About a month ago I noticed our Royal Berkey's water tasted slightly "funny". Once I opened the bottom chamber and took a whiff, I noticed it smelled like mildew. So I soaped up and cleaned the bottom section until it stopped stinking. Then I smelled the two white Flouride filters that live in the bottom tank and noticed that they were what smelled like mildew. I removed them all together since they are towards the end of their life span and all seemed well.

The following week I was back to square one, and noticed that it appeared the two main black filters smelled like mildew also..

WTF do you guys (and gals) do to keep your Berkey working in tip top shape? Any inside opinions on how to best clean this thing up? I had considered running a diluted chlorine batch of water through it, but remembered this thing is supposed to remove the chlorine, so how would that help?

I also read about someone boiling their cartridges, but am worried I'll destroy them..

Thoughts?

http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkey-answers/how-to/black-berkey/clean/

Thanks for the response, but that isn't what I am referring to. This only cleans the OUTSIDE of the filters when they slow down their filtering process due to collection of sediment on the outside of them.

My problem is that the port on the end of the filters is where the smell is coming from, which makes me think its inside them.

Perhaps Ill call Berkey tomorrow on my lunch break.

Since mildew prefers a moist environment, how about thoroughly drying the filter before storage?

Here's my shot:
1)  clean filter as per instructions
2)  hand dry as well as possible
3)  air dry for 20 minutes or so with a fan
4) place in a vacuum sealer bag with desiccant packets.
5)  pump down to a vacuum and seal

Any remaining water will be vaporized and sucked into the desiccant.

These are good ideas. I think I'll give them a go and see where we end up.

Thanks!

So you're sayin' that you got a murky Berkey?

tag

I've never had this problem with our Royal?  We keep it going though.  It's all we drink (no soda or tea) so it cycles pretty quickly.  We're on a well, so have no experience with the Fluoride Filters.

Sort of!

Run some vinegar through it, maybe?

I ain't cleaned my katadyn drip in 5-+ years....daily use....


Oh....this is a shiny look pretty berkey thread....:p

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