It was time to clean my Berkey water filters. HOLY MOTHER!
It's no wonder my Berkey water filter was slow as Christmas, there was a gelatinous goo coating the filters. When I started scrubbing them giant flakes of brown, gooey crap started sheeting off.
I don't know what kind of garbage is in the water around these parts but that was pretty disgusting. It's all good now. Filtering like new.
Got a Berkey? Scrub those filters every 6 months minimum.
Wow, I went two years without cleaning my Berkey filters. Just replaced them, though.
City water is disgusting
I have a Big Berkey and smaller one for TEOTWAWKI but thankfully my well water here is good so no need to use them.
Did the filters get that nasty on just your tap water?
100% city tap water. I didn't try and experiment with pond water or anything.
I'm pretty sure the gelatinous goo was biofilm produced by bacteria. I am definitely not waiting this long to clean them again.
I'm glad you checked it. You do not want to be drinking that shit.
I saw a couple of YT vids on the hit-and-miss effectiveness of the Berkey's recently but did not save the links.
Thanks for the reminder
haha I legit just posted a note about repriming my Berkey. great minds think alike.
Use a plastic/soft scourer with a half fill of water.
You shouldn't need to scrub the filter to get the sediment off, just a light brush.
Mine generally last years with the ceramic eventually wearing through from the light scrub. I'm only filtering rain water so I'm not concerned about removing fluoride.
I used one of those soft Scotchbrite dish scrubbers. The kind with the sponge on one side and the more stout bristly stuff on the other. I didn't scrub them very hard, just enough to get that crap off.
Yeah I'd probably look for a softer one. It just depends on how long you want your filters to last. I'm just taking sediment out, so I want them to last for as long as possible.
We have a dedicated scourer that doesn't get used for dishes (ideally you don't want detergents in contact with your filter candles).
Good to know! Thank you.
I put my spring water through mine, so yea thanks, tomorrow….
If one lives in California, what’s the next best water filtration system?
