Make Your Own

Water Filtering System 

It is pretty easy to make your own water filtering system using a couple of buckets, a spigot and some Black Berkey^® Purification Elements.

• Collect the following materials: 
• • One or two Black Berkey^® Purification Elements. See ad to the right or below. 
  • Two 5 gallon food grade buckets 
  • Two lids for the buckets. Some people recommend using the screw on lids (Gamma lids) so they can be easily removed later and this will allow the system to dry thoroughly when not in use. However, we have found that they are not needed and you can save some money if you just use the lids that come with your buckets.
  • One food grade spigot. Be sure to get one that is made to fit a curved wall like the side of your bucket. Some spigots are made for a flat surface and they may leak on a curved wall. To see some Spigots, try these links: 

• Put the lid on one of the buckets and set the second bucket on top of it. 
• Mark one or two holes in the bottom of the top bucket depending on whether you want to use one or two purification elements 
• Drill a 1/2" hole for each purification element through the bottom of the top bucket and into and through the lid of the bottom bucket. 

• Drill a 3/4" hole in the side of the bottom bucket near the bottom. This is for the spigot so be careful to leave enough room for the spigot to be installed and not touch the tabletop. Note: Before drilling this hole, make sure the spigot you have requires a 3/4" hole, if not drill a hole of the correct size to match your spigot. 

• Install the purification elements and the accompanying washers into the holes in the bottom of the top bucket and into the holes in the lid of the bottom bucket such that the filters stick up into the top bucket. Use care in handling the purification elements as they are fragile and if you crack or chip one, it may not work properly. We like to use the bubble wrap that they came with to handle them. When tightening the nut, just hand tighten so you don't break them. Also, this will make it easier to dissemble them when you store them. 

• Install the spigot and its accompanying washer(s) into the hole near the bottom of the bottom bucket per instructions that come with your spigot (sold separately). 

• Stack the buckets and fill the top one with unpurified water. Put in 1 Tablespoon of Red Food Coloring and at least one gallon of water. Watch to see if the red water gets through to the bottom bucket.

• When water appears in the bottom bucket, draw yourself a glass of clean, pure water.

• Note: It is important to try your Black Berkey Purification Elements while they are still under the 30 day warranty. If there is a problem, return them for a free exchange. Click here to learn how to test them.
• It is normal for new elements to take up to 30 minutes before they begin to drip for the first time. If your purification elements seem like they take longer than that to begin dripping, you can help things if you will prime them. This is a process that is described in instructions that come with the purification elements. In short, you will use a special tan rubber priming button (comes with your elements) to direct water from your faucet to the purification elements. This process is shown below.

• Enjoy! 

  Buy Yours Now!

Now you can purchase a pair of Black Berkey^® Purification Elements for Only $107.00 which includes S/H. MSRP is $114.00.

We can only ship to the Lower 48 States in the USA.