The Berkey filter is great, but be aware of its limitations.
The Berkey has an absolute pore size of <0.9 micron. This means that there are holes up to 0.9 micron in size in the Berkey filters.
Now this is fine for most applications, but keep in mind that
the Berkey will not filter all bacteria or any viruses.
Compare this to the absolute pore size of a Sawyer filter, which is certified as a <0.1 micron filter.
This is still not sufficient to filter viruses, but will protect against all bacteria.
Keep this in mind for when you prep.. If you are filtering water possibly exposed to bacteria, you need a reverse osmosis water filter.
These reverse osmosis filters have some big drawbacks
- They waste water (takes something like 2 gallons to make 1)
- They require high pressure water, the higher the pressure the less waste water it produces
- They produce treated water very slowly.
- They require a lot of maintenance.