Big Berkey Water Filters

To increase the range of the Berkey water filter product line, we are pleased to announce the availability of 3 new types of Berkey systems. They are as follows:

Berkey Light w/ 4 Black Berkey Filters

The Berkey Light is one of our biggest Berkey water filter sellers and has always come standard with only 2 Black Berkeys, however over the years we’ve had requests to provide that system with 4 Black Berkey filters. Well, tThat system is now available! This new Berkey system represents the lowest cost 4 Black Berkey filter system available, starting at $298.  It comes with 2 blocking plugs to block up 2 of the holes if you decide  only use 2 Black Berkey filters. This 4 filter system is also available with the LED base option.

Berkey Light w/ 4 Ceramic Filters

Along with the 4 Black Berkey filter system, the Berkey Light is now available with 4 ceramic filters instead of the Black Berkeys. Again this is available in both the non-LED and LED Base options and pricing for the ceramic filter and the Black Berkey systems are the same.

Travel Berkey w/ 2 Ceramic Filters

Finally, for those customers who would like to use the ceramic filters in the smallest stainless steel system we offer, you can now get the Travel Berkey w/ 2 ceramic filters. This system is $220, and like all the systems BigBerkeyWaterFilters.com offers, comes with your choice of a free gift.

Read this article to understand the difference between the black berkey and the ceramic filters.

Imagine for a moment a father and his sons go camping in a remote area of the United States and decide to go for a hike. After some exertion, they come upon a crystal clear stream with a small pool of water large enough to swim in. Stripping to their underwear, they dive in and enjoy a refreshing swim. The stream is clear and the water supply unlimited, so the children decide it is safe to quench their thirst. However, this camping trip gets cut short because of violent vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps. How could such a clear and remote water source be contaminated?

Fresh water can look very clean, but actually be very dangerous. Water borne bacteria, parasites, and viruses are invisible to the naked eye, but may times are dangerously present. One reason for this is that streams are the water supply for a variety of animals. Upstream, deer, bears, and other animals may bathe and defecate in the stream. The bacteria ultimately floats downstream, contaminating what appears to be clean water.

So what could have caused the sickness in these camping kids? The symptoms are characteristic of amoebiasis, a protozoan contamination caused by human or animal waste. But, it just as easily could have been bacteria such as giardia, cryptosporidium, or e-Coli.

If you could advise this father on how to handle this situation in the future, what would you tell him? Of course, you would tell him to not let the children drink any water source that is open and susceptible to contamination. But what if they only have a limited supply of safe drinking water for their camping trip? Boiling water for twenty minutes will get rid of most diseases, but it is not always practical.

A practical solution to this problem is to take a gravity fed berkey water filter to the camp site or carry along a portable water filter such as the Berkey sport bottle. Both Berkey products can be filled with questionable water and purified to a clean drinking state. They are extremely effective at removing the harmful bacteria, parasites, and viruses while also leaving in the beneficial minerals needed for the body. Once the water has passed through the Berkey filter, this family will know that their water is safe to drink and won’t have an impact on their vacation.

The Berkey Water Filter assembles in less than 10 minutes and with no tools!

Berkey Water Filter System Assembly Diagram

1. Remove the Black Berkey filter elements and parts from their protective packaging, checking each item against the diagram. Follow instructions included with Black Berkey filters to prime the filters and make them ready for use.

2. The number of filter elements supplied will depend on the type of unit ordered:

• Travel Berkey: 2 Black Berkey Filter Elements
• Big Berkey: 2-4 Black Berkey or Ceramic Filter Elements
• Royal Berkey: 2-4 Black Berkey Elements
• Imperial Berkey: 2 - 6 Black Berkey Filter Elements
• Crown Berkey: 2-8 Black Berkey Filter Elements

3. Extreme cleanliness is important. Wash hands before proceeding. Assure that contamination of the components does not take place during assembly.

4. Fit the knob (1) onto the lid (2) by inserting the screw (3) up through the hole in the lid and screwing on the knob. Hand tighten only.

5. After the Black Berkeys have been primed, place the large sealing washer (10) over the threaded part of the filter element (5).

6. Place the Black Berkey element (5) into the hole in the base of the upper chamber (4).

7. Secure filter elements in the chamber base by screwing on the wing nut (11) onto the threaded mount. Repeat #5 & #6 until all Black Berkey filter elements have been installed. Hand tighten only, no need to over-tighten. You want the filters as snug as possible to create a seal.

