Bought a Berkey!

I had been saying it for 4 years, " I'm going to get a water purifier when I can afford one damn it"

Well I finally ordered a Big Berkey System. ....And with me being a tight-ass with the fiat paper, I went through Berkey's "Scratch-N-Dent" section on their site. They had a "Travel Berkey" in there, it was selling for $212, normally $249. I also purchased two of the Berkey "White" Filters (They're for removing arsenic & fluorides). Fine, so I ordered it, well while entering ordering info, they wanted $16.43 for a State sales tax????? WHA???

SO I sent a bitch letter saying this was new to me, don't like it, etc, a reply comes back later, saying, sorry, it's a new thing the congress critters passed,outta their hands, blah blah blah, well I replied stating I wasn't happy w/ this, could not find this new "thing", and I refuse to feed the pigs until they actually start doing something for We, The People first. You folks may think this is a trivial "thing" to you, but it means a great deal to me. I now may want to cancel this order. I get nothing back for a reply.

4 days later I get a UPS package in, and it wasn't a scratch & dent 2.75gal Travel Berkey at all...  it was a New, Metal, Berkey Royal ($305) with 2 Berkey Black filters and 2 White PF2 filters. (41$) for a grand total =$346

So I basically bitched about a 16$ state sales tax, and got about a $100 upgrade.... or somebody massively screwed up in shipping...lolz

Had to run 1st 2 batches just to clear out the filter residue, even after cleaning & priming the filters. I think I'm liking it so far. Ice cubes actually look different too. 3.25 gallons per batch, if I make 1 batch a day, the filters are supposed to last a lil over a year, so that's a bonus.

the 2 black filters go inside, through holes in the bottom of top tank. There are 4 holes, I'm using 2 and they included 2 washer-type plugs for unused holes. 

this is the upper tank, flipped upside down, the 2 black filters are attached to the bottom, INSIDE the tank, then the 2 white fluoride/arsenic filters are then threaded onto the bottom of the 2 Black filters, they warn only to thread the white filters onto the black ones with 8 turns max because of possible damage to the membrane. the 2 white nubs with threads are the stopper plugs.

Then simply set the whole assembly on top of the reservoir tank. Fill the top tank with your favorite city's sewage water supply or whatever you happen to have on tap... lolz  ....and let gravity do the rest ........and then Ta-Da!!!, you'll have 3.25 gallons of purified H2O, 99.95% free of Fluoride, Pathogens, Heavy Metals, Monsanto chemicals, Pesticides, etc. The Berkey folk recommend running the 1st batch just to clear up any remaining manufacturing residue inside the filters. Personally, I'd recommend 2 minimum, maybe even a 3rd time. On my 3rd batch it had cleared, but had a strange slight unnatural aftertaste to it.

4th time was a charm!

The hardest part,...and it's really not hard, is to clean and prime the filters on initial use. I couldn't take pics of that because i needed both hands to hold pressure from faucet. Basically, you clean of the outside of the filters with a mild detergent, water. They include a brown "Priming" washer, ...or you could order their $36 Now $23 Priming pump lolz!

the brown washer works fine though, ya wet the washer, remove the packing plugs off filter end, place washer between the top of filter, and the faucet, with both hands kind of grip faucet with thumb while holding it against the filter, turn on the cold, slowly, gently. It will take a few secs for the filter to fill up, then it'll puke out dark water, then clear up, they recommend 20 second flush, I recommend a 40 second flush. then you flip the filter around and repeat that on the other end, note this back-flow flip are for the white arsenic/fluoride filters only, the black ones only have an output. The white filters also have a one way flow, indicating direction with a red arrow sticker. Now I removed these stickers off the white filters simply because these white filters actually sit IN the finished product, so kind of redundant to have plasticine's and BPA's leech off a sticker into newly purified water right?

Next day, I'm now making everything with it, coffe, tea, cooking. Make my ice with it too. It's just me and my "Special-Needs" Red Nosed Pit, so I see the filter life almost doubling so far if I make one every other day?, we'll see. May start using it for my "Special-Needs" (I need) Plants as well ;) Even with my old, wore out ass tasting taste buds, I can tell there's a difference....and the big bonus & main reason I got this was so I could quit having to smell that gawdamn chlorine clorax smell at 5am.... Yuck! I'd like to get before and after samples tested. I have a guy in the water biz too, may have to call in a favor.... w00t!!!

They're giving a system with all the xtra stuff away here rather shortly if anybody wants to risk an email address ;) 

Royal Tumblette Bundle Giveaway

The Berkey people seem genuinely caring, accessories seem a bit pricey to me, $35 for a metal stand for this rig??, $23 for a metal spigot, etc

https://www.berkeyfilters.com