Yes, someone is watching your video, and our family appreciates all the time and effort you took investigating, following up, and sharing the information you discovered with your audience.
This makes me sick. Im a widow who saved for 4 months to buy a big Berkey. 🙄😳😳Thank you my friend. My mouth makes a great return/refund. Will definitely make some noise. Also just subbed. 🤗❤
I am a 20 plus year water treatment professional. Unfortunately, this is so common in the industry. Because the average consumer does not understand water chemistry, it makes manipulation easy and people are taken advantage of daily. Do your research and make sure you get multiple quotes. It sucks to see so many people get burned.
Hello. tell me, please, do you personally use any water filter and why? if not, what kind of water do you drink? Also, what kind of water in stores do you think is good? thanks for the answer.
@@TheseusTitan I cannot make a product recommendation because I do not know your specific water chemistry. The truth is, there is no “one size fits all” water treatment system. However, a reverse osmosis unit, will remove bacteria, viruses, cysts and almost anything else that is harmful. These usually cost around $500 for an under the sink unit. I think everyone can benefit from a simple carbon based filter. This can help with taste and odor and will remove chlorine and chloramines put in the water by the municipality. The best way is to get a lab report from a local lab. After you have this, you can contact local treatment pros to get their opinion on the best way to treat your water. Get MULTIPLE opinions and compare.
Thank you! I was ready to invest in a Berkey and came across this video in the nick of time. You've done a thorough and impressive research job, which all of us here appreciate you are so kind to have shared. Thank you again! 💕
OMGosh! Me too, I was buying one Monday when I got paid! So glad I stumbled across this! Thank you so much for posting this Robert. You saved a lot of people a ton of money and our health too. God bless.
Rob, I am retired engineer who worked in many fields including "filtration". I would suggest you make a study of this. I worked in filtration on highly susceptible equipment that by itself was worth $58 million 20 years ago. Learn how filtration works. I say this as for minerals, (not halogens, as chlorine is one), but filtration improves as the burden (things you filter) build up on the element and increase or improve filtration. I know, as I have tested it. There are "absolute filters" and "others, which require multi-pass". For chlorine, you should let the gas disipate before filtration, or you have to have a way to react it so that it binds to something that essentially makes it inert. I use a Berky and love it. I am not dealing with chlorine though. A prefilter with activated carbon would likely work, as its designed to handle organics as well as reactive elements. I do believe you can test the treated water (post filtration) easily and send a sample to a water lab to verify results. Just giving you some thoughts here dear internet friend.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah It's always best to let your water stand in open container for 24 hrs before going into Berkey, this was chlorine evaporates by itself.
It is so sad that we really cannot trust a damn thing on this Earth anymore when it comes to advertisements. I bought a Berkey 6 months ago and thought I did a thorough research on it but apparently I missed a few things to check. I am going to give my Berkey the red dye test and see what happens. God Help us. Thank you for sharing all your hard work on this subject.
I bought a Berkey a few years ago and did the red dye test the moment I filled it and no dye came through, many months later I cleaned it and cleaned my filter and did the red dye test again and the dye still did not come through. Not sure that means anything tho, dye could have big molecules compared to contaminates going through the filter possibly, maybe that's why they say do the red dye test.
Great video. I purchased a ProOne water filter. All stainless components including the spigot. They provide test results. I don't have have any connection with them except I purchased their product. Make sure filters are changed regularly. Tested and Certified by NSF International against NSF/ANSI Standard 42 for components. Tested by a certified independent lab to NSF/ANSI Standards 42, 53, P231, P401 and P473. Click here for Independent Lab Report details
Thanks! I saw a young couple with a tiny baby at IKEA and they were looking at the teflon frying pans, I told them that the teflon was dangerous and well…they ignored me. I am autistic so I do things like that without thinking.
Like the lady I offered a thought to at Ikea, pointing out a practical note of comparison between the single and double bowl sinks that they had not mentioned in their open debate/conversation lol (yeah, they just looked away, rock on, who’s the weird person, the one who offers a genuine, caring consideration to a stranger planning a major-ish decision, or the one not considerate enough to say one word or acknowlege another well-intentioned soul 🤷♀️) Stay weird, my friends!
No You are intuned and actually Critically Thinking and that is Basic most are lost Purposefully ,and Willingly . I do this and with other ways and means also xo.
Autustic or not. You did the right thing! They were just not wanting to hear. Good caring on your part. You could have done that "without thinking" thing because you literally were thinking. They weren't. Truly, all 8 adult grandchildren, plus 5 adult children and me too would have welcomed and respected your input even if we already knew but needed reminding. It was their issue. Not yours.💙💞💙
Just curious, I owe a Berkey. I will say, it made my tap water taste much better. My curiosity is, since we have been mislead in what we thought we were purchasing, why isn't Berkey being investigated and sued???
I don't have the time or money to sue, and for all I know, they've not technically broken any laws. I don't know. But the letter of the law and the spirit/intention of the law are two different things, and lying - even if not technically breaking a law - is still wrong. As far as fraud...maybe I could report them...I should look into that.
@@Robert-Beaty Yes you can report them, to the consumer protection bureau of both your state & the federal one. YES, you SHOULD report them. These bureaus only begin investigating after accumulating MANY complaints. They do this to limit the occasional angry vindictive customer (or competitor) setting off an expensive investigation that may not be warranted. The more reports that accumulate, the more likely they are to notice and investigate. It IS fraud to make claims that aren't backed by testing, where done in house, or by independent labs or official government labs.
1) If you are just attempting to remove chlorine, boil the water 2) If a filtration system is relying solely on physical filtration and is not suffering from damage, filters will rarely get worse over time... they will just slower as they get clogged up.
I was awake at a crazy hour and somehow thought to check on some stuff that's been on my mind a while. Your journey of discovery concerning certain water filtration systems in general and Berkey in particular mirrors my own. About seven years ago I really started to question all this hype about Berkey filters. I'd already purchased 6 or 8 of their big black filters to create my own bulk water filtration unit. I felt rushed into the purchase (not Berkey's fault, it was just life), and upon later reflection their claims just seemed too good to be true. Having a scientific and medical background led me to do some deeper research and my own basic testing. The results were eye-opening and frustrating. It started me on years of seeking, testing, learning, retesting. I've not purchased anything from Berkey since. I've relegated those black filters to pre-filtration status. My household has gone with reverse osmosis for potable water. For us and our needs, reverse osmosis is a good fit. I use a variety of systems after having tested them and continue to test periodically. I do have alternative methods of water filtration and treatment on hand just in case. Water is life, and I'm careful about entrusting my life, and that of my family, to anyone. I cannot entrust that to Berkey. Thank you for doing the legwork and putting forth the effort. Most of all, thank you for putting yourself out there and posting this. I'm not crazy. You aren't crazy. At least we aren't crazy about this particular subject.
I ordered a travel Berkey. It was $395. It was missing a lugnut when I was putting it together. That was unacceptable for something that outrageously overpriced. I returned it. Thanks for your information 👍
Hi, someone here is watching your video, sir! It just incidentally showed up on my feed. We thought we were doing something special by using expensive Berkey for years. A 2-pack of replacement filters is $173! Thanks for blowing the whistle, sir. My husband is researching the alternatives that you mentioned right now. Thanks again, and may The Most High bless you for helping His people. Matt. 10:42
Many good points in this video, but I will say that "estimating" filter life at 3000 gallons is realistic: filter life depends on WHAT YOU PUT INTO THE BERKEY. If your water is filthy to start with, it stands to reason that your filter will not last as long. I have a travel size Berkey and it has worked well for me. DISCLAIMER: I do not work for and have NO affiliation with Berkey. I'm simply offering my personal opinion based on use.
Berkey is praised by several homesteading channels I watch and they cannot believe that Berkey is not allowed to sell to my state, for the very reasons you state. Great information!
IA requires expensive testing of each permutation of the filters. Even though it's one filter, they would have to pay to test every single reservoir/filter combination
Great Video. I almost purchased a Berkey but went with a ProOne. All Stainless Steel including the spigot. Tested and Certified by NSF International against NSF/ANSI Standard 42 for components. Tested by a certified independent lab to NSF/ANSI Standards 42, 53, P231, P401 and P473. Test results can be downloaded.
I have a sudden onset of an autoimmune disorder. When we were living on the farm, we were told to use Berkey for our well water or lug gallons from town to drink, wash dishes, and cook. I slowly and slowly got worse. We switched to four Brita filters before putting the water through a Zero filter. It has taken five years, but I am able to walk a mile now. I was bed ridden. I will forever struggle with my disorder, but we will never go back from our filtering options. I watched this video while I was filtering our water tonight for tomorrow's use. I keep telling people that Berkey isn't working, but they told me that I have this disorder and it was a coincidence.
You should research the megahome water distiller. It's $310 after tax, but through the distillation process it removes everything from the water. The only con is it takes 5.5 hours to make a gallon.
To say you will "forever struggle with your disorder" is not going to get you well. I 'get it,' trust me. I was truly and literally killed by medical neglect in 2020 from severe covaids (working front-line where we're forced to wear masks and that's when and how we fell with severe illness (all our staff by the smokers)) I was also bombarded with toxic mold from both work places and my HVAC system at home, on top of my type I diabetes from a post vaccine injury in childhood which is a monster of a thing to deal with,and some other genetic issues, and 6 months into my hell with severe covaids in march 2020 where no one was doing anything to help since they had to make it look so bad we needed the shot (which is causing many autoimmune diseases in itself), I got a letter from the town that our water was contaminated and I was sucking back that water from the tap all year to prevent dying from dehydration.....I was in critical shape, and no help whatsoever - scary. Once I started using the Berkey, my symptoms started improving but honestly if you do EBOO filtration or ozone and IV chelation.
Thank you! First of all, you are a somebody with more than normal grain of sense!!! The Berkeley water filtration system has been high up there on my bucket list. You have changed the entire narrative and I thank you for doing your research. I feel pretty sure that there are thousands and thousands of people who need to hear this. You just never know. Money doesn’t always talk👍. Bless you🙏❤️
Thanks for looking into these shady claims. it's worth noting that Berkey has ZERO connection to British Berkefeld/Doulton, a UK company that has been around since the 1820s (!) and sells ceramic filters with multiple NSF/ANSI and WQA certifications. People sometimes call British Berkefeld filters "Berkeys," and I have long suspected that the US Berkey chose the name to piggyback on the UK company's reputation.
My god! Your damn right I watched your video. Thank you thank you so much. I was just about to order new cartridges for my Berkey this morning. You made me rethink this whole process. Luckily though I am on a well in the mountains of East Tnnessee. The water tastes wonderful straight from the tap. But I still prefer filtering for possible any coliforms or whatever. I look forward to the other videos you've posted and now I will be reassessing and decide on a new system. I'm a 73-year-old living alone on my mountain homestead and a cancer survivor. I want to eat healthy and drink pure water. I want to hang around this place as long as I can. Thanks so much for your great video I look forward to more.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for posting this video! You literally saved me hundreds of dollars because I've been saving up to by a Berkey! It's definitely upsetting how much they're fooling people. Makes me realize that just because something costs so much more than other similar products, and just because it's highly rated and touted by them, that they're just conning consumers to pay exsorbadent high prices for an inferior product. I was almost duped. So thank you!
I've now watched Part 2 and then I watched Part 2. I want to thank you for caring enough and taking the time to do the work you did of looking into Berkey filters. I'm currently in the process of building a DYI water filtration system for emergency situations. I was very seriously considering paying all that money for the Berkey filter. You have cost Berkey a lot of money. I pledge to repeat, and repeat and repeat to everyone I know, not to waste their time on a Berkey water filter. Again, thank you. You are making a difference.
So I'v built one already. Used the off-brand filters. If Berkey is full of crap? Then I know my off-brand can't be good. The question is, what filters can I buy that are reputable to replace my off-brand filters for my DYI 5-gallon bucket system?
I use a Berkey and love it. My water tests well after 6 months of using one filter cartridge. For drinking water I further filter with a zero water filter, but I use my Berkey filtered water for everything else.
Good information here for sure. Thank you for all your research! Berkey, I hope you are taking notes here. Full disclosure about your products is not only ethical, it is your duty to humanity!
My grandma used to filter the water by using clean sand, rocks, coconut fibres and a ceramic container . Drill a hole on the side of the ceramic container and install a 2 inches pipe. Put the sand, rocks and coconut fibres inside the ceramic container. Let the water drip into a bucket or pail. Note, you can create another one to filter it twice to get the purified water. Boil the water before drinking. Hope this helps.
I was planning on getting one till I heard that. It just doesn't make any sense... unless it has AI tec how the hel is it going to tell the defence lol
Yeah that gave me pause as well🤔 I figured I'd have to add back minerals, but not so, according to Berkey. How do they get away with charging sooo much $$$$ for their filters?
Not defending Berkey, but that is a totally valid claim that any manufacturer of carbon based filters can use. Carbon filters remove stuff like chlorine and pesticides all day long because their chemical structure is such that it more attracted to the carbon than water. Not the case for dissolved ions (minerals) which will go right through. Carbon filtration is more than just a "screen" that catches bad stuff, it's effectiveness is due to the complexities of water chemistry
I own an Alexapro. Bought it three years ago. I bought it bc I couldn’t afford the Berkey back then, and for sure I can’t today. I’m very happy with my Alexapro. When I forget and drink out of the suburban tap I find myself immediately spitting it out! What a difference
Because we often have boil advisories, I've been looking for water filters and your video caught my eye. Checking the NSF and WQA databases, there are very few consumer pour-through or top-fill filters that have received NSF certification, and most of the manufacturers only submit a very few claims for certification (e.g., chlorine reduction). The companies then claim they are NSF certified, but most of the marketing material doesn't appear to specify they were only certified for a specific claim. Even if they do make that clear, I assume that most buyers (like me) don't realize what that means unless they do some research. Also, manufacturers often have their filters tested by "independent labs" to prove they meet a portion of a specific NSF standard. (The manufacturer often makes the lab result available and you can see they only tested for specific things, how long the test was run, etc.) The lab "certifies" that the filter meets the specific criteria, but that does not mean that the filter is "NSF certified", even though that's the impression one gets from looking at product descriptions. I think you've unfairly singled out Berkey as being deceptive. I don't know that they are any worse than most manufacturers. Water filtering/purification and certification appears to be somewhat more complicated than Mr. Project Farm and other UA-camrs make it out to be. I'm glad that you pointed out the distinction between well/tap filters and "ditch" filters in your description, but some (many?) folks aren't going to read your description and will not know that the filters you suggested will not filter out bacteria and protozoa like the ditch filters will. Your video was helpful to me in that it pointed out the misleading claims made by Berkey, which led me to discover that most claims made by other manufacturers are misleading, too. Maybe you could make a video titled "Betrayed by all the &^%#@**& - Why I quit drinking water". ;-) Thanks!
