Berkey water filter system - which one?

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angie_nrs

angie_nrs

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I think I'm ready to order a Berkey since, from what I can tell, it seems to be the gold standard in water filtration. I'm just not sure which one to get since there are sooooo many of them to choose from. I like our tap water and drink it daily. However, it wouldn't hurt to run it through a filter.

For those of you who have Berkey's what do you have and would you choose differently? If so, why? Also, where is the best place to buy at the best price? There were Memorial Day sales on many of the retailers sites, but I don't even know what a good deal is on these systems since I just started looking at them.
 
angie_nrs said:
I think I'm ready to order a Berkey since, from what I can tell, it seems to be the gold standard in water filtration. I'm just not sure which one to get since there are sooooo many of them to choose from. I like our tap water and drink it daily. However, it wouldn't hurt to run it through a filter.

For those of you who have Berkey's what do you have and would you choose differently? If so, why? Also, where is the best place to buy at the best price? There were Memorial Day sales on many of the retailers sites, but I don't even know what a good deal is on these systems since I just started looking at them.
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I cannot really tell you which one to order or not order, but this might help you. Mine was a gift, because it was ordered for my daughter and it was too large by her sink. She got a smaller one and gifted me with the larger one. My kitchen walls were re-framed to add insulation. So now I have a wide window sill by my sink. It works there. Considering where you are going to put it is a factor.
 
We have been using the Berkey light for about 4 years. We bought that one 1o years ago for several reasons. It is plastic so we didn't need to worry about denting it. See through is great because we can monitor how full it is. It works pretty well for 2 we refill it every evening. Come to think of it stainless would fine if remember to refill regularly. We bought ours about 10 years ago and had some of the bad filters you may have read about. So after sitting on our shelf for 6 years they replaced them with no hassle. I would definitely recommend Berkey.
 
Cascadian said:
We have been using the Berkey light for about 4 years. We bought that one 1o years ago for several reasons. It is plastic so we didn't need to worry about denting it. See through is great because we can monitor how full it is. It works pretty well for 2 we refill it every evening. Come to think of it stainless would fine if remember to refill regularly. We bought ours about 10 years ago and had some of the bad filters you may have read about. So after sitting on our shelf for 6 years they replaced them with no hassle. I would definitely recommend Berkey.
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Cas I would love to have a whole house system but those things are out of our reach price wise.
All I had to see was the $500 off to know not to bother looking at the price.
 
Pick the filter you want, then pick the size that fits your home and your needs. I bought a Katadyn. Mine has holes for 4 filters but I plugged 3 of them and only use one filter at a time. I wanted the larger unit for more available water. The Katadyn has a translucent plastic container so I can see my water level which is nice. The Berkey has a stainless steel container which looks nicer.

The more filters the faster it works. With only two of us one filter is enough. With a larger container the slower filtering is not an issue.
 
Caribou said:
Pick the filter you want, then pick the size that fits your home and your needs. I bought a Katadyn. Mine has holes for 4 filters but I plugged 3 of them and only use one filter at a time. I wanted the larger unit for more available water. The Katadyn has a translucent plastic container so I can see my water level which is nice. The Berkey has a stainless steel container which looks nicer.

The more filters the faster it works. With only two of us one filter is enough. With a larger container the slower filtering is not an issue.
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Thanks Car will check this out.
I put the under sink one on just in case the toxic alga gets into our springs up here. I heard its already in parts of the water as far north as Orlando now.
If we have to hit the road will be ok long as we have our dogs,chickens and important papers. We're pro camper survivors.
 
Meerkat said:
Cas I would love to have a whole house system but those things are out of our reach price wise.
All I had to see was the $500 off to know not to bother looking at the price.
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I don't know what whole house system you are referring to. We use this.
330_BLM.jpg
 
Actually Cascadian, after a little review, that is the one I think I like the most. I'm considering this one, it has a 25% coupon code thru tomorrow, but I still don't know if it's a good price or not at $353 with 4 black filters, which would be about $265 after the discount. I don't think I need the additional white filters for arsenic and flouride since we have well water.

https://www.safecastle.com/collecti...2-75-gal-chose-filters?variant=21331426148434
 
That seems like a good price to me. Get some plugs as well. I'd use one or two and save the others as spares. When I bought mine I also picked up additional spare filters. I can filter water till the cows come home or I can build filters for sale or trade.
 
I don't recall the exact model we have. It was the middle size of the Stainless models back 15 years ago when we bought it. We use all four filters, but have city water and want to cut the flouride out. Our filters lasted about 4 years. Best I recall we paid around $300 for our with the 4 filters. Considering the time that went by, it sounds like you've got a good deal.
Size consideration are important though, they can take up a lot of space.
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. You have all been so helpful!

After thinking about it, I might go ahead and get the 2 white filters as well. It's not that much of a cost difference and I likely won't replace them since it looks like they will last a long time. I could always replace them with plugs if I need to. It looks like this package comes with plugs already so I hope that will suffice. I'm thinking the black filters are what I'll need the most and even those should last a long time considering it's just me and hubs that will use it.

