4 ms·

We've been using a Big Berkey water filtration system for some years now and totally did away with plastic-bottled water. The arsenic/flouride filters are optio

by oil25 7y ago

We've been using a Big Berkey water filtration system for some years now and totally did away with plastic-bottled water. The arsenic/flouride filters are optional, but I think worth it. I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). Regardless, I feel the money spent on Berkey and its filters were worth it, even if just for my own psychological coddling.

shortandsweet 7y ago
I also have a berkey, was gifted to me. They say it's a pretty good filter but I looked up the qualifications and it's not rated for a lot of the typical tests the government uses to qualify water to. I also don't see anywhere on berkeys end that they will support this testing. In the mean time the only way I've been able to think of to reduce potential contaminated water is to vary my sources.
cornstalks 7y ago
> I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). The wording makes it sound like you only tested your filtered water. Seems like you'd want to test both the pre-filtered and post-filtered water to really know if your filters are "very effective."
- oil25 7y ago
  I agree, but the test was pretty expensive (about $400) so I only opted to test the "filtered" output since that's what I end up drinking and cooking with. I would definitely like to do a comparison test in the future.
  - skuhn 7y ago
    Testing your unfiltered water as a control to your filter is a good idea, but also you're still bathing in that water. $400 seems quite high. There are much cheaper tests available, such as the National Testing Labs City Check test ($126 + return shipping) at https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/ https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/
nextos 7y ago
Be careful with Berkey. It's a pretty scammy brand, but this is not well known. Essentially, Berkey was created to resell British Berkenfeld / Doulton filters in the US. They simply tweaked the brand name Berkenfeld into Berkey and began US distribution. Doulton has a rich history, and is a very legitimate brand. They invented ceramic filters in Victorian times. Berkenfeld was a German competitor that was transferred to British hands after WWI. Once Berkey started selling well, they began sourcing some filter candles in China. These are no longer Berkenfeld / Doulton. They don't look similar.
perfunctory 7y ago
Is it really necessary to use filters, isn't tap water safe for drinking in the US?
- asark 7y ago
  Filtered or bottled often tastes a lot better. Depends on where you live. Tap's noticeably worse than bottled or filtered where we live now, but not intolerably bad. We used to live somewhere (in the US, to be clear) that, if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. You could tell if a restaurant didn't filter their water because you could smell it in the cup, from a good foot away (luckily, most filtered it). This despite bathing and washing clothes in it and therefore probably being less sensitive to the odor than someone from out of town would be. Needless to say it tasted terrible. We didn't even cook with that stuff. Cheap gallon jugs of filtered water for cooking.
  - voldacar 7y ago
    >if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. Well water I assume?
    - asark 7y ago
      It was municipal water. Whole town was that way. googles Looks like it came from the Ozark Aquifer. No clue what weirdness was happening to it in between, but it reliably drew a "sniff sniff WTF?" from visitors. Again, you could tell when a restaurant in the area was serving water straight from the tap in by smell, before the water reached your lips.
- ralph84 7y ago
  There’s a big gap between safe and palatable. Anyone who says just drink from the tap has never lived somewhere where the water source is very hard groundwater.

by oil25 7y ago

shortandsweet 7y ago

I also have a berkey, was gifted to me. They say it's a pretty good filter but I looked up the qualifications and it's not rated for a lot of the typical tests the government uses to qualify water to. I also don't see anywhere on berkeys end that they will support this testing. In the mean time the only way I've been able to think of to reduce potential contaminated water is to vary my sources.

cornstalks 7y ago

> I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). The wording makes it sound like you only tested your filtered water. Seems like you'd want to test both the pre-filtered and post-filtered water to really know if your filters are "very effective."

oil25 7y ago
I agree, but the test was pretty expensive (about $400) so I only opted to test the "filtered" output since that's what I end up drinking and cooking with. I would definitely like to do a comparison test in the future.
- skuhn 7y ago
  Testing your unfiltered water as a control to your filter is a good idea, but also you're still bathing in that water. $400 seems quite high. There are much cheaper tests available, such as the National Testing Labs City Check test ($126 + return shipping) at https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/ https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/

nextos 7y ago

Be careful with Berkey. It's a pretty scammy brand, but this is not well known. Essentially, Berkey was created to resell British Berkenfeld / Doulton filters in the US. They simply tweaked the brand name Berkenfeld into Berkey and began US distribution. Doulton has a rich history, and is a very legitimate brand. They invented ceramic filters in Victorian times. Berkenfeld was a German competitor that was transferred to British hands after WWI. Once Berkey started selling well, they began sourcing some filter candles in China. These are no longer Berkenfeld / Doulton. They don't look similar.

perfunctory 7y ago

Is it really necessary to use filters, isn't tap water safe for drinking in the US?

asark 7y ago
Filtered or bottled often tastes a lot better. Depends on where you live. Tap's noticeably worse than bottled or filtered where we live now, but not intolerably bad. We used to live somewhere (in the US, to be clear) that, if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. You could tell if a restaurant didn't filter their water because you could smell it in the cup, from a good foot away (luckily, most filtered it). This despite bathing and washing clothes in it and therefore probably being less sensitive to the odor than someone from out of town would be. Needless to say it tasted terrible. We didn't even cook with that stuff. Cheap gallon jugs of filtered water for cooking.
- voldacar 7y ago
  >if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. Well water I assume?
  - asark 7y ago
    It was municipal water. Whole town was that way. googles Looks like it came from the Ozark Aquifer. No clue what weirdness was happening to it in between, but it reliably drew a "sniff sniff WTF?" from visitors. Again, you could tell when a restaurant in the area was serving water straight from the tap in by smell, before the water reached your lips.
ralph84 7y ago
There’s a big gap between safe and palatable. Anyone who says just drink from the tap has never lived somewhere where the water source is very hard groundwater.