Lol! I'll consider that for my next video : ) Thank you for the feedback - I don't post much online - I realize now I shouldn't have relied on the video description. I assumed that people would read it because I directed them to do so in the video, but I won't assume that next time. Out of sheer curiosity, I just emailed ZeroWater, Clearly Filtered, and Aquasana (maybe there's a boil-water advisory or something where this would apply) about whether they can filter raw outside water, or water with bacteria and protozoa in it. Curious how they respond. You're correct about the misleading claims of many companies. It becomes a guess or wager - which company is least likely to be trying to swindle me or deceive me; or, which company is most likely trying to do the right thing? While other manufacturer claims can be misleading, too, at least some of them get some accountability with NSF standards, or use surrogate contaminants for a class of contaminants. Berkey may not be worse than certain other companies, but I'm not sure which companies those are, and some are certainly better. I dealt with Helen of Troy (owns PUR), and they were very unhelpful and deceptive. I dealt with Aquasana, Clearly Filtered, and Zero Water, and they were all very helpful and straight with me. I didn't reach out to APEC or Watts. If you look in my notes, you'll see that there's a study done by Detell Knappe and his students, and they found that the Berkey did not do so well filtering short-chain PFAS, but several other filters did very well. If a filter can get short-chain PFAS, it can get pretty much everything.
So true joe! After watching this video and trying to find a NSF 52 certified pitcher, it seems like it doesn't exist. Currently looking to filter pharmaceuticals and toxic chemicals.
They got back to me about my raw outside water question - ZeroWater and Aquasana said do not use them for raw outdoor water with microbes in it. Clearly Filtered said it's not advisable to do so, but in a pinch, it probably wouldn't kill you. I assume that if we were to filter out sand/silt and then put iodine or bleach in it, we could then pass it through one of these filters and be okay. Probably won't rely on any of these three for my outside water, but interesting to know what they said.
@@Robert-Beaty In an emergency, I would want something powerful enough to filter raw stream , rain, or lake water and that has a washable filter to extend the filter ife, especially if there is no electricity, so my guess is that Berkey is the best OVERALL option. Zero water smells like fish (strongly) in like a month or less of using it. That is a lot of bacteria build up that is coming out into your drinking water if you forget to test your Zero Water filter.. I never experienced that with the Berkey.
Great informative video. I bought one for myself and other family members almost 2 years ago. Very disappointed to learn of this now. Guess I'll have to switch to something else. But who can u trust anymore. This world is run by psychopaths who love to poison us
People need to know how to make their own water filters. Many emergency water filters force people to get to close to contaminated water or permit contaminated water to get into the containers their used water filters are stored in making it possible for contaminated water to get onto the surface of their water filter and into their mouths the next time they use their water filter. I do not trust any filter that says you can filter a hundred gallons when you can't see through the water that needs to be filtered. Multiple filter processes should be employed before the sterilization process starts. Well water usually has some form of bacteria in it and fortunately it is not harmful to us or is destroyed by our stomach acid. People simply need to know how and what to do to keep from making themselves sick or killing them selves when going through emergencies. They need to practice handling their water tools so they don't contaminate those tools and foul their water supply. It is not enough to have a rope if you do not know how to tie it.
I too have been using their filters for almost 2 years. About a month ago I got a real bad bacterial infection and had to be put on a string antibiotic. I noticed my Berkey fiktered water smelling funny as I drank it and opened my Berkey container only to smell a strong stench that has a gasoline smell. I didn't think anything of it and washed it out with soap, bottom part as my filter was less than a month old. After another round of strong antibiotic because the stomach bacteria didn't leave, I was curious. I emptied the water and smelled it again. Gasoline smell!!!! So I immediately stopped drinking my filtered water and my infection cleared up. I was goung to call Berkey this week and send them my container and filter to run a test. Glad I didn't. I'm going to my water company now to have it tested
A while back there was a Duke study in the North Carolina area, probably the same one you mentioned, of water filters including RO, pitcher, countertop (Berkey), & under-sink to see how much PFOS/PFAS they each removed. They tested at different intervals. The only countertop one was Berkey & it was tested at 6 months & 2 years. I believe at 6 months it was ok, but at 2 years, what really struck me was the Berkey was ADDING in more PFOS/PFAS even over regular tap water. That threw me for a loop. I narrowed it down to the Zero Water Glass water dispenser or an Aqua Tru. I'm not worried about the Zero removing everything because I get my minerals via my diet.
I even bought the one zero water because it was in glass, much better than stainless steel or plastic. HOWEVER, when i finally got the copy of the cart with my system, it said it would only filter under 15 gallons per filter b4 replacing. Yikes! Expensive drinking water!
@@pattijesinoski1958 Yeah. I think overall an Aqua Tru might be a better value if one doesn't do an under the sink RO or full house system. I just went with the Zero because it's just me, and I liked that it was glass. Of course, now I see Aqua Tru also offers a glass pitcher on their website.
I never bought a Berkey water filter even though I think it was heavily advertisements. Rumors were that it was the best filter around for filtering lake water and other waters during an emergency. But for some reason I just never believed it it was super expensive and in my opinion slapped a bunch of filters on it just like something I would buy in a water filter picture. I thought it couldn’t be very reliable because it was too simple. Thank you for going the extra mile and checking up if their claims were actually accurate. Over the years I’ve learned that companies advertise their weakest link to rid themselves of the rumors of the item not working. There are so many greedy companies promising outlandish claims that people really need to stop wasting their money on useless products without doing a thorough search of all the information to see if you’re getting your moneys worth in the product. My choice was finally a water distiller. I live next to the ocean so I would benefit most from a distiller. Another item out in the market is air filters. A lot of them claim outlandish results but in reality they only filter 4 inches around the air filter. It’s best to be the educated consumer
I have a Big Berkey water filter system. My water started to taste weird so I did the red dye test and found that one of the filters had failed. So I estimate that I had been drinking unfiltered water for about 2 weeks without realizing it. The failed filter definitely did not last as long as advertised. I no longer trust my Big Berkey for daily or emergency use.
Just saw another video with 'knock off' filters that were $33 vs $179 for 2 filters. They look to fit your systems, so not a total loss. Even if the filters don't last near as long, at $33 for 2 changing more often not to big a deal. ua-cam.com/video/ZtkWkvJrz40/v-deo.html about 13:30 in. Worth a look. - Cheers
I bought a Travel Berkey to use when I live in my van & disperse camp in the winter months. It seemed to work UNTIL I moved to a city that had TERRIBLE tap water. Using the Berkey we still had scum on our tea & coffee. Even when using my sisters unfiltered well water we do NOT have scum on our coffee, so there absolutely is something in city water the Berkey is not handling. I frequently let the Berkey dry out when I'm not traveling, then I have to reprime it. It passes the red food color test every time. One time it didn't dry out & it appeared to mold. I called Berkey & they said the filters couldn't be cleaned & I had to buy new filters (of coarse). I bought new filters; they passed the red dye test; I still had scum on my coffee.
Thank you Robert for the honest no bias review and the eye opening education. I was seriously considering to purchase a Berkey water filtration system based on its claims of a 3,000 gallon water filtration life span yield. I'm going to now look at alternative systems, based on verifiable test results and not bogus inflated sells hype. Sounds like a clear, in the making of a future potential consumer "Class-Action Lawsuit" for all those who have purchased these units.
Making decisions based on NSF certifications is like listening to CDC for Covid shot recommendations. Get your checkbook out and test for yourself. I can’t validate any particular water purification companies I use a Berkey now but seriously considering finding other products. I will never base a decision on NSF CERTIFICATION alone.
I am so glad I didn't spend that ridiculous amount of money on a Berkey!! I just could never pull the trigger on the purchase. I wasn't convinced. Thank you for this research, it's been eye-opening!
I buy those knock off filters that look identical from Amazon and I’m pretty happy with them , when I do the red food colouring dye test and they come back clear - also when I use them from well Water I can see a bunch of iron on the exterior, and the water definitely tastes a bunch better from city tap water too. I build the Berkys from glass bases at the thrift store and plastic tops I just drill a hole through them so their way cheaper.
Dude this is a kick ass video! This is amazing information. Here's a question for you, do any of the filtration systems add bad things(leaching plastics, particles from the filters themselves) into the clean water? This is one topic I hope they shed light on.
@refreshingAnd and niko --> "To remove fluoride, Berkey uses a type of aluminum called aluminum oxide, also known as activated alumina. And in the process, while it removes fluoride like a magnet, it may also add unacceptable amounts of aluminum into your filtered water. Now if you do your own research, you’ll hear this type of aluminum is not “bad” for you...." but I wouldn't want to be consuming it! excerpt from "truth about fluoride" website
@@ilahens Oh yes! Thank you! I know that, too. I just hadn’t decided what the actual truth was. Either way, I don’t like the idea of the plastic, so that helps me make a choice.
@@refreshingAnd When something sits in plastic it leaks something that attacks our hormones for life longevity. Makes sense doesn't it! They want us to die.
From one self-proclaimed nobody tp another, I appreciate your effort in bringing awareness to this very important topic! Thank you for your diligence and ypur willingness to stand against the people who put greed before honesty and safety! I am going to share this wit concerned water drinkers, who i care about. And i will be avoiding the berkey yuckey water non-filter. Much appreciated!
I was thinking about buying one of those perky filters and something kept telling me to hold off and I went to their website multiple times and I still didn't buy one I'm glad I found this video
Thanks for this video. I love in the UK, and bought a big berkey just under 2 years ago. I bought both the black and white filters, all from an official Berkey dealer. A few months ago I noticed that I had black, which I can only assume is charcoal bits in the bottom tank of my Berkey. So I thought that it was time to change the filters, bearing in mind we have only used the Berkey water for cold drinks, and making ice cubes. I went to an official UK Berkey dealership site only to find that the price of the Berkey filter has risen astronomically over the past couple of years, official Berkey black filters are now $279.53 in the UK and that doesn't include the white filters for fluoride. After hearing what you have just said, I feel disillusioned with Berkey and feel that we have been all lied to and I think that I'm going to have to look for an alternative product.
I love my Berkey. I have had it for 4 years now and I do change my black filter every 6 months. That's about 270 gallons per period. Yes that's $200 per year approximately for filters but I feel confident in the filtering quality by changing them out every 6 months.
Mr Beaty, i’ve been going through the documentation that you provided, that you feel is strong evidence and basis for the choice of filter unit that you use for your family. The first one seems to be a written copy of what you’ve said here. I can appreciate that. Second one is a discussion of several filters. The third one which provides more details, seems to be a duplicate of the first one. But I could’ve missed something. When I get down to the Project Farm link, It takes me to a UA-cam video. What we have here, is a man who is testing his own tapwater to see what different filters will filter out in terms of ppm. Except for the addition of red dye and ferrous sulfate, which he adds separately, we have no way of knowing what those dissolve solid particles are. He never tests those, or if he does it’s not in the video. It’s interesting that he throws in one electric filtration unit, and Petes it against the gravity fed ones. I have no objection of this, but it’s not exactly an apples for apples type of test. I think we can agree on that. He tests them all with the same standard right out of the box, without taking into account the reason for which a person would buy any of those filters. For example, the sawyer mini claims to filter out a range of microbes. He doesn’t test for even one microorganism. We never find out if that filter actually does what he claims to do. Instead, he just ran his tapwater through it, and put a dissolved particles unit in there to count the PPMs, none of which we can identify. That’s not an honest test. If I’ve understood you correctly, your big upset with the Berkey corporation is that they are not NSF certified, and have not tested their product beyond 67% of its advertised lifespan, and not even for all potential contaminants which it purports to filter out. I could see why you might be upset about that. But this video of tests, ran just enough water through these filters beyond the manufacturers minimum requirements for set up, and gave ppm readings. I don’t see any evidence there of ongoing readings overtime, much less for 100% of the life of the unit or beyond. So to say that this would really give much of a meaningful contribution to an educated decision about The purchase of a water filtration unit for one’s family, it’s pretty questionable. It totally fails to address the complaint which you had about Berky. The other thing I have to say here, is that I’ve had a multistage, portable filtration unit for many years now. I had it when I was young, and I’ve had it about 18 years. It’s totally sanitizable and even sterilizable, and while parts can be replaced, it was after 18 years that I had to replace the filter for the first time. And that may not seem really relevant at first, but I’ve taken that filter in some places with some terrible water, and depended on it for years on end. In some of those locations, the water was a sufficient quality That I could go for a week without even having to clean it, because there was sufficient volume of water fairly good quality going through it. If the weather was not warm, I could go twice that long. In other locations, such as where there was a high iron contamination in the tapwater, I could use that filter exactly one time, before it clogged completely and had to be cleaned. It was possible to get just enough water to clean the filter and less than 1 L to drink before it completely clogged. My point there is, but the life of a filter depends entirely on the quality of the water to begin with. That would be a very good reason for which it would be difficult to say that filter filters out 3000 US gallons, Without saying something about the quality of that water beforehand. I understand your frustration about this. But the same is true of all filters. There’s probably still more info for me to go through in your description, So I’m gonna go back there and have another look, but so far, this is what I’m seeing.
