Customer Reviews

Big Berkey w/ 2 White Ceramic Filters

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Living in a hurricane prone area totally supplied by public utilities means a loss of electricity and water during outages. Although stocking up on bottled water is fine for a few days, between people and pets there is an ongoing need for fresh clean water without the excessive cost. This unit is used by the Red Cross as well as many other organizations in places where contaminated water is an issue. Not only is it les expensive than bottled but water tastes great, this requires zero electricity and it's simple to use. All stainless steel eliminates the risk of plastics while ensuring a long life. No nasty iodine tablets (especially for those with sensitiviites) and re-usable filters are easy to keep clean. Great product with long term reputation for quality.

We are full time RVr's (live and travel in our fifth wheel trailer) and use this filter for 100% of our drinking and cooking water needs. It meets all the claims of the manufacturer and is cheap insurance against drinking "bad" water. Best of all, it takes out all the odd tastes one encounters travelling all over the country - everything from sulfur (rotten eggs) to over-chlorinated water. If it's good enough for the World Health Organization and the Red Cross it's good enough for mer. I'd recommend it without reservation.

This filter is very effective and very easy to use, a family member has one and recommended it to me, it removes everything from the water and is well built and easy to use. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a simple solution for safe drinking water without committing to a endless future of buying filters every three months, these are washable and reusable.

The water from the tap in Lafayette Oregon is awful. It tastes bad and I mean BAD with a capitol B. The old Britta filter couldn't make our water drinkable but it did make me feel better about giving it to the dogs. The Big Berkey is a true wonder. It makes our tap water taste very very good. Much better than any of the bottled waters available at the food store. It produces plenty of water in a timely manner. Within days of its arrival, I had filled 4 five gallon water containers. Now I keep 35 gallons on hand.

As soon as I can get a 300 gallon container I plan to start collecting rainwater and filtering it through the Big Berkey. It should take me a couple of weeks twice a year to produce my entire year's worth of drinking water. I'll have complete control over my drinking water which will cost me virtually nothing. A couple of filters every few years works out to just about free, high quality drinking water. The sense of being self sufficient and no longer relying on the state or some for profit corporation in order to drink water is most satisfying too.

This would be even more important if some event, like an earthquake for example were to disrupt the availability of water. With the BIg Berkey and storage containers, I'm in complete control of this most important daily need. As if this weren't good enough, they have excellent customer service. They respond to any communication within a day. No matter what message I send, Dan from customer service gives me an answer within about 18 hours. These guys are great and so is their filter.

I bought this for emergency preparedness, with the thinking that I could put our tapwater into it and replace bottled water altogether as a bonus. After meticuluously following the instructions, our tapwater still comes out tasting odd, as though the filtration candles the water travels through are somehow changing/adding something to the water's taste. I don't know if this is the case, or if our tapwater, once purified, has this unusual taste, but it's not water my family enjoys drinking, sadly. The tapwater straight from the tap does not have this strange taste. I've rinsed the candles repeatedly and carefully, I've run ten cycles of water through the unit, I simply cannot get rid of the aftertaste. Oh, well, I'd use it in an emergency.

This is standard Peace Corps issue in many postings. I bought it after using it in both my PC tours to bring with me to Iraq. It survived -50 degrees and +110 degrees. Good stuff.

The quality stainless steel is excellent and there aren't too many parts to worry about. Though there are some plastic pieces that fit everything together, I haven't had a problem yet with them breaking. The candles (filters) themselves are high quality as well. Works great!

Seems to take out everything from heavy metals to bacteria. To be extra careful put a few drops of bleach in with your water to take out the smaller viruses that the filter won't catch. If you put the correct amount in, you won't taste the bleach.

Gravity filters it through pretty quickly even with only two candles. I had four candles in Peace Corps and it was ridiculously quick. Two would be fine especially if you stockpile.

I enjoy the water filter very much but I find it hard to tell when it needs water and it won't empty out all the way. On occasion I have to tighten the faucet as it leaks on the floor. The filtered water is fine .

Water tastes much better than my fridge filtration system. The reason i gave it four stars is because they also make a clear model which would allow you to see when the water is actually running out so you can refill it. I am actually going to buy that model because I find I have to wait for the water to run out to refill this which at times means I have no water. I would also buy the fluoride filters that attach. They are available on Amazon.