Who Has A Berkefeld?

[BeardyMan]

Yeah, I'm still running the silver impregnated ones. Not that I use mine now, stashed away at present.
I will get the black elements, but they're not a priority at the moment - £90 on filters can buy a lot of the candle ones!

[River Song]

Got myself a Berkefeld from Avonsoft

It was laying in the store but decided to fit it together
which was pretty easy even for a blonde.

Filled it with tap water and threw the contents away as per the instruction

Just filled it again and will drink when ready.

Tomorrow I;m going to use the rainwater from the butt and try that.

If I get the shits, I'll let you know!

[Hex]

well after seeing how ebola is spreading its made my mind up for me, ill be buying myself one of these asap

[NorthernRaider]

We have one plus multiple spare filter candles.

[Midnitemo]

was one of my very first preps....I'd say probably the best £85 I've spent so far + £45 for another 4 candles....will configure mine to run on 1 candle and I'd hope to get year of filtering per candle by doing a bit of pre filtering.

[Devonian]

OK, just had a good read through this thread and all looks good. They've dropped to £80 inc del and vat and 2 ATC Super Sterasyl Heavy Metal Filters on Amazon so looking like good value.

But anyone used them on a 'raw' water source, such as stream water or rainwater from butts etc rather than just tap water?

I notice RS was going to try this, but then straight afterwards she disappeared for 6 months LOL - is there something you want to tell us River Song???

[Lightspeed]

Unfiltered spring water is our piped in supply.

We have been using the filter for more than 12 months now, with just a single candle in operation.

I scrub down the candle with a plastic scouring pad every 3 months. A good deal of rubbish is cleared from its surface each time.

No stomach problems suffered since we've been filtering ( nor before for that matter)

I have yet to drink rainwater harvested supply. Will try that next year.

[NorthernRaider]

Dev, ours used to go in the camper van with us everywhere, and on more than one occasion all we have done is fill it from a pond or stream and its works SUPERBLY without fail, ONE caveat though , even though the water coming out of the tap is clean and safe. Inevitably your hands after camping, fishing, prepping etc are not clean so its always worth while when in use occasionally wiping the outside of the tap with a sterile wipe or swab. One chap replaced the tap on his with a copper one obtained from a brewers suppliers, copper is self sterilising and naturally antibacterial.

[Devonian]

Thanks LS/NR

Given that they say the candles are good to filter 10,000 Litres, that would mean that if you filter say 3 litres a day, then they would last for nearly 10 years!

That obviously seems like a long long time, so if you back wash them once or twice a year and as LS says, give them a regular scrub with a scourer, is there any other maintenance needed and would the candles really last that long based on that kind of usage?

[Midnitemo]

I did my sums on 5 gallons a day, 22.5 litres which allows a bit of flexibility as 10,000 litres divided by 365 days is just over 27 litres a day...will mean somebody constantly feeding the system but as we will have people on watch it shouldn't be a problem.

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only issue might be flow rate as it slows as the candle gets dirty..and to much abrading to keep the flow rate high might shorten the lifespan of the candle.

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Also a single candle may not have the rate of flow to filter that much in a 24 hour period so we may have to revise down to 4 gallons a day.