Thanks for sharing, Daphne! I'll have to check and see if I accidentally put a duplicate document up there - sorry if I did, let me go check on that...I have two documents there, not three, I'm not sure what the third document is you're seeing. The first is a copy of a post I made on Reddit in response to a thread about Berkey water filters, and some of that info may overlap with the info in the other document. The second document has a TL;DR version in the first part, and then more details following. I only linked to them for reference for anyone interested, so yes, they are similar in content to what I share in the video. The Project Farm test is not comprehensive, I agree with you. I actually messaged him on Patreon and asked if he would do another test with more contaminants and get a lab to test it, and he said that he has it on the agenda, but he has no idea when he'll get to it with all of the projects he has going on. He told me that his family used to use Berkey, but switched after he did that video. You are right that Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is merely a catch-all term for anything in the water at all. However, the Berkey did not do as well as other filters tested at removing any and all particles, and it failed to remove as much iron (which is a surrogate for other metals) as other filters. I don't take the Project Farm test as my sole source of information, though, it's just one data point in my decision. There are many other facts that went into the decision beyond the one Project Farm video. You are right that water quality will affect filter life cycle! For example, I contacted Clearly Filtered about their products, and they said that large cities often clog up their filters sooner than other locations. It's so bad in some cities that they are actually creating life cycles unique to those cities. Now, as far as Berkey goes, that is actually another reason I don't trust them. When they rate their filters as having these super long life/service cycles, it gives us the consumers a false sense of security that the water is going to be adequately filtered. But that's not necessarily the case, and if we have really contaminated water, the Berkey's life cycle could be cut short - yet we would keep using it up to 3,000 gallons assuming it was still okay. Water can still pass through a filter even after the filter's life cycle is complete, contaminants can pass right on through into the "filtered" water. Berkey should be more conservative in light of this possibility, not more liberal. While not a perfect (what is perfect in this broken world?), the NSF standards come up with benchmarks and trustworthy certifications that hold companies accountable to filter most water sources to reasonable levels. Berkey has submitted to absolutely no accountability that is consistent and trustworthy, and when questioned, they ignore me. They ignored the Wirecutter. They'll probably ignore you if you reach out to them and ask about their test results and how they got the 3,000 gallon life/service cycle number, or how that number was estimated. There are too many other filters that filter better, and verifiably so, to waste my time, money, and health on Berkey.
@@Robert-Beaty : I agree that they need to specify something about the standard of water that will net 3000 L. I was absolutely floored when I heard the part in your video about I’m never having test of the filter at close to what they think it’s 100% of the life that it should have. That’s a really risky thing for any company to do, because they could be called on it at any time. With so many people using their products, people are going to be able to call him on it. In terms of stuff passing right through the filter, I guess that really could happen. The only thing is, most filters tend to clog up pretty solidly before that happens. At least, the other filters that I’ve been using do. So that’s a good point. No matter which filter a person buys, it’s good to know very specifically, just what the pore size is, so we can figure out what gets filtered out, and what passes through. And, with most filters, usually the taste will tell you that the filter is ready for a cleaning or changing, if the contaminant in question is smaller than the poor size of the filter, most especially if it’s a filter that’s filled with something like activated charcoal, which will bind to those particles, or many of them, until it’s saturated. Given the number of people that I’ve been using those filters so religiously and for so long, I haven’t seen a complaint about somebody using the filter long past the point where it can’t be cleaned, but I have heard people say that the filter clogs up because of certain contaminants, and they end up having to clean the filter perhaps a little ahead of when they thought they might have to. Those Berkey users Said that once the filter started to clog, that it became less useable until they did clean it up. So I guess we’d have to use the poor size standard in order to figure out what could pass through, once the filters pretty much saturated or clogged, In order to figure out what we passed through. The other thing is, I think the things that would pass through under those circumstances, will definitely pass through when it was brand new. Like maybe radioactive particles, and fluoride (Hence the separate fluoride filter for those who need it). I think that would be worth looking into. And given what you’ve had to say, it might also be well worthwhile to have testing done At regular, extended intervals, to ensure that the filter is still doing what it’s supposed to. I guess I’m about to find out about whether or not I get ignored. I put in a call this afternoon.
@@Robert-Beaty I very much appreciate your effort in testing, researching, questioning, and trying to stay on the company to get an answer. I can't spend my money at a company that ignores its customer or potential customers. And I certainly can't risk my health over it. You also provided great information for anyone wanting to what questions to ask, what certifications are important, links to important databases, and recommendations for products that you've found to be better than Berkey. I know it took a lot of time and effort to do the video, and to include the information below it that you did. Thank you very much for all of it.
The conversation between Mr. Beaty and Ms. Raven is the most civilized I have real in a long time. Thank you for staying to the point without snarky or holier-than-thou comments. Such discourse is not commonplace in our current Era. Thank you both for your information and refreshing commentary.
Thank you for making this video. I've had a berkey for about 5 years now and encouraged others to get one. I've been hearing whispers about the lack of integrity and that is soooo disappointing. It's unfortunate and seemingly impossible to avoid toxins and poisons. Anyway, thank you again, greatly appreciated.
California Due to a California state law passed in 2010, we, as well as all other Berkey distributors, are prohibited from selling larger Berkey systems directly in the state of California. If you live in California, please consider our Berkey Light or Travel Berkey models. Accessories and replacement filters may be shipped directly into the state. The state of California has established regulations and procedures for the sale of indoor water systems. Under these regulations, the state of California requires that any water treatment system that is sold in the state first be certified by an independent, third-party testing agency, such as the NSF, before the system can be considered eligible for sale in California. NSF Standard 42 (aesthetic effects) and Standard 53 (health effects) would specifically apply to our purification elements. NSF Standard 42 covers systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants such as chlorine, taste, odor, and particulates that may be present in public or private drinking water. NSF Standard 53 addresses systems designed to reduce specific health-related contaminants, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead, Volatile Organic Chemicals, and MTBE's that may be present in public or private drinking water. The tests Berkey has conducted are much more rigorous than those required by NSF for the certifications mandated by the state of California. Berkey purifiers have been rigorously tested by third-party independent accredited labs far surpassing the above standard of taste, odor, and chlorine reduction. For example, Berkey purifiers have been tested for the removal of hundreds of contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, pathogenic bacteria, and viruses. These test results are published and available to all of our consumers on our website. Although this extensive testing is sufficient for 49 states in the US, it is currently not acceptable for residents in the state of California. Even after NSF certification has been obtained, the state of California additionally requires that companies pay high costs to obtain and maintain certification with the state of California. After careful review, it has been concluded that the additional taxes, certifications, and red tape have created too large of a barrier for their dealers to offer the larger Berkey Systems in the state of California.
@@MyMuse1111 Thank you so much for this very informative reply ! I am a berkey owner of around 6 years now and almost regreted my purchse due to this video.
@@MyMuse1111 Thank you for the info. That is why some people are saying their filtered water tastes better. They think taste and health safety are the same. Your information was appreciated. But I still think anyone who buys a filter system should actually arrange to send a sample to the water lab and get their own test results. It is a reasonable price to do. It will let you know if what you purchased, is what you got.
Project Farm is awesome. He actually responds to comments too. As much as he can anyway. Many times, just thanking you for your comment. Like, that's not something you see that often. He's a super nice guy and his tests are as scientific as any home gamer could be. And when he's wrong/makes a mistake (which is not often), he corrects himself and does a retest. Typically with a similar result as before, but there's the odd upset, where the results did change significantly with his better method/testing. So the guy actually thinks about his videos and questions how he could have done even better. His ethic is second to none and he's a fun guy who runs an interesting unbiased science/engineering and product testing challenge channel. He won't take sponsors either, because he wants to remain completely unbiased. Nice digging on your part with the Berkey. I've used those little portable NSF certified filters before for reverse osmosis and something just didn't site right with me, with the Berkey, from the get go. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it had to do with either filtering capacity or performance. They're overpriced nonsense IMO, I can get a cheaper little reverse osmosis filter that what Berkey sells and replacements are cheaper. You can get drinking water R.O. setups (under sink) or even countertop portable models for a reasonable price on Amazon, couple hundred bucks or so. It's those Kangen R.O. systems that cost a fortune, like thousands and they are an MLM company with just a fancy electronic R.O. system. It's not special, cheap R.O. filters do the job just fine. Just get one with a remineralization filter and that will balance the Ph back up, because R.O. strips everything from water, including minerals. This makes the water more acidic. So add the minerals back and you have the healthiest water on earth. The same as what a Kangen really, just not fancy electronic nonsense. You could just manually add the minerals back too. And the replacement filters on a cheap setup, will likely be cheaper than the cost of 1 Berkey filter too, lol. Man, those things shot up in price a while back. The membrane on R.O. can last up to 10k gallons I think too. The other filters, not nearly as long, like the carbon. 2000 maybe for them, but they're cheap ro replace. Even the membrane filter is like $40 or less and all the rest are cheaper. I would never buy a Berkey and I really wouldn't, even more now. At lerast IK know I can trust a cheap R.O. machine to do the job right.
Thank you! I've been using Berkey for years. Only because my lack of information. I do believe I'm now going to be checking out these other brands. It's so pathetic that companies take advantage of people who they assume will not research the claims made on their products, and twice as pathetic (this includes me) that consumers aren't doing the research.
I think the burden is on the companies to tell the truth - consumers have lives to live and responsibilities to take care of - we shouldn't have to dig so deep to find the truth.
FYI: Black Rock and Vanguard own ALL STOCKS in ALL COMPANIES. There is NO COMPETITION. They shut down the REAL competition. Now you need to do research on the top stock holders of those companies to find out who the enemy is and is responsible for everything going on these days. I'll give you a little hint (actually a huge hint) The Royals are the top of the pyramid. The second level of the pyramid are their Viziors Rockefellers and Rothschilds and the pope. Under them next level, Soro's, Gates, and many other pieces of shit. There is ONE common denominator with them all. Can you figure that out? Hint: They deny Christ and wear small hats. They are all Freemasons and the lower level masons are the watchers and movers and shakers in all of our cities and counties and our neighbors. We are at War. Bill of Rights are our true rights. Not Admirality/maritime British rule. Search gold fringes around the American flag. You will be shocked. I gave you a lot of information for you to verify and check for yourself. The rabbit hole goes very very deep.
Interesting. I switched from Berkey to Alexapure because of the fluoride filter option of Alexapure several years ago. This video adds an interesting perspective of things. Not sure if Alexapure is better but I have been satisfied so far.
Yes. I had found out that Berkey declined to back up their claims with anything but a hired private lab, and given that everybody buys Berkey, their claims to not being able to pay for the NFS certifications are laughable. So I never bought it, and remain on Brita while waiting for a proper countertop choice. Thanks for the great research, I will go through the links. You're generous.
I stopped using Berkey 6 years ago. I tested each filter I bought and all filters failed with a first time use. They all failed with the red food color dyes each time.
Thank you, brother, for sharing this information. This is the second video I have seen in the last ten days talking about Berkey filters. I purchased a Berkey for my daughter and her family last Christmas and now I am concerned I made a huge mistake. Will be calling Berkey on Monday. Thanks.
This randomly popped in my feed so it must be gaining traction👍 Its never fun to deal with these issues, much less going public with your experience. No one should have to worry that a company is lying to them on an offensive scale about the product they sell. Thank you for sharing this information 👏
Omg I was literally about to order a Berkey this evening when I ran across your videos. Thank you so much for doing the research. As much as Berkey charge for their units, its absolutely insane to know they have no certifications whatsoever. I just learned of the lawsuit and that california restricts the sell of those units this evening. Wow this just blows my mind. I hope that everyone who purchased one receives their money back or some sort of settlement is paid out for outright lying to people. Its people out here like myself who have a compromised immune system and using a sub par filtering system can be dangerous. Again thank you. You saved me from making a costly mistake.
We DO appreciate you taking so much time to share this with us, Mr. Beaty. THANK YOU so much. I am in Africa now and I have an Alexapure....... 4 or 5 filters are duds. Makes it VERY difficult. While visiting "homebase" soon I would like to bring back, hopefully, another filter that will fit my Alexapure tank. Not sure if I will find one. I DO have an awesome distiller, but electricity goes out a lot off and on, so a non-electric filter is important to me. I will look into the brands you have mentioned. -Didn't know about the "NSF" stuff.
While I recognize and understand your concerns, just because something hasn't been "approved" by some governmental or regulatory agency, doesn't mean that it doesn't work as advertised by the manufacturer. Just as, as we all well know, so many items that are advertised, "tested" and "approved" by governmental and/or regulatory agencies (yes, I'm looking at YOU cdc, niaid, who, fda, etc), are not at all the "safe and effective" products they have claimed. My point being: just because they haven't been tested because, living in california, I can tell you, that products that are tested as you describe are also about 3-5 times more expensive, because those costs get passed on to the consumer, and all of that being said, doesn't indicate that the product doesn't work, or filter, as they claim it does. The only way to be sure would be to either pay for the testing or actually do the testing, yourself. But to come out and malign them without any actual evidence that the product doesn't work as claimed, when they were entirely up front with me about the lack of certification when I bought my berkey 2 years ago, is a bit underhanded, don't you think? I don't know what you were told, but I called them with questions and they answered all my questions to my satisfaction, at no point did anyone suggest that they had been certified, and you have not proven with your video that just because they are Not "certified to 3,000 gallons" that the filters don't in fact work to 3,000 gallons. You have presented partial data and a strawman argument, then conflated the strawman argument into "berkey are a fraud", when in fact, you Don't Know if they work as advertised, or not. First video I've seen of yours. Not impressed. edit: and for the record, No, I do not work for, work with, or own stock or any financial or business interest in Berkey, New Millenium Concepts, or any affiliates or subsidiaries of such, nor do I have any friends, associates or family members who have any connection to any of these companies.
Valuable information. I will be recommending your video to people I know who use and recommend Berkey. I follow a bunch of RV and Van Life channels - people who need and use water filtration on the road. Hopefully it will help you get more subs, or at the very least a lot of views and watch hours. Love your style! I'm a fact-based person, love researching, and telling it like it is. (I don't have a content channel). Thank you for doing this video!
Similar to the Wise dilemma a few years ago=grew too fast and got too greedy...and didn't expect to be investigated and sued. Now they have rebranded--but I still will NOT do business with the company. Will be doing more research with my Berkey and looking for other issues etc. Sad, Sad, Sad for the company but infuriating for consumers...and at this point, not sure how much more anyone can/will tolerate. Thanks for the update.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah The Wise company was mis-informing re: long-term storage buckets...and during the course of the lawsuit the company revealed that 'they never expected people to actually open long-term storage' for years to come...and had poor products, small sizes, etc. Since I was NOT reimburse, etc. *not sure who benefited from the lawsuit, etc., I will NOT purchase from this company (they have rebranded) when there are so many other options!
