Buy shower filters direct from the factory that moulds the housing. MOQ 500 pieces, 25–35 day production, and documentation that survives a compliance review.
Most shower filters sold wholesale online come from a handful of factories and pass through one or more intermediaries. That layer is not automatically bad — a good trader adds logistics and language support — but you should know which one you are buying from, because it decides who answers when something goes wrong.
A factory can tell you the tonnage, the cavity count and the maintenance interval of the tool that produced your housing. A trader repeats the spec sheet. We run 18 injection machines and hold the tooling for every standard housing in-house, which is also why a colour change does not consume four weeks of somebody else's capacity.
A single passing certificate proves one batch. A month of leak-test and chlorine-reduction records proves a system. Ask to see them before the order, not after, and check that lot numbers on the records match lot numbers on the cartons you received.
The answer reveals whether quality control is real. Ours is quarantine, root-cause on the media lot, then re-test before release; a failed lot is never mixed back into good stock to protect the schedule. If the reply is "it doesn't happen", the process is not documented.
CE and RoHS declarations must be issued by the party that places the product on the market, and NSF/ANSI certification is held by a specific legal entity. Confirm the entity name on the certificate matches your supplier's invoice — a mismatch is the single most common reason a shipment is held at customs. See the certifications page for what we hold.
Buyers comparing suppliers usually get three numbers: price, MOQ and lead time. What they rarely get is the assumption behind each one, so here they are. Price per unit falls with volume in steps rather than continuously — the meaningful break is at 3,000 pieces, where a dedicated production slot becomes economic. Below that, you are sharing a line.
MOQ is 500 pieces per SKU on existing tooling. A new colour or a logo plate moves that to 1,000 because the changeover has to be paid for somewhere. Where a program needs a bespoke housing, tooling is quoted separately and the mould remains with the project, which means a repeat order a year later carries no tooling cost.
Production runs 25–35 days after artwork approval; that window includes media packing, functional testing and carton printing. Sea freight adds 18–35 days depending on destination. If your retail calendar is fixed, work backwards from the in-store date rather than from the order date — that is the schedule we plan against. Full line details and per-SKU specifications are on the product range and the packaging variants are described on the OEM / ODM page.
A distributor's first order is rarely a single product line. These four cover the range, and the mix between them is what decides whether the account is profitable in year two.
The retail entry product. One SKU, no plumbing, sold direct to consumers. Highest unit volume, thinnest margin per piece — treat it as the customer-acquisition product and plan the profit on cartridges. See filtered shower heads.
Fits behind an existing head, hides the media. The specification of choice for hotels, rental apartments and anyone unwilling to replace the fixture. Slightly lower volume, better margin. See inline shower filters.
The recurring line. A distributor who sells 5,000 heads in year one sells roughly 10,000–20,000 cartridges in year two if the cartridge is not discontinued. This is the product to protect; see replacement cartridges.
A natural add-on for markets where the shower filter sells well, because it reaches the same household at a second tap. Lower volume, useful for basket size. See kitchen faucet filters.
Tell us the product type, annual volume and destination market. We will reply with a quotation, the correct certification set for that market, and a realistic schedule — usually within 12 business hours.
The two questions that most often follow this one.
