{"id":2111,"date":"2010-01-21T09:29:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T16:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/?p=2111"},"modified":"2012-03-31T11:33:05","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T18:33:05","slug":"homemade-berkey-water-filter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/homemade-berkey-water-filter\/","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Berkey Water Filter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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<\/p>\n<p>Gather the necessary components. You will need the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>two 5-gallon food grade buckets (got mine from Lowes      for $5 each)<\/li>\n<li>two lids for the buckets (got mine from Lowes for $1.50      each)<\/li>\n<li>a pair of Black Berkey filter elements (ordered mine on      Ebay for $99 which included free shipping and a free Sport Berkey filtered      bottle)<\/li>\n<li>a food grade spigot (the kind used for large coffee      pots or water coolers is perfect, ordered mine from <a href=\"http:\/\/jamesfilter.com\" class=\"broken_link\">jamesfilter.com<\/a> for      $10)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/homemade-berkey-water-filter\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/CrH2J.jpg\" alt=\"Hosted by imgur.com\" \/><\/a><!--more--><br \/>\nDrill two 1\/2&#8243; holes in the bottom of the upper bucket and two matching holes in the lid of the lower bucket.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/XvMfp.jpg\" alt=\"Hosted by imgur.com\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Drill a 3\/4&#8243; 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<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/lDrgb.jpg\" alt=\"Hosted by imgur.com\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Assemble the lower bucket by installing the spigot and the lid with holes.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/3vb10.jpg\" alt=\"Hosted by imgur.com\" \/><br \/>\nInstall the filter elements in the upper bucket through the holes in the bottom.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/YCofI.jpg\" alt=\"Hosted by imgur.com\" \/><br \/>\nAssemble 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.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/I67JW.jpg\" alt=\"Hosted by imgur.com\" \/><br \/>\nTo 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.<\/p>\n<p>Notes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I had no scientific way to test the water quality;      however, the filtered water was clear, had no odor, and tasted similar to      distilled.<\/li>\n<li>The specifications of the Black Berkey elements can be      found here: <a href=\"http:\/\/berkeywater.com\/BerkeyLight\/BB_Purification_Elements.html\" class=\"broken_link\">http:\/\/berkeywater.com\/BerkeyLight\/BB_Purification_Elements.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[Via<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alpharubicon.com\/kids\/homemadeberkeydaire.htm\" class=\"broken_link\"> Alpha Rubicon<\/a>, by Daire]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}