Do Berkey PF-2 Filters Leach Aluminum in Your Water?

Do Berkey PF-2 filters leach aluminum into the water?

PF-2 elements reduce fluoride and arsenic using activated alumina (aluminum oxide). That is not the same as metallic aluminum.

Buy them here: Berkey PF-2 filters.

Aluminum Oxide vs Metallic Aluminum

Metallic aluminum is reactive. Aluminum oxide is stable and not water-soluble in normal tap-water use. That is why it is used as filter media.

Background: aluminum oxide.

Where Aluminum Oxide Shows Up

• Some medical ceramics
• Dental ceramics
• Industrial ceramics
• Some cosmetics

Those products would not hold up if they were made of reactive metallic aluminum.

Lab Tests Can Confuse the Two

Some lab methods strip oxygen before counting ions, so aluminum oxide can be reported as aluminum. See this aluminum oxide PDF.

Bottom Line

PF-2 media is aluminum oxide used to reduce fluoride and arsenic.

It is not marketed here as "perfectly safe water" or as proof there is zero aluminum of any kind in the finished water.

Read the current PF-2 test sheet if you want the numbers.