Wal-Mart Specials
Homemade Berkey Water Filter
What’s the third most important element of your survival after shelter and oxygen?
Depending on health, physical activity and environment humans can survive less than five minutes without oxygen, less than ten days without water (50 F / 10.0 C with little to no activity) and four to six weeks without food.
Clean water is essential.
Just imagine how disappointed you’d be after investing all your time and money building your stockpile of survival food, just before you died of dehydration.
Having food storage without a reliable source of clean water is like eating soup with a fork, you’re only getting some of what you need.
As you know, I’m a fan of the Berkey system, having used a Big Berkey extensively for over a year, I can personally attest to their performance. However, a lot of people can’t or won’t spend $250 or more for a filter (mine was a donation from directive 21).
Bottom of Top Chamber With Filter & Improvised Adapter
The key to the effectiveness of the Berkey system is the Berkey purification elements. Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to improvise upper and lower chambers.
Here’s how to make your own “Dirt Cheap Berkey Filter”.
What You’ll Need
- Berkey Filter Element 49.5 each
- One gallon round pitchers (Wal-Mart) $2
- One gallon pitcher with spigot (Wal-Mart) $5
- Drill and 1/2 inch bit
- Hack saw
- Super Glue
As you can see from the pics it’s a simple process – the whole thing took me about 15 minutes.
First drill a 1/2 inch hole through the bottom the pitcher without the spigot (top chamber). Avoid applying pressure when drilling as this could cause the plastic to spit across the bottom, use only the weight and momentum of the drill to get through.
My Big Berkey & Homemade Berkey
Next thread the plastic tip of the filter element through the hole (rubber washer to the inside) and snug up the nut on the other, avoid over tightening, as this could damage the filter element or nut.
Since the top of the lower chamber was the same size as the bottom of the top chamber the filter became unstable when the two were put together.
To stabilize the unit, I improvised an adapter by cutting a two-inch tall ring from another pitcher with a hacksaw and super glued this to the bottom of the top chamber (see pic).
You might be able to come up with a better method or find containers that fit together forming a stable unit without any modification.
What do you think?
{ 28 comments }
Excellent post MD> this is why I visit this site every single day. I have already spent $200 on a filter… back when I first started following this blog close to 2 years ago. A filter straw for the BOB…. about 60 purification tablets… a chemical purification kit as well as keeping bleach as a last resort. There’s plenty of water sources here in the hills of New England. It’s not the greatest place to be when shtf but water and food sources are available if you know what you’re doing. Thanks to the research I’ve done and the information you’ve shared with all of us here I feel confident my family and I will be well taken care of should the day ever come. I would like to see more posts on wild edible and medicinal plants. I’ve been doing some research on the subject and to my surprise the most abundant, nutrient rich plant in my area is one people are constantly trying to eliminate from there front yards. Higher in beta carotene than carrots, iron and calcium content greater than spinach, vitamins B1,B2,B5,B6,B12,C,E,P and D, biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc. The root contains the sugar inulin. The seeds can develop with out cross fertilization, so the plant can fertilize itself. Sounds like a good survival crop to me and from what I’ve seen, they’re not too picky about the soil they thrive in. After spending $70 on books related to edible and medicinal plants it blew my mind to find out the most useful plant in my area would be the common Dandelion.
Dave – I can remember back in the 40′s it was not uncommon to see people harvesting dandelion for food in my neighborhood. During the depression, when many people didn’t have a thing, dandelion and plantain were used for food. I remember my playmate’s mother cooking some on a skillet for lunch one day. Needless to say, as children we were never fond of vegetables, but I do recall the taste as slightly bitter and it was the butter that improved the taste. I have been told that harvesting dandelion in its early growth is less bitter.
Dave,
Spring is the best time to pick dandelions, later in the summer shaded dandelions are less bitter. Wash in a bowl of water with a spoonful of white vinegar.
To help remove bitterness, drain dandelions and discard the water. Cover with fresh water cook until dandelions are soft. Adding a pinch of baking soda also helps.
You might like this post:
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/2009/04/wild-onion.html
And this one
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/2009/04/wilderness-survival-and-cattails.html
Dandelions are not native to the Americas. They were brought, on purpose, by early settlers. Most people cuss them for it, but truly, it’s a great plant. Those early settlers used it primarily to make tea of the leaves for a mild analgesic.
Don’t forget about Clover and Kudzu, both are edible and have medicinal properties. Clover actually tastes pretty good, I prefer the taste of clover over many lettuces.
It’s extremely abundant around here, during warm weather months you’re at least guaranteed a salad every day.
Great article. I really look forward to your daily postings. Have you or any of your readers used this filter set up? It’s supposed to filter not as fine as the Katadyn filter however it is considerably cheaper. It’s probably what I’ll start with until I can afford your set up. Keep up the good work.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP352-1.html
You’ve given me an idea M.D. It’d be cool to scale this down to a hiker or portable unit that would use some kind of hand pump, similar to the Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter (which seems to go for around $200, but filters 13,000 gallons). I would imagine that if you use a good water siphon, an air-tight plastic container about the size of a nalgene bottle (but large enough to hold the ceramic element), and some plastic tubing, you could make this for around $80 or so ($50 for the filter, $10 for the siphon, and $20 for the bottle and tubing). Then you could keep this in your car, truck, boat, RV, or BOB. I checked the price of the ceramic element for the actual Katadyn filter, which is smaller than the Berkey filter, but they’re $130+. I might give this a try.