8. Place one small washer (8) onto the threaded part of the outlet spigot (7).

9. Insert thread of spigot (7) through hole in the side of the lower chamber (6). Place the second small washer (8) over the thread within the chamber and secure in place with the nut (9). Tighten securely by hand only.

10. Put the upper chamber (4) on top of the lower chamber (6) and place lid (2) in position.

Your Berkey Water Filter system is now ready for use! Go ahead and fill the upper chamber to the top and allow the water to filter into the bottom chamber.

If you are utilizing the PF-2 filters for removing fluoride and arsenic, you will need to prime these filters and screw them onto the stems of the Black Berkey elements. These filters hang in the lower chamber of the system. PF-2 priming instructions are included with the filters.

Berkey Water Filter Troubleshooting Tips:

All Water Not Filtering Through: There will always be about 1� of water left in the upper chamber of the system as not enough water pressure is available to push the remaining water through the filters.

Water Filtration Speed: If you feel as though the water is filtering too slowly, please understand that the water will always filter faster when there’s more water pressure in the upper chamber. Also, priming the Black Berkey filters opens the pores up to allow water in. A priming that has not been fully completed will still have closed pores and thus filter slower. Try re-priming the filters to ensure priming has been fully completed.

Weird Taste to Water: If you’re noticing a chemical taste to the water without the use of PF-2’s, please perform a red food coloring test on the black berkeys to ensure that all are working to specifications. If any fail, please contact us and we will have the manufacturer send you a replacement.  Also, try washing out the lower chamber with soap and water.

If using the Berkey PF-2 filters, make sure the manufacturing dust has been fully flushed out of these PF-2’s as this can cause a cloudiness or oily texture to the filtered water and will leave an unpleasant taste.

Spigot Leaking: If leaking occurs around the washers of the spigot, make sure you have washers on both sides of the stainless steel. Tighten as much as you can and leave the spigot about 90 degrees out of phase. Then, grab onto the nut in the back with a wrench, and turn the spigot itself that last quarter turn using the spigot as leverage to get a tighter turn.

If water leaks through the hole of the spigot, please contact us as you may need a replacement spigot.

The manufacturer has approved and made available the Berkey sight glass spigot also sometimes referred to as the waterview spigot. These spigots replace the standard plastic spigot included with the stainless steel systems. It is also available as a free item with any stainless steel system purchase. For those customers who had concerns about knowing where the water level is in the stainless Berkey system, this solves that problem.

Berkey Sight Glass Spigot

There are 3 sizes of spigots currently available (from left to right):

• 7.5″ - For Travel Berkey and Big Berkey systems
• 10″ - For Royal Berkey and Imperial Berkey system
• 13″ - For Crown Berkey system

For ordering information please visit the Berkey sight glass spigot product page.

As we all now, a hurricane is like a giant tornado, with winds circulating around a calm center at 75 mph or more. Yet even though we’ve seen the devastation of a hurricane like Katrina, how many of us are fully prepared? Given we’re well into the hurricane season, there’s no better time to discuss the importance of preparing you and your family for the dangers.

2010 Hurricane Season

The hurricane season starts June 1st and ends November 30th, and again this year (2010) the National Hurricane Center has predicted an above average number of storms in the Atlantic. The first, category 2 hurricane Alex, appeared less than a month after the season began. At the rate of one a month, the Atlantic Ocean will surely reach its predicted quota.

Initial fear that Alex would strike Florida proved unfounded. Instead the hurricane moved across the Gulf and slammed into Mexico, leaving several dead and millions of dollars in damage. That was good news for the United States, but of course bad news for Mexico.

However, it was not all good news for the U.S.. The storm hampered cleanup progress of the BP oil disaster that started on April 20th and there is still serious concern that oil could be blown and stretched out across the Gulf of Mexico and it’s beaches over the next couple months. This would obviously make cleanup much more difficult than it already is.

Hurricane Katrina

The destructive power of a hurricane is in the wind, but also in the amount of water it drops. Katrina, for example, dropped 15 inches of rain in some regions in less than a 24 hour period. An inch of rain drops 65,000 tons of water per square mile, and the average hurricane covers 8000 square miles! That much water inevitably has the potential to be very destructive!

Extreme Weather and Our Drinking Water

Why do weather extremes like this affect drinking water? Hurricane rain is not just unadulterated distilled water. It can often contain chemicals similar to acid rain yet also churn up undrinkable salt water from the ocean that causes corrosive damage. This water essentially has a negative impact on any source of drinking water it touches. This is particularly noticeable in rural areas where high volumes of run-off from fields containing fertilizers and other chemicals can quickly contaminate  karsts and private wells.

