When you are looking for a good water filtration system, you should consider a Berkey Water System. The truth is that the brand has been around for many years and they have been getting a lot of positive feedback from users. And this is always a good sign.

However, when you take a look at the Berkey Water System website, you may be a bit confused. After all, with so many different systems, how can you ensure that you’re choosing the right one for you?

So, we decided to give you a hand. Here are all the steps that you need to take to ensure that you choose the right Berkey Water System for you.

Steps To Determine The Best Berkey Water System For You

Step #1: The Berkey Gravity Filtration System

When you are looking to determine the best Berkey Water System for you, the first thing you need to consider is their gravity system.

One of the things that you need to know about Berkey Water Systems is that they include an upper and a lower chamber. This way, your water source either river, pond, well or tap water will be poured into the upper chamber. This is where it will go through multiple filters (using gravity), until it reaches the lower chamber, the purified water chamber.

While other brands use the same type of filtration system, the Berkey Water Systems tend to be better because of the filter ingredients that they use. In addition, the water stays in contact with all these filters for a longer time which helps to remove all the contaminants in a much more effective way.

The brand has 6 different system sizes. Each one of these filters includes 2 filters in the upper chamber. The larger the system, the more capacity they hold which also improves the speed of filtration.

Step #2: Choosing A Berkey Water System Filter Size

The truth is that this is one of the most common problems people have. They just don’t know which system size they should pick.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the better. As long as you have room in your home, no matter if it is in the plant stand, table or kitchen counter, the biggest is usually better. After all, the bigger the system is, the less often you will need to refill it making it a lot more convenient.

As if this wasn’t enough, the more water the upper chamber can take, the more pressure is placed on the filters. So, this will make the water go through the filters faster while maintaining the same filtration results.

Notice that in order to choose the right size of the Berkey Water System for your home you need to take into consideration the number of individuals that live there as well as if you are only going to use the water to drink or to cook as well.

Here are some sizing guidelines:

– Travel Berkey (1.5g) ~ 1-3 ppl

– Big Berkey (2.25g) ~ 1-4 ppl

– Berkey Light (2.75g) ~ 2-5 ppl

– Royal Berkey (3.25g) ~ 2-6 ppl

– Imperial Berkey (4.5g) ~ 4-8+ ppl

Step # 3:  Choosing Your Berkey Filters

As we already mentioned above, the Berkey Water System includes two different chambers: the upper chamber and the lower chamber.

– The Upper Chamber Filters:

Each standard Berkey Water System comes with two filters in the upper chamber.

One of the things that you need to keep in mind about filters is that the number of filters used in the upper chamber won’t improve the water filtration. Nevertheless, the higher the number of filters, the faster the filtration speed as well as the higher the volume of water that can be filtered.

– The Lower Chamber Filters:

The lower chamber filters are often called as the PF (Post Filtration) filters.

There are mainly two different types of lower chamber filters: the PF-2’s and the PF-4s. Each one of them is specifically designed to work with a specific type of filter. In the case of the PF-2’s, they are designed to work with the Black Berkey’s while the PF-4’s are designed to work with the ceramic filters.

Notice that lower chamber filters are optional. However, in case your municipality adds fluoride to your water, then you should consider adding them.