55 Gallon Water Barrel Review
By Jeff | January 3, 2012
The 55 Gallon Water Barrel is one of the most popular water storage barrels available today, as lots and lots of people are buying it. If you’re looking for a quality and BPA free water barrel, then this could be the perfect solution.
I’ve personally researched this and there really aren’t that many quality ones out there. Something I keep hearing from people is that there are several reasons as to why they want to buy one. Some people buy them for normal preparation such as for earthquakes, hurricanes and any other disaster.
You can go a few days without food but it’s vitally important to have water on hand. I would personally much rather have water stored and ready to go through my Berkey water filter than have to leave my house and stand in a mile long line for handouts.
This emergency water storage drum is a best seller, but there are a few things you should know about it before you buy, so let’s find out why.
Read the rest of the “55 Gallon Water Barrel” review:
Topics: 55 gallon water barrel, drinking water, emergencies, health, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
Sport Berkey Water Filter Review
By Jeff | December 7, 2011
I’ve recently been talking to someone about the Sport Berkey because his oldest son and some friends are traveling abroad and he wants to make sure they are drinking clean water.
So many times people from North America travel places and end up getting sick because the water they consume is filled with bacteria and other contaminants.
I remember when I traveled outside of the country once and I got sick the very first day because of water I drank. Guess what? It was my honeymoon! Not the best time to drink contaminated water.
I battled through and made it home but I learned my lesson.
What Does The Sport Berkey Do?
The Berkey Sport bottle is around 11 inches high and is very lightweight. It uses an ionic adsorption micro filtration system.
The black filter sits in the bottle and whenever you pour water in it the water travels through the filter, up through the straw and you have clean water.
Here is what it eliminates or reduces up to 99%.
- Unpleasant taste and odors, cloudiness, silt, sediment and chlorine.
- Toxic chemicals: Trihalomethanes, VOCs, detergents, pesticides, etc.
- Harmful microscopic pathogens: Cryptosporidium, Giardia, E-coli >99.99999% and other pathogenic bacteria.
- Heavy metals: Aluminum, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Lead, and Mercury.
- Radiologicals: Radon 222
When you get the Sport Berkey portable water purifier here’s what you should do.
Fill the Berkey Sport with water, screw on the cap and tighten. Flush water through filter by pulling down the lever, so that the straw is exposed, and squeeze water through the filter and out the straw.
Repeat this flushing process twice before drinking. This removes excess process dust from the filter. After two flushes, rinse the bottle and cap. You are good to go after that!
The Sport Berkey And My Experiences
As I mentioned earlier, I learned my lesson about drinking contaminated water and so on my next trip overseas I brought a Berkey Sport bottle and I didn’t get sick.
I filled the bottle with the foreign country’s water and drank it all day long whether it was from the dining areas or from the tap in my room.
I have also brought it with me all around the United States. Whether vacations or business trips, these bottles are very easy to carry around.
Some people are a little worried about what people will think if you’re at dinner and suddenly pull out this blue water bottle to filter their water.
You can’t worry about that because many people don’t understand what’s actually in the tap water that is possibly harmful.
It’s not just tap water, though. You can use this bottle for other questionable sources of water, including remote lakes, streams and stagnant ponds.
The Sport Berkey is very useful, very healthy and very affordable so keep all this information in mind the next time you leave the country for a trip.
Topics: berkey water filter, contaminated water, drinking water, emergencies, health, life, preparedness, sport berkey, survival, water | 2 Comments »
Berkey Water Filter Review – Finally, Clean Water You Can Enjoy
By Jeff | December 1, 2011
Believe it or not, I’ve never written a Berkey water filter review. I was looking at all my posts the other day and I had one of those “huh?” moments.
Sometimes I assume most people already know the ins and outs of this water purifying system. Many people might but they have never really heard about my experiences with it.
I owe it to everyone to fully disclose the truth about my experiences with Berkey.
Bekrey Water Filter Review – The Actual Systems
I bought my first system in 2006 and it was the Travel Berkey stainless steel one. It’s the smallest of the bunch at the time and it was just my wife and I.
After learning for over a year about all the contaminants in the tap water, we were eager to receive help. We learned a lot about heavy metals as well as fluoride in the water. Therefore, I bought the PF2 fluoride and arsenic filters to go along with it.
