Berkey Water Filter System

Posted On April 18, 2023

The drinking water problem

Water is one of the challenges facing many people in both rural and remote Alaska. Indoor plumbing and water are not standard in these areas as drilling a well and having electricity to run the well pump can get very expensive so many opt for dry cabins with an outhouse instead. Our house does have a well, but unfortunately like too many homes in Alaska the water is not drinkable out of the faucet. It is contaminated with high levels of dangerous metals that must be removed to make it safe to drink or cook with. This is also a problem in dry cabins where creeks or other water sources are used.

The level of Manganese in our well is 1,000 ug/L which far exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines of 50 ug/L. Levels this high cause irreversible neurological damage so that’s the first problem. The Iron is at 28 mg/L well above the 0.3 mg/L acceptable level. Both of these can be smelled in the water above safe levels, so they are easier to detect. They also cause the water to turn brown and black after it has been oxygenated so that’s another good indicator. Lastly the arsenic level was 11 ug/L above the maximum 10 ug/L level. All this combined means that the water is a slow deadly concoction that needs to be treated before we can drink it.

The filter problems

Water treatment systems are expensive, and a new well/treatment system is in the works, so we did not want to spend much money in between now and then, so the Berkey Filter was our go to as it reduces all these contaminates to safe levels using filters on a gravity feed system. We have the Big Berkey which filters just over two gallons of water per batch. Originally, we bought it to keep on hand for natural disasters such as earthquakes or tidal waves, but it made a good stop gap measure to get us by until the ground thaws enough to put in a proper well system.

The problem we found with the Berkey is that the filters plugged up fast at these contaminate levels. We replaced the two filters, and they got nearly plugged up in under two weeks. The Berkey replacement filters are very expensive, so we tried to save a few bucks by buying British Berkefeld Super Sterasyl filters as they were half the price. We do not recommend that if you don’t have good water to start with as they did not remove the Manganese. I tried the first cup of water out of it, and it was purified straight Manganese water, so it was disgusting. Stick with original Berkey black filters period as you’re going to end up buying them anyway after throwing money away first. We did get some use out of them later though as you will see.

I am sure that we are not the only people who ran into this problem so hopefully this gives you a few pointers if you are or are planning on using a countertop filter system. The Berkey is expensive, but it is the only filter with published lab results showing the reduction of harmful bacteria or metals. It is also a good system to keep on hand for emergencies or remote camping.

The solution

We needed to figure out a way to clean our water somewhat before it went into the Berkey so I used an empty coffee to make a pre-filter system that could be placed on top of the Berkey system so it pre-filters directly into the Berkey system. I simply drilled two holes in the coffee can to screw the British Berkefeld filters into. This was then placed across a couple pieces of wood on top of the Berkey filter to allow it to drain directly into Berkey filter chamber. So far this pre-filter system has been helping to keep the real Berkey filters way cleaner to hopefully extend their longevity.