It took about two minutes to set up, mostly involving priming the two filters, snapping everything together, and filling it with 2.5 gallons of water.
The makers recommend testing it by dumping some food coloring into the water. If the filter is working properly, it will take the coloring out of the water.
It seems to work. The water came out crystal clear.
This is legally classified as a “water purifier.” The FDA only permits three technologies to do this - distillation, reverse osmosis, and ceramic filters. The Berkey is a ceramic filter purifier. It removes bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and heavy metals.
The filters I have will last for 3000 gallons apiece. I have both operating, but I could plug one of the holes and use them consectutively for a total of 6000 gallons of purification.
I’ll probably buy a backup set of filters. A pair of them costs $100. Should handle my pure water needs for the next couple of decades, used singly.
UPDATE: I don’t know why the pic is showing a faint blue tinge to the water in the glass. I can’t see it if I hold it up to light from the outdoors. The walls of my kitchen are painted light blue semi-gloss. Maybe that has something to do with it.
How does the water taste? Just fine. You can get one here, if you want: Berkey Light without LED w/ 2 Black Berkeys
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That or the color balance chosen by the cam. Back in the days of film Kodak films had a slight blue tint and Fuji films had a slight magenta tint. I preferred the Fuji, it gave warmer skin tones.
I see blue everywhere in the first picture you posted, so I’m guessing whatever caused that is the source of the blue tint in the water in the second photo. Take a picture of your filtered water and then, immediately after take a picture of tap water in the same glass, filled to the same level, in the same position with the camera in the same position (same exposure, same everything) and compare the photos. If the water in both photos looks the same, your filtered water is as clear as tap water, which should be pretty clear. If the tap water doesn’t have the blue tinge, something suspended in the filtered water is scattering blue light.
It was the filter. I had the sealing washer on one of the filters set up on the wrong side.
I fixed that, tried it with green food coloring this time, and it came out crystal clear. The other did have a definite blue tinge, especially when viewed inside the white interior of the fridge. This batch shows no color in the refrigerator at all.
Green would be a bad color to check for in our fridge.
Bill, each filter is good for 3000 gallons, whether you use one at a time or both at once, they are good for 6000 gallons total (over 2100 fillings), probably more since the water you give them is very clean to begin with.
Bill, According to the tech at Berkeyfilters.com you should not use blue or green food coloring. I had a problem with the green passing through the filter. I called the tech support and they told me to use only red, because some green and blue coloring is mineral based and the Berkey does not remove minerals. Sure enough that was the problem.
Well, it took almost all of the blue out, and it did take all of the green out. I didn’t have any red on hand at the time.
It’s good to know about the 6000 thing. I plan to buy a couple more sets of filters for backup - assuming I can continue to get fresh water somewhere, that should last a lifetime.