Your cart is empty.
Archive for the ‘water filter’ Category
Where Has All The Water Gone?
Sunday, February 27th, 2011Around the world, freshwater sources are shrinking as lake, river and aquifer levels are falling faster than can be replenished. In addition, the usefulness of water contained in these natural reservoirs is being compromised by pollution from industrial and household chemicals. It is estimated that worldwide water consumption doubles every 20 years, with predictions that demand will surpass supply within 30 years. That may be too optimistic. With all of these conditions persisting, it’s no wonder that public concerned interest in our water resources and drinking water quality is exponentially rising.
Impact of Water Runoff
One explanation for falling water table levels is offered by Richard McGrath, director of codes and standards, Cement Association of Canada: “The increased use of hardscaping (impervious pavements) in our major urban areas allows the direct run-off of oil and other contaminants into the storm water system, preventing the recharging of groundwater levels and natural purification of the run-off water.”
Storm water runoff that would normally seep through the porous ground must often find its own path across toxic paved areas. The resulting environmental waste water is re-routed to man-made runoff areas. Household ‘grey water’, the water waste from sinks and washing is increasingly contaminated with household chemicals. Now, this more toxic soup of water runoff either saturates the surrounding land or gets routed through community sewer systems to water treatment plants where industrial filtration attempts to make it drinkable. More can learned about this phenomenon in our article reviewing the importance of Karst conservation.
Disturbance of Natural Waterways
Another contributor to the depletion and contamination of our water sources is the fact that housing development is no longer limited to geographical locations with a ready source of water. Today, people routinely live in areas where water must be transported hundreds of miles from a distant water source. A great example of this is Las Vegas, NV where water is routed from hundreds of miles away and is recognized as the lifeline to it’s survival. To accomplish this, the natural course of rivers gets rerouted without consideration for the long-term implications. Businesses have the ability to purchase the rights to divert water from a lake, river, aquifer, or other natural source further depleting reserves. Ultimately what occurs is that rivers and lakes that would normally be naturally replenished begin to dry up under the high demand of urban and residential growth. All the while, most residents are completely unaware that their valuable water resources are being increasingly contaminated while also slowly diminishing in availability.
We Need To Protect Our Water Supplies
Waters that were once generously replenished and filtered by nature are now being depleted and soiled by humans. This places a large percentage of the population at an increased risk from their drinking water as these once plentiful and pristine sources are becoming contaminated and scarce. For all of these reasons, it is increasingly important for individuals to monitor the water quality from their faucets and ensure they have a quality water filter at their disposal. Also, it’s imperative that we become more proactive as a society in protecting our existing water supplies for future generations.
A Well Water Filter Ensures Safe Drinking Water
Thursday, September 9th, 2010Many people have a deep well outside their homes and use it as their main source of water. After all, it is free of charge and well water is considered to be clean and safe. This is mostly true, especially if no sign of sickness caused by well water has ever occurred in any person consuming it. Yet, what if you are suspicious that recent occurrences of sickness in your family may be caused by your well water?
Well water is considered clean since it is directly taken from the ground and no direct contamination should be polluting it. However this is becoming less and less the case as humans continue to pollute the environment. This problem was touched upon in our article stressing the need to conserve the karsts that feed these wells. However even if a well is not contaminated by human pollution, there is always the existence of Coliform bacteria.
Coliform is a type of bacteria that is usually found in plants, animals and soils. It does not immediately cause an illness in a person, but it’s presence indicates that other harmful bacteria exist in the water surrounding it. In other words, Coliform is an indicator or a measurement that harmful bacteria can be found in your well water.
Since Coliform indicates the presence of harmful bacteria in our well water, concerned homeowners have the ability to ensure this water supply is safe and clean through water filtration. A well water filter will protect homeowners and their families from illnesses such as upset stomachs, diarrhea, and other dangerous bacteria that can lead to serious consequences.
One effective well water filter is the Big Berkey Water Filter. It is a countertop water filter ready for use in the kitchen, for outdoor activities, and even traveling to other places. The manufacturer of Berkey water filters warranties all it’s products and strives to meet it’s customers needs for high quality water filtration, reliability in times of emergency and travel, and a user friendly design for ease of use and maintenance.
The Big Berkey Water Filter (2.25 Gallon)
Big Berkey Water Filters are designed to effectively remove Coliform bacteria, pathogens and parasites, and now the MS2 and Fr Coliphage viruses. It also removes chemicals and unhealthy minerals like lead and mercury without removing the healthy minerals we obtain from natural healthful water.
Each Big Berkey Water Filter, as well as any of our Berkey Water Filter models, are reliable in times of disaster as they do not require electricity or water pressure to operate. You will also be confident that you and your family can take full advantage of the benefits of your well water while at the same time being fully protected from harmful bacteria that may exist in your well.
