Big Berkey Water Filter Review

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Big Berkey water filter review

The Big Berkey water filter is an extremely efficient and powerful system that removes contaminants from water to such low levels that they are not physically or chemically detectable. Water filters are made necessary by the unfortunate fact that tap water is never perfectly clean, and may have chemical, physical or biological contaminants, depending on where you live.

Additionally, since the Big Berkey is portable, you will be able to use it in any location in which you do not trust the water supply. You can for example take the Big Berkey water filter with you when you're camping, and you can trust it to completely purify water from lakes and rivers. This Big Berkey water filter review will describe how the Big Berkey water filter works and how it can help you to safeguard your health.

Possible water contaminants

Regardless of whether you plan to use the Big Berkey water filter at home or "on the road", using water filters is always a wise precaution. Water is regularly found to be contaminated by physical, biological and chemical entities that pose varying degrees of risk for your health. The most dangerous chemical contaminants are volatile and synthetic organic compounds such as pesticides and industrial solvents. This kind of chemical is extremely toxic for humans and several of them are outright carcinogenic! Physical contaminants can be sediments and rusts. Biological contaminants are organisms that can cause some very serious diseases like typhus and cholera. Additionally, tap water may have a bad taste or odors for any number of reasons. The Big Berkey water filter has been shown to be incredibly efficient in the removal of all of these contaminants to the point where they are no longer chemically of physical detectable in the filtered water.

Additionally, if you plan to go camping, you should of course know that lake and river water is not regulated at all, so it is even more likely to have dangerous contaminants. The portability of the Big Berkey water filter means that you can take it with you wherever you go so that you can make almost any source of water completely drinkable and healthy!

Big Berkey water filter features

The Big Berkey unit has a capacity of 2.25 gallons (8.5 L), a height of 19.25'' and a diameter of 8.5''. The Big Berkey water filter includes either two or four Black Berkey elements or ceramic filters.

The Black Berkey filter element is so efficient at filtering water that it has been shown to remove food coloring completely from water -- that is an impressive water filtration efficiency! If you find this claim incredible, check out the video at the bottom of this lens and see for yourself!

The upper chamber of the Big Berkey filter has a re-cleanable ceramic Super Sterasyl filter that efficiently removes pathogens, volatile organic chemicals, synthetic organic chemicals and physical contaminants. These ceramic water filters have two enormous advantages: firstly, they are re-cleanable, which means that you never have to dispose of them and buy new ones. Secondly, they successfully inhibit mitosis, which is the type of cell division that unicellular organisms like bacteria use to reproduce. This is very important, because if mitosis is not inhibited, the bacteria retained by the ceramic water filter would rapidly reproduce and clog up the filter.

Both the Black Berkey and ceramic filters in the Big Berkey water filter unit have been shown to remove synthetic organic compounds, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, sediments, turbidity, and biological pathogens such as bacteria and cysts. These ceramic water filters are exquisitely designed: they have a domed top rather than a cap, which means that leaks in the top of the filter are physically impossible. Now that is smart design!

These are not just vacuous marketing claims -- check out this impressive list of independent entities that tested the water-filtering efficiency of the Big Berkey water filter:

- ISO-9000: 2000
- Hyder Labs (UK)
- Spectrum Labs (UK)
- WRc - Mednenham (UK)
- Clare Microbiology (UK)
- WRc Gwent (UK)
- Loughborough University (UK)
- University of Arizona (USA)
- Thresh, Beale, and Suckling (UK)

The other extremely valuable feature of the Big Berkey water filter is the sheer length of time for which it can filter water without having to replace the filters: each water filter can purify 3000 gallons of water, which means 6000 gallons of water in total. At a rate of 10 gallons of water a week, that means that you can go for 600 weeks without replacing the filters. That means 11.5 years of water filtration! This is what we call value for money!

