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How Many Berkey Water Filters Are Needed?
This seems to be one of the questions I receive the most. And, it makes sense because there are many ways in which Berkey Water Filters can be set up. The more you read, the more confusing it can get, and the information out in cyberspace doesn’t always clear things up. Below, I’ve assembled 7 basic facts and guidelines that will help you understand the world of Berkey.
- Basic systems all start out with 2 filtration elements in the upper chamber. You then build upon the system from there depending on your needs and system capacity.
- The larger the system, the more elements you can fit into the upper chamber. It ranges from 2 elements in a system like the Travel Berkey or Berkey Light, to 8 elements in the Crown Berkey.
- Traditionally, filter / purifying elements are designed for either the upper or the lower chamber. Ceramic filters & Black Berkey filters are upper chamber. PF-2 Fluoride / Arsenic and PF-4 Arsenic / Lead / MTBE / Fluoride filters are lower chamber. In theory, if you wanted to pimp out your Berkey, 16 filtration elements could fit into the Crown Berkey (8 up / 8 down).
- Black Berkey’s only match up with PF-2’s, and Ceramics only match up with PF-4’s. This is because the PF-2’s are designed to complement the improved filtering abilities of the Black Berkey elements. Similarly, PF-4 filter technology is designed to complement and fit with the Ceramic filtration elements. So, if you buy 4 BB’s up top, you’ll need 2 sets of PF-2’s down below…not a PF-4 set.
- The amount of lower chamber elements in any given system must match the amount of upper chamber elements. i.e. 2 BB’s up top must equal 1 set of PF-2’s down below, 4 Ceramic’s up top must equal a set of PF-4’s below…etc. Keep in mind, lower chamber(pf) filters are not required. A system can function with only upper chamber elements, like 2 BB’s, but not the other way around.
- You cannot combine different types of filtration elements in one chamber. In other words, if you have 2 Black Berkey purification filters in the upper chamber and you’d like to expand to 4, you cannot add two Ceramic filters to the mix. You would need to add 2 addt’l Black Berkey filters.
- More Filters = Faster filtration; not better filtering. If you’re buying a larger system, you most likely have a requirement for water to be available quicker and in larger volumes. In this case, you would want to opt for 4, 6, or 8 upper chamber filter elements.
Hope this gives everyone a good foundation. Couple this information with your filtering intentions and you’ll be able to select the right system and elements combination that will meet your health needs. Please feel free to contact me with any other questions that I can help you with - Dan@Bigberkeywaterfilters.com.
The Thristy Berkey - For the Love of Clean Water
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I’m trying to get an accurate comparison of the newer Black Berkey vs. the Sterasyl ceramic. From what I’ve seen, the Black Berkeys are made in the U.S. and mostly tested/approved in the U.S. The ceramic filters have been the top choice for many years and were tested/approved by a variety of sources from different countries.
U.S. testing standards are not always reliable (IMHO) compared to many years of tried & true testing of the ceramics. I do want to choose the best one… can you confirm whether most/all of the quality testing on the BB is done in the U.S.?
Hi Karen -
Black Berkey’s are manufactured in the US and have thus only been tested in the US to date. Two labs have tested these filters.
1) Spectrum Labs - They provide services to the environmental, municipal, industrial, and research communities for detecting and monitoring pollution. Known as the technical leader in analytical chemistry, Spectrum has been in business for over thirty years.
2) University of Arizona - Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science - WQC (Water Quality Center) Lab
Both are well respected labs. The food coloring test is a good real world example of the high quality of the black berkey’s purification ability.
Dan
I have a Big Berkey and have only two of my four ceramic filters and two PF-4’s on bottom. I think the ceramic filters are a much better value and filter many more gallons of water before becoming unusable. If you take care of them they will last for years and years. I find for my family two filter sets give us adequate water for daily use. If I have a need for more I can just stick in two more filters and it will filter faster.
We love our filter. We no longer can stand tap water and use stainless water bottles for the kids. I feel better not buying bottled water and adding more plastic to the oceans and dumps.
Hi Peggy -
We’re glad your enjoying you ceramic filter / PF-4 setup. Please keep in mind that the PF-4’s need to be replaced every 6 months regardless of gallons filtered. A set of PF-2’s (used with the black berkeys) need to be replaced every 2 years or 1000 gallons. Due to the longer life of the PF-2’s, the black berkey / PF-2 combination is typically less expensive over the long run. However, both are great setups and they really do help us reduce our bottled water consumption. We think that’s a great thing!