Big Berkey Water Filters

Rainwater collection for drinking is a growing trend in the United States.  Many seem to be experimenting with rainwater collection as part of their own crusade for self sustainability and emergency preparedness.  Others give it a try as an alternative to their main water source and and to take advantage of the potential money savings.  However, in many parts of the US and the world, rainwater collection is the primary and sometimes only source of drinking water.  It’s a rather straightforward design you can build yourself, but some basic guidelines should be followed for guaranteed success.  Most importantly, if you’ll be drinking your collected rainwater, you must ensure that your water flows through a filtration system.  Fortunately, filtering through a Berkey Filter system or just the Black Berkeys prior to ingestion is a cheap, easy, and effective method that protects you from potential risks.

Why Collect Rainwater?

For many who are supplied with water from a well or their local municipality, collecting rainwater may seem like an overkill or simply unnecessary.  But with the always existing threat of a natural disaster, peace of mind is gained by knowing that a backup water source is available in the case of broken municipal feeder pipes or damaged well systems.  In the case of a severe drought, wells and water sources to can completely dry up.  More often than not, when rain does come it is not nearly enough to reactivate these sources.  Rainwater collection may not solve all your water needs when a drought hits, but it can provide critical supply in the rare instances of rain.  Camping or remote living locations that do not have access to a water source are also great candidates for rainwater collection systems.

Precautions To Consider When Collecting Rainwater

As water is harvested through a catchment and into the collection system, it will come in contact with surfaces that are unclean. Typical contamination can come from sources such as animal fecal matter(birds, squirrels, etc), roof material chemicals, and other bacteria. To combat this, rainwater collection systems utilize a filtering device to make the water potable.  Systems can either run directly through a filter system into a storage tank, or can be collected in a tank to be filtered at a later date. We have some customers who have built a 2 stage system where a 1st stage 5-10 gallon catchment bucket is modified and equipped with 4 to 8 Black Berkey filter elements that drip filtered water into a lower 55 gallon storage catchment. Even though the Black Berkey elements are water purifiers, customers are advised to add drops of unscented chlorine bleach at the first stage prior to filtration if they suspect high levels of E-Coli contamination.  Creativity works well when designing such systems, and the options to suit many homeowners needs are endless.

This link may help you generate some ideas on how to build your own rainwater collection system.