On the topic of bottled water..

[Dolomite_supafly]

Just updating this. I know it has been 3+ years but wanted to give a long term update.

The Berkey is still going strong. We have to clean the filters every ~3 months. It is still filtering just fine.

It has been the single biggest money saver in our house because we would drink three cases of water a week. So the $259 Berkey has saved us close to $2,000 since we bought it.

[Mark A]

Color me impressed...

Smells and tastes so much better than tap water.

Mark

Since you brought it back up I decided to quote myself. This thing is fantastic. I really like the water we get. I added the fluoride filters and it got just a little better. We clean ours whenever it gets slow and it goes back to normal. I bought 2 more sets of filters and I'm not sure yet if we will ever need them.

We are going to buy a 2nd one soon to leave in our camper on our land. We finally got our well in so we don't have to carry water back and forth.

Good advice from team Sourkraut-Supafly...

Mark

[Dustbuster]

I bellied up to the Amazon water bar and took the plunge should be in on Monday can't wait! After looking at all the deposits in the Krupa and dog bowl and reading this thread I had to do this thanks everyone

[bersaguy]

we did that for ages.. but with us living 15 miles out of town..its actually cheaper with this filter. I am sure its great water but never seen any test results on bacteria from it.. The older I get.. the pickier I get what I put into my body..

Quote"The older I get.. the pickier I get what I put into my body".   

 

I had to laugh when I read that........... :rofl:  I am just the opposite..........The older I get the less I care about what I put in my body. I guess in the last several years I have ate foods I would never have eaten 10 years ago. learning now what I was missing out on all those years........ :rock:

[rmiddle]

I bought a Berkey filter nice enough thing.  The big problem I had is the first set of filter broken in a few months.  Called and they said they had a bad batch and sent me a replacements and they lasted only a few months.  People keep saying they last years but I don't know how they lasted so long for them.

 

Thanks

Robert

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

I bought a Berkey filter nice enough thing.  The big problem I had is the first set of filter broken in a few months.  Called and they said they had a bad batch and sent me a replacements and they lasted only a few months.  People keep saying they last years but I don't know how they lasted so long for them.

 

Thanks

Robert

I am not sure what you do to yours but they do last a long time actually.Dropping them or handling them a certain way or cleaning them wrong can break them .

[Dolomite_supafly]

I bought a Berkey filter nice enough thing. The big problem I had is the first set of filter broken in a few months. Called and they said they had a bad batch and sent me a replacements and they lasted only a few months. People keep saying they last years but I don't know how they lasted so long for them.

Thanks
Robert

What exactly happened that caused the filters to last only a few months?

I will say that some filters have charcoal inside and the charcoal can settle reducing the speed with which they filter. And if your water has very fine sediment you will have to clean more often.

Our water is from a well and because of that we do have some sediment. We use whole house filters to remove the sediment then use the filters to make it 100% safe. We bath and I have drank the water so it is safe but we do worry so we filter.

[runco]

I have no concerns (yet) on our new place.  We bought this place close to a year now, its deep in the woods and it has well water as well (no pun intended).

 

The setup is a deep well, 100'+.  They have a Culligan sediment filter inline before the UV sanitizer system. 

 

I already replaced the filter once, it was in bad shape and UV system has an extra bulb.  From the log and paperwork that was in the room, it appears this stuff is about 20 years old. 

 

I have not had the water tested, but the water tastes great, smells like mountain water suppose to smell like, and we have great pressure.  With that said, looking in the back of the holding tanks for the toliets, there appears to be some light sediment, but that might be from where the inline filter was shot.  I have put in a new toilet out in the garage, and I am watching to see if any sediment builds in it.   Otherwise no complaints.

 

Now if I could get that well pump to run on something other than Ft. Loudon Electric supplied power, then we are moving closer and closer to being off the grid.

Edited November 29, 2015 by runco

[tnhawk]

Are you sure?

Palatable doesn't mean it is safe.

Dolomite

According to annual testing, the water quality from MLG&W is some of the best in the country.

[jgradyc]

We don't drink bottled water because it sits in a plastic container for days or weeks soaking up those carcinogens from the plastic. The Berkey sounds like a very good system, but we have system in place that works for us.

 

We use a Clear2O pitcher type filter to prefilter our tap water. Then, we pour the Clear2O filtered water into a ZeroWater pitcher. The ZeroWater pitcher basically gives us distilled water, removing all the chlorine and fluoride. 

 

The downside of this approach are that it is slow. It takes a minute to fill the Clear2O pitcher and several minutes for the entire pitcher of water to filter through the ZeroWater filter. It's not a problem for us. We never empty the ZeroWater filter without refilling it, so we never have to actually wait for water.

 

We found that we couldn't use a ZeroWater filter without prefiltering the water because we have too many particulates in our tap water. The ZeroWater filter would clog up and stop working in 2-4 weeks. If you think about how a filter works, that makes sense. 

 

EDITED: Just for kicks, I filtered bourbon through the ZeroWater. It delivered a colorless, tasteless water that registered zero particulates on my home test meter. 

Edited November 29, 2015 by jgradyc

[jgradyc]

I bought a Berkey filter nice enough thing.  The big problem I had is the first set of filter broken in a few months.  Called and they said they had a bad batch and sent me a replacements and they lasted only a few months.  People keep saying they last years but I don't know how they lasted so long for them.

 

Thanks

Robert

You might need to pre-filter the water before it gets to the Berkey.  I doesn't have to be fancy. In fact, it shouldn't be. It just needs to filter out large particulates so they don't clog the smaller membranes of a quality filter.

[teecro]

According to annual testing, the water quality from MLG&W is some of the best in the country.

 

We use these 5UZ83 test kits from Grainger http://www.grainger.com/product/PURTEST-Home-Water-Analysis-Kit-5UZ83?nls=3&ssf=3&searchQuery=5uz83 on our shipboard water..... They are simple to use and test for For Bacteria, Lead, Pesticide, Iron, Chlorine, Copper, Nitrate, Nitrite, Alkalinity, pH, and Hardness.

[rmiddle]

I am not sure what you do to yours but they do last a long time actually.Dropping them or handling them a certain way or cleaning them wrong can break them 

 

What exactly happened that caused the filters to last only a few months?

I will say that some filters have charcoal inside and the charcoal can settle reducing the speed with which they filter. And if your water has very fine sediment you will have to clean more often.

Our water is from a well and because of that we do have some sediment. We use whole house filters to remove the sediment then use the filters to make it 100% safe. We bath and I have drank the water so it is safe but we do worry so we filter.

 

 

The base separated from the charcoal filter.

 

It wasn't from abuse or anything like that.  When I called in regarding the issue they reported there was an issue with a batch and sent me replacements.  The problem is the replacements did the same exact thing.

 

Thanks

Robert

[Dolomite_supafly]

Which Berkey do you have?

If it is the Big Berkey look up item # 121046264766 on EBay. They are less than half of the Berkey filters and are much better made.

If you have another model contact the seller and he can advise you. I will say measure from the top of the top container to the bottom of the top top container. Give him the measurements and he will help you out.

[f3joel]

My original 2 black filters and the extra 2 I bought have been working great for the last 3 years.

I clean them twice a year, and replace the fluoride filters once a year.