Saturday, January 23, 2010

Home Made Water Filter

Having a good water filter is one of the most important things in being prepared and surviving a major disaster.  Without clean water we could die or become very sick in a matter of days, as those in Haiti recently experienced.  I have both public water and a well on my property.  The well water is clean but it is not filtered at this time.  It's only used for irrigation on my small half acre farm.  So if there is a disaster and the public water system is contaminated or no longer working I need a way to filter my well water and other water sources. 

I was going to buy a Big Berkey Water Filter but I decided to make my own water filter. Money is a little tight and I just couldn't pay $250 for a complete Big Berkey.  I found a great website, St. Paul Mercantile, that includes the filters, the spigot, washers and instructions to make your own filter all for a good price.  I bought the $49 kit with the 10 inch Doulton Ceramic candle filter.  I got the kit yesterday, went to Ace and bought 2 buckets and a lid.  Took me about 20 minutes to put it together.  Eventually I will buy more 10 inch candles to add into the filter.  The filtering process is very slow so the more filters the faster the water will go through to the bottom bucket.  Click here for instructions on how to make the water filter.

Below are a few pictures of my Home Made Water Filter

































Live The Motto - Be Prepared!





5 comments:

  1. That's our water filtration system too, although the filter is just a little different. Ours arrived via UPS the very same day that our well was struck by lightening and destroyed. You just don't realize how convenient running water is until you go without it for a couple of weeks LOL.

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  2. Thank you Dave! I have been wanting a Big Berkey forever, but just could not peel that $250 off to buy it. I am sending away to St.Paul Mercantile right away. I'm just going to get the unit with one 7" ceramic candle. It will be slower than the dual or quad units, but 1 quart per hour is fine for my family. In an 8 hour day we could generate 2 gallons. Then another gallon and a half at night. Then we could let it work at night while everybody was sleeping. It wouldn't take long to have plenty of fresh, clean water. This is fantastic. I'm going to put a link up on Patriots Cave so people can come over here at your blog and see this awesome kit you found. Man, you just saved me alot of $$$. Thank you Dave.

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  3. Joel, thanks for mentioning my site on your blog. I enjoy reading your blog also. I have always wanted a Big Berkey but they are just too expensive, even the filters are expensive. I'm not sure how I found the website but it took several months from me wanting a Big Berkey to finding that site. I'm glad I did. FYI, it does take a long time for the water to filer through. I didn't time it but I think it took almost a day and a half to filter 5 gallons.

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  4. Hey, I also made a bucket water filter like this one. What did you do about the airlock that is created in the bottom bucket. My system will only allow a small amount of water to filter through until water is taken and the pressure released. I am considering drilling a small hole but am loathe to do so because it will allow contaminates.
    Cheers,
    Steve

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  5. Steve, I'm not sure what you mean by the buckets creating an air lock. My buckets do not build up any air pressure. Are you completely sealing the top bucket onto the bottom bucket? If you never seal the buckets together they should not have any pressure. Hope that helps.

    Dave

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