@@binglet8127 ReadyWise...currently not willing to investigate if their philosophy has changed, products improved...but also have not heard of management changing, etc. Buyer Beware...and this truly applies to anything being bought.
All I hear is horror stories regarding customer service with Berkey, not ot mention their filters were falling apart and they refused to cover them. I almost bought oe of them years ago, thankfully I did not. I hate companies that think they are too big for their britches.
For the cost of the bleeping filters they should take some of their profits and invest in the NFS certification, unless of course they can’t pass the test. Thanks a million for the info. Going to watch parts 2,3,&4. God bless you and your family.🤗🙏🙏🙏
I've had three sets (total of six) defective black filters within the last 14 months. Make sure you are performing the red dye test at least every three months. Berkey will replace the filters at a prorated price in my case $49 for each set and you get to pay the return shipping. What a rip off and a breach of trust. I don't trust the company anymore, I am done with them. Thank you for posting this video, people are watching and listening.
This video should help most people. At the moment you have 11 thousand thumbs up. I use a Multi Pure solid Carbon block water filter and have done so since 1984. The counter top model, made of stainless steel and I replace the filter religiously. They ARE certified by the NSF. It has a massive solid carbon block yet is only rated to 750 gallons. Since I use the filtered water (municipal) only for drinking and cooking I have found I need replace the filter once a year at worse but often change the filter every 6 months. So my 39 years of using Multi Pure taught me not to trust the Berkey claims. You convinced me I was correct. I was looking at Berkey for a SHTF scenereo where the municipal water stopped but I ended up with another brand. Thanks for all your research.
For those of us who already own a Berkey system, is it sufficient to just buy replacement filters that have been tested and approved? For example, the filters that work with the Watts system? Do they fit?
That was an eye opener. Thank you Robert for taking the time to discuss this. Consumers must work together and share knowledge because the government consumer protection is obviously useless.
Incredible research!! I pretty much figured out the same but I definitely learned some new things. It's so unfortunate and crazy to me what Berkey has done. And even years ago I'm talking about 10 years ago when my daughter was younger. I remember being in holistic mom groups or even any mom group. and everyone recommended berkey. I came close to purchasing a couple of times. But to me their claims never made any sense. I can't imagine the feeling of trusting them so long to find out they aren't doing what you thought they were. Thank you for sharing such important information!!!!! This was awesome!
Just came across this. We tried to purchase a Berkey a number of years ago and because we were in California we could not get it due to lack of proper testing, I remember at the time they said it was because of expense and did not know when or if. Fast forward a few years, checked on availability, it was OK to get in California so we ordered. Again, fast forward until this last year. we bought 2 sets of replacement filters and within I would guess one hundred gallons they were plugged up. No cleaning or priming helped. Customer service said it was our water, same well water we had been using. After hunting we bought a table top Aquasana with the pump and love it. Glad to hear it's a good product.
so I stopped the video at 8:44. My man you helped me make the choice between aquatru and berkey. I think aquatru is the better option. Thank-you for reaching out to the rest of us trying to get safer better drinking water.
You're welcome! I'm not familiar with Aquatru. I just tried to look it up in the NSF and WQA databases, but I don't see any certifications for it. It seems it isn't certified. Do you have any information on it's certification status?
@ZyggZag - I humbly ask your pardon! I dug more deeply into AquaTru, and it turns out they do have some NSF certifications, but it's through one of the other three certifying bodies, not NSF or WQA. There are three others: UL, CSA, and IAPMO. I searched all of those for filters when I was doing my research, and UL and CSA had very few NSF 53 and 58 certified products. I also searched IAPMO using their search feature: I selected "Product Description" and searched "filter," and very few options came up. Well, I just discovered that if I searched by "Standard" and type in "NSF 53," a whole lot more products come up! Big oversight on my part, I'm sorry about that. Thankfully, this doesn't call into question what I concluded about Berkey or about the products I've listed in the video description. But, it does mean that there may be more products worth considering - like the AquaTru - that I hadn't considered yet.
WOW! Thanks for your honest review and research.. companies are out here grossly overpricing and falsely advertising their products, while consumers trust the info
Thank you so much for this. I’ve been using a Berkey for a few years. And lately I‘ve been questioning just how well it is working. So I‘ll be checking out your suggested filters, and those in the video following. Thank you again.
A professional came to my house to fix my under kitchen sink reverse osmosis filter and he measured the parts per million contaminants on both the RO and my Berkey (with a half new filter - maybe 1 to 1 1/2 thousand gallons), he showed me that the parts per million on the Berkey was pretty high compared to the RO, I was really surprised and put away my Berkey. I was thinking the Berkey would be equal or better but it performed pretty poorly compared to the RO. My trust on the Berkey is not that great anymore.
Did he send the water out for lab tests? Or was it a countertop test in your kitchen? If the latter, can you say how he did the test? I would be interested in a home test I could perform….
@@aliannarodriguez1581 He just used a hand device with a needle that pointed to numbers that measured the impurity of the water in parts per million, I don't know the name of the device, but that's how he knows how clean and pure the water is.
AWESOME video. The truth will set you free. It's about time Berkey gets called out! Thanks for taking the time to help people with a huge dose of honesty!
SOOO interesting!! Water is critically important and good quality water… well, we are aligned on that. I just bought 4 black filters for my Berkey… cost was over $350 just for the filters. Now - well, I don’t even want to sell my Berkey to anyone else because I don’t want to do that to them. Thanks so much for your info- it made a huge difference for you to share this!
Thank you for sharing the results of your research. Much appreciated. Folks aught to know about sanitizing water with calcium hydrochlorite to make a bleach solution from which 2 drops per quart will sanitize drinking water in the event that you have no commercial filters and purifiers.
I’ve had a Berkey and used only the black filters for a couple of years as I traveled in a RV. I started tasted metal and found out that Berkey adds aluminum in their filters! Perhaps only the white but after in depth research, I’ve decided to change to Clearly filtered and will now consider the distilled process. Thanks for all the experience and sharing here!
It should be repeated that this is aluminum oxide (alumina) and not aluminum that the PF-2 white filters can release. Lab tests do not distinguish between the 2 forms and it is commonly accepted that alumina (used in the Berkey PF-2) is inert and not absorbed by the body like aluminum would be. So, this is a critically important distinguishing chemical trait that should be made clear. Also, if you are tasting metal, this could iron buildup. While the black berkeys reduce iron, they do not remove it completely, so over time this can accumulate in the lower chamber, and why it is important to wash and rinse the lower chamber approx once per month.
Hey man. I run a preparedness/homesteading/gardening YT channel.. I’m going to share this video, as well as drop it in my community tab. This is important. Especially right now when people Really to to source a good water filter and Berkey “seems” to be the gold standard Thank you very much for this.. GreenThumb
Just for conversation purposes - y’all know the Natural Organic certification doesnt mean jack / is run by corporations yeah? My business partner and I got a Certified Naturally Grown certification instead. This is in response to going off of the hard NSF ANSI certs. Just saying lol.
I went with Zero Water for shtf backup based on Project Farm. The taste isn't fantastic to me but my kid likes it a lot. It's still a good investment and fortunately Todd over at Project Farm is destroying false marketing claims weekly. He seems to have been shadowbanned here for upsetting unscrupulous advertisers. Anyway I'm buying more ZeroWater filters to have for a ditchwater scenario. Thanks for the other recommendations, I'll check those out.
Honestly I think the Multipure filter is one of the best. If you go to their filter pages you can click on the "Performance" link and it will take you to their NSF testing data. It includes the % reduction for a whole bunch of chemicals and metals. Honestly I prefer multipure to berkey, and I have both. The main advantage a berkey has is the fact it is gravity feed. But thats also a disadvantage in filtration. When you get a carbon block filter, like a multipure or others, it requires water pressure to force it through the filter. Because it is compressed, the water has to force its way through the carbon and is more likely to come in contact with carbon, which means the chemicals will combine with the carbon and be removed. A multipure cb6 filter weighs 8 pounds which is more than 2 berkey filters.
I bought one. First, out of the box, the spigot leaked and needed to be replaced. Next I find out how much water Berkey Wastes! First you "sweat" the filters in a process that Wastes more water than I'm comfortable w. Next I had to wash the filters after 3 months and that process consumed massively more water than the sweating process. And ultimately the filters haven't performed well ever since. I consider the Berkey to be a waste of my money, time and most atrociously it WASTES WATER! Btw my communications experienced w the Berkey company were unsatisfactory as well.
Thank you the information. I've been looking into getting a Berkey but have been a bit shy due to the cost it would be for just one person. I'll keep researching until I'm satisfied. Getting clean water shouldn't be such an ordeal or even cost so much. My heart aches for those that don't even have this choice for clean water.
If you have a well, you can always pull the pump up and get everything out of the well casing in case things "hit the fan". Then put a PVC pipe down the well with a rope and get water out of your well. My well is 130 feet deep. It would be cold water on very hot days, so the problem with refrigerating the water is solved. They have made it illegel to take off the well tops (caps) here in New Mexico. Look at videos on UA-cam because you have to put holes in the PVC pipe to let the water go into the PVC pipe.
Thanks for making us aware to the truth. Been hearing all the Berkey rage and didn't want to spend so much money but wanted something good at the same time. Now that I know the truth... I don't HAVE to spend so much money to have something good. REALLY appreciate this! You did a lot of good in making this video! Wish more ppl were as honest as you!
Thank you so much for putting this out into existence for others to know truth. We seek truth in our home and detest liars. We will be kicking Berkey out and going with a company that is NSF certified. Thank you again for your diligent work and making it known to others.
Long-time Berkey user here. Thank you for this valuable information. Yes, I feel betrayed by Berkey. I even convinced my son and his family to get one. I believed they were a life-saving necessity to own.😢 I thank God for this video.
Very interesting, I have been considering a water filter system for several months now and Berkey was certainly on my mind. No way I'll roll the dice on that scam. Thanks for you efforts to make this video.
Thank you so much for sharing this information. They are so expensive and only people who are concerned about their water quality, who care about their health and their family's health fork out the money to get one. I have one, and as a new customer, I needed help with my filters so I called them a few times and they never returned my call, so I was disappointed and it WAY downgraded my opinion of them as a company. However, I still trusted that the product was one of the best and I relied upon that number to tell me when I have to change my filter. This is super critical because it's people's health they are messing with. This really pisses me off.
Hi Robert, And thank you for putting in all this effort to check them out. I have felt suspicious about some products like this. I have a table distiller. It makes 4 liters each time. (I'm in Sweden). For minerals I use birch ash.. It is very alkaline and dangerous to drink undiluted. If your using it this way 1 tablespoon for 2 litres makes the water delicious and full. Because sometime distilled water feels a bit dead and "thin". Well, this helps. Just keep the birch ash away from the children and mark it so you don't mix it up with the water. I did once and had to drink half a litre of cream :). And charge the water with magnets if you want it to restructure. Bye bye!
Yes, someone is watching your video, and our family appreciates all the time and effort you took investigating, following up, and sharing the information you discovered with your audience.
Indeed. This is Public Service. We appreciate.
Same! I was trying to look for a Berkey, second hand (relatively new) and yeah-pass. Checking out your recommendations! Thanks!
@@aliciaa.8059 Just tried to cancel my order on Amazon.
@@Latebloomershowgreat! It’s so crazy how many homestead influencers live by this thing. Swear by it.
This makes me sick. Im a widow who saved for 4 months to buy a big Berkey. 🙄😳😳Thank you my friend. My mouth makes a great return/refund. Will definitely make some noise. Also just subbed. 🤗❤
As much as Berkey costs they should be able to afford testing 🤯
Exactly!
Exactly!
They do have it tested by a third party, they just don’t get it certified, imagine how much more that would cost us.
@@graverobbersministry8939 probably not so much $ cost for testing based on the high sales of recent years.
Better yet, they should be able to afford transparency with their customers.
I am a 20 plus year water treatment professional. Unfortunately, this is so common in the industry. Because the average consumer does not understand water chemistry, it makes manipulation easy and people are taken advantage of daily. Do your research and make sure you get multiple quotes. It sucks to see so many people get burned.
Hello. tell me, please, do you personally use any water filter and why? if not, what kind of water do you drink? Also, what kind of water in stores do you think is good? thanks for the answer.
@Grumpy Monk, since your name is not visible to the public, please feel free to expound on your choices.
You will be helping your fellow humans.
What filtering system do you sell or recommend?
Please tell us what you'd recommend
@@TheseusTitan I cannot make a product recommendation because I do not know your specific water chemistry. The truth is, there is no “one size fits all” water treatment system. However, a reverse osmosis unit, will remove bacteria, viruses, cysts and almost anything else that is harmful. These usually cost around $500 for an under the sink unit. I think everyone can benefit from a simple carbon based filter. This can help with taste and odor and will remove chlorine and chloramines put in the water by the municipality. The best way is to get a lab report from a local lab. After you have this, you can contact local treatment pros to get their opinion on the best way to treat your water. Get MULTIPLE opinions and compare.
Your definitely not a little ocd brother for caring about literally one of only 3 things we need to live thank you for this you’re saving lives
You're*
Thank you! I was ready to invest in a Berkey and came across this video in the nick of time. You've done a thorough and impressive research job, which all of us here appreciate you are so kind to have shared. Thank you again! 💕
I LOVE mine! people all remark about the good taste of the water
I love mine too, plus what’s the alternative? There’s really none on the market.
Im pleased with mine but not the customer service. Sadly customer service everywhere is badcthese days.
OMGosh! Me too, I was buying one Monday when I got paid! So glad I stumbled across this! Thank you so much for posting this Robert. You saved a lot of people a ton of money and our health too. God bless.
I was about to as well! I’m so thankful to have this heads up.
