OT Gravity water purifiers, any experience? *LINK*
Dick Coers
Right now we just use a faucet mount Brita for our drinking water, and we are on a municipal water system. I hate buying the filters, they seem crazy expensive for that little unit. I also wonder how much good we are really doing with it. We replace the filter every 3 months. Started researching tonight and found the Berkey system. It is a stainless steel, counter resting system. Their claim of water for 1.6 cents per gallon, based on 6000 gallon life for the two filters in the system. The filters are cleanable to get that much life. I'll post the address if you want to see what they are like. I have no experience and certainly no connections to them. Anyone use a system like this? Aqua Rain, or counter Propur?
We have used the Brita pitcher system for years with generic filters from Wal-Mart. I can't tell any difference in the water most of the time but our water does get an off taste in the summer. The filters handle it. The Berkey looks to be expensive plus with the low spout it would need tobe elevated or set right on the edge of the counter to be able to use a glass. In my mind either way sounds like it might be a pain.
Re: OT Gravity water purifiers, any experience? *LINK*
I guess for the same reason we buy organicly grown produce and locally grown meat from a butcher shop. We've lost some confidence in the general food chain. I have become more aware, in the past few years, of how good food means good health. My little brother, who farmed for a living, died at the age of 48 from colon cancer. He was producing product that in part , went into our food chain. No proof of course, but I contribute the early onset of his disease to environmental exposure. No one in 3 generations had died from cancer in our family. This could certainly be an over reaction on my part, I do have that kind of history.
Re: OT Gravity water purifiers, any experience? *LINK*
Would be a good idea to have your water tested to look for specific issues, if you haven't already. I find that a few of the local beers and maybe a favorite Scotch is a safe bet for avoiding icky stuff That's why Johnny Appleseed became a household name -- he wasn't planting apples to EAT, but for hard cider -- a safe drink where water quality might have been pretty bad.
Modern-day commercial farming is awash in nasty crap you don't really want to be exposed to on a daily basis. Sometimes we are assured something is safe, but years later we learn more and know better. I'm sorry you lost your brother so early, and completely on the same page regarding local, organic food.
We're lucky to have excellent water here (our own drilled well in a very rural area), but others are not so lucky. I have seen people with perfectly good water doing *real* harm to themselves and the environment by drinking nothing but bottled water, based on fear and/or hysteria about some evil lurking in their water, only rarely justified. As you might imagine, manufacturing and disposing of many, many millions of plastic water bottles per day has become a HUGE environmental issue.
BTW -- and as an aside -- much of the bottled water sold in the US is just tap water from somewhere else, and some "green" companies that bottle water are destroying local watersheds by drawing down the aquifers so much that they create shortages or draw in unclean water from neighboring properties or aquifers. Thou shalt not screw with Mother Nature w/out cost!
For a few years my business was located in a nearby town that had awful municipal water to start with, and they were digging up water & sewer lines all over town to make upgrades after 125 years, and we used a similar shelf-top gravity tank system -- probably only 2.5 gallon capacity -- which sure did improve the taste of the water, if nothing else. Any improvement in the health risk (if there ever was one), I can't say for sure. My biz partner bought it, and I used it, and don't remember the company name. Outer container was plastic, and it used some chunky material that looked like grey speckled "lava rocks". Could have been pure BS, or good solid chemistry, I have no idea.
Safe spinning & drinking,
Brad Vietje
Newbury, VT
Re: OT Gravity water purifiers, any experience? *LINK*
You might consider in-line filters. Installed under the sink or at the well for whole house filtering. The Culligan man set us up years ago and I coulddn't have been more pleased.
Re: OT Gravity water purifiers, any experience? *LINK*
The house I grew up in had a one cubic meter tank ans then below it a 2 step filter, first a pumice disk to remove particles and then a thick layer of activated carbon. It needed service twice a year.
The water tasted good and we were healthy.
Re: OT Gravity water purifiers, any experience? *LINK*
The question of how much good does it do is apt. Most activated carbon filters brita and most others don't really do that much other than remove some chlorine taste and some dissolved solids which is just the taste element.
Reverse osmosis has the benefit of removing all of that plus bacteria and some of the fluoride which are the two issues that most likely are your concern.
That's why Johnny Appleseed became a household name -- he wasn't planting apples to EAT, but for hard cider -- a safe drink where water quality might have been pretty bad.
