RO AMC: what it covers, what it costs, and when buying the cartridges yourself is cheaper.

What an AMC actually is

An annual maintenance contract is a prepaid year of service. You pay once, up front, and the company sends a technician on a schedule and when something goes wrong. What that visit includes is where the contracts differ, and the label on the plan matters more than the brand on the machine.

The common tiers, under whatever names the seller uses:

• Service-only. The visits are covered; every part is billed extra. You are buying labour and a phone number.
• Service plus filters. Visits, and the sediment and carbon cartridges. The membrane, pump and electrical parts are extra.
• Comprehensive. Visits and every replaceable part including the membrane and pump, with the usual exclusions for physical damage and voltage surges.

Read the exclusions before the inclusions. A plan that says "all filters" may exclude the membrane, which is the most expensive filter, and a plan that includes the membrane may allow one in the year whether you need two or none. The question to ask the seller is simple: which of these parts, by name, is included, and how many of each.

What an AMC costs in India

This site will not quote another company's price list, because we have not verified it and it changes. What can be said is the shape of the market. Service-only plans start at a few hundred rupees a year in some cities and run past a thousand. Plans that include cartridges commonly sit somewhere between roughly ₹1,500 and ₹3,500 a year. Comprehensive plans that include the membrane and pump are commonly quoted between roughly ₹3,000 and ₹6,000, and higher for premium models. Prices vary by brand, by city and by how old the machine is. Get the figure for your machine in writing and put it next to the sums below.

The cartridge arithmetic, at LUXGEN prices

Every price here is the current listed price on this site, linked, so you can check it. Nothing is estimated.

Add the rows. On municipal supply, changing sediment and carbon once a year and a membrane every two years costs ₹735 a year at the low end (₹190 + ₹220 + ₹325) and ₹890 at the high end (₹190 + ₹250 + ₹450). On borewell water, where sediment goes twice as often and the membrane tends towards 18 months, it is roughly ₹940 to ₹1,230. Put aside ₹1,299 for the pump and spread it over the years it lasts; if that is four years, add about ₹325 a year. The intervals come from the filter change schedule, and the full part-by-part list is on the replacement cost page.

So the parts, bought yourself, come to roughly ₹1,050 to ₹1,550 a year including a pump reserve, and less in a year the pump behaves. Set that against the AMC quote for your machine.

When the AMC is the better buy

The arithmetic is not the whole decision, and there are people for whom the contract is right.

• You will not do the changes. A cartridge that should have gone at eight months and went at twenty costs a membrane. If the contract is the only way the sediment cartridge actually gets changed, it has paid for itself in the membrane it saved.
• The machine is under warranty. Some warranties require brand service. Check before you touch a housing.
• The purifier uses proprietary cartridges. Some machines take sealed, brand-specific cartridges that are not sold separately at fair prices. In that case the contract is the price of the parts, and the comparison above does not apply. Most Indian domestic purifiers take standard 10-inch cartridges and 1812 membranes, which is what this site sells, and the fit guide explains how to tell.
• Electrical faults. A comprehensive plan covers the pump, the power supply and the UV lamp. Those are technician jobs, and the service vs DIY guide says why.

When buying the cartridges yourself wins

If the machine takes standard parts, you are willing to open a housing twice a year, and the quote is a comprehensive plan at the upper end of the range, the parts alone are a fraction of the price. The difference is the labour you are paying for, and a cartridge swap is ten minutes with a spanner. A middle path works for many households: no contract, cartridges bought and changed yourself, and a paid visit only when the pump or the electrics fail. Service visits are billed per call in most cities at a few hundred rupees before parts, which over a year is still usually less than the contract.

Whichever you choose, keep the TDS log. The output reading, compared with the feed, is what tells you the membrane is fine or finished, and the RO output TDS guide shows how to read it. A contract does not replace the meter; it only replaces the person holding it.