Who Has A Berkefeld?

[Lightspeed]

Beardyman,

Thanks for your reply. This is perfect, just the sort of advice I was hoping for.

How often did you have to replace your filters in Soton? I guess you had to be very careful as infants were consuming from it.

Filters I am using are Super Sterasyl. these are made in UK. I have not come across the black ones you mention. What are they called and what advantage do they offer?

I asked about the cold weather performance as my preps allow for the house to go cold if necessary in winter months and at times I may not be able to stop the filter element from freezing. I was worried that it might disintegrate.

Thanks again. Your fast reply is very much appreciated.

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(7 August 2013, 10:38)Nix Wrote: 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!

Good move Nix, don't put off acting on this.

As you say water is the most critical day to day issue that will have to be faced if there is a collapse.

But right here and now there are fairly big benefits to using a Berkefeld straight away.

Good luck

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(7 August 2013, 09:55)NorthernRaider Wrote: 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.

Thanks NR

As ever, you've been there, and done it before :-)

Good to hear you used it for so long. How often did you change candles? And did you do so as a function of time in action or reduced output?

[BeardyMan]

(7 August 2013, 10:53)Lightspeed Wrote: Beardyman,

Thanks for your reply. This is perfect, just the sort of advice I was hoping for.

How often did you have to replace your filters in Soton? I guess you had to be very careful as infants were consuming from it.

Filters I am using are Super Sterasyl. these are made in UK. I have not come across the black ones you mention. What are they called and what advantage do they offer?

I asked about the cold weather performance as my preps allow for the house to go cold if necessary in winter months and at times I may not be able to stop the filter element from freezing. I was worried that it might disintegrate.

Thanks again. Your fast reply is very much appreciated.

Hi LS!

I replaced them once in the whole time we ran it. I was using the Super Sterasyl ATC filters. Did not notice a change in the taste or quality of the water (not that I tested it through any scientific means!) before or after the change, so I probably changed them unnecessarily. I'm not sure if these filters clog up like other makes do to stop dirty water getting through though.

The black filters are Berkey Black Elements. They are by far the best you can buy (as they should be for £90ish a pair!) and can remove red food colouring from water, and you can fit the fluoride underfilters to remove 90-something percent of the fluoride in the water.

The super sterasyl filters are ceramic, so there's always a risk of them freezing and cracking, but I think the size of the water particles may reduce this.

I have a couple that I've taken out at home, if you want I can give them a thorough soaking then pop them in the freezer, see what happens.

[Lightspeed]

Cheers Beardyman,

The black filters are too expensive for me. I@m not worried about fluoride.

If you coudl do a repeat freeze thaw test on an old and saturated element that would be realy helpful. Thank you.

You've now guilted me into going off and doing some more research to see if there is any manufacturer guidance on the freezing issue. I'll report back what I find.

But please, if you can find the time, it would be really useful to know what happens in a real life freeze/thaw test.

Cheers,

[BeardyMan]

(7 August 2013, 11:36)Lightspeed Wrote: Cheers Beardyman,

The black filters are too expensive for me. I@m not worried about fluoride.

If you coudl do a repeat freeze thaw test on an old and saturated element that would be realy helpful. Thank you.

You've now guilted me into going off and doing some more research to see if there is any manufacturer guidance on the freezing issue. I'll report back what I find.

But please, if you can find the time, it would be really useful to know what happens in a real life freeze/thaw test.

Cheers,

I would think that there would be some information out there. I did speak to the manufacturers at one point to try and get myself some bulk discount for the shop (their idea of bulk and mine were COMPLETELY different ) so if I manage to dig out their details I'll fire off an email.

I'm not back home til Friday so I'll do my best to remember, off to meet a load of weirdo's in a carpark somewhere on Saturday though so it may be next week by the time I get round to it

[Skean Dhude]

I have the same filters in my system, atc, and I have spare filters but my understanding from speaking to Avonsoft is that you can clean the filters and resuse them. So I have a spare set that can be swapped out and then I clean the old ones by flushing them out with reverse flow for a little bit. As I've just put new filters in I see the little bit being a few days.. I've not done that yet though,

[Lightspeed]

Beardyman and SD

I have researched as guilted

The manufacturer FAQ section on their web site advises that life expectancy of Super Sterasyl candles is in the region of 10,000 litres. No Boiling needed in that time, just occasional cleaning of the outer surface of the element.

I also sent an enquiry about the effect of frezing on saturated elements. I'll post their reply on here when it arrives.

[BeardyMan]

(7 August 2013, 12:07)Lightspeed Wrote: Beardyman and SD

I have researched as guilted

The manufacturer FAQ section on their web site advises that life expectancy of Super Sterasyl candles is in the region of 10,000 litres. No Boiling needed in that time, just occasional cleaning of the outer surface of the element.

I also sent an enquiry about the effect of frezing on saturated elements. I'll post their reply on here when it arrives.

