This whole mess in Venezuela (along with experience with no power for extended period of time due to weather) has me thinking about what I should do to purify water for a household of 4 as there is access to several rivers in my area. I'm thinking that a Big Berkey Royal may be the way to go.

Does anyone here use a Berkey filter for their water purification preps at home or in base camp settings? I've got a couple of hiking filters but want something that's more geared to a household and can do at least 2 gallons an hour. I've got 4 adults and 4 dogs so I'm thinking that all around I'd like 8 gallons a day minimum of fresh water.

It appears the Berkey would work but there may be other similar products that cost a bit less and I wanted to see if anyone here has any feedback on these? Thank you in advance for your time.

get a couple ceramic filters and a couple buckets=diy berkey

or get household media filter+ bucket then a little bleach then a carbon filter for taste- you can do that under 40 bucks if you try

Berky's are GREAT..use daily...can't say enough good things

or,,buy ceramic candles 2- 5 gal buckets and spigot and make your own..look like shit on the counter top though..

buy a Big Berky, use daily, stop buying filtered bottled water, buy 1/2 doz reusables, and save money on coffee makers and pots and
over all health.just get the habit of water in, water out..use water..

I assume from the question that you are on city water, without a well?

We have used a berkey for going on 6 years to filter both city water and now well water.  They provide terrific filtration, albeit at a price.  However, with  4 adults and 4 dogs you are going to want a lot more than 8 gallons a day, for anything other than bare survival.  Probably double or triple that, or more.

All that said, there is no replacement for stored water.  Rivers can become contaminated. A berkey may filter out bacteria and viruses, and some chemicals, but there's no limit to what could wind up in that water during a hurricane or similar disaster.  Would you have wanted to filter and drink the flood waters in NOLA after Katrina?  Also depending on the severity of the situation, travel may be difficult or impossible.  Or unadvisable.  Would be far easier to have a large quantity of water stored ahead of time.

Are you in a location that allows rainwater collection?  Any homeowners or other restrictions on storage tanks?

With decent filtration, that water is still usable for a lot of non-drinking purposes - which reduces the strain on your drinking water supply.

Filtration isn't the be-all/end-all - but it's an essential ingredient.

Yeah, storage tanks at my primary residence are a no go but could pull off a rainwater collection deal which I'm working on implementing. Just wanted something that I could use to clean up local stream water if needed in a pinch such as no power to the community water pump system. I'll look to upgrade the capacity based on your feedback there. Where I live, there is zero chance of a hurricane katrina but certainly flooding of local areas and systems isn't out of the question. Thank you!!

I'd say no matter where the water comes from (including city or well water), it's good to run it through a berkey or similar filter...even absent a disaster.  There are knockoff berkey filters that are likely just as good but at a quarter the price.

A storage tank can mean lots of things.  Anywhere from the giant 2500 gal black tanks, to a 275 gal Ibc tote (Craigslist), to a 55 gal blue barrel in a basement, all the way down to the 5 gallon storage jugs they sell at Walmart.  Even someone in an apartment can get away with keeping a half dozen of those on hand.  If you're in a house, you'd be surprised what you can hide away under a deck or porch, in a garage, shed, basement, etc.

Berkey here and love it.

Why would you waste resources filtering water for your dogs?

my backup to stored water is a Sawyer 5 gal .1 micron unit.... it can be back flushed indefinitely with included syringe... if virus is a threat they make a .02 micron filter, or pre treat with pool chlorine

Depending on chemicals or fires just prefiltering the dog's water might be good or go all the way to berky or whatever.

I have several of the sawyer filters, cause people have had them leak and fail but generally from when they tried to add a bit of air pressure to speed things up.

Life straws, got some of those around as well.

I don't have any berky stuff but consider it.  Nice big stainless steel thing would be pretty on kitchen counter, but if you won't use it daily then the filters and some buckets might work.

You can make your own filters out of odds and ends if you prefer that, or scavenge stuff.  My uncle has some monster filter that holds about 50lbs of activated charcoal he used on his well when they used it, got city water now.  Well had a sulfur smell to it I think.  So free container and I already got a bunch of activated charcoal here already.  Don't plan to use it til I need it though.

Pvc pipe and other stuff can be used as well.

Depending what you are dealing with just come coffee filters or a sand filter can be a good start.

Prefiltering things will help the more expensive finer filters last longer.

don't forget about the water heater, It holds alot of drinking water

Not in mine. Tankless water heater is now all the rage in new house construction it seems....