Great article MD. I’m coming late to this whole survivalist party, and with a limited budget. I had talked my wife into a Berkey filter recently but did not have the funds available to buy one. So this is perfect timing, as I believe i
Might want to try a siphoning filter like this one
Hey Creekmore
Three comments! Shows how much your readers care about actual survival projects. A bunch of armchair survivalist. Bet if you posted movies you’d get 50 – 60 comments.
I think 99% of your readers could not survive a week without the supermarket, beer and Monday night football.
Losers…
Troll alert!
M.D. – Does the washer and nut come with the Berkey Filter Element? This is a quick and cheap way of making a Berkey Filter. Thanks
W,
Yes, a washer and nut are included with each Berkey element.
Nice post! Variation on a theme: If you have a a family to take care off and you happen to have one of those 5 gallon water coolers that you see get dumped on coaches heads during football games, you can get 3-4 “Candle” filters, put them into a 5 gallon HDPE 2 Food Safe bucket, and stack it into one of those coolers. Goes down about 2 inches, fits snugly, and gives you more water in less time. Of course, you need to make sure it’s clean and serviceable. But if you don’t need that much water, then Mr. Creekmore’s system looks just fine. As for “Red”, how much do you get paid by Soros to try and kill off independence, innovation and ingenuity? Or are you just a pathetic, pimple-pussed pre-adolescent punk whose parents won’t permit your playing on the home computer to find your puerile porn sites and you have to crawl to the library to hide?
This is a great idea for getting a Berkey cheap, but I have what I’m sure is a dumb question. My water comes from a private well, and I have a backup hand pump if the power goes out. Under what circumstances would I need to filter my water? What kind of event would contaminate a well 50 ft. down?
Thanks!
What a great idea Creekmore! I’ve seen those pitchers (with the spigot) at Wallyworld and the dollar stores, I’ve wondered if they would really be handy for anything…
serfsup, it sounds like you are in much better shape (water wise) than most other people, if things go really bad, you will not be having to go collect from questionable water sources like many others will nor will you worry about what might be coming from your tap, but I will also say that 50 feet is not that deep for a well, I don’t know if you have any businesses near you, or how many neighbors you have, your clean water supply might not be as safe as you think, sincerely hope it is though. :)
you are pretty slick, mdcreekmore, good job!
I’ve seen this set-up done with buckets, the kind we get to store grain in. It would take more time to filter, but then you’d have to do it less often. For a family camping trip, or home post-disaster, the larger version would be a good way to go. This could be adapted to many sizes.
Excellent post MD, and what a good idea. And so simple. I ran to my local Walmart yesterday after reading your post, and they not only have the exact pitcher with spigot as you have pictured for $5, but they also have a pitcher that sits on top of the lower pitcher and has a ring molded into its bottom just slightly larger than the top of the bottom pitcher ($2). It’s sits on the bottom one and stays in place. So voila… your post and $7, no cutting or gluing required, and now I’ve got a Berkey filter! Thank you. And what should I call it? How about the “Creekmore Berkey”?
Fred,
I’m glad you found the post useful – always makes me happy when someone actually uses one of my posts to save money and prepare. The Creekmore Berkey, nice.
We could call it the “Creekmorkey”. :)
Just one question: Will these filters filter out salt? I know it seems weird to ask, but the filter site never said if they did or didn’t.
I read somewhere or was told, that the berkey filter is not meant for use in salt water, or even water that has been through a salt water conditioner. What I have learned is that it will shorten the life of the filter. I have a salt water conditioner, so I have not used my berkey yet, does anyone else have any info on this?
MD you’ve convinced me to try this. Hope I find the same pitcher Fred finds.
Hmm. Couldn’t find those pitchers at either of my local Walmarts, nor online. Anyone have part/item numbers? Please email: CBdeVidal (AT) Gmail (DOT) com.
Nevermind, picked up two of these and I’ll stack them: Beverage Dispenser The tricky part may be getting a good seal around the hole in the top pitcher; it’s concave. I think I still have some food-grade silicone, but if it were to start leaking I might not know it. Will have to think this one through.
Also, I’ll probably leave the cap on the bottom pitcher and put a hole through it, for stability. Even better would be if I were to have both filters in one pitcher, but that really compounds the possible leak problem (concave, at an angle).
Plan B is to get two food-grade 5 gallon buckets as I’ve seen elsewhere.
Thanks M.D. for the idea!
The bottom of the pitchers turned out to be flat. Perfect. Oh, and I got them buy-one-get one. Since I needed four, perfect!
I had to drill a large hole in the bottom pitcher’s lid, approximately 1 1/2″ wide, to clear the wing nut.
Then some 2,000lb epoxy. Tried Gorilla glue first, but apparently it doesn’t adhere to plastic that well.
So for about $106 (before shipping) and approximately one hour of my time, I have two filters. Nice! Even if we don’t see TEOTWAWKI, they taste wayyy better than Britas, suck our more bad stuff (while leaving good minerals) and in the long run will cost far less.
Wonderful! File this project under “things to do whether the economy gets better _or_ worse.”
One of the two filters fell to the ground and shattered the plastic. The weight of the filter inside bent and broke the plastic across the bottom.
So I’m moving to plan B: Food grade five-gallon buckets: http://www.alpharubicon.com/kids/homemadeberkeydaire.htm
I’m planning on using the spigot from the broken filter, and may install 2 spigots for faster running water. Will set the pair on top of a third five-gallon bucket for access, and grain storage.
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