine, chemicals and pesticides. That is the manufacturer''s own claim; independent laboratory results are not published on the product page. What can be verified is the replacement schedule and the price, and those are what drive the running costs below.

What it costs to buy

For a household that already owns a compatible Quooker, £1,250 plus fitting is the whole entry price. Starting from nothing, the cheapest current route in our catalogue is a Quooker Nordic Round Single Tap at £1,050 plus the CUBE, so roughly £2,300 in hardware before installation.

Running costs: what a year looks like

Two consumables drive the cost: CO2 cylinders and the annual filter.

A cylinder carbonates roughly 60 litres, according to Quooker. A set of four replacement cylinders costs £70 including VAT, which works out at £17.50 per cylinder, or about 29p per litre for the gas alone. Empty cylinders go back to Quooker free of charge. If you do not return them, or return them damaged, Quooker charges £40.

The filter is a flat £70 a year on Quooker''s 12-month schedule, and it covers everything the CUBE dispenses, still as well as sparkling.

The filter is a fixed cost, so each litre gets cheaper the more you drink. A light user pays close to 50p a litre. A heavy user gets down towards the price of the gas itself.

One gap in the public data: Quooker does not publish a standby power figure for the CUBE''s chiller on the product page, so electricity is left out of these sums. Expect some cost there, as with any compressor appliance that keeps water cold around the clock.

CUBE against SodaStream against bottles

A SodaStream is the obvious comparison, and on pure pence per litre it wins.

SodaStream prices are from sodastream.co.uk, checked 5 August 2026. The Terra at £89.99 is the entry model; the Art costs £99.99 and the electric E-Terra £189.99.

If the only question is how to get the cheapest sparkling water at home, the SodaStream answers it and this review can stop here. The CUBE''s case rests on what the SodaStream does not do: the water comes out chilled, it has been through a filter, there is no bottle to fill or rinse, and nothing sits on the worktop.

Bottled water is harder to pin to one number because prices run from supermarket own-brand at pennies per litre to premium brands at well over £1. Whether the CUBE beats your current bottled habit on price depends entirely on what you buy today. The practical difference is not carrying bottles home and not storing or binning them. Quooker states that a CUBE replaces around 330 plastic bottles a year for an average household; treat that as the manufacturer''s own estimate.

Will it work with your Quooker?

Not every existing Quooker can take a CUBE. Quooker''s published compatibility rules for the UK:

• The system must have been produced after October 2017.
• The reservoir''s serial number must contain the letter W or start with the letter R.

The serial number is on the reservoir under the sink. Check it before you order, because on an older system a CUBE also means replacing the reservoir, which changes the sums considerably. One CO2 cylinder comes with the installation, and Quooker recommends ordering a set of four at the same time so you are not caught out mid-cylinder.

The ten-year picture

Taking one litre of sparkling water a day and today''s consumable prices:

Roughly £3,000 against £900 over a decade. The £2,100 gap is the price of chilled, filtered, instant and invisible. In monthly terms the CUBE''s consumables come to about £15 at one litre a day and £24 at two litres a day, on top of the hardware.

There is no honest way to make the CUBE the cheap option, and Quooker does not really sell it as one. The relevant question is whether tap convenience, chilling and filtration are worth that gap in your kitchen. In a household that already drinks sparkling water daily and is tired of bottle logistics, the consumable cost per month sits in the same range as a bottled-water habit. In a household that opens a bottle twice a week, it does not come close to paying its way.

Who the CUBE fits

It makes sense when:

• You already own a compatible Quooker and drink chilled or sparkling water most days of the week.
• You want filtered drinking water anyway, since the £70 filter then does double duty and the sparkling becomes the bonus.
• Worktop space is scarce and a soda maker would annoy you every day.

Skip it when:

• Your Quooker predates October 2017 or the reservoir serial fails the W or R check, because the true cost then includes a new reservoir.
• Sparkling water is an occasional treat in your house. At low volumes each litre costs most, and the hardware never earns its keep.
• You only want cheap bubbles. Buy a SodaStream, keep £1,160 of the difference, and put the bottle in the fridge.

CUBE or an integrated sparkling tap?

The CUBE is the add-on route. The other way to get sparkling water from a kitchen tap is a single integrated system that does boiling, chilled and sparkling from one unit, such as the Franke Mythos Water Hub 6-in-1 at £2,599 or the Zip HydroTap Classic at £4,365. Which route wins depends mostly on whether a Quooker is already on your sink. We compare the three routes head to head in Sparkling water taps UK: Quooker CUBE vs integrated systems, and you can put your own usage numbers through the filter cost calculator to see the consumable side for your household.