In more populated ares, polluted floodwater is typically an even bigger concern as it mixes and contaminates the water supplies of municipal water systems. Damage to municipal water pipes is often a part of storm destruction, and this means that safe drinking water is unable to get to homes and individuals on that pipeline for days, weeks, and sometimes months.

Make Sure You Are Prepared

Prepare Yourself and Your Family

Knowing all this, how can one be prepared for a possible hurricane disaster? Of course, some parts of a disaster are unavoidable and they must be endured until the crisis is over. But other foreseeable problems can be a part of the preparation. For example, if you live in a flood plain, or along the coasts where hurricanes (or typhoons on the Pacific coast) may occur, it would be wise to stock up on food, clean water or a water filter, and at least a 2 day responder pack for your family. These are just the basics, but every family should begin with this foundation for preparedness. Do you research as many disaster survival companies have just the sort of supplies you would need.

For water security, we recommend purchasing a gravity fed water filter like the Berkey water filter. These are very efficient in removing virtually anything that may threaten your health such as pathogenic bacteria and chemicals. The berkey filter will provide clean drinking and cooking water you could trust for the duration of the disaster that you experience. There is a peace of mind in knowing that you have water security for you and your family in the event of a potential hurricane disaster.

While there are a number of core reasons why the Berkey water filter is one of the fastest growing home water filters systems in the filtration industry, one of the most convincing is the economics associated with owning one. Once the initial berkey system purchase is made, customers are happy to learn that they do not need to worry about changing filters every month, every 6 months, or even every year for that matter. This means less hassle and less money leaving their pocket. The flagship black berkey filters that come standard with every Berkey water filter system last for 6000 gallons per set of 2. At 20 gallons a week, this equates to approximately 5 years, and at 10 gallons per week, these filters will last approx 10 years. When you do the math, a Berkey water filter user only pays 2 cents per gallon. In this multi-part series, we’re going to compare how these numbers stack up against the many other ways that homeowners get their drinking and cooking water.

Berkey Water Filter vs Bottled Water

Most of us are very aware of the many downsides associated with bottled water consumption: from the inconvenience of having to purchase bottled water regularly; to the negative impact bottlers have on local water resources and the surrounding communities; to the environmental impacts of used bottles ending up in landfills, on the sides of our roads, and in our oceans; and finally to the high financial costs.

• Let’s assume a 12 ounce case (24 bottles) of bottled water costs $5.
• That $5 in bottled water equates to 288 ounces or 2.25 gallons.
• On average, this equates to $2.22 per gallon of water when using bottled water.

If you’d like to become more aware of the downsides to bottled water consumption, please read our article review on “Tapped”, Exposing the Bottled Water Industry.

Berkey Water Filter vs Water Delivery Plans

Water delivery plans are still relatively popular with Poland Spring 5 Gallon jugs being one of the most notorious. This is somewhat surprising as only just 6 months ago, Poland Spring jugs were reported to contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical that leeches from certain plastics.

• We used data from the most popular Poland Spring water cooler plan.
• Their most popular plan delivers 4, 5 gallon jugs per month at a cost of $33.
• This equates to a typical water cooler plan costing an average of $1.65 per gallon of water.

As you can see in both examples above, at 2 cents per gallon, the Berkey water filter is much cheaper than both purchasing bottled water and the water delivery plan. Another way to interpret this data is that the Berkey water filter is 80-110 times cheaper per gallon of water. Combine this data with the fact that the Berkey water filter is more convenient and has significantly less impact on the environment and the decision becomes rather clear. Coming soon, in the 2nd part to our berkey water filter economics series, we will be covering how our water filters match up against some popular water filter brands.

We are all aware of America’s dependence on foreign oil and it’s desire to decrease that dependency. In the last sixty years over a million wells have been drilled looking for this much coveted substance. Yet as we continue to search for new sources here at home, the practice of fracting is posing increased dangers of water contamination. The gulf oil spill has awakened us to this truth.

A very popular process miners use when searching for oil or natural gas is fracting (or fracturing, fracking, fracing or hydrofracing). This involves pumping millions of gallons of water with or without chemicals to find new weak points at which gas or oil may be reached. The pressure is intended to fracture the earth, thus releasing the natural resource.

