How to Change Berkey Water Filters

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links. Which means if you make a purchase through my links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. For more information, please read my Disclaimer . Power outages, empty shelves in the stores, supply chain disruptions (oh my!) I don’t know about you guys, but this past year has really had me thinking more about emergency preparedness. It’s always been something that is taken into consideration when I prep items to be canned, dehydrated, etc, but especially after last year...it has definitely been at the forefront of my mind. I already have the food storage thing down, but what about water storage? What if there is a natural disaster that knocks out our local water supply? There are so many scenarios besides this, and many that are not as life-threatening, that may call for the need for a water filtration system.  That is why I got a Berkey.

What is a Berkey Water Filter System and What Is So Great About It?

Have you guys ever heard of LifeStraw? It’s a personal, reusable straw that will filter out contaminants from pretty much any water source, making it drinkable. Many people use Lifestraws when they are out hiking or fishing or camping. Well, Berkey is like a bigger version of that, and it does way more. It is a stainless steel water filtration system with a range of products that hold anywhere from 1 quart (.95 liters) to 6 gallons (22.7 liters). They also have a showerhead attachment, a sports water bottle and a portable stainless steel system intended for trips like “camping, school, on your desk at work, travel, in times of emergency or other outdoor activities.” One thing that makes the Berkey water filtration system so great for emergency purposes, camping, hiking, and travel, is that you can take water from any source. You can use muddy river water (check the website for a video demo they have on this), rainwater, or even pool water. Pool water!!! It’s that good!

Boroux Filters are Compatible with Berkey Systems

I found myself needing new filters after two years of using my Berkey. Thankfully, Boroux started selling filters again! I recently was gifted a set of filters in order to replace my old ones. One thing that was impressive was that I did a red dye test with the previous filters and it showed that the filters were still removing contaminants after being used for over two years!  This speaks to the quality of these products. You can get your own filters here and use the code: THECROSSLEGACY for 10% off your order! Changing filters is pretty easy and you can see the full process in my YouTube Video here: How to Change a Berkey Filter

What Types of Contaminants do Berkey's Water Filter Systems Remove?

There is a huge list on the Berkey website that shares all the contaminants that their filters remove, but some of the larger categories include a few more things than regular water filters, like bacteria, protozoa, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and some other well-known chemicals and elements, like lead, uranium, arsenic, chlorine, and a host of others. I found out about Berkey from fellow social media influencers and many of the emergency preparedness groups I am a part of on Facebook. They are very popular and talked about quite a bit in those groups. I decided to check it out.

The is the Water Filter System I Use at Home

The second-largest system they offer, the Royal Berkey, is what I have, and it can filter 6,000 gallons of tap water in the lifetime of the two filters inside. That’s a lot! One of the biggest differences we have noticed with having a Berkey is that we are drinking more water. It’s hard to accurately describe what water from the Berkey filter tastes like unless you have tried it for yourself, but my family has described it as smooth with no aftertaste.

Get Your Own Water Filters

I am so grateful that I discovered these companies. It has really given my family and I some peace of mind to know that we are taken care of when it comes to having clean drinking water, especially in the case of an emergency. We also use these water containers for extra storage. We filter our water through Berkey and then store it in these containers and change out the water every 6 months. Here is the link to the Berkey water filtration system website where you can find all the details.