What is a good gravity fed water filtration system?  I was looking at Sawyer's one gallon gravity system.  The MSR guardian gravity system looks good too, but its high dollar.

Thoughts?

Artesian well.

How does this help me?  I'm trying to get my preps squared away the best I can to keep my family safe.  And you decide to make light of the situation.

I run a platypus bag for dirty water passing through a sawyer filter into a source bladder.

Portable?  Sawyer with dirty water bag.

What did you have in mind for non portable?

Two food grade 5 gallon buckets from Menards or a bakery.
Two ceramic filters.
One spigot.
Very simple and effective.
If the buckets are going to be in sunlight at all get black ones to prevent algae.
The filters may seem expensive but I've literally had mine for well over 10 years.
Once they get dirty, scrub them down with only water and the green scrubbies, no soap or anything.
Here's some links for you.
Spigot
Filters

This came up in another thread a little while ago. Along with Sawyers (for mobility), I got one of these with an extra filter.

$199.95 + $90 for extra filter. They do free shipping as well.

Alexapure Pro

Sawyer use to make 5 gallon kits.

https://www.sawyer.com/products/international-bucket-system

I have a Berkey for normal kitchen/drinking use and am happy with it.

this.

I want something where I can afford to stock up on filters.  The Berkey would be nice but the filters are a deal breaker for me.

Came here to say this. The wife and I bought one for our kitchen almost two years ago and we won’t ever buy bottled water for the house again. Works great and is 100% worth the cost up front.

That.

Filters were $30 5-10 years ago, coupe of buckets and a spigot if it didn't come in the kit and you were farting in silk.

How much is clean water worth?

FWIW we use two Berkey’s for our family of six per day so we put a lot of water through them.  I have to clean the filters every 60-90 days.  Our fist one is six years old and still on its first set of filters but the bottom ~2” no longer filters so they are on the way out, I would estimate they’ve filtered 2-5 gallons every day during that time. If SHTF happens the plan is to grab five gallon buckets from the pond or rain gutters, filter through cheese cloth into a new bucket, and let settle for 24 hrs before putting it in the berkey to save the filters from sediment as much as possible.  

I have used MSR products for many years outdoors, they are great products. But I don’t see any of them as suitable for mostly continuous use for more than a season. Just my opinion.

Attached File

I picked one of these up after someone posted a link. They only make one size.

Project Farm sayeth nay, for what that's worth.

There is a lot more “filter” to the Berkey’s than things like the Sawyer’s or Grayl’s that people use on the go.   It will take a lot longer to plug the Berkey’s because of the surface area difference.  

In the old house we had four people drinking from our Berkey and the water was pretty nasty.   Lots of rust and it smelled like rotten eggs.   The water out of the Berkey was great.   The filters were well into their second year and showed minimal issues when I moved out.   I went ahead and replaced the filters when I moved into the new place and they will last a lot longer here.   I have two more sets stacked up in the closet.  

If I really wanted to make any filter last longer then I could do something like building a “pre-filter” where I ran the water through a five gallon bucket full of sand before running it though the Berkey.  That should take out a lot of the organic material, sediments, etc that would plug the filter.   It could introduce some sand into the water being dead into the Berkey but that should settle out in the bottom and not get drawn through the filter.   That is one thing about SHTF, having options that can be configured to solve the specifics of the situation can be the difference between surviving and thriving…..

The Berkey black filters are also rated for viruses, something most Sawyer filters can't do without the addition of treating he filtered water with chemicals. I do have a Berkey, but live in a rural enough location (we also have our own well water) that I really don't think viruses would be a major factor post SHTF, but it's a good option and big recommendation if you live anywhere "downstream" form a densely populated area...

ROCK6

What do you guys think of this one?

https://www.shtfandgo.com/product/gravity-well-water-filter-uvc/

Platypus Waterworks

What water reservoir bags are yall using?

Removing dissolved solids (“minerals” both beneficial and harmful) is a different task than removing or inerting pathogens or removing organic contaminants.  Filters are great for aesthetic water quality and speed of treatment but primary or post disinfection (oxidizer chemicals or UV) is always a good idea if source water is exposed to living critters.