When it arrived at our apartment I was super excited! We followed all the instructions with priming the filters and then filling it up a few times to filter completely before drinking.
Then came the first taste. Wow! We were blown away! The water was so spectacular. We’ve never drank anything so tasty in our lives. We marveled for weeks and months.
We had people come over and they loved the taste too. Of course there were individuals who scoffed at us and told us tap water was just as good and healthy.
We even had one person tell it might be unhealthy to filter out fluoride. Despite evidence that ingesting fluoride really doesn’t benefit your teeth, this person didn’t want to believe it.
We enjoyed this Berkey system for a good while until…we started having kids. We had two kids and we also desired to use as much of the purified water for cooking as possible.
We had to upgrade and I decided to purchase the Berkey Light. Although not a stainless steel system, the Berkey Light was big enough for our needs and we love the look of it.
It has a storage capacity of about 2.75 gallons and when in use it stands 26.5 in height with a diameter of 9. This was perfect for us and our countertop.
We’ve had this system for several years and we use it every day.
Overall, we’ve loved our Berkey purifiers and really feel as though our health is better because daily we are drinking truly pure water.
I love the Berkey Light, but if our family grows more then we might check out the Royal Berkey stainless steel system.
Berkey Water Filter Review – A Few Things To Maintain
Nothing in this world is perfect and sometimes things need maintenance, such as our cars. Our vehicles need an oil change every now and then and sometimes the Berkey needs a little work.
For instance, ever so often it’s really good to clean the system inside and out with warm water and mild soap. Here’s the biggie. Make sure you scrub the black Berkey filter every now and then.
After a lot of use the flow rate decreases and that’s not a big problem. All you have to do is what they recommend, which is to take them out of the system and lightly scrub them with one of those green scotch pads.
Rinse them under the water and put it all back together. That’s it!
There you have it! This has been my honest and candid Berkey water filter review which I stand by and hope you gained some new insight into these systems.
Topics: berkey water filter, drinking water, emergencies, fluoride, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
E. Coli Water Treatment Is Easy
By Jeff | November 23, 2011
E. coli water treatment is quite easy if you have the right tools. First, let’s explore a little more on what E. coli water treatment is.
Escherichia coli is commonly found in the lower intestine. Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some forms of it can cause serious food poisoning in humans.
We’ve all heard of people getting E. coli poisoning from eating at fast food restaurants or from tainted lettuce from places like California.
E. Coli Water Treatment – Why?
The reason we want to eliminate this bacteria from our water is simple. We don’t want to get sick. Is it really in our water supply? Yes.
Let’s face it, our water treatment facilities don’t catch everything and that’s why we need to be prepared. I just read an article today talking about how there is a strong correlation between the levels of caffeine in water and the level of bacteria, (especially E. coli).
In fact, I saw two more articles recently talking about E. coli water contamination. One town in America even had to send out a letter and said, “Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard.”
Their tests found possible E. coli contamination in their treated water.
All you have to do is search on the Internet and you will see daily reports about this harmful bacteria in the water.
E. Coli Water Treatment Is Easy With The Black Berkey Filters
Many of you already know how powerful the Black Berkey elements are when used in your water filter system. They remove so many contaminants it’s crazy.
Did you know they also remove E. coli to below detectable levels? What a relief! The last thing I want to worry about is if I’m gulping this bacteria every time I take a drink.
These filters have been properly tested and certified so I have complete faith I’m drinking bacteria-free water.
They also remove other bacteria, cysts, and parasites such as Klebsiella, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Giardia and Cryptosporidium.
It’s time more of us become a little more self sufficient and the reason why is because we can’t afford not to.
Yes, we faithfully give tax dollars to the water treatment places that do eliminate certain contaminants, but more often than not it still comes back with harmful ingredients.
I encourage you today to check out one of the Berkey water filter systems because they can save you from enduring sickness brought on by bacteria.
E. coli water treatment is something you can do at home for yourself, so get started today taking your health into your own hands.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: contaminated water, drinking water, e coli in water, emergencies, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
Water Filters That Remove Fluoride
By Jeff | November 16, 2011
I’m here to tell you that it is 100 percent true there are water filters that remove fluoride. The Berkey PF2 fluoride filters have been tested and approved to reduce it up to 99.75%.
