The filtration is very fast, is this normal?
Congratulations! That means your Black Berkey® filters have been primed perfectly!
The water flows in a trickle as soon as you fill the top tank. It is the weight of the water column that forces the water through the filters. Once the water column is smaller (between the last third and half), the water flows in a fast drip.
The strength and performance of Black Berkey® filters is the microchannels that take a tortuous path so that the water is in contact with the filter over a long distance, but because there are millions of them, the water is ultimately filtered very quickly.
In general, a full tank is filtered in 45 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. If this is not the case, it means that your filters are not primed properly. You must then redo the priming by following the recommendations provided in your manual.
If you find that filtration is really fast (10 to 20 minutes), again, don't panic! The filtration speed indicated by the manufacturer is an average and a very fast filtration does not mean that the filters have failed. First of all, check that your black gaskets are properly installed on the upper tank side and that the blocking plugs are properly in place and tightened (except for the Travel model). Also, make sure the wing nuts are tight enough (but not too tight). After that, when the water is being filtered, check, by lifting the top tank, that the water is flowing only through the end of the threaded rods of the Black Berkey® filters. Finally, if after all these verifications made and validated by you, if the filtration is still as fast, you can do a red dye test with the recommendations indicated on your instructions or in our FAQ. This is the ultimate step that will determine if your filters are performing well or not.
Black Berkey® Elements
FAQs From Same Category
The composition of the purification elements Black Berkey® used in Berkey® systems is an exclusive, patent-protected formulation based on the assembly of six different types of specific media, including very high quality activated carbon. Assembled in a very compact matrix containing millions of microscopic pores, they allow the creation of a "tortuous path" through which the water will pass but not the pollutants. Indeed, these channels are so fine that all undesirable elements are inevitably captured. Through absorption and adsorption, even submicron viruses are blocked, which other water filters cannot achieve without chemicals.
The activated carbon block is impregnated with an ion exchange resin. Activated carbon adsorbs or chemically binds to organic compounds, such as petroleum-based fuels and solvents, many pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Ion exchange resin removes many dissolved metals from water by exchanging toxic heavy metals (such as lead, mercury and cadmium) for lighter, essentially harmless metals (such as sodium, the main component of table salt). All this allows for a complete and extremely efficient filtration.
Furthermore, the manufacturer Berkey® New Millenium Concept Ltd. confirms that no graphene oxide is used in the composition of the elements.
More details can be found on the page dedicated to the operation of Berkey® water filters.
That's right! Silver is used as an anti-microbial so that each Black Berkey® element can self-sterilize. Analysis was performed by an independent laboratory to ensure that the silver used does not dissolve in the purified water and this is exactly the case. The analysis concludes, "All control samples, including stock samples, positive and negative analytical controls, and the negative control collected prior to plating gave appropriate results and were accepted. Results for the leaching control samples (effluent sample spiked with MS2 and R. terrigena and analyzed at two time points) were quite similar, suggesting that no active antimicrobial agents dissolved in the treated water."
You can check the results in this full report.
Yes! BPA is not present in any Berkey® system or any part of it. No BPA in Black Berkey® filters and no BPA in the Berkey Light® or Sport Berkey® Filter Bottle either.
Effectively, water that passes through Black Berkey® filters tends to be more basic than it was before. Its pH goes up. And that's actually a good thing... This is because pathogenic bacteria and viruses tend to thrive in acidic environments and have difficulty surviving in alkaline environments. And the higher the pH, the more alkalinity there is.
Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that the final pH level of the treated water may depend on other factors, such as the pH level of the water before filtration.