Rob, I am retired engineer who worked in many fields including "filtration". I would suggest you make a study of this. I worked in filtration on highly susceptible equipment that by itself was worth $58 million 20 years ago. Learn how filtration works. I say this as for minerals, (not halogens, as chlorine is one), but filtration improves as the burden (things you filter) build up on the element and increase or improve filtration. I know, as I have tested it. There are "absolute filters" and "others, which require multi-pass". For chlorine, you should let the gas disipate before filtration, or you have to have a way to react it so that it binds to something that essentially makes it inert. I use a Berky and love it. I am not dealing with chlorine though. A prefilter with activated carbon would likely work, as its designed to handle organics as well as reactive elements. I do believe you can test the treated water (post filtration) easily and send a sample to a water lab to verify results. Just giving you some thoughts here dear internet friend.
So the Berkey filter is not removing chlorine
How about distilled water? Cheap and easy and no doubt.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah It's always best to let your water stand in open container for 24 hrs before going into Berkey, this was chlorine evaporates by itself.
That’s not what he said . Berkey does remove chlorine .
I love my Berkey! Water tastes better than any bottled water I’ve ever had.
It is so sad that we really cannot trust a damn thing on this Earth anymore when it comes to advertisements. I bought a Berkey 6 months ago and thought I did a thorough research on it but apparently I missed a few things to check. I am going to give my Berkey the red dye test and see what happens. God Help us. Thank you for sharing all your hard work on this subject.
Post your results please?
just distill your water..
during. Can trust......
JESUS CHRIST. He already beat death...by rising again. All of mankind is corrupt,...surprised??
Got Jesus?
I bought a Berkey a few years ago and did the red dye test the moment I filled it and no dye came through, many months later I cleaned it and cleaned my filter and did the red dye test again and the dye still did not come through. Not sure that means anything tho, dye could have big molecules compared to contaminates going through the filter possibly, maybe that's why they say do the red dye test.
Great video. I purchased a ProOne water filter. All stainless components including the spigot. They provide test results. I don't have have any connection with them except I purchased their product. Make sure filters are changed regularly.
Tested and Certified by NSF International against NSF/ANSI Standard 42 for components. Tested by a certified independent lab to NSF/ANSI Standards 42, 53, P231, P401 and P473.
Click here for Independent Lab Report details
Thanks! I saw a young couple with a tiny baby at IKEA and they were looking at the teflon frying pans, I told them that the teflon was dangerous and well…they ignored me. I am autistic so I do things like that without thinking.
Like the lady I offered a thought to at Ikea, pointing out a practical note of comparison between the single and double bowl sinks that they had not mentioned in their open debate/conversation lol (yeah, they just looked away, rock on, who’s the weird person, the one who offers a genuine, caring consideration to a stranger planning a major-ish decision, or the one not considerate enough to say one word or acknowlege another well-intentioned soul 🤷♀️) Stay weird, my friends!
No You are intuned and actually Critically Thinking and that is Basic most are lost Purposefully ,and Willingly . I do this and with other ways and means also xo.
Autustic or not. You did the right thing! They were just not wanting to hear. Good caring on your part. You could have done that "without thinking" thing because you literally were thinking. They weren't. Truly, all 8 adult grandchildren, plus 5 adult children and me too would have welcomed and respected your input even if we already knew but needed reminding. It was their issue. Not yours.💙💞💙
Just curious, I owe a Berkey. I will say, it made my tap water taste much better. My curiosity is, since we have been mislead in what we thought we were purchasing, why isn't Berkey being investigated and sued???
I don't have the time or money to sue, and for all I know, they've not technically broken any laws. I don't know. But the letter of the law and the spirit/intention of the law are two different things, and lying - even if not technically breaking a law - is still wrong. As far as fraud...maybe I could report them...I should look into that.
@@Robert-Beaty Yes you can report them, to the consumer protection bureau of both your state & the federal one.
YES, you SHOULD report them. These bureaus only begin investigating after accumulating MANY complaints. They do this to limit the occasional angry vindictive customer (or competitor) setting off an expensive investigation that may not be warranted. The more reports that accumulate, the more likely they are to notice and investigate.
It IS fraud to make claims that aren't backed by testing, where done in house, or by independent labs or official government labs.
Mine tastes much better too
I have a ProPur counter top Nomad system. Does anyone know about this system
@@Robert-Beaty I would not bother since all governmental institutions are crooked as hell. All of them.
1) If you are just attempting to remove chlorine, boil the water
2) If a filtration system is relying solely on physical filtration and is not suffering from damage, filters will rarely get worse over time... they will just slower as they get clogged up.
I was awake at a crazy hour and somehow thought to check on some stuff that's been on my mind a while. Your journey of discovery concerning certain water filtration systems in general and Berkey in particular mirrors my own.
About seven years ago I really started to question all this hype about Berkey filters. I'd already purchased 6 or 8 of their big black filters to create my own bulk water filtration unit. I felt rushed into the purchase (not Berkey's fault, it was just life), and upon later reflection their claims just seemed too good to be true. Having a scientific and medical background led me to do some deeper research and my own basic testing. The results were eye-opening and frustrating. It started me on years of seeking, testing, learning, retesting.
I've not purchased anything from Berkey since. I've relegated those black filters to pre-filtration status. My household has gone with reverse osmosis for potable water. For us and our needs, reverse osmosis is a good fit. I use a variety of systems after having tested them and continue to test periodically. I do have alternative methods of water filtration and treatment on hand just in case.
Water is life, and I'm careful about entrusting my life, and that of my family, to anyone. I cannot entrust that to Berkey.
Thank you for doing the legwork and putting forth the effort. Most of all, thank you for putting yourself out there and posting this. I'm not crazy. You aren't crazy. At least we aren't crazy about this particular subject.
I agree 100%, well said.
Thank you!
What will u do if grid goes down so u can’t do R/O?
Can you do reverse osmosis filtering if you have no electricity?
Can you do reverse osmosis filtering if you have no electricity?
I ordered a travel Berkey. It was $395. It was missing a lugnut when I was putting it together. That was unacceptable for something that outrageously overpriced.
I returned it.
Thanks for your information 👍
Hi, someone here is watching your video, sir! It just incidentally showed up on my feed. We thought we were doing something special by using expensive Berkey for years. A 2-pack of replacement filters is $173! Thanks for blowing the whistle, sir. My husband is researching the alternatives that you mentioned right now. Thanks again, and may The Most High bless you for helping His people. Matt. 10:42
Many good points in this video, but I will say that "estimating" filter life at 3000 gallons is realistic: filter life depends on WHAT YOU PUT INTO THE BERKEY. If your water is filthy to start with, it stands to reason that your filter will not last as long. I have a travel size Berkey and it has worked well for me. DISCLAIMER: I do not work for and have NO affiliation with Berkey. I'm simply offering my personal opinion based on use.
Berkey is praised by several homesteading channels I watch and they cannot believe that Berkey is not allowed to sell to my state, for the very reasons you state. Great information!
@Sarah of the North IA
@@hollyhock3945 I’d love to hear more about the IA the water regulations
IA requires expensive testing of each permutation of the filters. Even though it's one filter, they would have to pay to test every single reservoir/filter combination
Great Video. I almost purchased a Berkey but went with a ProOne. All Stainless Steel including the spigot. Tested and Certified by NSF International against NSF/ANSI Standard 42 for components. Tested by a certified independent lab to NSF/ANSI Standards 42, 53, P231, P401 and P473. Test results can be downloaded.
I have a sudden onset of an autoimmune disorder. When we were living on the farm, we were told to use Berkey for our well water or lug gallons from town to drink, wash dishes, and cook. I slowly and slowly got worse. We switched to four Brita filters before putting the water through a Zero filter. It has taken five years, but I am able to walk a mile now. I was bed ridden. I will forever struggle with my disorder, but we will never go back from our filtering options. I watched this video while I was filtering our water tonight for tomorrow's use. I keep telling people that Berkey isn't working, but they told me that I have this disorder and it was a coincidence.
You should research the megahome water distiller. It's $310 after tax, but through the distillation process it removes everything from the water. The only con is it takes 5.5 hours to make a gallon.
To say you will "forever struggle with your disorder" is not going to get you well. I 'get it,' trust me. I was truly and literally killed by medical neglect in 2020 from severe covaids (working front-line where we're forced to wear masks and that's when and how we fell with severe illness (all our staff by the smokers)) I was also bombarded with toxic mold from both work places and my HVAC system at home, on top of my type I diabetes from a post vaccine injury in childhood which is a monster of a thing to deal with,and some other genetic issues, and 6 months into my hell with severe covaids in march 2020 where no one was doing anything to help since they had to make it look so bad we needed the shot (which is causing many autoimmune diseases in itself), I got a letter from the town that our water was contaminated and I was sucking back that water from the tap all year to prevent dying from dehydration.....I was in critical shape, and no help whatsoever - scary. Once I started using the Berkey, my symptoms started improving but honestly if you do EBOO filtration or ozone and IV chelation.
Thank you! First of all, you are a somebody with more than normal grain of sense!!! The Berkeley water filtration system has been high up there on my bucket list. You have changed the entire narrative and I thank you for doing your research.
I feel pretty sure that there are thousands and thousands of people who need to hear this. You just never know. Money doesn’t always talk👍. Bless you🙏❤️
Thanks for looking into these shady claims. it's worth noting that Berkey has ZERO connection to British Berkefeld/Doulton, a UK company that has been around since the 1820s (!) and sells ceramic filters with multiple NSF/ANSI and WQA certifications. People sometimes call British Berkefeld filters "Berkeys," and I have long suspected that the US Berkey chose the name to piggyback on the UK company's reputation.
My god! Your damn right I watched your video. Thank you thank you so much. I was just about to order new cartridges for my Berkey this morning. You made me rethink this whole process. Luckily though I am on a well in the mountains of East Tnnessee. The water tastes wonderful straight from the tap. But I still prefer filtering for possible any coliforms or whatever. I look forward to the other videos you've posted and now I will be reassessing and decide on a new system. I'm a 73-year-old living alone on my mountain homestead and a cancer survivor. I want to eat healthy and drink pure water. I want to hang around this place as long as I can. Thanks so much for your great video I look forward to more.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for posting this video! You literally saved me hundreds of dollars because I've been saving up to by a Berkey! It's definitely upsetting how much they're fooling people. Makes me realize that just because something costs so much more than other similar products, and just because it's highly rated and touted by them, that they're just conning consumers to pay exsorbadent high prices for an inferior product. I was almost duped. So thank you!
I've now watched Part 2 and then I watched Part 2. I want to thank you for caring enough and taking the time to do the work you did of looking into Berkey filters. I'm currently in the process of building a DYI water filtration system for emergency situations. I was very seriously considering paying all that money for the Berkey filter. You have cost Berkey a lot of money. I pledge to repeat, and repeat and repeat to everyone I know, not to waste their time on a Berkey water filter. Again, thank you. You are making a difference.
So I'v built one already. Used the off-brand filters. If Berkey is full of crap? Then I know my off-brand can't be good. The question is, what filters can I buy that are reputable to replace my off-brand filters for my DYI 5-gallon bucket system?
I use a Berkey and love it. My water tests well after 6 months of using one filter cartridge. For drinking water I further filter with a zero water filter, but I use my Berkey filtered water for everything else.
Yep
I just saw on another channel that Berkey failed to eliminate aluminum and was actually adding aluminum.
So I'm also done with Berkey
Good information here for sure. Thank you for all your research! Berkey, I hope you are taking notes here. Full disclosure about your products is not only ethical, it is your duty to humanity!
They don't care. It is all part of the eugenics program giving people a false sense of security.
My grandma used to filter the water by using clean sand, rocks, coconut fibres and a ceramic container . Drill a hole on the side of the ceramic container and install a 2 inches pipe. Put the sand, rocks and coconut fibres inside the ceramic container. Let the water drip into a bucket or pail. Note, you can create another one to filter it twice to get the purified water. Boil the water before drinking. Hope this helps.
Thank you for going through all that and thanks for this video
I knew Berkey was full of it when they said their product would filter out contaminates but allow good minerals through. Just wow.
I was planning on getting one till I heard that. It just doesn't make any sense... unless it has AI tec how the hel is it going to tell the defence lol
Yeah that gave me pause as well🤔 I figured I'd have to add back minerals, but not so, according to Berkey. How do they get away with charging sooo much $$$$ for their filters?
@@flowerchild777 And are they made in China? I didn't see that on Amazon. Geez.
sht your telling me i said fuck it one day and filters broccoli water in my barky and it still has a tested and smell of broccoli in it
Not defending Berkey, but that is a totally valid claim that any manufacturer of carbon based filters can use. Carbon filters remove stuff like chlorine and pesticides all day long because their chemical structure is such that it more attracted to the carbon than water. Not the case for dissolved ions (minerals) which will go right through. Carbon filtration is more than just a "screen" that catches bad stuff, it's effectiveness is due to the complexities of water chemistry
I own an Alexapro. Bought it three years ago. I bought it bc I couldn’t afford the Berkey back then, and for sure I can’t today. I’m very happy with my Alexapro. When I forget and drink out of the suburban tap I find myself immediately spitting it out! What a difference
Because we often have boil advisories, I've been looking for water filters and your video caught my eye. Checking the NSF and WQA databases, there are very few consumer pour-through or top-fill filters that have received NSF certification, and most of the manufacturers only submit a very few claims for certification (e.g., chlorine reduction). The companies then claim they are NSF certified, but most of the marketing material doesn't appear to specify they were only certified for a specific claim. Even if they do make that clear, I assume that most buyers (like me) don't realize what that means unless they do some research.
Also, manufacturers often have their filters tested by "independent labs" to prove they meet a portion of a specific NSF standard. (The manufacturer often makes the lab result available and you can see they only tested for specific things, how long the test was run, etc.) The lab "certifies" that the filter meets the specific criteria, but that does not mean that the filter is "NSF certified", even though that's the impression one gets from looking at product descriptions.
I think you've unfairly singled out Berkey as being deceptive. I don't know that they are any worse than most manufacturers. Water filtering/purification and certification appears to be somewhat more complicated than Mr. Project Farm and other UA-camrs make it out to be.
