Water filter help

I love the Big Berkey. It is a great system. when you are ready to buy one you should consider www.berkeyproducts.com. They are personable and their rates are as good or better than any.

 

Berkey filters

Thank you all for making me away of these great water filters. My wife usually buys gallon/bottled water from the store. At $4+ per case of 24 16.9 fl-oz bottles and/or $1.16+ per gallon (spring water, not the $0.69 Walgreens/Walmart brand), it's just so much more economical to get the filter. $99 filters at 6,000 capacity comes to 1.6 CENTS per gallon! Not to mention that we know the water coming out is clean and clear, regardless of the water source (pool, creek, tap, etc.). And on top of being economical, it's just great to have this capacity should the need arise.

It amazes me that more people don't recognize the benefits of these systems. I've never heard of it mentioned in any of my social circles. Maybe they're just prepping and aren't speaking about it.

 

I was going to say I thought I read that you couldn't filter pool water but then found this...

Frequent Questions about Berkey water filters

I'm glad I looked it up since you actually can filter pool water, these filters are awesome.

I agree, we buy all our drinking water and I wanted to get a filter for drinking and also emergencies. I didn't really trust the brita filters to do as good a job as they should so I started considering the berky. I don't have it yet but will in the next month or so.

 

I wonder if the chlorene is harder on the filters than filtering collected rain water or water from a pond/stream/swamp. I get the impression that if I were to allow sediment to settle and I filtered the clearer water at top, perhaps even through a coffee filter, that this water wouldn't be as hard on the filters than the chlorinated water from the pool.

Secondly, when the filters talk about removing nitrates, are "nitrates" pesticides? Is it saying it can handle runoff from a treated property?

 

Chlorine is not harder on the filters than other sources of water wilth larger sediments. The larger the sediments in your water source, the quicker they will clog your filter (any filter). Chlorine is often used in municipal water supplies to help purify the water. It just tastes bad. Most filters will improve the taste.

 

How will the black Berkey filters fare against all of this crude oil in the gulf should it end up in our drinking water?

 

Are you talking about oil that may end up in a well, or oil that may end up in your municipal water source (lake)?

 

I need to get a Berkey.

 

After some research I went with this

Sawyer Point Zero Two Water Purifier with Bucket Adapter at REI.com

Claims to be able to filter 1,000,000 gallons and a filter size of 0.02 which is about the best I have seen.

Another link from the manufacturer..

Point Zero Two Purifier - Sawyer Point One Filters

At $130 and no extra filters to buy I thought it was a good deal

 

Yes you do! I love mine. Get it from Home. They will treat you right. You can actually call them and talk to someone if you have any questions.

 

I also have the Berkey with the new Black Berkey elements, they work great, I bought it for when the SHTF, but I now use it on my nasty tasting city water. I feel safer.

 

I was reading about this one on their site and it says this:

"<SMALL>The PointZero Two™ purifier requires priming before use. Priming includes forcing clean water through the unit by hooking it up to a faucet using the included faucet adapter. This process only takes a minute and only needs to be performed one time. Detailed instructions are included in the kit."</SMALL>
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<SMALL>What are your thoughts on this? Can't really use a faucet if there's no water supply.</SMALL>

 

I bought a turkey baster to use to backwash the filter with.

 

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How to make a water filter

Knowing how to make a water filter is important, if the only water you can find is dirty muddy water. There are a number of different ways to make a water filter. One simple way is to use sand. Sand is nature's way of purifying water.


Simple sand water filter

1. To start with, you need a container. If you can find a large, empty can, use it. Punch 5-10 holes in the bottom of the can. A large plastic bottle is also fine. Cut the end of the bottle off evenly. If there is no container available, you have to use what material that nature can provide, or that you brought with you.

If you find a birch tree, make a cone of birch bark. The cone will need to have a fairly small hole in the bottom. Tie the cone with rope to keep it from opening up.


2. First, you need to stop the sand to get out of the container.
Find some filter material you can place at the bottom. For instance:

• a couple of inches (centimeters) of pebbles.
• a grass mesh, make sure it’s nonpoisonous grass.
• or cotton material.


3. Add a layer of gravel. The main purpose of the gravel layer is to strengthen the filter material and prevent sand mixed with the water you get from the filter.


4. Fill your bottle or cone with sand.


5. Collect some water. Pour your collected water through the filter. Catch it in another container at the bottom. Look at the water that comes out of the filter. It should be clear. If not, you may have to pass the water through the filter more than once.


Safe water

Now you know how to make a water filter, but to get safe water to drink, you also have to purify your water. The water may still contain harmful bacteria that your filter did not remove.

To improve your water filter, add a layer of charcoal between the gravel and sand layer. Get charcoal from your fire, crush it, not to powder but just fine gravel size.

 

Great, thanks for posting this info. Will clay work to filter too? I live in a similar environment and North Carolina. I could buy some bags of sand to keep around if needed.

 

Thank God I don't live in CA but does anyone know why the Berkeys cant be sold there?

For those interested in buying this system someone on Ebay has the Big Berkey with two black filters and three of the Berkey sport bottles for $250 and free shipping. So far this is the best price I have found with the free bonus bottles. They have the replacement filter and spigot kits too. The filters come with a free bottle too so I'll have four of the sport bottles in adition to the main system, should made a good BOB filter or at the least a good filter for daily drinking water.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BIG-BERKEY-...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item4aa91b09ba

Edit: Looks like this site has a similar deal, is this the official site or just someones business? http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkeymodels.htm

One other question. I plan on using water purifiers, bleach or boiling before filtering any water (not for tap water) but... if circumstances dictated will the Big berky AND the Sport bottles filter out bacteria to the point you don't have to sanitize it first? From looking at the website it seems that it will in fact filter bacteria but I would rather get some advice from independent sources too.