What’s the big deal about fluoride, you might be asking. Fluoride greatly reduces the development of a child’s brain which lowers their IQ, a basic measure of intelligence.
Fluoride collects in bones and the thyroid gland where it acts as a thyroid poison thus potentially causing bone cancer, hypothyroidism and thyroid cancer.
Fluoride can diminish bone strength and increase the risk for bone fracture. Did you know tooth decay is high in low-income communities that have been fluoridated for years? It’s true.
Water Filters That Remove Fluoride – I Use The Best One
Recently, a person commented on this site saying, “I have researched how to remove fluoride from water and have been told by experts that only reverse osmosis water filters will remove fluoride.”
There is a fine line between the words remove and reduce. There are many water filters that remove fluoride but maybe not completely.
For instance, the Berkey PF2 fluoride and arsenic filters reduce fluoride by 99.75 percent based on official testing. I don’t want to bore you with technical data but…
“Testing for fluoride was based on 20-30ppm of the ion in the influent aqueous solution at a flow rate of no
more than 3 gpm per cubic foot of media.”
Now, I have also heard that reverse osmosis does a good job of removing fluoride but I’ve never been attracted to the negatives, such as a lack of healthy minerals and the concept of using twice the amount of water to drink one half of it.
Water Filters That Remove Fluoride – Berkey Is The Best
It may appear that I’m biased and I guess I am. I’ve bought and used many water filters in my day and none of them compare to the Berkey.
When I found them in the mid-2000s I immediately got a sense they very much resonated with health conscience individuals. People were getting sick and tired of the bacteria, pesticides, heavy metals and fluoride in their drinking water.
Tap water was making people sick and there really was no other solution. There is a reason why missionaries and the Red Cross use Berkey’s and not reverse osmosis.
Reliability, quality and cost. These are the reasons why I have used them since 2006.
Let’s put all rumors aside because it is 100 percent true that there are water filters that remove fluoride.
Topics: drinking water, emergencies, fluoride, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
Dangers of Sports Drinks
By Jeff | November 9, 2011
When I was a kid growing up, there weren’t any real dangers from sports drinks. Today there are numerous sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade and you should really think twice before drinking them.
There are many multi-million dollar advertisements on TV using sports heroes of the day to sell you these drinks. The messages of these ads are like most products these days.
If you use this product you will become just like the star who is making money off of the advertisement.
Dangers of Sports Drinks – False Claims
I think we already know most TV commercials don’t live up to what they portray. Do you really think drinking Gatorade is going to allow you to slam dunk like Michael Jordan? No!
Do you really think you’ll hit a baseball further, tackle harder, jump higher or race a car faster all because of a special sports drink?
What these companies are doing is saying that the liquid in their product will help you rehydrate your body after exertion. These beverages are marketed towards the every day active person.
The weird thing is that if you look at the ingredients you’ll see they are very similar to soft drinks. For instance, Gatorade has sucrose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors.
Powerade contains high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, citric acid, salt, potassium citrate, modified food starch, potassium phosphate and natural flavors.
Dangers of Sports Drinks – The Problems
Dental experts have said that sports drinks cause erosive effects on the teeth, even causing holes to appear. This is caused by the citric acid and even brushing your teeth would be harmful because the tooth enamel is softened in the process.
These sports drinks also contain a ton of sugar, salt and high fructose corn syrup, which are all related to obesity.
Even the sugar free sports drinks are dangerous because they contain artificial sweeteners which are even worse for you than sugar and HFCS.
Some people are correct and accurate when they say coconut water is the best source to rehydrate yourself. I’m an everyday guy, though, and know that most people won’t have this stocked in their kitchen.
The best way I know how to re-energize the body after exercise, sports or any strenuous activity is to drink pure, clean water and even have a banana which is high in potassium. This is what high school football players should be consuming during their half time.
There are dangers of sports drinks you should be aware of and purified water is the solution.
Topics: drinking water, health, kitchen, life, sports drinks, water | 2 Comments »
Drinking Contaminated Water Is Avoidable
By Jeff | November 1, 2011
Drinking contaminated water is commonplace all over the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a third world country or a big first world country.
Many people get sick immediately and others get sick over time. The end result is the same. Unfortunately I have to report that some people die because of water contamination.
Some people damage their organs and over time the function of those organs is less than optimal.