Water Contamination as a Result of Fracking
Thursday, July 8th, 2010We 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 fracking 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 fracking (or fracturing, fracking, fracting 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, “No” and point out that no evidence to date has proven that fracking 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 fracking 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 fracking 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 fracking practices. When it comes to safe drinking water, you can never be too cautious.
The Black Berkey Red Food Coloring Test
Saturday, January 16th, 2010The Black Berkey red food coloring test provides the opportunity to showcase the impressive purification power of the Black Berkey elements. Many water filter companies make claims to their high quality, but Berkey water filters go one step further by making their lab test results public and presenting demonstrations such as the red food coloring test. While helpful for new customers to see the Black Berkey filters in action, it is invaluable for the existing customer base since it can be used at anytime during the life of the filters to ensure they are working to design specifications. Whether the original black berkeys have been in operation for the past 3, 7, or 10 years, one can perform this test at anytime to see if it’s time for a replacement. We recommend customers place a cup underneath each filter as this will help isolate which filter is exhausted, and which is still purifying effectively.
With other water filters, the customer must assume their system is working to specifications or spend the time and money to perform water tests. This time lapse video shows how simple the red food coloring test can be done after priming your Black Berkey filters.
To perform a food coloring test, start with an empty system (upper/lower chamber), remove any PF-2 filters that may be attached, and place a glass in the lower chamber directly underneath each black berkey filter. Next, fill the upper chamber with water and add 5-6 drops of red food coloring (only red please). After 5-10 minutes, look to see if any of the water in the glasses are red or have any pinkish tinge. If one does, then that particular filter above it is defective or saturated/exhausted.
Berkey Water Filter Reviews
Monday, December 28th, 2009Below are 2 berkey water filter reviews that customers have recently submitted to BigBerkeyWaterFilters.com. They did not have site accounts and wanted to share their opinion of the berkey system. We thank them for their kind words.
Berkey Water Filter Review #1
I just received my first order from Big Berkey and everything was perfect. I really appreciate your time in answering my questions before I ordered, sending me a detailed receipt upon completing my internet order transaction, which was followed by a shipping conformation when package was shipped. The order was filled correctly, packed very well so there was no damage to anything. I was amazed how quickly this order arrived. You folks care and will have my repeat business when I need more supplies and I will certainly recommend your company to others.
Regards,
Larry Miller
Santa Clarita, California
Berkey Water Filter Review #2
This whole ‘trip’ has been amazing to me because I originally bought a Berkey water filter as a survival tool, just to have ‘on tap’, so to speak. If electricity goes, I thought, (as it often does here in the country) well, you know, then wells stop working. How would I be sure of safe water? One can only ‘truck in’ and store so much bottled water at home. Suppose the outage was long-lasting? Times are tenuous at best these days so the purchase of the Berkey (after much studying of what was available) was simply preparedness at that point in my mind. Since everything has a learning curve and then a comfort zone you need to achieve after that, I decided that before I really needed the Berkey water filter for survival’s sake I would familiarize myself with using it. It said in the directions that you could always dry the filters out if you wanted to put them away so I felt fine about a trial run. The directions are simple, really. The old adage is apt here: “If I can do it anyone can.”
Everyone who spent time with me BEFORE in The Berkshires in MA thought my well water was superb. But NOW with the Berkey water filter I feel as though I’ve never really tasted wonderful water before and the others agree. It’s different now. Delicious. I would almost say a treat! And the highest superlative comes from my many dogs. They are big water drinkers but now they have become HUGE water drinkers! As you know, if a ‘taste’ passes muster with an animal well, then, it’s really good.
Words fail me in impressing on anyone reading this how important this technologically advanced yet simple filtering system is for your continued good health and peace of mind. Somehow you can always find a way to have clean, sanitary, safe water. That security in itself is more important than food.
I am so grateful that I literally followed Internet chatter to discover the Berkey filter product line from New Millennium Concepts. Needless to say, it is not being put away as planned. Our house now revolves around the Berkey for any water that is used for drinking or cooking. Buying a Berkey water filter is probably potentially the biggest beneficial change I could have made in my life.
Let me close by saying I am not wealthy. I bought the Big Berkey but find this product line so important that I sacrificed in other areas of my life to ‘get it right’. Well, I didn’t exactly………. get it right, I mean. Not in the beginning. In choosing the size Berkey water filter (The Big Berkey) I needed I forgot to factor in my dogs and their constant need for water. So, yes. I have The Big Berkey now but The Imperial should be here next week sometime. Choose your unit realistically and generously. In this case ‘bigger IS better’. As it did for me, I can guarantee it will become a part of your most valued household equipment now and will also be there if a serious need arises. AND it’s easily portable if need be.
I would add here that the customer support (Dan DeBaun) is rather like dealing with a knowledgeable caring friend not a businessman. I single-handedly can attest to the fact that he cheerfully answers multiple upon multiple…….. no, MYRIADS……. of questions and never makes you feel stupid (though I know he’s heard them many times before).
So, here’s to you, Dan, and you, Berkeys all!
Mary Jane Goodrich
South Egremont MA
