Homemade Berkey Water Filter
(This article is about 600 words long, and will take about 3 to 6 minutes to read.)
This article will guide you through the construction of a filter equivalent in performance to the Imperial Berkey that sells for about $300. My total cost was $122
Gather the necessary components. You will need the following:
- two 5-gallon food grade buckets (got mine from Lowes for $5 each)
- two lids for the buckets (got mine from Lowes for $1.50 each)
- a pair of Black Berkey filter elements (ordered mine on Ebay for $99 which included free shipping and a free Sport Berkey filtered bottle)
- a food grade spigot (the kind used for large coffee pots or water coolers is perfect, ordered mine from jamesfilter.com for $10)
Drill two 1/2″ holes in the bottom of the upper bucket and two matching holes in the lid of the lower bucket.
Drill a 3/4″ hole in the side of the lower bucket toward the bottom. Make sure that the hole is up just far enough for the spigot to clear when the filter is sitting on a flat surface
Assemble the lower bucket by installing the spigot and the lid with holes.
Install the filter elements in the upper bucket through the holes in the bottom.
Assemble the filter by placing the upper bucket on the lower. Be sure to line up the holes so the tubes extend through the lid of the lower bucket. Place the remaining lid on top.
To use the filter, fill the upper bucket with water and wait. If you are starting with dry elements, it will take quite a while before the water starts dripping into the lower bucket. It takes up to several hours for the clean water to drain into the lower bucket. This process can be sped up considerably by frequently topping off the water in the upper bucket. This maintains maximum pressure on the elements.
Notes:
- I had no scientific way to test the water quality; however, the filtered water was clear, had no odor, and tasted similar to distilled.
- The specifications of the Black Berkey elements can be found here: http://berkeywater.com/BerkeyLight/BB_Purification_Elements.html
- There are a number of ways to make this even cheaper: Use free buckets from a grocery store bakery or restaurant. I have found the same type of spigot for $5 since making this one. Super Sterasyl elements can be substituted for the Black Berkey elements. They cost about $84 a pair.
- The filter can be made considerably larger by using any two stacking containers suitable for water, trash cans or 30-gallon water barrels for instance. The flow rate can also be increased by adding more filter elements.
- The filtered solids remain on the outside of the filter elements and will eventually interfere with the rate of flow. Therefore, it is important to prefilter through a dense cloth (we use cloth diapers) if your source water is particularly cloudy. The elements can be scrubbed clean with a plastic scouring pad. The Black Berkey elements last for about 3000 gallons each (6000 gallons for the pair)
[Via Alpha Rubicon, by Daire]
This post has 8 comments
January 26th, 2010
Fantastic!!…I've posted this to my blog and facebook as well as my survival website so my viewers can find it!
You may want to check out my site too, I have instructions on making a solar oven that costs over $300 with things you may already have around the house!
March 18th, 2010
To save even more money, one can replace the filter with natural products such as sterilized sand black Charcoal [never brickets] other porous materials such as grasses. Not the very best, but will do in a pinch.
Simply fill the top bucket with 1/3 purified sand, 1/3 Grasses and 1/3 Charcoal on top.
March 25th, 2010
I use a Berkey water filter now. I wish I had found this article earlier could have saved a couple of hundred bucks. I had an idea that you could also use 55 gallon drums with the same set up. Seems like a lot of fly by night dealers for the berkey out there. Here is a reputable place to shop for a Berkey Water Filter . You can find them on Ebay, but try getting ahold of someone if something goes wrong.
March 30th, 2010
My only concern with this setup is the fact that it's using plastic. I didn't purchase the berkey light for this very reason even thought they state it's BPA free. I can't imagine this plastic is any better, but I could always store the filtered water in glass to save a couple hundred bucks. I was going to order a Royal berkey water filter because the Imperials are out of stock, but this solution is worth giving some thought.
March 30th, 2010
My only concern with this setup is the fact that it's using plastic. I didn't purchase the berkey light for this very reason even thought they state it's BPA free. I can't imagine this plastic is any better, but I could always store the filtered water in glass to save a couple hundred bucks. I was going to order a Royal berkey water filter because the Imperials are out of stock, but this solution is worth giving some thought.
April 24th, 2010
A couple of inexpensive aluminum (or stainless steel if you insist) stock pots would be perfect for this. I would like to first filter through layers of sand and activated charcoal, possibly even boil first if water source is really suspect (floodwater). But I'm paranoid. what's your excuse? : )
June 10th, 2010
Hey everybody, just wanted to let you know that I found a good source for the parts and all the Black Berkey elements online. Check out http://www.berkeyproducts.com . They have great prices and excellent service. They all seem to have similar prices on the systems, but these were the best prices on the parts and elements.
August 28th, 2010
Save yourself some money and get a complete Do It yourself System for under $30.00 at the following website http://www.emergency-h2o.com/index.html
I have ordered for my kids to put in the survival kits. They recommend that you use a food grade bucket but when times are real tough I think anything even a trash can that has been thoroughly cleaned can be used. Hope it is of benefit to all to visit this site. It has some real good information and a CNN link showing the filter in action.
Sharon