I've been using a Berkey filter for...12 or 13 years now.  I cannot stand tap water around here, it's like drinking pool water.

We’ve had our Berkey for 6 months now.  Love it!!

I have an RO system at home and have lived with them for years. pur is garbage and taste like slightly less crap tap water IMO.

Well, from reading reviews and peoples' comments, I ordered the Royal Berkey.

The cheapest I saw it was here the Berkey website.  It is on sale right now for $283 (normally $305) and shipped free.  I found a coupon code for 5% off, GCN is the code.  My total was $268.95.

Aunt and uncle used to use a well with a lot of sulfur, they had a big "tank" I guess I will call it.  Held about 50lbs of whatever charcoal for filtering and they hated messing with it.  Now they have city water and I will get tank once spring arrives and we can mess with stuff.  Deactivated charcoal I guess is name of what I want.

For disolved chemicals you are looking at evaporation or reverse osmosis and what not.

I consider getting a berky, pretty, to have sit on counter but have not done so.

Please run searches on filter issues and go ahead and stock spare good filters.  They had some that would not seal well or something.  I forget cause I don't own any but it was an issue for a bit.

People using the food coloring test found food coloring getting around gaskets.

And there are different filters you can buy as well.

I got some life straws and other odds and ends around for filters.

I consider a berky and still might get one.

The nice thing about the stainless steel is that you can dismantle and clean it well.  Plastic buckets will have a shorter lifespan in my opinion.  So if you want to use it all the time, pretty shiny would be my choice.  And that is what I would get.

I figure after this thread I will buy some filters in a month or two though and could make a bucket setup if I needed to do so.

A bucket filtering into a 5 gallon coleman round cooler with the spigot on the bottom makes for a good sink setup.

Katadyn ceradyn drip here.
8+ years of daily use. Same filters, cleaned them once.
Ive been happy with it.
But i also own 3 of thier back packing filters years prior to the drip filter, so i was brand loyal already.

For all the people wanting to know if you can drink poop water afterwards, the answer is maybe.

Viruses cannot be filtered but you can treat the water with bleach or boil afterwards but I still wouldn't recommend trying it unless it was life or death.

OP, have tested both filters and some others.

Here are test results photos

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/6035/

PUR is garbage. Zero Water beats the Berkey. But Berkey is better than Brita and PUR.

I can't drink out well water either. It smells like farts and pH is at around 6.0, meaning that it's quite acidic. Acidic means that it probably has lots of metals dissolved in it. Nitrates levels are also very high due to lots of septic tanks in the area. The smell probably comes from there too.  So far, I installed a limestone based pH correction system to keep appliances and pipe fittings from rusting away but we don't dare to use the water for drinking. A proper water treatment system will cost around $4,000 or more and will take a large  chunk of the garage space. We've been buying water for drinking and cooking.

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

1. They waste water (takes something like 2 gallons to make 1)


2. They require high pressure water, the higher the pressure the less waste water it produces


3. They produce treated water very slowly.


4. They require a lot of maintenance.

Thanks to those who replied to my earlier inquiry.

My system is a Berkey Light. Essentially it is two blue plastic refillable water reservoirs, like everyone has seen commercially for the past 35 years or so, with filters separating them.

Usually there's a small amount of water in the top chamber and the bottom is almost full. For fear of a child or pet tipping over the whole apparatus (there's no place tall enough to place it while still being accessible), I've only filled the top chamber once or twice before when I was home.

I filled it yesterday. Just got a call from my wife that there's water leaking like crazy from the seam between the two halves. I asked her if someone or something may have bumped into it and she said no.

Is it normal for that to happen after a while? I suspected it leaking there once in the past, but never found that it did for sure.

If the bottom chamber was already full and you added more water to the top chamber, well, the water has to go somewhere.  Is that what happened?

@D6T:
Berkey had a run of slow filters they offered a exchange for new ones 5 years ago or so. We had two doing just what yours did new out of the box. Thought that was the norm til I heard about the issue. Exchanged for some new ones and they flowed free and fast. We have the Crown Berkey and added two more and it does 5-6 gallons within a couple hours now.

This is a throwback to the days before Y2K.

I keep an eye out for these things at garage and estate sales. I have had several get away before I could get back to pick them up.

I don't use my Berkey anymore.  Why?  I buy reverse osmosis water.  The Berkey is there for emegency.

Saw the same poor man Berkey setup in Guatemala.  It works!

Same here.

You guys that built you own any issues ? I found one of these at a Bargain Hunt store cheap and was thinking I could feed it from a 5 gallon bucket.

The only issue that I have had with mine is that I had to replace the spigot last year. I had purchased a spare when i built it for just in case and it just in cased.

Thanks. I may grab a spare