Quick Berkey Question

[OnlyMe]

I'm looking at getting a Berkey and thought I was all set until I realized I had to choose between Black and Ceramic filters.

Does anyone know the difference?

Thanks so much!

[Cyngbaeld]

Ceramic can be scrubbed and reused pretty much indefinitely as long as you don't wear them down too much. Black filter out more chemical contamination than the ceramic, but have a shorter lifespan.

[Explorer]

Black Berkey filters are advertised to last for 6,000 gal for a pair.

[ne prairiemama]

We have the black and they do last a long long time even with our family size.

[julieq]

We just bought the black and love them as compared to our previous ceramic filters. Our well water is pretty bad, but we couldn't stand the taste of it with the ceramic filters. With the new black filters we're drinking it without any problems.

[mightybooboo]

Ceramic takes out pathogens,black is charcoal for chemicals I believe.

[OnlyMe]

Thanks so much all ~ I knew you were the perfect "go to" group.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by Explorer

Black Berkey filters are advertised to last for 6,000 gal for a pair.

How much water they will handle, or how long they will last depends on how dirty the water is.

Our well water was in pretty bad shape, so we got a Berkey-Feld with four white candle-filters and clogged them within a month.

For us it turned out to be more economical to hire a well expert to come out and find what the actual problem was with the well.

[Explorer]

Originally Posted by ET1 SS

How much water they will handle, or how long they will last depends on how dirty the water is.

Our well water was in pretty bad shape, so we got a Berkey-Feld with four white candle-filters and clogged them within a month.

For us it turned out to be more economical to hire a well expert to come out and find what the actual problem was with the well.

I have white ones also which I use to pre filter water before running through the black ones. The white ones are very easy to clean and good to go again.

[FourDeuce]

"How much water they will handle, or how long they will last depends on how dirty the water is."

You can pre-filter the water using coffee filters or some other type of mechanical filters. That will help extend the useful life of the filters and keep the Berkey cleaner longer.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by Explorer

I have white ones also which I use to pre filter water before running through the black ones. The white ones are very easy to clean and good to go again.

Yes, of course, we agree

The white candles have charcoal inside too.

The white ceramic gets clogged. You rinse them off in a tertiary clean water source while gently scrubbing the outer most layer off, and then you can re-use them again.

They get clogged, you scrub them and reuse them and they get clogged, so you scrub them and reuse them and they get clogged, so you ...

For us they got clogged about monthly, needing to be rescrubbed.

Fortunately [for us] our well problem started in September and was finally fixed in May. So our candles only really needed to be scrubbed 6 times during that period of time.

I am not sure how many times they can withstand being scrubbed. Until you need to buy replacement candles.

I have read that after between 6 and 8 scrubbings you scrub through the outer ceramic shell and need to replace them. For us that would have been less than a year of usage.

It is just two of us here, and we only used the filter for drinking water [not dishwashing].

[mypatriotsupply]

I have used both, and overall I prefer the Black Filter Elements.

[Explorer]

Thanks, I didn't know the limit of scrubbing the white ones was so small as I have only had to clean mine once from a camping trip in the last two years.