Best water purification systems, recharge systems for Preppers?

With the downward spiral of society and the economy ensured by Obama's narrow reelection, I am now looking at gear to ensure, or at least greatly improve, my family's survival when TSHTF.

I have 3-4 months supply of food including canned goods, dried goods, MREs and stuff we use regularly. I have ammunition and firearms to protect it and a couple of alternative escape plans just in case. I also have a hand-crank radio and lighting to ensure communication and illumination. Last election season also helped us define which neighbors would be potential allies, most of them military veterans including a guy with a large front yard flagpole and kids who farm and potential looters, those who put out the rare Obama lawn signs in our neighborhood.

Next big worries are alternative fuel (we're looking into propane) and water. Especially water.

You can't store enough water. It is heavy, bulky and must be rotated frequently or you have to buy expensive canned or bottled water especially designed for long term storage. Everyone has some water in their water heater and the back of their toilet tanks which would be safe to use with just a capful or so of chlorine per gallon, but that would provide you with a few days worth of water at best.

We need to get something which could treat readily available unsafe water and turn it into safe water. When TSHTF, the last thing you want to deal with is an even minor intestinal ailment from drinking unsafe water which could develop into something fatal.

Ten years ago they were still selling genuine British Berkefeld filters, made by Fairey Industrial Ceramics in England. The nickname for British Berkefeld at that time was Berkey, and if you have actually had it for 10 years, that is what you have. Those aren’t what is being sold under the name Berkey today. It is the newer filters that have been failing more often than not. In my case, there was a 100% failure rate on my 10 Berkey filters.

New Millenium Concepts started having filters made for them, by a manufacturer that they won’t identify. They called their new product Berkey, because the British Berkefeld folks apparently failed to trademark that name in the United States.

Here is a thread I posted some time ago showing my filters failing the red food color test that the Berkey folks tell you to perform. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2839673/posts

So at this time, unless they finally fixed problem, using a Berkey is no better than using no filter at all.

FYI, I had stomach surgery, then drank unfiltered surface water, assuming it was purified because it came from my Berkey. I nearly died. I had to have emergency surgery and was hospitalized for 5 days. Can I prove that this was because of my Berkey? Believe me, I looked into it. No. When I was rushed to the hospital, they focused on saving my life rather than helping gather evidence for a lawsuit. But there is no other explanation for what happened.

It turns out that there are no federal standards for water purifiers. I tried calling numerous agencies. I finally got one agency yo file a complaint with,the CPSC. I’ve never heard back from them.

I filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General, because New Mellinium Concepts is based there. I got a letter saying they are looking into it.

There are very good reasons why the Berkey can’t be sold in some states. They have testing standards.

So sorry. I interrupted. What were you saying? Chill?

I wonder how many people who rely on unsafe water (from a creek or lake or a well with tainted water), believein Berkeys claims are feeding untreated water to their children, making baby formula with it, giving it to the sick. People with compromised immune systems. I wonder how many people have gotten sick, or even died because of the defective Berkeys! We will never know.

They still advertise that no one has ever gotten sick by drinking from their Berkey. When I called and told them about my case, they ignored it. I continued sounding the alarm in an online forum that was supported by a Berkey dealer, and he contacted NMC to have them contact me so that I would shut the hell up.

They had a manager call me. He blamed ME for my own problems for not doing the red food color test when I got it. I think I’m entitled to a little leeway here. They didn’t include instructions in the box. They also didn’t include one of the plugs that was supposed to come with it. They didn’t include the knob that was supposed to be used to lift the lid, so I had to make my own from a drawer pull. Apparently they have NO QUALITY CONTROL! Anyway, I have read online that others got screamed at by the same manager, and they were also blamed for failed Berkeys. That is customer service for you!

NMC learned in late 2010 that they had a defective batch of filter candles. The online complaints from customers said that the filter medium was poorly glued to the base. There were large gaps in the glue that allowed water to go through the gap, and bypass the filter medium. The result is people drinking unfiltered water.

Then, they made some kind of change. They started using huge globs of glue ( as seen in the photos at the link I posted). But the glue either doesn’t adhere to the plastic, or it adheres for a brief time, then releases. Once again, the result is people drinking unfiltered water from their Berkey, without even knowing it.

Do yourself a favor. Google’defective Berkey, and educate yourself.

When you need replacement filter candles, get either genuine British Berkefeld or Doulton. They are identical, and manufactured in the same plant in England, or get Aqua Cera. They will fit in your Berkey housing, and cost half what a Berkey filter candle costs.

Please don’t trust your life to a Berkey. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through, no matter how disrespectful or dismissive they are.

There is the stainless steel filter housing. That isn’t defective. What is defective is the filter candles. The infamous Black Berkey element!

The Doulton filter candles, genuine British Berkefeld, and Aqua Cera filter candles will fit in the Berkey housing. I currently have Aqua Cera filters in my Royal Berkey housing. All three of those are high quality, and I haven’t been able to find ANY reports of defects on those.

The Texas company that makes Berkey, actually created knockoffs of Genuine British Berkefeld filters, which had the iconic stainless steel housing. They used the same size holes in the bottom of he chamber to fit the filter candles.

They had their own stainless steel housings made for them to look identical to the original British Berkefeld. The only difference I could see is the name stamped on the front. They started having their own filter candles made and started selling them using the Berkey name.

I actually went through stacks of homesteady type magazines to see when the bait and switch happened. New Millenium Concepts was selling Genuine British Berkefeld filters (calling them the Berkey), touting themselves as the only authorized dealer in the US (or something to that effect) in one magazine. By the next issue, I think in 2003 or there abouts, they were still touting themselves as the only authorized dealer of British Berkefeld I the US, but they had taken the name Berkey for their new knock off product. I am guessing that British Berkefeld failed yo trademark the name Berkey in the US. Otherwise, I can’t see how NMC got away with this.

Their customers were fooled. I know I was.

And they successfully conned stupid schlubs like me into thinking I was getting the real McCoy, a genuine British Berkefeld. I have seen lots of other folks who don’t realize that Berkey is no longer Genuine British Betkefeld. That is what I thought when I bought mine.

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