Berkley Water Filters

[Lafitte]

Anybody use these?
http://www.berkeywater.com/black-berkey-purifiers/

[Murphman]

Many people here use these filters.

I have a Big Berkey that sits on my kitchen counter all day, every day. I think it is great for purifying water in one's home. I have never traveled or camped with it. I have other filters for that.

All in all, I found it to be exactly what I wanted in a price point that didn't kill me.

[Invisible]

Yeah, I keep a set of the filters in my emergency stores. I don't have an 'official' housing for them but it is easy enough to improvise a gravity system. They are kept in reserve for the slim chance of a 'real' emergency.

[Mikeyboy]

I have respect for the Big Berkley but the price of the Black Berkley is $109 and this stat makes me think it not worth it.

•Durability: Each Black Berkey element is designed to purify approximately 3,000 gallons of water before needing replacement; 2 elements in a Berkey system will purify approximately 6,000 gallons of water before replacement is recommended

[Murphman]

I have respect for the Big Berkley but the price of the Black Berkley is $109 and this stat makes me think it not worth it.

•Durability: Each Black Berkey element is designed to purify approximately 3,000 gallons of water before needing replacement; 2 elements in a Berkey system will purify approximately 6,000 gallons of water before replacement is recommended

Can you point me to a carbon filter that does what the Big Berkey does cheaper? I didn't think there was one.

http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkey-ans ... omparison/

I have a Sawyer .02 bucket system, but that doesn't get rid of VOC's and Heavy metals.

[Stercutus]

The charcoal filter on my refrigerator is $89 (and works great). I am thinking $109 is not all that bad. I keep a Berkey in reserve also JIC we lose water through the mains and run out of back up drinking water I can draw it from the creek or rain barrels.

[zero11010]

The Berkey sport bottle filter is something a lot of people are excited about. But, it doesn't look very impressive to me. It looks like it's mostly for filtering your perfectly drinkable faucet water. It seems like, as an emergency water filter, the Berkey sport bottle isn't very good. I do own one, I find myself hesitant to use it for an emergency bag. I can't help but think that if these things were great for filtering water when you're on a hike, more hikers/backpackers would use them. I'm not looking for a water filter for a soccer mom to filter drinking fountain water for use in an emergency bag.

From what I can tell, when a water filter can specifically say how effectively it filters water (to whatever micron level) they do. Likewise, they're happy to to talk about the bacteria removal, and parasite protection and such.


http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkey-wat ... erkey.html
From Berkey:
The Sport Berkey Portable Water bottle is the ideal choice for a personal traveling companion - featuring Berkey's exclusive IONIC ADSORPTION MICRO FILTRATION TECHNOLOGY.

The theory behind this innovation is simple. The Sport bottle's filter is designed to reduce or remove many harmful contaminants from questionable sources of water, including remote streams, lakes, stagnant ponds and sub-standard water supplies in foreign countries where regulations are non-existent or not enforced.

This superior technology used in the Sport Berkey portable water filter was developed, refined, and improved through investigative laboratory testing and field research. Our team of water filter experts, field engineers and research specialists have developed this purification process over countless hours of testing and research. The media contained in the water filtering element removes contaminants by the surface phenomenon known as "adsorption" which results from the molecular attraction of molecules to the surface of the media.

As the Sport Berkey bottle is squeezed, the water is forced through the filter. The density and quality of media used determine the rate of adsorption. The time of exposure through the filter has been carefully calculated to yield the greatest volume removal of toxic chemicals and pollution caused by industry and agriculture. The exclusive filter element of this Sport Bottle is composed of our exclusive proprietary "adsorbing" media that promotes IONIC "adsorption" of pollutants, such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, aluminum, mercury, and other dangerous heavy metals.

The "Tortuous Path" structure of the Sport Berkey's filter element gives it its unique characteristics. This filter is a true portable Water filter and uses medical grade technology to produce a convenient and portable water filtration system.


Refill Capacity

Water From Questionable Source: 160 Refills (25 gallons)

Municipal Water supply: 640 Refills (100 Gallons)

Not yet available in Iowa

- See more at: http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkey-wat ... gjIYy.dpuf

[Murphman]

It was surprising to me that Berkey did not give stats on the Sport Berkey, so I sent customer service an e-mail asking to clarify the purification level. Here is the reply:

Thank you for choosing Berkey Filters! The Sport Berkey removes everything the Big Berkey does except for viruses. Fortunately, water-borne viruses are very rare in nature. Thank you and have a great day!

I did specify in my e-mail to give specific levels of decontamination, but I did not get an answer. If anyone wants more specifics, here is the e-mail:
customerservice@berkeyfilters.com

[Lafitte]

I now have the 2 big Berkley filters in my supplies. They are not set up yet. My SO said she would like to set them up and filter some of our lake water so we could send a sample off to a testing lab for analysis. I may do that to test their efficacy.

[crypto]

We use Berkey filters for Z-con. 4 of them are able to provide all the water for 70+ people for a week at a time, and we've been using them for 7 years now. They're very tough, despite looking like there's not a lot to them.

Priming the elements is a slight hassle because it takes some already clean water, but once they get going they're unstoppable.

[williaty]

Priming the elements is a slight hassle because it takes some already clean water, but once they get going they're unstoppable.

They recently changed this. Now, they sell little vacuum priming bulbs. You immerse the filter in dirty (or clean) water with the outflow nipple facing up. You attach the priming bulb and apply a vacuum to the inside of the filter. Dirty water is pulled in and made clean, then is sucked out of the filter through the primer.

Solves both how to prime without pressurized water and how to prime without clean water.

[Valarius]

A very worthwhile piece of gear, Berkey filters are. Unfortunately they're around $100 per filter, and most Berkey systems need at least two to function. They also sell arsenic filters for around $50 that screw onto the bottom of the Black Berkey filter. Attach both and you'll have some of the cleanest water ever.

[Lafitte]

A very worthwhile piece of gear, Berkey filters are. Unfortunately they're around $100 per filter, and most Berkey systems need at least two to function. They also sell arsenic filters for around $50 that screw onto the bottom of the Black Berkey filter. Attach both and you'll have some of the cleanest water ever.

Actually.... I spent $100 for TWO filters........ from Berkley , just sayin......

[Mampfies]

I ordered the siphon set up from these people. Same filter as used in the Berkey as far as I know, Doultons....

http://www.purewaterproducts.com/emerge ... on-filters