Clean water is something we all need no matter race or geographical area. It makes me quite sad to see people struggling to find purified water.
Drinking Contaminated Water – Examples
You can literally pull up article after article every single day with examples in all countries about contaminated water.
I’ll give you a few examples from today. Some are outrageous!
- “A Japanese MP drunk water collected from a radioactive puddle inside the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant”
- “Water wells in the country are contaminated with bacteria”
- “Contaminated water advisory issued in Fort Lauderdale”
- “Whistleblower fired after claims of contaminated water”
I could go on and on but the point I’m trying to make is … we’re finding contaminated water every day somewhere in the world and most likely within 100 miles of where you’re living.
You may think you’re safe because you drink treated city water, but I’m afraid that water is contaminated too.
I wrote an article last year that talked about the Environmental Working Group reviewing 20 million records of water utility companies in the U.S. and 316 pollutants were found in the tap water you drink.
Many contaminants found in your treated drinking water are disinfection byproducts, nitrate and arsenic. It was said that half of the contaminants in the water are not subject to health or safety regulations.
Drinking Contaminated Water Isn’t Necessary
We don’t have to despair too much, though, because a quality gravity water filter can purify your water and making it the safest water possible to drink.
I personally use one that filters out bacteria, pesticides, herbicides, VOCs, nitrates, nitrites and even arsenic. These are contaminants that can really harm your health.
As I stated earlier, most of those I just listed above aren’t eliminated from city treated water. My friends, whether we want to or not, we must become a little more self reliant to even be semi-healthy.
We shouldn’t have to resort to drinking contaminated water because we can make the choice today to get a countertop water filter and not have to worry.
Topics: contaminated water, drinking water, emergencies, fluoride, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
How To Remove Fluoride From Water
By Jeff | October 28, 2011
The reason we need to know how to remove fluoride from water is because it is a known toxin that is proven to damage human health.
It has been shown to cause dental fluorosis, brain damage, lower IQ, non-IQ neurotoxic effects such as fetal brain damage, harmful effects to the pineal gland, disruption of thyroid function, bone damage, kidney damage, bone cancer, reproductive problems, and the list goes on.
Fluoride was used as an insecticide and rat poison before it was dumped in our drinking water. It is a pollutant and a by-product of iron, copper and aluminum manufacturing.
Did you know fluoride is the only chemical added to drinking water for the purpose of medication (to prevent tooth decay). This is just the surface of the issues involved with water and toothpaste fluoridation.
You really have to ask yourself why in the world is this toxic chemical still being pushed on us.
How To Remove Fluoride From Water – The First Solution
The first solution is very simple. Have an ordinance passed in your town effectively banning the dumping of fluoride into your drinking water.
Several towns all over the United States have done this. Spring Hill, TN did it a while back and most recently Palmer, Alaska did it too.
Public outcry and hard work ended their water fluoridation mandate. Good for them! Both Fairbanks and Juneau have already ended this unhealthy practice.
Not only will they have this toxic chemical out of their water, but the towns save lots of money and labor that is put into placing the toxic chemical into the water supply.
The people in Alaska have gone on to say that this practice of fluoridation is not moral or ethical.
Did you know that 99 percent of Western Europe has ended this practice too?
How To Remove Fluoride From Water – The Second Solution
For those of us still waiting for the people in our towns to protest and have the city council vote on this matter, we need an alternative way to get rid of this poison before drinking it.
My family and a multitude of others are using special fluoride filters that remove this nasty chemical up to 95 percent when there is less than 1 ppm of the fluoride ion and 99.75% when there is less than 50 ppb.
These special fluoride filters attach to the gravity water filter system we use called the Berkey water filter system that gets rid of other toxic substances in the water.
We love our filters and it is the best way we know how to remove fluoride from water besides getting city council to vote it out.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: drinking water, emergencies, fluoride, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
How To Get Clean Drinking Water
By Jeff | October 26, 2011
There is quite a bit of contaminants and pollution in what we drink and bathe in and if you’re like me I want to know how to get clean drinking water to keep me healthy.
Headline after headline every day tells a story. “Study keeps up stink over polluted river.” “Experts warn over pollution levels in Lake Victoria.” “Notices of Water Contamination, Once Again.”
Those are from one day and I could have listed hundreds more.
