Big Berkey water filter questions.....

Big Berkey water filter questions..... - 06/21/08 08:27 PM

I am looking to buy a Big Berkey water filter. This will be used for the house.

Is there a big difference in the WHITE ceramic and BLACK filter elements?

Does anyone own the Big Berkey filter??

Thanks in advance.

CP

Posted by: LED

Re: Big Berkey water filter questions..... - 06/21/08 09:14 PM

From what I understand the black filters are more effective on a wider variety of contaminants (and more expensive). I've also noticed more US retailers are only offering the Black filters.

Quote:

The powerful Black Berkey® purification elements also remove or reduce pathogenic cysts, parasites, harmful or unwanted chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides, VOCs, detergents, organic solvents, trihalomethanes, cloudiness, silt, sediment, nitrates, nitrites, heavy metals, foul tastes and odors, yet they leave in the healthful and beneficial minerals that your body needs.

http://www.berkeyfilter.com/black_berkey.html

White Ceramic Filters say nothing about removing detergents, solvents, etc. From Jamesfilter.com:

Quote:

Flow rate is 1 gallon per hour, each filter.
Filter Life is a minimum of 2000 gallons per filter
The filtration efficiency is 0.9 micron absolute (Spectrum Labs)
Removal of >99.99% of particals larger than 0.5 microns (Spectrum Labs)
Removal of >99.70% of particals larger than 0.3 microns (Spectrum Labs)
Removal of >98% of particals larger than 0.2 microns (Spectrum Labs)
100% removal of Giardia
100% removal of Live Cryptosporidium (University of Arizona)
>99.99% Removal of Cryptosporidium (NSF Standard 53 A.C Fines dust-4 log challenge)
>99.99% removal of E.Coli, Vibrio Cholera (Hyder Labs-U.K)
>99.999% removal of Salmonella Typhii, Shigella Disenteria, Klebsiella Terrigena (hyder Labs-U.K)
British Berkefeld ceramic elements May be cleaned 100 times or more

http://www.jamesfilter.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=27

Posted by: Nishnabotna

Re: Big Berkey water filter questions..... - 06/22/08 11:06 AM

I came to the conclusion that the black filters were newer and better than the whites.
Where are you ordering it from? I've been thinking about one ever since our well was contaminated from a 60 year old spill that moved over our way.

Posted by: wildman800

Re: Big Berkey water filter questions..... - 06/22/08 11:24 AM

It sounds to me like the black and white filters y'all are discussing are charcoal and paper.

If so, you should run the water through the paper to remove dirt and rust particles and then it should flow through the charcoal filter to remove chemicals, parasitic eggs, etc.

Posted by: Nicodemus

Re: Big Berkey water filter questions..... - 06/22/08 06:05 PM

I was looking into buying a Big Berkey myself and wondered the same about the difference between the white and black filters. The black filters remove more. Here's some information on what the black filter will remove from water.

Also, this is an interesting DIY project for a homemade Berkey Filter System. You still have to purchase the ceramic filter elements, but the cost for the containers is greatly reduced if you are the handy sort.

Posted by: stretch555

Re: Big Berkey water filter questions..... - 11/14/08 03:23 PM

Yes, this is an accurate statement. The black berkey's were designed and introduced by the US Berkey company. Prior to the BB's, the white ceramics were the cats meow. The black berkey's go above and beyond the ceramics in their filtering abilities. This is why NMC(New Millenium Concepts) had to create the PF-2's. The black berkey's addressed much of what the Pf-4 add-ons did, so NMC designed the PF-2 to match and pick up where the black berkeys left off. So, the BB and PF-2 combo is the newer filter technology....as opposed to the older ceramic & pf-4 combo.

This article explains the matching up of the filters well:

how many berkey filters are needed