Cheers LS, the set I was going to freeze evidently aren't warn out, should have quite a bit of life left in them yet!
Good good, one less thing to buy

[Lightspeed]

(7 August 2013, 12:18)BeardyMan Wrote:

(7 August 2013, 12:07)Lightspeed Wrote: Beardyman and SD

I have researched as guilted

The manufacturer FAQ section on their web site advises that life expectancy of Super Sterasyl candles is in the region of 10,000 litres. No Boiling needed in that time, just occasional cleaning of the outer surface of the element.

I also sent an enquiry about the effect of frezing on saturated elements. I'll post their reply on here when it arrives.

I'm relieved I found that out before you risked destroying your spare ones!



Cheers LS, the set I was going to freeze evidently aren't warn out, should have quite a bit of life left in them yet!
Good good, one less thing to buy

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(7 August 2013, 12:18)BeardyMan Wrote:

(7 August 2013, 12:07)Lightspeed Wrote: Beardyman and SD

I have researched as guilted

The manufacturer FAQ section on their web site advises that life expectancy of Super Sterasyl candles is in the region of 10,000 litres. No Boiling needed in that time, just occasional cleaning of the outer surface of the element.

I also sent an enquiry about the effect of frezing on saturated elements. I'll post their reply on here when it arrives.

Cheers LS, the set I was going to freeze evidently aren't warn out, should have quite a bit of life left in them yet!
Good good, one less thing to buy

I'll try that again...

I'm relieved I found that out before you risked destroying your spare ones!

---

Nothing back from the manufacturer yet, but Survivalist blog had some interesting stuff on it:

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/a-revi...on-system/

The Black ceramic elements are susceptible to frost damage:

<<One thing to keep in mind is that these need to be handled with some degree of care as they can be broken if dropped or frozen (while containing water).>>

Manufacturing problems with black elements:

There is a sequence of comments complaining about poor manufacturing and low resilience of the black filters.

It seems that when they work, they work very well indeed, but that they are prone to failing at the base. Failing there means that non filtered water passes straight through to the collection reservoir… Not good

[BeardyMan]

(7 August 2013, 12:25)Lightspeed Wrote:

(7 August 2013, 12:18)BeardyMan Wrote:

(7 August 2013, 12:07)Lightspeed Wrote: Beardyman and SD

I have researched as guilted

The manufacturer FAQ section on their web site advises that life expectancy of Super Sterasyl candles is in the region of 10,000 litres. No Boiling needed in that time, just occasional cleaning of the outer surface of the element.

I also sent an enquiry about the effect of frezing on saturated elements. I'll post their reply on here when it arrives.

I'm relieved I found that out before you risked destroying your spare ones!



Cheers LS, the set I was going to freeze evidently aren't warn out, should have quite a bit of life left in them yet!
Good good, one less thing to buy

---

(7 August 2013, 12:18)BeardyMan Wrote:

(7 August 2013, 12:07)Lightspeed Wrote: Beardyman and SD

I have researched as guilted

The manufacturer FAQ section on their web site advises that life expectancy of Super Sterasyl candles is in the region of 10,000 litres. No Boiling needed in that time, just occasional cleaning of the outer surface of the element.

I also sent an enquiry about the effect of frezing on saturated elements. I'll post their reply on here when it arrives.

Cheers LS, the set I was going to freeze evidently aren't warn out, should have quite a bit of life left in them yet!
Good good, one less thing to buy

I'll try that again...

I'm relieved I found that out before you risked destroying your spare ones!

---

Nothing back from the manufacturer yet, but Survivalist blog had some interesting stuff on it:

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/a-revi...on-system/

The Black ceramic elements are susceptible to frost damage:

<<One thing to keep in mind is that these need to be handled with some degree of care as they can be broken if dropped or frozen (while containing water).>>

Manufacturing problems with black elements:

There is a sequence of comments complaining about poor manufacturing and low resilience of the black filters.

It seems that when they work, they work very well indeed, but that they are prone to failing at the base. Failing there means that non filtered water passes straight through to the collection reservoir… Not good

Didn't know that. I know Berky are struggling to get them made quick enough for demand though. Suppose this is never going to be great for QC purposes. Maybe I'll spend the £90 on some more candle filters instead.

Cheers LS, this has been most helpful

[Tibbs735]

I've got my various washers and the spigot, as well as 4 ATC supersterasyl 7 inch candles in the post. I'll be doing a 5 gallon 2 bucket job in the next few days and putting up photos of it.

I intend to use it as part of a 3 stage system, where the water is put through a bio-sand filter first, then the berkey, to be kinder on the filters, before going into storage where it is chlorinated.

Filtering drinking water even now is a good idea, as things like caffeine, estrogen and chemicals from birth control and medicine are building up in the water cycle. A recent article I read on the recent decline in violent crime suggested increasing levels of estrogen in water as one reason!