Yay! It’s time to announce last week’s winner of the Big Berkey Water Purifier. I feel like Santa. Or maybe a really famous philanthropist who is saving the world one gallon of clean, pure water at a time.
That’s because Berkey Water Purifiers are arguably the most efficient, cost-effective in the world.
My love affair with the water purifier began in the mountains of rural Mexico in the summer after I turned 19. I spent that summer in a remote Mexican village, teaching indigenous children how to read and write in Spanish. The only water was from a natural spring.
I lived with a team of elderly Bible translators, and every day they’d pay a local boy to run down to the stream and fetch them a bucket or two of water. He’d tromp back up the hillside with our bucketful of water and an eager smile on his face. We’d pay him, then dump the water into a Berkey water purifier. No electricity needed. No moving parts to constantly replace. Easy. Simple. Clean. Efficient.
We used the Berkey water for everything — drinking, cooking, hand washing our dishes, brushing our teeth.
But the Berkey Water Purifier isn’t only good for rural use. In fact, it’s perfect for the urban and suburban home. It not only removes chlorine, pharmaceuticals, and other nasties from your tap water, but can also remove fluoride if you buy the right filter.
Plus, it’s casually portable. You can easily take it with you when you move out of your rental!
And little ol’ me?
I get to give one of you lucky readers this amazing water purifier for FREE!
Congratulations!
The winner of last week’s giveaway is Karla Sawatzky. Karla, please contact me within 48 hours with your shipping address so you can claim your prize.
What if you didn’t win?
Can I encourage you to do something? Start setting aside money today to buy yourself a Big Berkey. You really won’t regret it.
Take a look at all the Berkey Water Purifier models to find the one that’s perfect for your home and budget.
(bottom photo by greekadman)
Just curious, why did you purify the spring water? Did you have reason to believe it was contaminated in some way? I also live in rural Mexico and we drink spring water. Only we don’t purify it, just strain it through a clean cloth to remove any debris. We’ve never gotten sick, and I would worry that filtering the water would remove vital minerals. I’ve noticed that it is much better at quenching thirst than the filtered water we have to drink when we go into Mexico City, and it tastes better, too! Do you know if this particular filter removes beneficial minerals along with the nasty stuff? If I didn’t have access to spring water, I would definitely consider getting one!
The Big Berkey does NOT remove important trace minerals. So, that’s another plus in its favor.
We purified the spring water because it had high concentrations of arsenic and some kind of parasite that the locals had adapted to well, but which made us foreigners sick.
Right after I wrote my comment I went to the website and saw that they filters do not remove the trace minerals. I wonder how they manage that?
I guess we should get our spring water tested….
Testing is not a bad idea. You can even buy little kits to do it yourself online.
Oh! Do you have a particular type of test that you recommend?
We just moved and the water from the tap in this house tastes very chlorinated. /gag
It’s not so bad from the refrigerator filter, but I’d like to know what we’re dealing with.
Wish I did. It’s been ages since I had a mail order test done.
Google it. I’m sure you’ll turn up something.
Make sure you have an independent testing lab analyze your water who has no interest in selling you a water filtering system.
We recently had a company featuring Kinetico home water systems leave literature on our front door with a little plastic bottle to put a sample of water from your home for free analysis. I’m sure their testing will find what they claim is in most waters and then some and will offer a solution for you.
I use the Birkey water filter for drinking and cooking and have been very satisfied. I also use filter shower heads. My next step is to install a whole house water filter.
I was tempted to send in Berkey filtered water for analysis but there was no way I could validate their findings so I passed on the testing.
I have a Berkey with additional fluoride filters. When I do a red dye test, the water comes through clear and clean. But when I boil the water to make tea, after pouring out the water from the pan there is a dusty residue left inside the pan. Running my finger across it leaves a line.
Do you know what that film is? And, if the Berkey can filter out the red dye, why would it leave, or produce, this dusty, chalky stuff inside my pan?
This Big Berkey water purifier is fabulous! I love to have one of this thing.
I’d LOVE to know the answer to Marjorie Jones’s question as well