Elder Water: £15 for 12 glass bottles, plus a £15 deposit

Elder Water wants to be the milkman for spring water. It delivers still or sparkling water from Somerset in 1 litre glass bottles, then takes the empties back on the next round to refill them. On 6 November 2026 the Elder shop charges £15 for a case of 12 bottles, plus a £15 refundable deposit on your first order, so you pay about £30 to get started and £15 a case after that if you hand back your empties.

How the Elder Water subscription works

You pick still, sparkling or both, choose a delivery rhythm and Elder brings the crate to your door. The product page offers deliveries every week, or every 2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks, and says you can cancel or change any time. You leave the empty bottles in the crate, and the driver collects them with your next delivery. Elder says each bottle is sterilised and checked before it is refilled, as part of what it calls a closed-loop system.

A woman in an Elder Water T-shirt planting seedlings in a garden — Elder’s “water with a conscience” pitch. © Elder Water

The water itself is natural British spring water, “bottled at source from certified organic land in Somerset”, according to the brand. Still and sparkling share the same mineral profile on Elder’s product pages: 95.7mg of calcium and 27mg of magnesium a litre, with a pH of 7.4 at source.

What does it really cost?

First case: £15 for 12 x 1 litre bottles, plus a £15 refundable deposit, so about £30.
Later cases: £15 each, with no new deposit as long as your bottles and crate have gone back.
Per litre: £1.25 once the deposit is paid.
Over a year: £195 for one case every 4 weeks (13 cases), or £780 for one case every week (52 cases).
Deposit: refunded on your last order, when the final empties are collected.

Source: Elder Water (product pages and FAQs, checked on 6 November 2026).

One detail is worth knowing. Elder’s FAQs break the deposit down as £1.25 a bottle and £6 a crate, which would come to more than £15 for 12 bottles and a crate, yet the same page and the shop both give £15 a full case. The shop is what you will be charged, but if you lose a bottle or two, ask Elder how much it keeps back. The product page also says delivery is calculated at checkout, so check the final total before you pay.

Spring water pouring from the neck of a clear Elder glass bottle — Elder’s 1 litre bottles are refilled and reused. © Elder Water

Where does Elder deliver?

The shop promises “London-wide delivery and collection, 6 days a week”. The FAQs add that Elder is also available in Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Oxford, and ask anyone in other regions to get in touch. There is also a trade side for restaurants and offices, at £10.79 plus VAT a case, with orders usually starting at four cases.

Our take: a lovely idea, but you pay for the glass

We like Elder. Glass refilled on a doorstep round is a far more convincing answer to plastic than a recycling logo, and the way it works is clear: one crate, one deposit, swap the empties each time. The subscription is also flexible, with five delivery rhythms and no minimum term on the product page.

The price is the sticking point. £1.25 a litre is premium water money, far more than own-label multipacks in the supermarket, and the £15 deposit doubles your first payment. This makes sense if you already buy bottled mineral water, like still or sparkling on the table, or want to cut single-use plastic out of your kitchen. If you are happy with a tap and a filter jug, it is a lifestyle choice rather than a saving.

The other catch is reach. Outside London and the six cities in the FAQs, you cannot order yet, and as Elder is a young brand, its delivery promises still have to stand the test of a busy Christmas. We have not tried the service ourselves.

Aerial view of a green Somerset landscape with a winding river and trees — Elder draws its water from organic land in Somerset. © Elder Water

Price and subscription: the essentials

Brand: Elder Water, British spring water from Somerset in returnable glass.
Price on 6 November 2026: £15 for 12 x 1 litre bottles, still or sparkling.
Deposit: £15 refundable per case on your first order, so about £30 to start.
Later cases: £15 each when your empties are returned.
Rhythm: weekly, or every 2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks; cancel or change any time, according to Elder.
Delivery: across London six days a week; also Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Oxford, according to the FAQs.
Delivery charge: calculated at checkout.

Curious about the refill round? See Elder’s still and sparkling cases, or browse our pick of drinks subscription boxes.