Berkey Water Filter System

Clean purified water right in your home is as easy as adding a Berkey filter system to your kitchen counter.  Find out why it’s the only water we drink!

One of the deals I had with James when we decided to move to our current home was in regards to the tap water.  Our previous two homes {the past 10 years} were on well water.  And we absolutely loved the taste and the lack of chemical additives.  Now with moving back to the suburbs, we would be on town water.

During those ten years of well water, I had learned quite a bit about town tap water systems and the treatment process of it.  Let’s just say that going back to this type of water source was almost a deal breaker for me.  But then I came across the Berkey Filter and realized that we could have the best of both worlds.  Our new home and clean water.  {Click HERE for the Berkey website.}

{Post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.  Read my disclosure here.}

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Before I give you all the details, I want to share a fun story.  Let’s back up a bit because I want to tell you that James was a bit skeptical about this whole “Berkey” thing.  Soon after we moved in, it arrived on our doorstep.  He was given the task of figuring it out and setting it up.  After filtering his first gallon of tap water, he brought a glass to me.  We agreed that we would both take a sip of the Berkey water and not give any indication of what we thought until after we both had a drink.  I kept a straight face and made no reaction.  After he drank some, I gave my opinion: “That is the best water I’ve ever drank!”  Guess what?  He replied with, “I was thinking the same thing but thought it was too crazy to say that.”

It’s been over a year and we LOVE our Berkey water.  My kids absolutely love it and are known for bringing their own water bottles full of Berkey water wherever they go.

WHAT IS THE BERKEY FILTER?

The Berkey Filter water purification system that we have consists of two stainless steel chambers and filters.  The process of running from the top chamber, through the filters, and into the bottom chamber is what purifies the water.  The black filters in the upper chamber trap harmful contaminants and only allows the purified water to pass through to the bottom chamber.  This is where the spigot is located and we pour the clean water right into our glass to drink.

WHY IS PURIFYING WATER IMPORTANT?

My family drinks a lot of water.  A lot.  And I am not interested in purchasing dozens upon dozens of cases of water each month.  Plus, I want us to drink cleaner water than we could even get from store-bought water.

Town water systems add so many chemicals to the tap water that comes into our homes.  Most people don’t even recognize these as present in their water source.  Some, like chlorine, can easily be detected.  This is one that we instantly notice in our tap water.  Each time I fill up the water pitcher from our tap before pouring it into our Berkey, I can smell an overwhelming amount of chlorine.  It’s in that moment that I am thankful we made the investment to filter and purify our drinking water.

If you are interested in seeing how your tap water measures up and what it contains, click HERE.  Simply put in your zip code and you will instantly get a report on your exact water.

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HOW DOES THE BERKEY WORK IN MY HOME?

As I mentioned previously, I use a gallon water pitcher and fill it up with tap water.  I simply pour it into the top chamber and allow the filters to purify the water.  Once water has reached the bottom chamber, it is ready to be used.

Because we do use so much water every day, I typically have a glass pitcher or two filled up with our Berkey filtered water our and ready to be used.  We either drink this straight, use it in our cooking, or wash our fruits and vegetables with it.  {Click HERE for the various water systems.}

Every night I fill up our Berkey so that the bottom chamber is full in the morning.  I typically fill it once or twice during the day as well.

HOW MANY FILTERS DO I NEED?

In our home, we have 2 black Berkey filters and 2 fluoride filters.  There is space for a max of 4 each.  We have decided that 2 of each is sufficient for our needs as it will filter out 6,000 gallons of water.

So far, we have changed out both sets of filters one time, after a year.  That was mostly due to user error as I was not as diligent about scrubbing the black filters on a more regular basis.  Now that I have that figured out and due to the high volume of water we filter, I expect the filters to last at least 2 years for my family of 5.

{Want to know how to clean and maintain your Berkey?  I wrote a post with all those details.  Click HERE.}

WHICH BERKEY SHOULD I GET?

We settled on the Big Berkey, which holds 2.25 gallons of water at a time.  We will continue to make this size work for us, but to be honest, I wish that I had gotten the Royal Berkey (3.25 gallons).  However, the Big Berkey does takes up less counter space.  We are making it work for us though by having a glass pitcher or two on hand during the day.  {Click HERE for the Big Berkey.}

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We have been so happy with our Berkey Filter.  Customer service has been great also when I had a few questions that I couldn’t figure out on my own.  There was a learning curve to it as far as set up, cleaning, priming, how high to fill it, etc, but that didn’t take too long to figure out.

At this point, we don’t really remember life BB {you know, Before Berkey}.  It has become a part of our daily routine.  The major benefit is clean purified water without contaminants, bacteria, viruses, fluoride, and a host of other things we wouldn’t {and shouldn’t!} want to drink.

It really is the best water we’ve ever drank!

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