Big Berkey Water Filters

A couple months ago a product advertising itself as the “Alternative” to Berkey began advertising. They directly compared their product to the berkey water filter products and made many claims that piqued our interest. It also resulted in some existing and potential customers asking for our opinion and feedback on this new “Alternative” gravity water filter system. Today, the manufacturer has responded to these inquiries and has just released an early hands-on analysis of the product. Please read below.

There is a “New� filter being advertised as the “Alternative Choice� to the Big Berkey water filter system so we thought we would put this “new� system to a couple of what we consider to be critical tests. The first test we conducted was a flow rate test. This is what we found:

Berkey vs “Alternative” Flow Rate Test

A fully configured four element Big Berkey water filter system can produce up to 7 gallons per hour of purified water.[1] By comparison this fully configured “alternate� system only holds two filter elements (the large diameter of the elements precludes the system from accommodating more than two elements).[2][3] The “Alternative� system when full only produces 80 ounces per hour. However, the flow rate rapidly decreases as the water level declines. For example, when 70% full, the flow rate declines to approximately 62 ounces per hour. At 50% full the flow rate declines to about 44 ounces per hour and at 1/3 full the flow rate drops to a trickle of about 26 ounces per hour (Approximately 5 hours to produce a gallon of water). Averaging out the above rates, one would expect a typical run cycle to produce an average of 53 ounces per hour. This is an average of one gallon of water produced every 2 1/2 hours.

Let’s do an economic comparison. Assuming the “Alternativeâ€� system is topped off continually, it can produce about 15 gallons per day whereas a fully configured Big Berkey water filter system can produce about 168 gallons per day. Therefore it takes over eleven (11) of the “Alternativeâ€� systems to produce as much water as one Big Berkey water filter system equipped with 4 black berkey filters. Here’s an economic breakdown if we were to base our purchase upon the system flow rate.

Cost of “Alternative� system: $239 X 11 = $2,629.00
Cost of Big Berkey water filter equipped with 4 black berkeys: $358.00
Big Berkey system savings: $2,271.00

Berkey vs “Alternative” Chemical Removal Test

The second test we conducted was designed to validate the claims that the “Alternative� filters have a lifespan equal to that of the Black Berkey purification elements. This test is designed to overwhelm the elements with a chemical contaminate in order to determine at what point a chemical breakthrough occurs. We added chlorine (Clorox) to the water but found that we could not complete the test because after approximately 1-1/4 cups of Clorox had been filtered through the “Alternative� filters, they began to break down. After 1-1/4 cups of Clorox had been purified through the Black Berkey elements, they continued to maintain their effectiveness.

We then decided to compare their respective performance filtering the same water. To do this we inserted both of the test elements, side by side, into a Berkey Light water filter housing and added an additional cup of Clorox to the pre-filtered source water. We also quarantined the water from the “Alternate� filter element from that of the Black Berkey purification element by inserting a canning jar under the effluent stem of the “Alternate� filter. Below is what we found:

Early In The Berkey vs “Alternative” Test

The “Alternative� filter excreted black inky solution (above)

A Close Up of The Black Ink-Like Solution (above)

The “Alternative� filter is having a hard time keeping up with the flow rate of the Black Berkey purification element. Note how the Black Berkey purification element is filling up the entire diameter of the lower chamber while the “Alternative� filter element is only filling up the jar.

Midway Through The Berkey vs “Alternative” Test

As the water level in the upper chamber declined, the flow rate of the “Alternative� began losing more and more ground to the water level, produced by the Black Berkey purification element, inside the larger diameter housing.

End Of  Berkey vs “Alternative” Test

The Black Berkey element continued to purify the contaminated water whereas the “Alternative� filter ran slow and continued to excrete a black inky solution.

"Alternative" Filter on the Left (Black Drip Forming); Black Berkey on the Right (above)

"Alternative" Filter Black Ink Drip Releasing on the Left; Black Berkey on the Right (above)

Which Water Filter System Would You Choose?

Final Test Results (above)

"Alternative" Filtered Water on Left; Black Berkey Filtered Water on Right (above)

The above pictures again highlight both the difference in flow rates and the quality of water produced by the “Alternative� (Left) filter and the Black Berkey purification element (Right) after approximately two cups of Clorox had been filtered through the elements. During an emergency, such as Katrina, in which source water may be laden with heavy chemical contamination, which water filter system would you choose?

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS AND SUMMARY:

• The Berkey water filter system can be primed, set up and begin purifying water in about 20 minutes; whereas the “Alternative� system must be conditioned for two days prior to use. [4]
• The 2 day conditioning process cannot be accelerated by priming the “Alternative� filter elements. When we attempted to do so, the filter broke, causing the element to explode.
• The wall thickness of the Black Berkey elements is approximately 60% greater than the wall thickness of the “Alternative� element.
• The Black Berkey purification elements remove viruses whereas the “Alternative� filter element does not.
• The flow rate of the system is only about 1/11th of the flow rate of a BK4X4BB. [5]
• When performing a Chlorine test, the elements began excreting a black inky solution.
• The claim is made that the new system is NSF certified, yet NSF has no record of their certification. [6]
• Relevant test data is not available for the “Alternative� system.
• Rather than using the expensive plasma welding on the 304 stainless steel housing, which also gives Berkey systems their beautiful mirror like lustrous shine and longevity, the housings use a low cost deep drawn method that make a tinny sound when thumped.
• The foot ring on the bottom of the system is a low-cost plastic, instead of rubber, that falls off and does not snug tightly to the system.

If you purchased an “Alternative Choice” filter and are not satisfied with its performance, you may be able to return it for a refund. If not, there is no reason to fret because Black Berkey purification elements can replace the filters in the “Alternative” systems. Thus, you can upgrade your system with the power of authentic Black Berkey purification elements.

FOOT NOTES:

[1] Fully configured Big Berkey water filter water purification system contains 4 Black Berkey purification elements.
[2] Fully configured “Alternative� system contains “alternative� filtration elements.
[3] Literature and website claim expansion to 3 elements. System obtained for test purposes did not physically allow this expansion. The elements were too wide at the base to allow claimed full expansion.
[4] Based on assembly instructions which stated: “…fill the upper container fully with cold or room temperature water. Allow all water to flow into the lower container. Open the spigot and
discard the water in the lower container. Let your system stand unused overnight. Refill upper chamber and repeat…� In other words, “alternative� system would not be available in an emergency situation until 48 hours after set-up.
[5] No flow rate is established on “alternative� website or literature.
[6] Claims NSF 42 certification – no such listing appears on NSF website using any combination of the “alternative� name or parent corporation.