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I bought a berkey after the ban, and I live in california. There is a way to do it if you really want one. However, one of my black filters arrived separated from it's base. I still have, but didn't complete the return due to the hassle-factor. Thankfully, I do have extra filters, and the unit is not my primary filter.
If you have any friends or relatives outside of CA just place the order, have it delivered to them, and have them forward it to you like any other package. The return could probably be handled similarly.
Check out "The Berkey Guy" for good customer service.
If you have any friends or relatives outside of CA just place the order, have it delivered to them, and have them forward it to you like any other package. The return could probably be handled similarly.
Check out "The Berkey Guy" for good customer service.
Please listen to the Youtube audio I cite in my first link on the blog webpage I made. It is by an ex-distributor who tells of his experiences. If what he says (and others say as well) the highly promoted black filters are really cheap carbon block filters and the design concept is so flawed that eventual separation between the carbon cylinder and the base is almost inevitable.
Do a web search on customer complaints and you'll find horror stories.
Apparently some of the black purification elements manufactured between March 2011 and May 2011 (date of mfr is in small numbers on the filters) had a problem with the glue letting go. Both our Big Berkey's and all the sets of filters were purchased way before that date -- back in 2008. Cannot find any failure reference online for any black filters manufactured before (or considerably after) those dates.
The white ceramic "Super Sterasyl" candles will also fit both of our units, and that will be the next thing I look into getting for them. As for just plain "Doulton filters" all I could find were household-type filtration meant to be used with pressurized water. That is not our intended usage.
harry, have you personally had a problem with the Berkey?
I keep hearing everywhere but from you that Berkey is the absolute best. The AquaRain is manufactured in my home state but is not specific on their website if they filter out all the Berkey claims to. This is why I am seeking info. from those with first hand experience.
harry, have you personally had a problem with the Berkey?
I keep hearing everywhere but from you that Berkey is the absolute best. The AquaRain is manufactured in my home state but is not specific on their website if they filter out all the Berkey claims to. This is why I am seeking info. from those with first hand experience.
I was foolish enough to believe NMC's hype about the Berkey when I bought mine. My filters separated at the glued seam, and because of that, my family and I drank unfiltered water for months!
Berkey can't possibly be best when they knowingly sell defective filters, which they did. They KNEW that they had defective filters in May of 2011 when I bought my Berkey and replacement filters. I received my filters in June 2011. All 10 of my filters were defective. After MONTHS of haggling with NMC about replacing them, (they wanted to charge me a prorated fee) they finally sent me 10 of the 'new and improved' filters. One of the boxes on the replacement redesigned filters says that it was manufactured in June of 2011.
So they were aware of the defect and had their newly redesigned filters manufactured in June 2011? That is the same month they shipped me my older, defective ones.
Read the thread that I posted above. In post # 94, we learn from The Berkey Guy, that they have had to redesign them AGAIN since then, at least once. I have asked The Berkey Guy for more clarification on that and if they have ever resolved the issues that they had. In fairness to him, he may not have seen that thread yet, as I just posted it last night.
Better yet, google defective Berkey, and you will see this problem being discussed at length across the internet.
By the way, the defect period listed (Spring 2011) isn't when their problems started. In December 2010, NMC sold filters where the defect was that the glue job was sloppy. They didn't entirely glue the filter to the base, and this allowed unfiltered water to bypass the filter entirely.
The next problem arose when the glue that they used didn't properly adhere to the plastic base, and separates easily. In the thread that I linked above, I posted pictures so you can see the problem.
Common Tator, I note that this is your first post, and that you mention Harry. Harry is the only person, here or anywhere else, whom I have heard from that has some kind of axe to grind against Berkey water filters. My research (in my last post, above) revealed that indeed there had been some sort of problem with the black purification elements (NOT the whole Berkey system) in spring of 2011, as I noted above. If you were unfortunate enough to have purchased the black filter elements within that time frame, you may indeed have received defective ones.
Ours were purchased in 2008 and of the few trials we have had with one set, there were no problems. We are not going to throw out the whole Berkey units and all of the black purification elements. I may, however, as stated above, add some of the white ceramic filters in addition to our current stash. I gather that this does not please Harry, or you for that matter, as all you seem to want to do is trash the entire Berkey system while offering no suggested replacement.
In the end, Common Tator, you and Harry will just have to chill and let other people do as they wish. If that means they choose to keep their Berkey systems, so be it.
Common Tator, I note that this is your first post, and that you mention Harry. Harry is the only person, here or anywhere else, whom I have heard from that has some kind of axe to grind against Berkey water filters. My research (in my last post, above) revealed that indeed there had been some sort of problem with the black purification elements (NOT the whole Berkey system) in spring of 2011, as I noted above. If you were unfortunate enough to have purchased the black filter elements within that time frame, you may indeed have received defective ones.
Ours were purchased in 2008 and of the few trials we have had with one set, there were no problems. We are not going to throw out the whole Berkey units and all of the black purification elements. I may, however, as stated above, add some of the white ceramic filters in addition to our current stash. I gather that this does not please Harry, or you for that matter, as all you seem to want to do is trash the entire Berkey system while offering no suggested replacement.
In the end, Common Tator, you and Harry will just have to chill and let other people do as they wish. If that means they choose to keep their Berkey systems, so be it.
Thanks. I had read the links and listened to that entire armchair broadcast and really did not appreciate the personal attack suggesting otherwise contained in Common Tater's first post.
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