I'm glad that you pointed out the distinction between well/tap filters and "ditch" filters in your description, but some (many?) folks aren't going to read your description and will not know that the filters you suggested will not filter out bacteria and protozoa like the ditch filters will. Your video was helpful to me in that it pointed out the misleading claims made by Berkey, which led me to discover that most claims made by other manufacturers are misleading, too. Maybe you could make a video titled "Betrayed by all the &^%#@**& - Why I quit drinking water". ;-)
Thanks!
Lol! I'll consider that for my next video : )
Thank you for the feedback - I don't post much online - I realize now I shouldn't have relied on the video description. I assumed that people would read it because I directed them to do so in the video, but I won't assume that next time. Out of sheer curiosity, I just emailed ZeroWater, Clearly Filtered, and Aquasana (maybe there's a boil-water advisory or something where this would apply) about whether they can filter raw outside water, or water with bacteria and protozoa in it. Curious how they respond.
You're correct about the misleading claims of many companies. It becomes a guess or wager - which company is least likely to be trying to swindle me or deceive me; or, which company is most likely trying to do the right thing? While other manufacturer claims can be misleading, too, at least some of them get some accountability with NSF standards, or use surrogate contaminants for a class of contaminants.
Berkey may not be worse than certain other companies, but I'm not sure which companies those are, and some are certainly better. I dealt with Helen of Troy (owns PUR), and they were very unhelpful and deceptive. I dealt with Aquasana, Clearly Filtered, and Zero Water, and they were all very helpful and straight with me. I didn't reach out to APEC or Watts.
If you look in my notes, you'll see that there's a study done by Detell Knappe and his students, and they found that the Berkey did not do so well filtering short-chain PFAS, but several other filters did very well. If a filter can get short-chain PFAS, it can get pretty much everything.
So true joe! After watching this video and trying to find a NSF 52 certified pitcher, it seems like it doesn't exist. Currently looking to filter pharmaceuticals and toxic chemicals.
They got back to me about my raw outside water question - ZeroWater and Aquasana said do not use them for raw outdoor water with microbes in it. Clearly Filtered said it's not advisable to do so, but in a pinch, it probably wouldn't kill you. I assume that if we were to filter out sand/silt and then put iodine or bleach in it, we could then pass it through one of these filters and be okay. Probably won't rely on any of these three for my outside water, but interesting to know what they said.
@@Robert-Beaty In an emergency, I would want something powerful enough to filter raw stream , rain, or lake water and that has a washable filter to extend the filter ife, especially if there is no electricity, so my guess is that Berkey is the best OVERALL option. Zero water smells like fish (strongly) in like a month or less of using it. That is a lot of bacteria build up that is coming out into your drinking water if you forget to test your Zero Water filter.. I never experienced that with the Berkey.
@@Robert-Beaty Can you please check out EpicWater? The black filter is supposed to be good for microbes up to 1000 gallons.
Great informative video. I bought one for myself and other family members almost 2 years ago. Very disappointed to learn of this now. Guess I'll have to switch to something else. But who can u trust anymore. This world is run by psychopaths who love to poison us
People need to know how to make their own water filters. Many emergency water filters force people to get to close to contaminated water or permit contaminated water to get into the containers their used water filters are stored in making it possible for contaminated water to get onto the surface of their water filter and into their mouths the next time they use their water filter. I do not trust any filter that says you can filter a hundred gallons when you can't see through the water that needs to be filtered. Multiple filter processes should be employed before the sterilization process starts. Well water usually has some form of bacteria in it and fortunately it is not harmful to us or is destroyed by our stomach acid. People simply need to know how and what to do to keep from making themselves sick or killing them selves when going through emergencies. They need to practice handling their water tools so they don't contaminate those tools and foul their water supply. It is not enough to have a rope if you do not know how to tie it.
So true!
I too have been using their filters for almost 2 years. About a month ago I got a real bad bacterial infection and had to be put on a string antibiotic. I noticed my Berkey fiktered water smelling funny as I drank it and opened my Berkey container only to smell a strong stench that has a gasoline smell. I didn't think anything of it and washed it out with soap, bottom part as my filter was less than a month old. After another round of strong antibiotic because the stomach bacteria didn't leave, I was curious. I emptied the water and smelled it again. Gasoline smell!!!! So I immediately stopped drinking my filtered water and my infection cleared up. I was goung to call Berkey this week and send them my container and filter to run a test. Glad I didn't. I'm going to my water company now to have it tested
Greed..
@@diannahauf5136 please report back on this as I own a Berkey and I know people that also do . Thank you
You are not a nobody, American families are appreciating your information ! Really helpful!!
This story is how we learn to not trust anything in the relative field as being consistent and reliable.
Trust but verify
I’m using the (original) British Berkefeld, and switch the candles every 6 months…
A while back there was a Duke study in the North Carolina area, probably the same one you mentioned, of water filters including RO, pitcher, countertop (Berkey), & under-sink to see how much PFOS/PFAS they each removed. They tested at different intervals.
The only countertop one was Berkey & it was tested at 6 months & 2 years. I believe at 6 months it was ok, but at 2 years, what really struck me was the Berkey was ADDING in more PFOS/PFAS even over regular tap water. That threw me for a loop.
I narrowed it down to the Zero Water Glass water dispenser or an Aqua Tru. I'm not worried about the Zero removing everything because I get my minerals via my diet.
I even bought the one zero water because it was in glass, much better than stainless steel or plastic. HOWEVER, when i finally got the copy of the cart with my system, it said it would only filter under 15 gallons per filter b4 replacing. Yikes! Expensive drinking water!
@@pattijesinoski1958 Yeah. I think overall an Aqua Tru might be a better value if one doesn't do an under the sink RO or full house system. I just went with the Zero because it's just me, and I liked that it was glass.
Of course, now I see Aqua Tru also offers a glass pitcher on their website.
Yeah, that was Dr. Knappe's students! I have notes on that study at the Archive.org link in the description.
I never bought a Berkey water filter even though I think it was heavily advertisements. Rumors were that it was the best filter around for filtering lake water and other waters during an emergency. But for some reason I just never believed it it was super expensive and in my opinion slapped a bunch of filters on it just like something I would buy in a water filter picture. I thought it couldn’t be very reliable because it was too simple.
Thank you for going the extra mile and checking up if their claims were actually accurate. Over the years I’ve learned that companies advertise their weakest link to rid themselves of the rumors of the item not working. There are so many greedy companies promising outlandish claims that people really need to stop wasting their money on useless products without doing a thorough search of all the information to see if you’re getting your moneys worth in the product.
My choice was finally a water distiller. I live next to the ocean so I would benefit most from a distiller.
Another item out in the market is air filters. A lot of them claim outlandish results but in reality they only filter 4 inches around the air filter. It’s best to be the educated consumer
I have a Big Berkey water filter system. My water started to taste weird so I did the red dye test and found that one of the filters had failed. So I estimate that I had been drinking unfiltered water for about 2 weeks without realizing it. The failed filter definitely did not last as long as advertised. I no longer trust my Big Berkey for daily or emergency use.
Just saw another video with 'knock off' filters that were $33 vs $179 for 2 filters. They look to fit your systems, so not a total loss. Even if the filters don't last near as long, at $33 for 2 changing more often not to big a deal. ua-cam.com/video/ZtkWkvJrz40/v-deo.html about 13:30 in.
Worth a look. - Cheers
@@joeshmoe7967 Thanks… if this fits the Big Berkey I will be happy…
@@joeshmoe7967 this is great info thank you!
Scrub ur filter
Use a green pad
U can do this a number of times
Extend life of ur filters!
@@YeshuaKingMessiah
What is a green pad and where do you buy them?
I bought a Travel Berkey to use when I live in my van & disperse camp in the winter months. It seemed to work UNTIL I moved to a city that had TERRIBLE tap water. Using the Berkey we still had scum on our tea & coffee. Even when using my sisters unfiltered well water we do NOT have scum on our coffee, so there absolutely is something in city water the Berkey is not handling.
I frequently let the Berkey dry out when I'm not traveling, then I have to reprime it. It passes the red food color test every time. One time it didn't dry out & it appeared to mold. I called Berkey & they said the filters couldn't be cleaned & I had to buy new filters (of coarse). I bought new filters; they passed the red dye test; I still had scum on my coffee.
Thank you Robert for the honest no bias review and the eye opening education. I was seriously considering to purchase a Berkey water filtration system based on its claims of a 3,000 gallon water filtration life span yield. I'm going to now look at alternative systems, based on verifiable test results and not bogus inflated sells hype. Sounds like a clear, in the making of a future potential consumer "Class-Action Lawsuit" for all those who have purchased these units.
Making decisions based on NSF certifications is like listening to CDC for Covid shot recommendations. Get your checkbook out and test for yourself. I can’t validate any particular water purification companies I use a Berkey now but seriously considering finding other products. I will never base a decision on NSF CERTIFICATION alone.
I am so glad I didn't spend that ridiculous amount of money on a Berkey!! I just could never pull the trigger on the purchase. I wasn't convinced. Thank you for this research, it's been eye-opening!
I buy those knock off filters that look identical from Amazon and I’m pretty happy with them , when I do the red food colouring dye test and they come back clear - also when I use them from well Water I can see a bunch of iron on the exterior, and the water definitely tastes a bunch better from city tap water too. I build the Berkys from glass bases at the thrift store and plastic tops I just drill a hole through them so their way cheaper.
Can you tell me what they are called?
Which knock off filters? Heard there were some for $35. The black ones.
How do u drill a hole thru glass
You need to make sure it is a block of carbon, not pressed powder.
Dude this is a kick ass video! This is amazing information. Here's a question for you, do any of the filtration systems add bad things(leaching plastics, particles from the filters themselves) into the clean water? This is one topic I hope they shed light on.
I’ve wondered this, too. It’s one reason I haven’t gotten the fluoride filters because they are plastic and sit in the already “filtered” water.
@refreshingAnd and niko --> "To remove fluoride, Berkey uses a type of aluminum called aluminum oxide, also known as activated alumina. And in the process, while it removes fluoride like a magnet, it may also add unacceptable amounts of aluminum into your filtered water. Now if you do your own research, you’ll hear this type of aluminum is not “bad” for you...." but I wouldn't want to be consuming it! excerpt from "truth about fluoride" website
@@ilahens Oh yes! Thank you! I know that, too. I just hadn’t decided what the actual truth was. Either way, I don’t like the idea of the plastic, so that helps me make a choice.
I've seen videos of someone revealing independent lab results showing water filtered by Berkey has *higher* levels of aluminum *after* being filtered
@@refreshingAnd When something sits in plastic it leaks something that attacks our hormones for life longevity. Makes sense doesn't it! They want us to die.
From one self-proclaimed nobody tp another, I appreciate your effort in bringing awareness to this very important topic! Thank you for your diligence and ypur willingness to stand against the people who put greed before honesty and safety! I am going to share this wit concerned water drinkers, who i care about. And i will be avoiding the berkey yuckey water non-filter. Much appreciated!
I was thinking about buying one of those perky filters and something kept telling me to hold off and I went to their website multiple times and I still didn't buy one I'm glad I found this video
SAME, so glad I held off
Me too. Was so.close to.spending $$$
Thanks for this video. I love in the UK, and bought a big berkey just under 2 years ago. I bought both the black and white filters, all from an official Berkey dealer. A few months ago I noticed that I had black, which I can only assume is charcoal bits in the bottom tank of my Berkey. So I thought that it was time to change the filters, bearing in mind we have only used the Berkey water for cold drinks, and making ice cubes. I went to an official UK Berkey dealership site only to find that the price of the Berkey filter has risen astronomically over the past couple of years, official Berkey black filters are now $279.53 in the UK and that doesn't include the white filters for fluoride. After hearing what you have just said, I feel disillusioned with Berkey and feel that we have been all lied to and I think that I'm going to have to look for an alternative product.
I tested my Berkey and it was right on the numbers gave. I go through 2-4 gallons a day.
Thanks for TELLING THE TRUTH. That is very rare these days.
I love my Berkey. I have had it for 4 years now and I do change my black filter every 6 months. That's about 270 gallons per period. Yes that's $200 per year approximately for filters but I feel confident in the filtering quality by changing them out every 6 months.
Mr Beaty, i’ve been going through the documentation that you provided, that you feel is strong evidence and basis for the choice of filter unit that you use for your family.
The first one seems to be a written copy of what you’ve said here. I can appreciate that.
Second one is a discussion of several filters.
The third one which provides more details, seems to be a duplicate of the first one. But I could’ve missed something.
When I get down to the Project Farm link, It takes me to a UA-cam video. What we have here, is a man who is testing his own tapwater to see what different filters will filter out in terms of ppm. Except for the addition of red dye and ferrous sulfate, which he adds separately, we have no way of knowing what those dissolve solid particles are. He never tests those, or if he does it’s not in the video.
It’s interesting that he throws in one electric filtration unit, and Petes it against the gravity fed ones. I have no objection of this, but it’s not exactly an apples for apples type of test. I think we can agree on that.
He tests them all with the same standard right out of the box, without taking into account the reason for which a person would buy any of those filters. For example, the sawyer mini claims to filter out a range of microbes. He doesn’t test for even one microorganism. We never find out if that filter actually does what he claims to do. Instead, he just ran his tapwater through it, and put a dissolved particles unit in there to count the PPMs, none of which we can identify.
That’s not an honest test.
If I’ve understood you correctly, your big upset with the Berkey corporation is that they are not NSF certified, and have not tested their product beyond 67% of its advertised lifespan, and not even for all potential contaminants which it purports to filter out. I could see why you might be upset about that.
But this video of tests, ran just enough water through these filters beyond the manufacturers minimum requirements for set up, and gave ppm readings. I don’t see any evidence there of ongoing readings overtime, much less for 100% of the life of the unit or beyond.
So to say that this would really give much of a meaningful contribution to an educated decision about The purchase of a water filtration unit for one’s family, it’s pretty questionable. It totally fails to address the complaint which you had about Berky.
The other thing I have to say here, is that I’ve had a multistage, portable filtration unit for many years now. I had it when I was young, and I’ve had it about 18 years. It’s totally sanitizable and even sterilizable, and while parts can be replaced, it was after 18 years that I had to replace the filter for the first time.
