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Overall Rating – 4.5
If you have decided that you want your home’s water to be healthier to drink and it’s a Berkey water filter that you want to help you accomplish that, then you have made an excellent choice.
Berkey is a family-owned company that started near Pueblo, Colorado in the late 1990s and their reputation as water filtration specialists has only grown since then.
It’s a company that features some of the highest-rated products in the water filtration industry.
In this article, I will do in-depth Berkey water filter reviews on two of the company’s best water filtration products and give a short synopsis on many others too.
I will also describe how their different filters work and give you some other helpful buying information on Berkey’s water filtration devices.
This should provide you with enough knowledge of the company’s water filtration products to decide if one or more of them is right for you.
Helpful Resource: How Long Do Berkey Filters Last?
There is a reason why the Big Berkey Water Filter is so popular. That’s because of this gravity-fed water filter’s superior filtration system for its class and its simplicity of setup and use. I feel that its many highlight features certainly justify its high purchase price.
This product comes with two stainless steel water chambers that stack up on top of each other. The top container contains the two filter elements that the water filters down through into the lower water storage chamber.
It’s a water filter that takes less than 10-minutes to have set up and working.
Although you will have to manually fill it, once that’s done, its very good filter cartridges will go to work removing or reducing many tap water contaminants.
Included in this impressive list are chlorine, chloramines, viruses, pathogenic bacteria, pharmaceuticals, Arsenic, E. Coli, and Nitrites.
At 7 pounds and just over 20” in height and 8 ½” in diameter, it does offer some portability too. That’s why it’s not unusual for owners of this product to use it in their boats, RVs, and campsites.
One of the stranger aspects regarding the Big Berkey Water Filter is that it cannot be purchased in the states of California or Iowa.
There is a reason why the Big Berkey Water Filter is so popular. That’s because of this gravity-fed water filter’s superior filtration system for its class and its simplicity of setup and use. I feel that its many highlight features certainly justify its high purchase price.
This product comes with two stainless steel water chambers that stack up on top of each other. The top container contains the two filter elements that the water filters down through into the lower water storage chamber.
It’s a water filter that takes less than 10-minutes to have set up and working.
Although you will have to manually fill it, once that’s done, its very good filter cartridges will go to work removing or reducing many tap water contaminants.
Included in this impressive list are chlorine, chloramines, viruses, pathogenic bacteria, pharmaceuticals, Arsenic, E. Coli, and Nitrites.
At 7 pounds and just over 20” in height and 8 ½” in diameter, it does offer some portability too. That’s why it’s not unusual for owners of this product to use it in their boats, RVs, and campsites.
One of the stranger aspects regarding the Big Berkey Water Filter is that it cannot be purchased in the states of California or Iowa.
These are some other very popular Berkey water filtration products:
This is by far the most portable of all the Berkey systems. That’s not surprising considering that it was made for those that like to go mountain biking, trekking, backpacking, camping, and do other activities in somewhat remote areas.
It will also make a great addition to your survival kit. Surprisingly, despite its small size, it still uses regular Black Berkey purification elements. So, you will get some extremely pure water to drink from it.
This is a Berkey water filter that breaks tradition because of its small size and the fact that it’s not made to be a stationary unit. It also needs to have water manually pumped through the system to work.
This is another extremely portable Berkey drinking water filter option. That’s why it’s popular among those that have RVs, tow-behind campers, and cabin-style boats.
Those with active lifestyles that want access to cheap filtered water no matter where they also like the convenience that the Travel Berkey Offers.
The Travel Berkey also fits nicely in apartments that have 1 to 2 occupants along with a pet or two that need purified drinking water.
This is the smallest and most portable of all the Berkey free-standing water filter models.
This is the slightly bigger brother of the ever-popular Big Berkey Water Filter. As such it can also handle slightly larger size families that have 4 to 6 members. Best of all, you get the increased 3.25-gallon extra water storage capacity for around only 9% more than that of the Big Berkey.
It can support the use of up to 4 Black Berkey filters in its upper chamber which will help to increase its flow rate (does not increase its filtering capability) to around 7 GPH.
It’s the first Berkey water filter to be able to handle the filter water needs of homes with 4 to 6 people. This model also now competes strongly with the Big Berkey for being the company’s best-selling drinking water filter.
Families that have 6+ members in them often turn to this model Berkey water filter. That’s because it has a 4.5-gallon water storage capacity and a generous gravity-fed 5.5 GPH flow rate.