Big Berkey water filter warranty

The Big Berkey water filter comes with a full six-month warranty. This means that during the first six months of your ownership, Big Berkey will replace or repair any of the Big Berkey water filter's constituent elements that are malfunctioning. Remember that companies offer warranties when they know that things are extremely unlikely to go wrong!

Additionally, the Big Berkey water filter comes with one of the following: Sport Berkey Bottles, Berkey KDF Shower Filter, Berkey PF-2 Fluoride Filters, Replacement Parts Kit or Berkey Base. How's that for extraordinary value for money!

Big Berkey water filter review: conclusion

The Big Berkey water filters stands out among other water filters on the market for its portability. You can take it with you wherever you like, giving you the ability to purify water regardless of where you are. If you go camping, the Big Berkey water filter will give you an extremely reliable supply of safe, clean and healthy water. If you use it to filter an average of 10 gallons a week, the Big Berkey water filter can work for 11.5 years without having to change the filter! The Big Berkey water filter also comes with a six-month warranty and an additional item of your choice free of charge.

We hope that you found this Big Berkey water filter review useful. If you own Big Berkey water filter, please consider writing your own Big Berkey water filter review in the guestbook below -- other folks will surely find your insights useful. Thank you!

How To Get a Special Discount on your Berkey Unit:

Follw these simple instructions to maximize your savings on a Berkey water filter...

In this day in age of online shopping if you don't know about coupon codes than you are certainly missing out on a great deal of instant savings. With just a simple copy and paste, or a single click you can save up to 50% on total order costs. After doing a quick search around the web I happened to stumble upon a great site that provides a special Berkey coupon code offering you the lowest possible price on a Berkey filtration unit. Just click through the link and find a current special offer. This is definitely the place that should be your home-base before you purchase any Berkey filtration system. Good luck and enjoy!

Your Big Berkey water filter reviews

  • Tennyson Lee Feb 4, 2011 @ 5:55 pm | delete
    The standard berkey filter removes only larger particulates and the
    black berkey elements are made of activated charcoal.

    Berkey has published no evidence tthat their filter can remove
    viruses which are usually several orders of magnitude smaller than
    bacteria and parasites/cysts.
    Berkey also has not published comprehensive test results such as are
    commonly provided for RO filters. I would guess the reason they
    have not published such information is that their filter, unlike RO
    units, is ineffective against most dissolved contaminants or even
    very small particulates such as viruses. The lack of any such
    published data of their filter's efficacy is why they cannot be sold in
    California.
    Berkey is essentially selling a filter that they do not provide
    comprehensive specs for and claim that a TDS meter will not
    quantify its efficacy. So, that leaves a typical user with no way to
    test the effectiveness of the Berkey filter. I certainly would not trust
    Berkey any more than I would a municipal water company, and
    probably much less since at least the water company publishes their
    test data.
    Berkey's advertising material claims their filter is effective on a
    variety of contaminants, but they do not specify the test conditions
    (concentration of contaminants in the feed water among other
    things).
    The test data they released from reputable labs only address a
    handful of contaminants (the substances that are the easiest to
    remove such as E. coli and chlorine--using the activated
    charcoal/black berkey elements)
    Also, how does the Berkey filter distinguish between "healthful" and
    "unhealthful" minerals/metals/substances? What it comes down to is
    the Berkey filter will remove a portion of the substances that are
    attracted to activated charcoal if the black berkey option is used, and
    a portion of the substances attracted to alumina if the
    fluoride/arsenic option is used. If neither option is used, all it does is
    remove the larger particulates. (It's funny that a "minute"
    unquantified amount of aluminum compound (presumably mostly
    aluminum oxide otherwise known as alumina) introduced by their
    fluoride filter is harmless, but a minute amount of fluoride and other
    substances is a serious health hazard.)
    There is no evidence the Berkey filter with or without the optional
    elements is superior to any RO system. Since Berkey does not
    provide comparable test data, we have no way of knowing with any
    certainty though basic chemistry and the data from a simple TDS
    meter strongly suggests the Berkey filter is not effective against
    dissolved contaminants.

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