And that may not seem really relevant at first, but I’ve taken that filter in some places with some terrible water, and depended on it for years on end.
In some of those locations, the water was a sufficient quality That I could go for a week without even having to clean it, because there was sufficient volume of water fairly good quality going through it. If the weather was not warm, I could go twice that long. In other locations, such as where there was a high iron contamination in the tapwater, I could use that filter exactly one time, before it clogged completely and had to be cleaned. It was possible to get just enough water to clean the filter and less than 1 L to drink before it completely clogged.
My point there is, but the life of a filter depends entirely on the quality of the water to begin with. That would be a very good reason for which it would be difficult to say that filter filters out 3000 US gallons, Without saying something about the quality of that water beforehand. I understand your frustration about this. But the same is true of all filters.
There’s probably still more info for me to go through in your description, So I’m gonna go back there and have another look, but so far, this is what I’m seeing.
Thanks for sharing, Daphne!
I'll have to check and see if I accidentally put a duplicate document up there - sorry if I did, let me go check on that...I have two documents there, not three, I'm not sure what the third document is you're seeing. The first is a copy of a post I made on Reddit in response to a thread about Berkey water filters, and some of that info may overlap with the info in the other document. The second document has a TL;DR version in the first part, and then more details following. I only linked to them for reference for anyone interested, so yes, they are similar in content to what I share in the video.
The Project Farm test is not comprehensive, I agree with you. I actually messaged him on Patreon and asked if he would do another test with more contaminants and get a lab to test it, and he said that he has it on the agenda, but he has no idea when he'll get to it with all of the projects he has going on. He told me that his family used to use Berkey, but switched after he did that video. You are right that Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is merely a catch-all term for anything in the water at all. However, the Berkey did not do as well as other filters tested at removing any and all particles, and it failed to remove as much iron (which is a surrogate for other metals) as other filters. I don't take the Project Farm test as my sole source of information, though, it's just one data point in my decision. There are many other facts that went into the decision beyond the one Project Farm video.
You are right that water quality will affect filter life cycle! For example, I contacted Clearly Filtered about their products, and they said that large cities often clog up their filters sooner than other locations. It's so bad in some cities that they are actually creating life cycles unique to those cities. Now, as far as Berkey goes, that is actually another reason I don't trust them. When they rate their filters as having these super long life/service cycles, it gives us the consumers a false sense of security that the water is going to be adequately filtered. But that's not necessarily the case, and if we have really contaminated water, the Berkey's life cycle could be cut short - yet we would keep using it up to 3,000 gallons assuming it was still okay. Water can still pass through a filter even after the filter's life cycle is complete, contaminants can pass right on through into the "filtered" water. Berkey should be more conservative in light of this possibility, not more liberal. While not a perfect (what is perfect in this broken world?), the NSF standards come up with benchmarks and trustworthy certifications that hold companies accountable to filter most water sources to reasonable levels. Berkey has submitted to absolutely no accountability that is consistent and trustworthy, and when questioned, they ignore me. They ignored the Wirecutter. They'll probably ignore you if you reach out to them and ask about their test results and how they got the 3,000 gallon life/service cycle number, or how that number was estimated.
There are too many other filters that filter better, and verifiably so, to waste my time, money, and health on Berkey.
@@Robert-Beaty : I agree that they need to specify something about the standard of water that will net 3000 L.
I was absolutely floored when I heard the part in your video about I’m never having test of the filter at close to what they think it’s 100% of the life that it should have. That’s a really risky thing for any company to do, because they could be called on it at any time. With so many people using their products, people are going to be able to call him on it.
In terms of stuff passing right through the filter, I guess that really could happen. The only thing is, most filters tend to clog up pretty solidly before that happens. At least, the other filters that I’ve been using do.
So that’s a good point. No matter which filter a person buys, it’s good to know very specifically, just what the pore size is, so we can figure out what gets filtered out, and what passes through.
And, with most filters, usually the taste will tell you that the filter is ready for a cleaning or changing, if the contaminant in question is smaller than the poor size of the filter, most especially if it’s a filter that’s filled with something like activated charcoal, which will bind to those particles, or many of them, until it’s saturated.
Given the number of people that I’ve been using those filters so religiously and for so long, I haven’t seen a complaint about somebody using the filter long past the point where it can’t be cleaned, but I have heard people say that the filter clogs up because of certain contaminants, and they end up having to clean the filter perhaps a little ahead of when they thought they might have to. Those Berkey users Said that once the filter started to clog, that it became less useable until they did clean it up.
So I guess we’d have to use the poor size standard in order to figure out what could pass through, once the filters pretty much saturated or clogged, In order to figure out what we passed through.
The other thing is, I think the things that would pass through under those circumstances, will definitely pass through when it was brand new. Like maybe radioactive particles, and fluoride (Hence the separate fluoride filter for those who need it).
I think that would be worth looking into.
And given what you’ve had to say, it might also be well worthwhile to have testing done At regular, extended intervals, to ensure that the filter is still doing what it’s supposed to.
I guess I’m about to find out about whether or not I get ignored. I put in a call this afternoon.
@@Robert-Beaty I very much appreciate your effort in testing, researching, questioning, and trying to stay on the company to get an answer. I can't spend my money at a company that ignores its customer or potential customers. And I certainly can't risk my health over it. You also provided great information for anyone wanting to what questions to ask, what certifications are important, links to important databases, and recommendations for products that you've found to be better than Berkey. I know it took a lot of time and effort to do the video, and to include the information below it that you did. Thank you very much for all of it.
The conversation between Mr. Beaty and Ms. Raven is the most civilized I have real in a long time. Thank you for staying to the point without snarky or holier-than-thou comments. Such discourse is not commonplace in our current Era. Thank you both for your information and refreshing commentary.
@@variyasalo2581 Wholeheartedly agree. Thank you for voicing my thoughts. 😊
Thanks Robert, your not a nobody as you changed my opinion and probably most of the people who watched your great research. Once again thanks Mike
Thank you for making this video. I've had a berkey for about 5 years now and encouraged others to get one. I've been hearing whispers about the lack of integrity and that is soooo disappointing. It's unfortunate and seemingly impossible to avoid toxins and poisons. Anyway, thank you again, greatly appreciated.
California
Due to a California state law passed in 2010, we, as well as all other Berkey distributors, are prohibited from selling larger Berkey systems directly in the state of California. If you live in California, please consider our Berkey Light or Travel Berkey models. Accessories and replacement filters may be shipped directly into the state.
The state of California has established regulations and procedures for the sale of indoor water systems. Under these regulations, the state of California requires that any water treatment system that is sold in the state first be certified by an independent, third-party testing agency, such as the NSF, before the system can be considered eligible for sale in California. NSF Standard 42 (aesthetic effects) and Standard 53 (health effects) would specifically apply to our purification elements.
NSF Standard 42 covers systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants such as chlorine, taste, odor, and particulates that may be present in public or private drinking water.
NSF Standard 53 addresses systems designed to reduce specific health-related contaminants, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead, Volatile Organic Chemicals, and MTBE's that may be present in public or private drinking water.
The tests Berkey has conducted are much more rigorous than those required by NSF for the certifications mandated by the state of California. Berkey purifiers have been rigorously tested by third-party independent accredited labs far surpassing the above standard of taste, odor, and chlorine reduction. For example, Berkey purifiers have been tested for the removal of hundreds of contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, pathogenic bacteria, and viruses. These test results are published and available to all of our consumers on our website. Although this extensive testing is sufficient for 49 states in the US, it is currently not acceptable for residents in the state of California.
Even after NSF certification has been obtained, the state of California additionally requires that companies pay high costs to obtain and maintain certification with the state of California.
After careful review, it has been concluded that the additional taxes, certifications, and red tape have created too large of a barrier for their dealers to offer the larger Berkey Systems in the state of California.
@@MyMuse1111 Thank you so much for this very informative reply ! I am a berkey owner of around 6 years now and almost regreted my purchse due to this video.
@@MyMuse1111 Thank you.
@@MyMuse1111 Thank you for the info. That is why some people are saying their filtered water tastes better. They think taste and health safety are the same. Your information was appreciated. But I still think anyone who buys a filter system should actually arrange to send a sample to the water lab and get their own test results. It is a reasonable price to do. It will let you know if what you purchased, is what you got.
@@MyMuse1111 they are not more rigorous! That’s such bs. You can see ht Berkey tested for and the mount tested to wht they claim.
Project Farm is awesome. He actually responds to comments too. As much as he can anyway. Many times, just thanking you for your comment. Like, that's not something you see that often. He's a super nice guy and his tests are as scientific as any home gamer could be. And when he's wrong/makes a mistake (which is not often), he corrects himself and does a retest. Typically with a similar result as before, but there's the odd upset, where the results did change significantly with his better method/testing. So the guy actually thinks about his videos and questions how he could have done even better. His ethic is second to none and he's a fun guy who runs an interesting unbiased science/engineering and product testing challenge channel. He won't take sponsors either, because he wants to remain completely unbiased.
Nice digging on your part with the Berkey. I've used those little portable NSF certified filters before for reverse osmosis and something just didn't site right with me, with the Berkey, from the get go. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it had to do with either filtering capacity or performance. They're overpriced nonsense IMO, I can get a cheaper little reverse osmosis filter that what Berkey sells and replacements are cheaper. You can get drinking water R.O. setups (under sink) or even countertop portable models for a reasonable price on Amazon, couple hundred bucks or so. It's those Kangen R.O. systems that cost a fortune, like thousands and they are an MLM company with just a fancy electronic R.O. system. It's not special, cheap R.O. filters do the job just fine.
Just get one with a remineralization filter and that will balance the Ph back up, because R.O. strips everything from water, including minerals. This makes the water more acidic. So add the minerals back and you have the healthiest water on earth. The same as what a Kangen really, just not fancy electronic nonsense. You could just manually add the minerals back too. And the replacement filters on a cheap setup, will likely be cheaper than the cost of 1 Berkey filter too, lol. Man, those things shot up in price a while back. The membrane on R.O. can last up to 10k gallons I think too. The other filters, not nearly as long, like the carbon. 2000 maybe for them, but they're cheap ro replace. Even the membrane filter is like $40 or less and all the rest are cheaper.
I would never buy a Berkey and I really wouldn't, even more now. At lerast IK know I can trust a cheap R.O. machine to do the job right.
Thank you! I've been using Berkey for years. Only because my lack of information. I do believe I'm now going to be checking out these other brands. It's so pathetic that companies take advantage of people who they assume will not research the claims made on their products, and twice as pathetic (this includes me) that consumers aren't doing the research.
I think the burden is on the companies to tell the truth - consumers have lives to live and responsibilities to take care of - we shouldn't have to dig so deep to find the truth.
Would British Berkfeld share same results as Berky... New Milenna Concepts?
I'm one of those people. Especially when there are a lot of trusted personalities who recommend them.
FYI: Black Rock and Vanguard own ALL STOCKS in ALL COMPANIES. There is NO COMPETITION. They shut down the REAL competition. Now you need to do research on the top stock holders of those companies to find out who the enemy is and is responsible for everything going on these days. I'll give you a little hint (actually a huge hint) The Royals are the top of the pyramid. The second level of the pyramid are their Viziors Rockefellers and Rothschilds and the pope. Under them next level, Soro's, Gates, and many other pieces of shit. There is ONE common denominator with them all. Can you figure that out? Hint: They deny Christ and wear small hats. They are all Freemasons and the lower level masons are the watchers and movers and shakers in all of our cities and counties and our neighbors. We are at War. Bill of Rights are our true rights. Not Admirality/maritime British rule. Search gold fringes around the American flag. You will be shocked. I gave you a lot of information for you to verify and check for yourself. The rabbit hole goes very very deep.
Interesting. I switched from Berkey to Alexapure because of the fluoride filter option of Alexapure several years ago. This video adds an interesting perspective of things. Not sure if Alexapure is better but I have been satisfied so far.
Berkey has a flouride/arsenic/ and chlorine attachment as well you can buy separately. They attach onto the bottom of the carbon filters.
Yes. I had found out that Berkey declined to back up their claims with anything but a hired private lab, and given that everybody buys Berkey, their claims to not being able to pay for the NFS certifications are laughable. So I never bought it, and remain on Brita while waiting for a proper countertop choice. Thanks for the great research, I will go through the links. You're generous.
I stopped using Berkey 6 years ago. I tested each filter I bought and all filters failed with a first time use. They all failed with the red food color dyes each time.
Thank you, brother, for sharing this information. This is the second video I have seen in the last ten days talking about Berkey filters. I purchased a Berkey for my daughter and her family last Christmas and now I am concerned I made a huge mistake. Will be calling Berkey on Monday. Thanks.
This randomly popped in my feed so it must be gaining traction👍 Its never fun to deal with these issues, much less going public with your experience. No one should have to worry that a company is lying to them on an offensive scale about the product they sell. Thank you for sharing this information 👏
Omg I was literally about to order a Berkey this evening when I ran across your videos. Thank you so much for doing the research. As much as Berkey charge for their units, its absolutely insane to know they have no certifications whatsoever. I just learned of the lawsuit and that california restricts the sell of those units this evening. Wow this just blows my mind. I hope that everyone who purchased one receives their money back or some sort of settlement is paid out for outright lying to people. Its people out here like myself who have a compromised immune system and using a sub par filtering system can be dangerous. Again thank you. You saved me from making a costly mistake.
We DO appreciate you taking so much time to share this with us, Mr. Beaty. THANK YOU so much. I am in Africa now and I have an Alexapure....... 4 or 5 filters are duds. Makes it VERY difficult. While visiting "homebase" soon I would like to bring back, hopefully, another filter that will fit my Alexapure tank. Not sure if I will find one. I DO have an awesome distiller, but electricity goes out a lot off and on, so a non-electric filter is important to me. I will look into the brands you have mentioned. -Didn't know about the "NSF" stuff.
Get a Berkey!
@@jw6180 Oh, brother. What do you think the guy just said?! Stupid.
While I recognize and understand your concerns, just because something hasn't been "approved" by some governmental or regulatory agency, doesn't mean that it doesn't work as advertised by the manufacturer. Just as, as we all well know, so many items that are advertised, "tested" and "approved" by governmental and/or regulatory agencies (yes, I'm looking at YOU cdc, niaid, who, fda, etc), are not at all the "safe and effective" products they have claimed.