This allows for plenty of enhanced water to be prepared ahead of time and easily stored. Placing 6 filters in its upper chamber will increase its filtration flow rate to a very acceptable 16.5 GPH filtration flow rate.
It’s the first of two Berkey water filter models that were designed not only for home use. It can easily be used to supply purified drinking water for small size events and even big family gatherings.
This is by far the largest of all of the Berkey drinking water filters. Not coincidentally, it’s also the least portable model water filter Berkey makes but don’t mistake that for meaning it’s not portable at all.
This model water filtration product is a favorite of caterers, families that like to host large gatherings and places that hold big functions such as business meetings and wedding receptions.
When it’s maxed out with 8 filters being placed inside its upper chamber, it can produce high-quality drinking water at a rate of 26 gallons per hour. That’s a faster flow rate than any other Berkey drinking water filter.
That’s exactly why Berkey designed it with an all food-safe BPA/BPS plastic body instead of their more traditional stainless-steel body. That way it offers a more affordable Berkey filter option than any of their comparable size filters.
This is the only Berkey drinking water filter that comes with a plastic shell. It used to be used with ceramic filters to further cut its cost but those have been replaced by the more traditional and better working Black Berkey system filters.
Berkey has 7 different drinking water filters to choose from so deciding which one will work best for you is not easy.
All of them use the same setup and feature very good quality filtration systems (The Berkey Light does use different ceramic filters), so those will not play much of a role in your purchasing decision.
Which one you buy will most likely come down to these factors:
To start with, I will tell you that there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to how much water each member of your family will drink each day. That’s because body size, activity level, and other factors play a role in personal water consumption.
There is a basic formula you can use to get a ballpark figure for household water consumption. Doctors recommend that each adult and older teen in a household drinks 1900 ml or 8 cups of water a day, so about ½ gallon of water each.
A figure that should be adjusted upward for active teens and adults.
Toddlers need to consume about 1300 ml a day (6 cups or 1/3 of a gallon) and older children and young teens about 1700 ml a day (7 cups or just under a ½ gallon).
Most families that use purified water for cooking should figure in an additional 1 to 2-gallons per day of filtered water use
For an even more accurate assessment of how much water your family uses for drinking and cooking each day, you can chart it yourself over a few weeks. There are some good water use calculators available online too.
Fluoride is a concerning substance that is used to purify water in about 60% of the municipal water systems found across the USA.
That means if you have water in your home that comes from a municipal source, it’s worth making a phone call to your local water company to see if they use fluoride to treat their water.
When ingested in small amounts over a short time fluoride is not a big health concern. But this changes when ingested in large quantities at once or in smaller amounts over a longer period. That’s when many feel that fluoride does pose health risks.
Berkey does make optional fluoride filters available for all of their stationary filter models. These are placed at the top of the lower water storage chamber.
They will further decrease the filtration flow rate of the Berkey systems, so don’t purchase and use them unless you are sure that you have fluoride in your home’s water.
| Model | People Served | Water Storage Capacity | Number of Filters Included | Max Filter Setup | Flow Rate(GPH) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go Berkey Kit | 1 | 1 quart | 1 | 1 | Normal:1 |
| Travel Berkey | 1 to 2 | 1.5 gallons | 2 | 2 | Normal: 2.75Max: 2.75 |
| Big Berkey | 2 to 4 | 2.25 gallons | 2 | 4 | Normal: 3.5Max: 7 |
| Berkey Light | 2 to 6 | 2.75 gallons | 2 | 4 | Normal: 3.75Max: 7.5 |
| Royal Berkey | 4 to 6 | 3.25 gallons | 2 | 4 | Normal: 4Max: 8 |
| Imperial Berkey | 6 to 10+ | 4.5 gallons | 2 | 6 | Normal: 5.5Max: 21.5 |
| Crown Berkey | 8 to 12+ | 8 gallons | 2 | 8 | Normal: 6.5Max: 26 |
After previously doing a Berkey water filter review on each of these models, here is what I feel is the best use for each model Berkey water filter and their respective water storage capacity:
These are the main types of filters that can be placed inside Berkey water filtration products:
This is the main type of filter used in all of the Berkey drinking water filtration products. It can filter out an impressive number of contaminants from the water that you drink. Over 200 in all.
There are six media stages inside each Black Berkey Filter Cartridge that use either microfiltration or absorption to remove impurities from water.