Add onto that the fact that the municipal water companies add toxic fluoride and chlorine. Not only that but the Environmental Working Group has consistently found more than 300 water contaminants in the water supply even after supposedly treating it.
How To Get Clean Drinking Water Quickly And Easily
The water in your tap is not clean. Yes, it may be cleaner than third world country water and we should be thankful for that, but over time as you drink toxic water it will affect the healthy of you and your family.
You don’t want that and I don’t want that.
We also know for a fact that the cheap water filters from your local store don’t do jack squat! They hardly filter anything and you have to buy replacement filters often.
We know that a quality reverse osmosis filter does clean the water, but it also takes away healthy minerals plus it used twice the amount of water which has been verified by many customer reviews I’ve personally read.
If you want purified water quickly and easily you have to check out a gravity water purifier immediately. Can you feel the urgency?
I’m all for informed research and you should do that. I’ve done research for years now and I’m giving you a shortcut. I use a countertop water filter which purifies the water by gravity through the micro-porous elements.
These elements purify the water, making it completely safe to drink.
It eliminates pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites. It eliminates VOCs, pesticides and trihalomethanes. It reduces heavy metals by up to 95%. I could go on and on.
How To Get Clean Drinking Water – Affordable
I’ve done research in the past few years and there are systems that cost upwards of $1,000 that don’t even filter bacteria such as E.coli.
There are some systems that cost $500 and then you have to buy expensive replacements every few months.
My suggestion is to find a gravity water filter that gets rid of everything I listed above. Make sure the filters or elements last up to 10 to 12 months.
Make sure they are certified and have been university tested.
You don’t have to rely on anyone else anymore. How to get clean drinking water is now in your hands.
Topics: drinking water, emergencies, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
Residential Water Filtration That Is Affordable
By Jeff | October 24, 2011
Let’s face it, there aren’t too many residential water filtration systems that are affordable, let alone actually work. I once went through the lengthy process of searching for a solution only to hit several roadblocks.
I finally found something that actually works, is certified and very much affordable. They’re so good that missionaries and the Red Cross use them in many other countries.
If you are looking for the real deal in water purification then keep reading.
Residential Water Filtration Systems – Ones That Stink
One of the first ones that come up is a $600 whole house filtration system. It weighs 48 pounds and it only advertises that it filters “dirt, Iron, chemicals, chlorine, and others that create foul tastes and odors.”
Fail!
Another popular whole house system is $299.99 and only reduces bad tastes and odors plus chlorine reduction.
Fail!
I may have found one. It’s a countertop water filter that attaches to the kitchen sink. It’s only $89 and it has six stages of filtering. It removes lots of stuff like dirt, silt and rust.
Heavy metals are reduced and some VOCs and chlorine are reduced greatly. But, it requires water pressure and doesn’t filter out some key contaminants. Sounded good for a minute, but…
Fail!
There are some reverse osmosis systems for a few hundred dollars and up but if you’ve read my blog for long you’ll know I’m not a fan of having to deal with water pressure, healthy minerals being taken out and using twice the amount of water that a quality water filter system would use.
I have to give reverse osmosis a fail as well.
Residential Water Filtration Systems That Work
The one I found to work the best, to filter the most and cost the least is the Berkey water filtration systems.
These systems use the Black Berkey purification elements which remove pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites. This includes E.coli which none of the other systems said they removed.
It removes trihalomethanes, radon 222, VOCs and chlorine to below detectable levels.
It reduces heavy metals by 95% and also removes nitrates, nitrites, rust, silt and sediment. It leaves the healthy minerals in and for a small price you can buy a special attachment that reduces fluoride and arsenic.
It doesn’t require water pressure because it’s a gravity water purification system. It sits right on your counter and can be moved anywhere you want. You can even filter water from a river, lake or pond.
By far, this is the most powerful and affordable system I could find. I made sure it was tested and certified by Universities and I also made sure customers verified that they actually work.
The Berkey company honestly exists to provide purified water to families and organizations so we can be as healthy as possible.
It depends on your family size and how much water you drink per day, but you can buy a basic Berkey system for around $233 and the filters last a whole year. I know because I’ve tested it.
If you are looking for an honest residential water filtration system, then do yourself a favor and check out the Berkey first. It’s by far the most powerful one out there.
Topics: emergencies, health, kitchen, life, preparedness, survival, water | No Comments »
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