My point being: just because they haven't been tested because, living in california, I can tell you, that products that are tested as you describe are also about 3-5 times more expensive, because those costs get passed on to the consumer, and all of that being said, doesn't indicate that the product doesn't work, or filter, as they claim it does.
The only way to be sure would be to either pay for the testing or actually do the testing, yourself.
But to come out and malign them without any actual evidence that the product doesn't work as claimed, when they were entirely up front with me about the lack of certification when I bought my berkey 2 years ago, is a bit underhanded, don't you think?
I don't know what you were told, but I called them with questions and they answered all my questions to my satisfaction, at no point did anyone suggest that they had been certified, and you have not proven with your video that just because they are Not "certified to 3,000 gallons" that the filters don't in fact work to 3,000 gallons.
You have presented partial data and a strawman argument, then conflated the strawman argument into "berkey are a fraud", when in fact, you Don't Know if they work as advertised, or not.
First video I've seen of yours. Not impressed.
edit: and for the record, No, I do not work for, work with, or own stock or any financial or business interest in Berkey, New Millenium Concepts, or any affiliates or subsidiaries of such, nor do I have any friends, associates or family members who have any connection to any of these companies.
Valuable information. I will be recommending your video to people I know who use and recommend Berkey. I follow a bunch of RV and Van Life channels - people who need and use water filtration on the road. Hopefully it will help you get more subs, or at the very least a lot of views and watch hours. Love your style! I'm a fact-based person, love researching, and telling it like it is. (I don't have a content channel). Thank you for doing this video!
Thanks for the info. I’ve been using Aquasana for years now…..BUT my attention was turned toward Berkey. So i’m glad I saw your post. Thank you!
Similar to the Wise dilemma a few years ago=grew too fast and got too greedy...and didn't expect to be investigated and sued. Now they have rebranded--but I still will NOT do business with the company. Will be doing more research with my Berkey and looking for other issues etc. Sad, Sad, Sad for the company but infuriating for consumers...and at this point, not sure how much more anyone can/will tolerate. Thanks for the update.
What’s the Wise dilemma?
@@YeshuaKingMessiah The Wise company was mis-informing re: long-term storage buckets...and during the course of the lawsuit the company revealed that 'they never expected people to actually open long-term storage' for years to come...and had poor products, small sizes, etc. Since I was NOT reimburse, etc. *not sure who benefited from the lawsuit, etc., I will NOT purchase from this company (they have rebranded) when there are so many other options!
@@calliefromcanada5898 what is their new brand? So know to avoid.
@@binglet8127 ReadyWise...currently not willing to investigate if their philosophy has changed, products improved...but also have not heard of management changing, etc. Buyer Beware...and this truly applies to anything being bought.
Thank you.
All I hear is horror stories regarding customer service with Berkey, not ot mention their filters were falling apart and they refused to cover them. I almost bought oe of them years ago, thankfully I did not. I hate companies that think they are too big for their britches.
Yes I had the worst experience with their customer service. Such a waste of money!
Alexa pure has been wonderful
For the cost of the bleeping filters they should take some of their profits and invest in the NFS certification, unless of course they can’t pass the test. Thanks a million for the info. Going to watch parts 2,3,&4. God bless you and your family.🤗🙏🙏🙏
I would love to hear your comments about British Berkefeld water filter
I've had three sets (total of six) defective black filters within the last 14 months. Make sure you are performing the red dye test at least every three months. Berkey will replace the filters at a prorated price in my case $49 for each set and you get to pay the return shipping. What a rip off and a breach of trust. I don't trust the company anymore, I am done with them. Thank you for posting this video, people are watching and listening.
This video should help most people. At the moment you have 11 thousand thumbs up.
I use a Multi Pure solid Carbon block water filter and have done so since 1984. The counter top model, made of stainless steel and I replace the filter religiously. They ARE certified by the NSF. It has a massive solid carbon block yet is only rated to 750 gallons. Since I use the filtered water (municipal) only for drinking and cooking I have found I need replace the filter once a year at worse but often change the filter every 6 months. So my 39 years of using Multi Pure taught me not to trust the Berkey claims. You convinced me I was correct.
I was looking at Berkey for a SHTF scenereo where the municipal water stopped but I ended up with another brand. Thanks for all your research.
For those of us who already own a Berkey system, is it sufficient to just buy replacement filters that have been tested and approved? For example, the filters that work with the Watts system? Do they fit?
That was an eye opener. Thank you Robert for taking the time to discuss this. Consumers must work together and share knowledge because the government consumer protection is obviously useless.
Incredible research!! I pretty much figured out the same but I definitely learned some new things. It's so unfortunate and crazy to me what Berkey has done. And even years ago I'm talking about 10 years ago when my daughter was younger. I remember being in holistic mom groups or even any mom group. and everyone recommended berkey. I came close to purchasing a couple of times. But to me their claims never made any sense. I can't imagine the feeling of trusting them so long to find out they aren't doing what you thought they were. Thank you for sharing such important information!!!!! This was awesome!
Just came across this. We tried to purchase a Berkey a number of years ago and because we were in California we could not get it due to lack of proper testing, I remember at the time they said it was because of expense and did not know when or if. Fast forward a few years, checked on availability, it was OK to get in California so we ordered. Again, fast forward until this last year. we bought 2 sets of replacement filters and within I would guess one hundred gallons they were plugged up. No cleaning or priming helped. Customer service said it was our water, same well water we had been using. After hunting we bought a table top Aquasana with the pump and love it. Glad to hear it's a good product.
so I stopped the video at 8:44. My man you helped me make the choice between aquatru and berkey. I think aquatru is the better option. Thank-you for reaching out to the rest of us trying to get safer better drinking water.
You're welcome! I'm not familiar with Aquatru. I just tried to look it up in the NSF and WQA databases, but I don't see any certifications for it. It seems it isn't certified. Do you have any information on it's certification status?
@ZyggZag - I humbly ask your pardon! I dug more deeply into AquaTru, and it turns out they do have some NSF certifications, but it's through one of the other three certifying bodies, not NSF or WQA. There are three others: UL, CSA, and IAPMO. I searched all of those for filters when I was doing my research, and UL and CSA had very few NSF 53 and 58 certified products. I also searched IAPMO using their search feature: I selected "Product Description" and searched "filter," and very few options came up. Well, I just discovered that if I searched by "Standard" and type in "NSF 53," a whole lot more products come up! Big oversight on my part, I'm sorry about that. Thankfully, this doesn't call into question what I concluded about Berkey or about the products I've listed in the video description. But, it does mean that there may be more products worth considering - like the AquaTru - that I hadn't considered yet.
WOW! Thanks for your honest review and research.. companies are out here grossly overpricing and falsely advertising their products, while consumers trust the info
Thank you so much for this. I’ve been using a Berkey for a few years. And lately I‘ve been questioning just how well it is working. So I‘ll be checking out your suggested filters, and those in the video following. Thank you again.
A professional came to my house to fix my under kitchen sink reverse osmosis filter and he measured the parts per million contaminants on both the RO and my Berkey (with a half new filter - maybe 1 to 1 1/2 thousand gallons), he showed me that the parts per million on the Berkey was pretty high compared to the RO, I was really surprised and put away my Berkey. I was thinking the Berkey would be equal or better but it performed pretty poorly compared to the RO. My trust on the Berkey is not that great anymore.
Did he send the water out for lab tests? Or was it a countertop test in your kitchen? If the latter, can you say how he did the test? I would be interested in a home test I could perform….
@@aliannarodriguez1581 He just used a hand device with a needle that pointed to numbers that measured the impurity of the water in parts per million, I don't know the name of the device, but that's how he knows how clean and pure the water is.
AWESOME video. The truth will set you free. It's about time Berkey gets called out! Thanks for taking the time to help people with a huge dose of honesty!
SOOO interesting!! Water is critically important and good quality water… well, we are aligned on that. I just bought 4 black filters for my Berkey… cost was over $350 just for the filters. Now - well, I don’t even want to sell my Berkey to anyone else because I don’t want to do that to them. Thanks so much for your info- it made a huge difference for you to share this!
Thank you for sharing the results of your research. Much appreciated. Folks aught to know about sanitizing water with calcium hydrochlorite to make a bleach solution from which 2 drops per quart will sanitize drinking water in the event that you have no commercial filters and purifiers.
I’ve had a Berkey and used only the black filters for a couple of years as I traveled in a RV. I started tasted metal and found out that Berkey adds aluminum in their filters! Perhaps only the white but after in depth research, I’ve decided to change to Clearly filtered and will now consider the distilled process. Thanks for all the experience and sharing here!
It should be repeated that this is aluminum oxide (alumina) and not aluminum that the PF-2 white filters can release. Lab tests do not distinguish between the 2 forms and it is commonly accepted that alumina (used in the Berkey PF-2) is inert and not absorbed by the body like aluminum would be. So, this is a critically important distinguishing chemical trait that should be made clear. Also, if you are tasting metal, this could iron buildup. While the black berkeys reduce iron, they do not remove it completely, so over time this can accumulate in the lower chamber, and why it is important to wash and rinse the lower chamber approx once per month.
Hey man. I run a preparedness/homesteading/gardening YT channel..
I’m going to share this video, as well as drop it in my community tab.
This is important. Especially right now when people Really to to source a good water filter and Berkey “seems” to be the gold standard
Thank you very much for this..
GreenThumb
Just for conversation purposes - y’all know the Natural Organic certification doesnt mean jack / is run by corporations yeah? My business partner and I got a Certified Naturally Grown certification instead. This is in response to going off of the hard NSF ANSI certs. Just saying lol.
I went with Zero Water for shtf backup based on Project Farm. The taste isn't fantastic to me but my kid likes it a lot. It's still a good investment and fortunately Todd over at Project Farm is destroying false marketing claims weekly. He seems to have been shadowbanned here for upsetting unscrupulous advertisers. Anyway I'm buying more ZeroWater filters to have for a ditchwater scenario. Thanks for the other recommendations, I'll check those out.
I thought Berkey was the best! Thank you for this post. So many people put it out there that Berkey is so great.
Honestly I think the Multipure filter is one of the best. If you go to their filter pages you can click on the "Performance" link and it will take you to their NSF testing data. It includes the % reduction for a whole bunch of chemicals and metals. Honestly I prefer multipure to berkey, and I have both. The main advantage a berkey has is the fact it is gravity feed. But thats also a disadvantage in filtration. When you get a carbon block filter, like a multipure or others, it requires water pressure to force it through the filter. Because it is compressed, the water has to force its way through the carbon and is more likely to come in contact with carbon, which means the chemicals will combine with the carbon and be removed. A multipure cb6 filter weighs 8 pounds which is more than 2 berkey filters.
I bought one. First, out of the box, the spigot leaked and needed to be replaced. Next I find out how much water Berkey Wastes! First you "sweat" the filters in a process that Wastes more water than I'm comfortable w. Next I had to wash the filters after 3 months and that process consumed massively more water than the sweating process. And ultimately the filters haven't performed well ever since. I consider the Berkey to be a waste of my money, time and most atrociously it WASTES WATER!
Btw my communications experienced w the Berkey company were unsatisfactory as well.
Thank you the information. I've been looking into getting a Berkey but have been a bit shy due to the cost it would be for just one person. I'll keep researching until I'm satisfied. Getting clean water shouldn't be such an ordeal or even cost so much. My heart aches for those that don't even have this choice for clean water.
If you have a well, you can always pull the pump up and get everything out of the well casing in case things "hit the fan". Then put a PVC pipe down the well with a rope and get water out of your well. My well is 130 feet deep. It would be cold water on very hot days, so the problem with refrigerating the water is solved. They have made it illegel to take off the well tops (caps) here in New Mexico. Look at videos on UA-cam because you have to put holes in the PVC pipe to let the water go into the PVC pipe.
Thanks for making us aware to the truth. Been hearing all the Berkey rage and didn't want to spend so much money but wanted something good at the same time. Now that I know the truth... I don't HAVE to spend so much money to have something good. REALLY appreciate this! You did a lot of good in making this video! Wish more ppl were as honest as you!
Thank you so much. We are in the UK and have been using a Berkey for a while. No longer. Our son saw your video and passed it on to you. Thank you
Thank you for sharing your findings on the Berkeley. I too have been hearing unsettling things about their filters
I greatly appreciate all your hard work and your research and sharing it. I have been researching and researching and just so flustered.
Thank you so much for putting this out into existence for others to know truth. We seek truth in our home and detest liars. We will be kicking Berkey out and going with a company that is NSF certified. Thank you again for your diligent work and making it known to others.
Long-time Berkey user here. Thank you for this valuable information. Yes, I feel betrayed by Berkey. I even convinced my son and his family to get one. I believed they were a life-saving necessity to own.😢 I thank God for this video.
We watched The Project Farm's review of the water filters also. It confirms what we suspected. Thanks for your honest report.
Very interesting, I have been considering a water filter system for several months now and Berkey was certainly on my mind. No way I'll roll the dice on that scam. Thanks for you efforts to make this video.
Thank you, for giving people this information.
Thank you so much for sharing this information. They are so expensive and only people who are concerned about their water quality, who care about their health and their family's health fork out the money to get one. I have one, and as a new customer, I needed help with my filters so I called them a few times and they never returned my call, so I was disappointed and it WAY downgraded my opinion of them as a company. However, I still trusted that the product was one of the best and I relied upon that number to tell me when I have to change my filter. This is super critical because it's people's health they are messing with. This really pisses me off.
Hi Robert, And thank you for putting in all this effort to check them out. I have felt suspicious about some products like this. I have a table distiller. It makes 4 liters each time. (I'm in Sweden). For minerals I use birch ash.. It is very alkaline and dangerous to drink undiluted. If your using it this way 1 tablespoon for 2 litres makes the water delicious and full. Because sometime distilled water feels a bit dead and "thin". Well, this helps. Just keep the birch ash away from the children and mark it so you don't mix it up with the water. I did once and had to drink half a litre of cream :). And charge the water with magnets if you want it to restructure. Bye bye!