The Importance of Filtered Drinking Water for a Healthy Family

By Jeff Wise Published: July 23, 2024 Updated: August 31, 2026

So how does a Berkey water filter work? If you're wondering how this popular water filtration system operates, you've come to the right place.

People buy it because gravity carbon reduces leftover chemicals in municipally treated tap water and the water tastes like water.

The process is gravity plus carbon media. Water in the top chamber passes through the elements into the lower chamber. Published tests cover heavy metals, chlorine, pharmaceuticals, and many other chemicals in tap water.

That is a chemical-reduction job on city tap water — not a claim that every impurity on earth is gone.

One standout feature is that it needs no electricity or plumbing. Fill it from the kitchen tap, a hotel tap that is city-treated, or tap water you stored before an outage. Pack the empty chambers if you travel. Do not treat “anywhere” as untreated surface water.

This article walks through minerals, chlorine, metals, flow rate, and how to pick a size.

The Two Chambers, Step by Step

The upper chamber holds untreated-from-your-point-of-view city tap water — meaning it has not gone through the elements yet. The elements thread through the floor of that chamber. Gravity pulls water into the pores. Carbon and other media hold onto chlorine, many organics, and metals that the lab sheets name. Filtered water collects in the lower chamber. You open the spigot.

Prime each new element until water beads through the wall. Dry media will sit there for hours and look “broken.” After priming, expect a slower first gallon, then a normal drip. Official replacements: Phoenix Gravity New Millennium Edition.

Does Berkey Remove Minerals?

Do Berkey filters remove minerals?

One common concern with water filtration is losing minerals along with chemicals.

Gravity Berkey elements are built to reduce metals and many organics while leaving calcium and magnesium that were already in the tap.

Current official replacements are Phoenix elements. Older posts say Black; same gravity idea.

You get filtered tap water that still has minerals. That is why it does not taste like RO water. More: do Berkey filters remove minerals.

The media targets specific chemicals. It does not strip the tap’s natural mineral content.

Does Berkey Remove Chlorine?

Chlorine is how utilities keep treated water stable in the pipes. Residual chlorine is why tap water can smell like a pool: tap water smells like chlorine.

Carbon in the elements adsorbs residual chlorine and many related compounds. Taste goes neutral.

Some people also find chlorinated tap drying on skin. Filtering the drinking tap is for the glass, not a medical treatment.

Berkey Filter Lead & Other Heavy Metals

Lead, mercury, and arsenic in tap water are lab-test items. Gravity elements are tested for metals reduction. Lead from old solder is the household case most people mean.

See best water filter for heavy metals. Wells with arsenic need their own report; this system is sold for municipally treated tap.

How Fast Does Berkey Filter Water?

Speed depends on model, number of elements, prime quality, and how hard or cold the tap is.

A typical two-element system is often in the few-gallons-per-hour range after a good prime. More elements, faster fill. Clean the shells when flow drops.

No power means it still runs on stored city tap during an outage. Preparedness reading: preparedness — store tap water first.

Choosing the Right Berkey

Household size — glasses per day plus cooking
Usage — kitchen counter, hotel tap, stored tap in an outage
What’s in the CCR — chlorine vs metals vs fluoride (PF-2s if you want fluoride down)
Budget — system plus Phoenix replacements over years

Travel Berkey for one to three people. Crown or Royal for a full house. Most families land on the Big Berkey.