The obvious concern is having millions of gallons of chemicals pumped into the earth where it may contaminate public water sources. Recently, for example, much concern about this arose on the Delaware River. “American Rivers named 74 miles (120 km) of the (Delaware) river that originates in New York State and flows along the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey as the most endangered in the United States because of the potential for contamination by chemicals used in a gas-drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.�

Will these chemicals contaminate public water sources? The mining companies say, “Noâ€� and point out that no evidence to date has proven that fracting has contaminated public water systems. However, these past couple months we’ve witnessed first hand the worst environmental disaster the US has faced to date, and most of us feel as though we cannot trust these corporations who have loose or no corporate environmental ethical standards entirely.

This is an anonymous, unverifiable quote from the internet: “One guy in Texas was talking about how after fracting was done near his home that the water pressure changed and it blew several of his water pipes out. The water began to stink and gave his daughter a terrible rash. His horses refused to drink from the water trough, now covered with an oily film. Texas officials had little interest in investigating this and the oil and gas companies have no obligation to even disclose what they are pumping into the ground.� This debate is obviously ongoing.

The truth is, Americans are dependent both on clean water and on petroleum products. We cannot live without water, and we cannot carry on our present lifestyle without oil and gas. Therefore, we must find ways that provide both clean drinking water and petroleum access without one affecting the quality of the other. We need to do this while we continue our push to develop alternative energy technology.

If your water comes from a source influenced by fracting chemicals, then water contamination is a potential risk. If you favor the idea of utilizing our own natural resources here in the US and Canada, then you should be aware of the increased risks we will expose our water to in the process.

An immediate safety precaution requires that you do not wait until the well drillers or the environmentalists have proven the accuracy of their side of the debate. A safe, inexpensive solution is to use a berkey water filter to filter your drinking water even if it comes from a purification plant that has been tested and certified. This precaution is even more urgent if your water comes from open sources such as wells and cisterns that are more vulnerable to fracting practices. When it comes to safe drinking water, you can never be too cautious.

When out in the wilderness, far from civilization, potable water becomes critical for survival. However in many regions, seemingly clean water can be contaminated by bacteria such as giardia, e. coli, and cryptosporidium. Having a berkey water purifier on hand to purify your water prior to drinking is essential under these conditions.

A friend was recently telling me of adventures he had snowmobiling in remote areas of Alaska many years ago. I asked him, “What did you do to provide fresh water if you ran out?� He replied, “That depended on where we were.�

He went on to describe several places they could count of providing drinking or cooking water for them in the wilderness. “At forty below zero, it was too cold to melt snow. It took too much snow and too much of our precious fire to melt enough to be practical. We would walk out onto the lake and add an extension on our auger to drill through the ice since it could be six feet thick. Once we struck water, we would get what we needed. Then we would clear around the hole, place a two inch thick piece of dense insulating Styrofoam over it, and cover it with snow to slow its freezing over.�

Though few people had ever been to these remote lakes, this did not guarantee the water was pure. Although people weren’t there, plenty of animals were, and they didn’t mind using the lake all summer as their latrine. One danger was something they called “beaver fever”, more officially known as giardiasis. Giardiasis is a diarrheal infection of the small intestine by a single-celled organism called Giardia lamblia. Approximately 200 million people are affected annually worldwide, mainly in areas where standing water can be contaminated.

To rid the questionable water of the danger of giardia, these Alaskan adventurers would do one of three things. First, they could boil the water for twenty minutes. This killed most pathogens that were living. It also left the water tasteless. Second, they could treat all water with halogenated tablets or solutions (water purification tablets). Both of these methods were fast but neither removed anything from the water. They just killed what was living and dangerous.

The third method was a survival water filter. This did not mean to run the water through a coffee filter but rather to run it through something designed to purifier the water and make it potable. The properties of the black berkey water purifiers found in all the Berkey systems, or the black filters found in the portable sport berkey are ideal in these situations.

Water filters not only remove the pathogens such as e. coli that is transmitted through fecal matter, but it also removes other substances that may be in the water and unknown to the drinker. This could be heavy metals or radioactive substances such as radon 222. The black berkey filters have the amazing ability to remove these contaminants without removing the beneficial minerals which provides the taste.

If you are an adventurer, be sure to take some type of gravity operated survival water filter such as a Berkey water purifier. Your life and health may depend on it!

Karst’s are above or underground caverns, usually made of limestone or calcium carbonate, that over time tend to collect water and create aquifers. When such aquifers are found near residential areas, they make ideal sources of water as the water is assumed to be pure and the supply often endless. However recent studies show that this may be a serious misjudgment as human contamination transported by groundwater runoff is increasingly having an impact on these once pristine sources of drinking water.  Without continued proactive karst conservation legislation, many of these delicate ecosystems will eventually be destroyed and lost forever.