This is kind of a silly question.......but how do you know when you need to change the filters?
 
I had to look it up myself.

When do I need to replace the Black Berkey filter elements in my system?

Use one of the 2 methods below:

Preferred Method

  1. Take the number of Black Berkey filtering elements in your system and multiply it by 3,000. This number will be the (Total Life) in gallons.
  2. Estimate the average amount of water you filter through your Berkey per day. This number will be the (Total Use) in gallons.
  3. Then simply divide the (Total Life) by the (Total Use). This number represents how many days your filter will effectively treat your water before needing to replace them.
  4. As a reminder, with a permanent marker write the date that you calculated the need for Berkey replacement filters on the bottom of your unit.
Example: If you have a two filter Big Berkey and you used 4 gallons of water per day. You would multiply 2 (#of filters) by 3000 = 6000 (Total Life), then divide 6000 by 4 (total use) = 1500 days the filters will last, That's a little over four years!

The Black Berkey filters in your unit will never stop working. The rate that the filters produce water will slow down. This is an indication that the filter needs to be cleaned. This brings us to the second method. If after cleaning your elements they do not filter any faster; it is time to replace them.
 
We used one filter for the two of us. After one year it started slowing down and we cleaned it by taking a green pad to it. When it gets too small it is time to replace. Our new house has an RO system so it went back into the original box for future need. The water here would take longer to plug the filter. They give you an amount in gallons but better water lets the filter last longer and lousy water...
 
I like the crown. It's the 5 gallon one. I fill up the 5 gallon containers that go in my water dispenser. It puts out hot or cold so making hot beverages, instant soups, etc is darn convenient. Plus I store about 7 of them on hand and just rotate through them. A couple weeks of clean water for the house on hand is never a bad idea.
 
I do the exact same thing you do, Crackbottom. We have the 5 gal jug water cooler next to the 6.5 gal Berkey that's on a stand. We keep the jugs filled and get ice cold or hot water from the cooler, or room temp from the Berkey. Same unit at the school and same cooler. A little smaller one (5 gal) at the farm. I have two extra filters for each. If you live on city water (we don't, have well water everywhere), you can order different filters..like one to take the fluoride out if that's what you want to do.
 
Bacpacker said:
Good points brought up. Dirty filters slow them down a lot. Its obvious.
My question, how do you all clean yours? Is it just a matter of removing the build up from the outside of them?
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I use a green pad and sand it down and rinse it off. Mine came with a green pad but they are readily available. It also came with a no-go gauge. As long as the gauge won't slide all the way down the filter it is okay.
 
lonewolf said:
my budget dosent stretch to a Berkey filter.
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You might be able to get one Berkey filter element, 2X 20L buckets w/lids and a spigot. Mount the spigot on one bucket, put the lid on , stack the second bucket on top of the first, drill a hole through the bottom of the second bucket and the lid of the first, mount your filter element.

It is not as fancy as a stainless steel container but it does the job.
 
I got my berkey out and put together. However, it's not doing anything yet.:( I'm pretty sure I did everything right. I watched some youtube videos on it and it was pretty straight forward. It's funny how they don't actually show a video (at least I didn't find one) of purging the white filters. My shirt got soaked.:confused: But I did purge both white filters to the point that the water running through from the sink was clear. I did however, put the white filter on their sides while I brought the unit over to the sink to screw them in. Perhaps that caused some water to leak out (and air to get in) and cause an air lock? I'm not sure.......but if I don't get anything to flow in a few hours, I'll redo the purge of the white filters and plug them in without laying them on their sides first.

I'm not impressed by the cloth top on this thing. Why didn't they devise a plastic screw on lid, like a gamma lid? Is it b/c the filters have to "breathe" like a vent?
 
This morning everything went thru the system except for about an inch or so on the top portion. I'm assuming it's b/c the bottom was about 2/3 full and the pressure difference doesn't allow for the full top tank to filter through? I think maybe the first couple of times through, it might be slower due to getting the black filters primed since there is no pre-priming done on those. Anyways.....I've got a gallon of berkey water sun tea out on the porch right now.:D

Here's a couple of links I thought were helpful. I stumbled across the cleaning kit at home depot for $25, but I don't need all those parts so I'm just going to buy a greenie for cleaning purposes for when the time comes and put the instructions in the filter box. It looks pretty simple.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Berkey-Maintenance-Kit-for-Berkey-Light-BMK-L/307421646

https://theberkey.com/blogs/water-filter/how-to-clean-the-black-berkey-filters-purification-elements
The above link recommends not using soft water through a berkey, but that's what I'm using. I hope it's not a big issue.
 
Bacpacker said:
Meer the Berkies take out most everything g. . Even flouride and arsnic
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BacP we do have a filter at the well for sediment and one under the sink but we just put in last month for Cysts, Gardia, etc,. Forgot what it covers and how to spell it.
 
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