Captain Rawles,
I recently purchased my Berkey filtration system and when I completed this process I was informed that on April 15, 2011, Berkey will be raising the prices of their systems approximately 25-30% across the board. They are also going to prohibit their Authorized Dealers from giving away the freebies that they advertise now. Ever since Hurricane Katrina they have been running about 5-7 days out before they ship, but with the issue in Japan they can be running a month out. This is because they cannot keep up with demand. Their stainless steel systems are manufactured in India (who actually has one of the highest qualities of steel available today) and shipped in huge quantities to the US, but they are almost always spoken for when they arrive.
Because my families believe in being charitable, we even ordered enough of the Black Berkey water filters to make several more filters using two FDA approved 5 gallon buckets. There are sights out there that can show you how to do this like this one. About a quarter of the way down the page it shows how to do this. Using the rule of threes: three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. Dirty water is what helped spread disease in Haiti so easily.
Please share this information with your readers, so that if they can get one before the price increase, they might be able to save some money. Even the filters will be going up.
I’m not affiliated with an of the vendors. Thank you, – Brad M.
JWR Replies: I posted my instructions for a similar DIY gravity filter in SurvivalBlog, back in 2008. That design uses standard Berkey filter elements. I strongly recommend buying water filters soon, before inflation makes them unaffordable. There are at least seven SurvivalBlog advertisers that sell both complete gravity water filter systems, and filter elements by themselves for do-it-yourselfers. These include: Best Prices Storable Foods, Camping Survival, Directive 21, Emergency Essentials, JRH Enterprises, Ready Made Resources, and Safecastle. Do some comparison pricing, and please give our advertisers your business, first!