Across every continent, except Antarctica, are found above ground and underground caverns. When water dissolves this very soluble rock, the result is a cavern, a waterfall, a lake, a sinkhole, or any number of topographical changes. This is referred to as karst topography.

Recent testing of some karst aquifers have revealed groundwater contamination. Groundwater flows into the underground through conduits allowing little opportunity for filtration or sorption of contaminants before reaching the karst. Reports of karst contamination is appearing more frequently in the news and sometimes resulting in the need to abandon the use of these karst springs and aquifers as a source of drinking water entirely. Some recently impacted regions in the US have been Kentucky, Virginia, and just this past May, Tennessee.

Basin type draining tends to collect anything and everything off the surface of the land and this can leave the water unfit for human use as fecal contamination containing e coli bacteria, pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals used by industry can sometimes find their way into these aquifers. The best way to protect a karst aquifer from pollution is to practice karst conservation, requiring humans to limit industry and other polluting activities over the groundwater basin.

In the meantime, there are new risks that we face from karst drinking water. First, individuals coming across a karst in nature may assume that the clear water is safe to drink. This is becoming less and less the case. The other concern is for those who have relied on a karst for decades to supply them with water. A karst aquifer can provide pure drinking water for 100 years, but can become contaminated very quickly once exposed to chemicals or contaminants.

As the population grows and pollution continues, the risks of contamination also increase, and thus routine testing of these karst aquifers should become a mandatory requirement. Fortunately, there are some glimmers of hope as citizens begin to better understand the sensitivity of these essential ecosystems and endorse karst conservation. Just this month, in British Colombia, karst conservation legislation was introduced to do just that.

Do not assume a clear pool in a natural setting is automatically sanitary. If you are hiking, it is best to take your own water along, even if you will be a long way from any sign of life. Another option is to take along a portable water filter such as the sport berkey that will remove bacteria and contaminants.

If your primary daily water source is from a Karst, a recommended precaution is to filter it prior to ingestion. Even if the water has been tested and deemed safe for drinking in the past, an unknown contamination could occur quickly and put your family’s health at risk. Berkey water filters are one way to accomplish this. They are able to filter out bacterial contamination and other chemicals to undetectable levels while also leaving in the important beneficial minerals that karst aquifer’s regularly possess.

E. coli, short for Escherichia coli, is a type of fecal coliform bacteria commonly found in the intestines of animals and humans. If ingested, this bacteria can result in serious sickness and even death. When E. coli contaminates your drinking water, one should either avoid drinking it completely, or render it safe by boiling the water or purifying it with a high quality water filter.

During rainfalls, snow melts, or other types of precipitation, E. coli may be washed into creeks, rivers, streams, lakes, or ground water. When these waters are used as sources of drinking water and the water is not adequately treated, E. coli may be inadvertently ingested.

Most of the hundreds of strains of E. coli are harmless and live in the intestines of healthy humans and animals. However E. coli O157:H7 is an exception; as it produces a powerful toxin. Evidence but not proof of ingestion includes severe bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, or non-bloody diarrhea. Frequently, a fever will not be one of the symptoms.

In 2%-7% of those infected with E. coli O157:H7, the bacterium will also cause hemolytic uremic syndrome. This is evident when the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. This condition is a life threatening and may require blood transfusions and kidney dialysis as treatments.

Symptoms usually appear within two to four days, but could take longer. With this strain of E. coli, antibiotics should be avoided as they can some exacerbate kidney problems. Recovery within five to ten days usually follows without antibiotics. Any person who has sudden bloody diarrhea should get their stool tested for E. coli O157:H7 immediately. Children under five, the elderly, and those with weak immune systems are the most vulnerable.

You might ask, “Is my drinking water vulnerable to E. coli O157:H7?� Public water is by law constantly monitored for all bacterial contamination. However, those using private sources and wells for water should be cautious, especially when farm animals are present, as these sources typically do not have routine E. Coli monitoring. The addition of chlorine, or treatment of water with ultra-violet light or ozone will kill or inactivate this strain of E. coli.

If you have determined that your drinking water is contaminated, then one of the the safest procedures is to boil your water. In addition, there are high quality water purifiers on the market that will also remove E. Coli.  One of these water purifiers is the Berkey water filter. With the ability to remove E. coli bacteria to a log 7 degree, or 99.99999%, the Berkey water filter will render contaminated drinking water safe to drink. Purchasing a Berkey water purifier is a relatively inexpensive way to provide peace of mind for you and your family.