The most impactful water purification stage uses carbon composite media that mostly consists of high-grade coconut shell carbon.
Here are some of the lab results that Berkey has posted on its website regarding how impactful their Black Berkey system filters are:
As was previously stated, if your community is supplied by municipal water there is about a 60% chance that water was previously treated with fluoride and it’s a good idea to remove it. Berkey offers an option that will do just that with its Fluoride filter elements.
These will remove greater than 97% of fluoride in the water that passes through them and significantly reduce (amount varies) the amount of Arsenic that’s found in that water too.
The company’s Fluoride filters get placed in the top of the lower water storage chamber. Keep in mind that they will typically reduce a filtration unit’s flow rate by an additional 15 to 20%.
Here is my take concerning the good and bad points of Berkey systems:
It must be said that Berkey systems are as good or better than most gravity-style water filters in its class. That’s why it made an appearance in the top slot of our website’s list of the Best Gravity Water Filters.
They hold up very well against the competition and Berkey is well aware of this. That’s why they are not afraid to compare their filters with those made by other manufacturers.
You can see all of our comparison guides below:
Some rumors were being spread that Berkey systems did not perform as advertised. The sources of the accusation of the company running a scam may have come from competitors after Berkey refused to have its products NSF certified so they could be sold in California.
Berkey countered by stating that their water filtration products have been independently tested, just not by groups that are specifically mentioned in the California laws on water filtration product certification.
The company stated that while its independent testing results are acceptable in 48 states, it was not worth it to them to pay the high costs associated with certification in Iowa and California.
To be clear, this is not something that appears to originate from customer complaints as purchasers of their products often rate their water filters very highly.
See our Berkey Water Filter Ban article for more information.
Assembling any Berkey stainless-steel stationary water filter is very straightforward. It’s also done the same way regardless of their size. There should be a parts diagram included in every water filter package.
Here are the steps necessary to assemble a Berkey water filter system:
More on setting up your Berkey water filtration system can be seen on the Berkey website.
The secret to having your Berkey water filter system perform at an optimal level at all times lies with your ability to clean its Black Berkey purification elements on a routine basis.
This can be a little tedious at times but it only needs to be done once every 3 to 6 months or when the water flow out of the tap becomes noticeably slower.
You don’t ever have to worry about cleaning your Black Berkey water filters too much either as each is designed to be cleaned up to 100 times.
Here is how to clean your Black Berkey Filters:
Please note: For remote filter cleaning if you have no clean sink water, use some purified water from your system in a big bucket to scrub and rinse your filter elements.
More on how to clean your Black Berkey Filters can be viewed on the company website.
These are some questions that I get repeatedly about Berkey systems.
If you are wondering why Berkey water filter systems are illegal to be sold in California, don’t worry too much because it has nothing to do with the quality of the product.
Berkey refuses to pay a 3rd-party certifying body such as NSF (which is required by California law) to test its products and the associated state fees that are required to maintain their ability to do sales in the state.
As was mentioned above, one of the contributing factors to Berkey systems not being able to be sold in California is the fact that their water filters are not NSF certified.
The company claims that all of its filtration products have been tested by other 3rd-party groups and these testers claim Berkey products meet or exceed NSF standards.
When trying to figure out how long it takes Berkey system filters to clean water, keep in mind that Berkey filter elements are so impactful because the water passes down through them slowly.
As a general rule, no matter which Berkey model you own, you can expect a full upper chamber to pass down through two filters in about 30-minutes time. Units that have more than two filters installed will see this filtration time lowered even further.
Brita water filters are a very popular way to enhance tap water but are Brita pitchers better than Berkey systems? According to the specs that each company puts out on its products Berkey systems are better because they filter out many more tap water contaminants than Brita pitchers do.
While Berkey water filter systems do have some competitors with models that come close to them, I feel none of these are better than any of the Berkey systems models that make use of Black Berkey Filters.
Are they perfect water filters? No, but none really are. They have drawbacks such as having to be filled up manually, needing their filter elements cleaned regularly, and the company’s filters are fairly pricey and sometimes require expensive replacement filter elements.
The bottom line is, Berkey system gravity water filters are simple to use, fairly portable, and they make the water that flows through them much safer to drink.
I don’t feel that you can possibly go wrong by purchasing a Berkey water filter model. They are very comparable to a good reverse osmosis system in what they filter out of water.
15657 N Hayden Rd #1162
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
United States
602-780-2598
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