 "Pin It")
For the past few years my family had been filtering our water with faucet filters. I have to admit, I got sick and tired of constantly replacing the filters. Sick of changing them and sick of paying for them.
One of the reasons I started my series on a “real food” food budget is that my family has been on an extremely tight budget. We’re doing the best we can with what we have and at the same time working on being debt free.
When I first found out about my third pregnancy I immediately knew my water consumption had to increase. If you haven’t had a chance to see just how much water I’m talking about, check out my post on a real food diet during pregnancy over at Keeper of the Home.
Unfortunately, our faucet filter had broken and without extra cash to go out and buy a new one, I resorted to drinking tap water. What I found was that in my first trimester of pregnancy I had a headache almost every day of the week. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing differently and started to eliminate certain things from my diet.
As soon as I eliminated tap water and started drinking bottled water, my headaches went away.
Toxins in our water supply
How foolish could I have been.
I live in Iowa, a top agricultural state in the country. We’re surrounded by commodity crops and factory farms. Not only does our water supply get contaminated by pesticide and insecticide runoff from industrial fields but even worse, factory farm manure spills into our rivers and streams which leads directly to our water supply. A “clean water” battle that Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is constantly fighting for.
Iowa has more than 572 polluted waterways – the highest ever on record – and has suffered more than 700 manure spills since 1995.
I also live in the metro which means our water supply is also tainted by pharmaceuticals (including animal antibiotics from CAFO’s), fluoride, and chlorine.
Many people probably wonder, “how do pharmaceuticals end up in my drinking water?”
It’s estimated that almost half of all Americans take prescription drugs with 80% popping some sort of pill every single day. Their bodies absorb some of the medication but the rest of it is passed through and flushed down the toilet.
The wastewater is cleaned and treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants where it leads directly to our faucets. However, most treatments do not remove all drug residues where low levels of pharmaceuticals are tested to be present in our water.
The problem with bottled water
Besides being expensive and wreaking havoc to our environment, most bottled water is dead water.
Most companies bottle up tap water and filter it to the extent that it is void of all minerals including calcium and magnesium.
The Berkey Water Filter
After I realized the source of my headaches, I started buying 5-6 gallon jugs of bottled water a week. We were spending at least $20-$24 a month. I wanted something that would be more cost efficient and healthier for our family.
Our solution was The Berkey Water Filter.
The Berkey is a gravitational based water filtration system. It’s the best stand alone unit on the market and filters out just about everything while leaving the minerals our bodies need in the water.
The Big Berkey® system removes pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites entirely and extracts harmful chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, VOCs, organic solvents, radon 222 and trihalomethanes. It also reduces nitrates, nitrites and unhealthy minerals such as lead and mercury. This system is so powerful it can remove red food coloring from water without removing the beneficial minerals your body needs. