Tap and Bottled Water Is Laced With Toxins—I Found Something Better
From the moment I woke up to the sheer volume of harmful, endocrine-disrupting chemicals lurking in my clothing, food, and home, I’ve been on a vendetta to upgrade the biggest culprits I use every day. I’ve swapped my non-stick pan with a ceramic-coated Caraway, my Swiffer for a Dupray steam mop, and my plastic Tupperware for Pyrex.
My latest installment: the Big Berkey Water Filter. Considering the water in Los Angeles sucks (at least, in comparison to my native Oregon), and bottled water is expensive (plus, plastic bottles may tank your testosterone) upgrading to a quality gravity-fed water filter has been top of mind.
According to preppers, outdoor enthusiasts, and the health-conscious alike, the Berkey is the holy grail of filtration systems. So I figured, why not get the scoop? Is it worth the money? I used a Berkey for two months to find out.
What Is the Big Berkey Water Filter?
The Big Berkey Water Filter is a stainless-steel portable water purification system that uses gravity to push water through two to four filters. In the process, the Berkey removes 200 contaminants including viruses, pathogenic bacteria, pesticides, PFAS, nitrites, and heavy metals like lead and copper. In fact, it eliminates 99.9999 percent of waterborne pathogens and viruses and 99.9 percent of heavy metals (per the manufacturer, at least).
The Berkey is simple: you fill it with water and leave the filter to do the work. Like other gravity-fed filters, this process takes time—around 45 to 60 minutes for every 2.25-gallon tank of water. But for $110 you can upgrade from two filters, called the Black Berkey Elements, to four. While increasing the number of filters won’t improve the quality of filtration, it’ll double the filtration speed and lifespan of each filter.
The Big Berkey doesn’t require installation or connection to a water line. You just set it up, and add water. This makes Berkey filters ideal for filtering tap or well water, and freshwater sources like lakes, rivers, ponds, and streams when camping or in emergencies. If you prefer to take yours on the go, consider the travel-sized Berkey. It has a 1.5-gallon tank with the same powerful filtration capabilities as the OG.
What’s Good About the Berkey Water Filter?
Water tastes amazing
After hearing a few too many people rave about the Berkey, I was somewhere in between believing everyone who owned one was brainwashed, or it was a straight tap to the heavens. I can’t vouch for all the claims Berkey makes, but I can tell you this: the water tastes good. How good? Better than any bottled water I’ve ever tasted, and a far cry from the glorified pool water Los Angeles is pumping into my tap. The crisp and smooth taste has completely ruined all other water for me.
Long-lasting filters
Each pair of Black Berkey Elements can filter 6,000 gallons of water before needing to be replaced. That’s a lot. I drink on average a gallon of water per day and, for explanation purposes, let’s assume my partner does the same (he doesn’t). By my estimations, the pair of Black Berkey Elements my Big Berkey comes with will last us a little over eight years. Eight years. My old Brita filter needed to be replaced every two months. Let’s just hope I remember to change it eight years from now.
It holds a ton of water
We live in a smallish apartment in Los Angeles. We have more space than some, but not a ton of counter space, which is why I was originally considering the Travel Berkey. My friend talked me into getting the Big Berkey for the larger 2.25-gallon tank, and I’m glad she did. We got lucky in that it fits just under our cabinets. And even though filling up the Berkey isn’t hard, it’s nice that it holds enough water that I don’t have to fill it up much more than once per day. I think if I got a smaller size, I’d accidentally run out of water midday and resort to drinking out of the tap more often. I like that with the Big Berkey, I don’t have to worry about it.
What’s Not So Good About the Berkey Water Filter?
Not NSF/ANSI certified
The biggest issue with the Big Berkey? It’s not NSF/ANSI certified—the gold standard for water filter quality. Berkey claims its filters can remove far more contaminants than competitor water filters which are NSF/ANSI certified. Yet, Berkey’s testing is done through a third-party, so we can’t be sure how accurate the test results actually are.
My thoughts: I’m using the Berkey to filter tap water which is already safe (by government standards). Whatever edge the Berkey can provide in filtering my water is much better than no edge, but that NSF/ANSI stamp of approval would go a long way for my peace of mind.
It’s a total pain in the ass to set up
I’m not going to lie, the first time we tried setting up our Big Berkey was not successful. The setup process doesn’t appear complicated. You basically have to prime the two Black Berkey Elements by filtering water directly through the sink into each filter until water is beading out of the sides. From there, you screw the elements into place, then stack the tanks. Fill with water, et voila.
Unfortunately, we got caught up on the first step: priming the filters. I’ll spare you the details, but it turned out the sink we were attempting to prime the filters on wasn’t quite the right size, so we couldn’t get the water to actually feed through the filter. After watching several homemade YouTube videos and multiple failed attempts we tried the bathroom sink—which worked like a charm. Needless to say, prepare yourself for a little resistance.
Water isn’t cold
The Berkey does nothing to insulate your water or keep it cold. And if you’re thinking “Just add ice cubes”, think again. Using ice cubes straight out of a fridge dispenser is the same as mixing unfiltered water with Berkey water—what’s the point? Unless you go through the annoying process of filling ice cube trays with water from your Berkey, you’re basically SOL. Of course, I didn’t think of any of this until my Berkey arrived on my doorstep.
My simple solution to this problem is pouring the filtered water into a pitcher that I keep in the fridge. From there, I pour the cold water into my 40-ounce Stanley tumbler (yes, I’m one of those girls) where it stays perfectly chilled for hours on end.
Expensive
Compared to your average Brita, the Berkey ain’t cheap. However, it falls in line with other gravity-fed water filters that offer a similar level of filtering and goes miles beyond your run-of-the-mill fridge filter.
I did the math and the entire Big Berkey system I bought on Amazon (for $384) comes down to roughly $0.06 cents per gallon of filtered water. Six cents a day? That’s smaller than pocket change these days and a hell of a lot cheaper than bottled water. Plus, once I swap the current filters out with replacements ($166 bucks a pop) that’ll bring my water down to around $0.03 a gallon.
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking to filter tap, well, or running water through a rigorous filtration process that removes hundreds of toxins, the Big Berkey Water Filter is one of the best you can buy. It doesn’t require installation, and the set up process is relatively painless—making it great for travel, hiking, or camping and convenient for home use. However, if you want a water filter with the NSF/ANSI stamp of approval, this isn’t the filter for you.
