Who Has A Berkefeld?

[Chaos25]

Hi everyone .I have been reading this site for a while now and have picked up some really useful hints, tips and info.
Myself and a couple of others are renting some woods from an absent landlord which we use for allotments teaching the kids bushcraft and we are curently using it to test preps .We have built in a composting toilet and are just finishing a yurt and for fun for the kids we have built large treehouses with rope walks between.We have built an amptitheatre with a fire pit.
We seem to have one problem ,as we live only a few yard from the area we carry water up,the thing is even though we have no ground water we do get a lot of run off which we can store, If I can help it I dont want to go to the expense of buying a water filter system if we can use the run off stored in water butts and instead use the system described by northern raider. I have food grade plastic buckets and the putting of them together looks simple enough, just need to know if this would make it drinkable though.
I have spoken to some companies about this, but the just seem to want to sell lots of expensive additional extras.
I would be over the moon to receive any advice.
Many thanks Chaos25

[NorthernRaider]

Yup take two food grade buckets with lids, one plastic tap from a brewers supplier or camping shop and a couple of superser filter candles out of a berkfield like you can get from Avonsoft and you have yourself a fine clean water source. if you look at a seel or plastic bodied Berkfield that is EXACTLY what it is, two compartments, two or four filter candles, a tap and a couple of lids. Look at the Avonsoft site at the filter candle specs to see how clean it makes the water.

---

Alternatively buy a Berkfield they have a wonderful pedegree gowing back decades for supplying pure safe drinking water in disaster zones across the globe. Or boil it for ten minutes.

[Chaos25]

Thanks for that.I thought uv filters etc were just way of parting me with my money. I will checkout the avonsoft website and get straight on to it.
I will report back how it goes. Thanks again keep up the good work.

[NorthernRaider]

You dont need UV filters, they are nice for large domestic systems but require energy to run and a steady supply of tubes as UV tubes weaken over time.
Read the Berkfield bumf on Avonsoft.

[Lightspeed]

(24 May 2013, 19:57)MaryN Wrote: I'd like one, but, ouch! at the prices.

Hi Mary,

These filters are an expensive outlay, agreed.

But clean Drinking Water is second only to the air we breath for our survival.

You are surrounded by dykes, so should have a reliable source to draw from. For me, the costing of 1/2p per litre seems a low cost insurance for drinking water security.

NR's method of using plastic buckets reduces this cost even further.

[bigpaul]

I don't have a Berkeley, but what I do have is a large LifeSaver filter bottle and I now also have a LifeStraw personal filter bottle.

[Lightspeed]

Since beginning of June we have been using the Berkefeld 100% for our drinking water.

This is for three reasons:

[*] Health
[*] Preparedness: Getting into the habit/routine of filling, cleaning and using the filter 100%.
[*] Our mains water supply is frequently cut off for many hours at a time and the reservoir of filtered water is sufficient to buffer against this.

We are using a single candle and it delivers more than enough for 4 adult's drinking water needs even in these hot conditions. In fact we are nowhere near consuming its output.

We have gotten used to the clean taste of the filtered water. All drinks, hot and cold have a better taste.

We are very satisfied with this device, and wish we'd invested in one years ago.

The only slight niggle is that the tap on the urn us rather short reach and this makes filling the kettle a little awkward.

We'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has been making permanent use of a Berkefeld for an extended period of time. In particular how do they perform when the temperature drops? What happens to saturated candles if they freeze? Are they destroyed or can they tolerate this?

[BeardyMan]

(7 August 2013, 09:30)Lightspeed Wrote: Since beginning of June we have been using the Berkefeld 100% for our drinking water.

This is for three reasons:

[*] Health
[*] Preparedness: Getting into the habit/routine of filling, cleaning and using the filter 100%.
[*] Our mains water supply is frequently cut off for many hours at a time and the reservoir of filtered water is sufficient to buffer against this.

We are using a single candle and it delivers more than enough for 4 adult's drinking water needs even in these hot conditions. In fact we are nowhere near consuming its output.

We have gotten used to the clean taste of the filtered water. All drinks, hot and cold have a better taste.

We are very satisfied with this device, and wish we'd invested in one years ago.

The only slight niggle is that the tap on the urn us rather short reach and this makes filling the kettle a little awkward.

We'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has been making permanent use of a Berkefeld for an extended period of time. In particular how do they perform when the temperature drops? What happens to saturated candles if they freeze? Are they destroyed or can they tolerate this?

Hello matey.

I used mine continuously for a well over 18 months. Never had a problem. We lived above a farm shop where it was absolutely freezing in the winter, filters never froze, didn't notice a degradation in performance either.

Now we've moved out into the countryside we don't use the Berky, the water out here is lovely and clean. No chemically smells coming out of the tap, kettle not constantly scaling up with the hard water. In Southampton it was the only thing any of us would drink from (even the cat, but the dog wasn't interested in the filtered water) as the water quality there is awful. You could taste / smell bleach or chlorine in the water.

We ran ours with 2 filters as all little'uns bottles etc were made with the filtered water, the big berkey resevoir would last us 2 days without refilling.

What candle filters are you using? I need to order some of the black ones, but trying to find a supplier over here who actually has them is a pain. I can order them direct from Berkey, but I have to buy a huge amount to get the best discount and postage rates.

[NorthernRaider]

We love our Berkfield, ours was in use for seven continous years when NR junior was born, just bought a few sets of news candles every couple of years to ensure only the purest water was used to sustain our little one. We still have it but its in store now for after TSHTF.

[Nix]

Great thread!

Sad fact is that if/when TSHTF, it'll be water issues that will catch 99% of people out, especially from contamination. I'm fitting a water butt system to the house shortly but, looking at the Berkefeld, may add this as well!