Berkey Water Purifier

[Seditious]

We all do.

I am mostly curious about your cheap filter find - where did you get them for less than 100$ ???

http://shop.monolithic.com/products/...ic-drip-filter

Lots of good reviews on the monolithic gravity filter. Filter, sock and spigot for 27.50 plus shipping. Add two frosting buckets from the local donut shop and you are done.

[HSmama24]

First of all, thank you so much for all your posts....I really appreciate it. But now I'm confused as to what I should do....
Water is obviously one of the very most important things to consider in prepping for any and everything so....this is my situation and please offer advice on what I should do....
I live in the county and have wonderful well water....but if power goes out so does all the means of getting to it. I considered a well bucket but do not know if our well is a straight drop down to water, so well bucket might not work. Also do not know how to find that out and I do not feel comfortable opening it up and introducing possiblity of contamination. So I was thinking a Berkey would be good to have and use and then it would be there for me in case of emergency.
I have also read other survivalist blogs and the Berkeys come so highly recommended. Would the Berkey light be a better choice? I am very concerned about the filters not holding up. And a homemade would be good for emergencies but I'm not big on setting up a DIY bucket system in my kitchen in the meantime. If I'm going to spend the money I want to be able to use it now as I think it would be good to drink purified water just in case there is something not-so-good in my well water. I've got five children under 12 as well as my hard working hubby. Water has been something on my heart for a long while and I need a solution so I feel better prepared in that area. So so long.....

[hunybee]

there is a thread in the workshop about getting water out of the well without power


http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/s...d.php?t=159078




i have been researching this ever since this thread came up this morning. a lot


we need another water system for down in the basement for emergencies. i was looking at getting another berkey, but the cost almost made me stroke out.

then i started thinking there had to be a way to DIY this and went looking. man! people are smart. that is when i found those two links i posted. so simple it is brilliant. i had one of those v-8 moments LOL. the filter is the most important part, the rest of it is very simple, but seems to be most of the cost. it doesn't bother me to have two five gallon buckets out all the time, but we have lots of 5 gallon buckets out all the time. they store lots of stuff and make it accessible, and we have very little space. but that is me. that may not work for other people, and i completely understand that.

this is what i think we are going to do: get the buckets, lids, spigot, washers, and filters and DIY it. as far as the filters....after lots of research, i was torn. so many companies and products and they all do seem pretty good. after talking to fezzik, i think we are going to stick with the black berkey elements and take our chance of it breaking. i will be talking to the guy we buy ours from and bringing this up though to see what he has to say. he has always been a straight shooter and dealt with us well, so if there is problem, i am pretty sure he will be on it like white on rice and fix it.


that is my take on it. i think this will work for us. your millage may vary

[DunDunDuuun]

The only thing that worries me about doing the DIY is the problem folks are having with the black filters breaking.

Is there such a thing as generic - or other brand - black Berkey filters?

[hunybee]

whether you do it DIY, or you buy the whole system, it won't matter as far as the elements breaking. both ways, you have to assemble the system, and that means handling the elements.

i think that the link that starightstreet put up https://propurusa.com/ has the same basic idea, but they look about the same price

[hunybee]

although....


the link that both summerthyme and seditious put up for the white mounded ceramic filter is looking like an excellent filter for the car, backpack, stashed at work, extra set in the basement, etc for if there is a SHTF moment that you only have what you have right there with you to use. grab a couple of small containers, and you have a great, inexpensive filter. it is not quite as good as the black berkey, but dang! it is close. close enough that i think i will be getting one of those for fezzik's car. if i was looking at a month of real bad water due to a natural disaster, this is a real good looking thing

[goatlady]

You can buy and use the black or the white filters in any style of the Berkey water setups. The black filters are supposed to work at filtering out the most contaminants but they are the most expensive and most breakable lately. The original white ceramic filters have been used for decades with no problems and filter just fine, just not filtering viruses out of the water. As for your well - ALL wells have to be drilled straight down to the water, no curves or bends allowed. You probably would have to be able to pull out all the existing pipes and wiring and the pump in order to use a bucket of any type. There ARE manual pumps you can buy that will slide down along side the existing pipe/wiring and pump so you don't have to pull everything out, but they are spendy - over $1000 or more depending on the depth of your water level in the well (find that out from the person who drilled the well along with the actual depth and horsepower of your pump).

[PrairieWind]

I was blessed to receive a Big Berkey for my B-day (and Christmas and probably B-day this year too!)..

Like Microcarl said; it appears that they use a hot-glue type product (at least on the batch that our filters came from) over time, the contact with water broke the seal and there go the filters - floating in the top section ! And water runnning on through unfiltered.

We opted to try the aquarium safe sealer and we are still here after six months - so far - so good.

If we had to decide now, we would probably opt to purchase just filters and DIY it.

[hunybee]

ok, very cool info



i kept looking for some way to get a flouride filter attached to those dome white filter that were posted before and found out that they can be special ordered to filter fluoride and a bunch of other stuff. here is a place with a great price

http://www.homespunenvironmental.com..._p/bc-0101.htm


i'll be calling them tomorrow

[microcarl]

I was blessed to receive a Big Berkey for my B-day (and Christmas and probably B-day this year too!)..

Like Microcarl said; it appears that they use a hot-glue type product (at least on the batch that our filters came from) over time, the contact with water broke the seal and there go the filters - floating in the top section ! And water runnning on through unfiltered.

We opted to try the aquarium safe sealer and we are still here after six months - so far - so good.

If we had to decide now, we would probably opt to purchase just filters and DIY it.

Anything specific - name brand, etc???

I gave my filters a real good going over today. It appears that the wall where the filter material fits into on the plastic base is simply not tall enough. Instead of being only 3/16", it needs to be about 1/2" tall and secured with a good food-grade adhesive.

I'll check to see if PetsSmart has anything that will work and let y'all know how it works out.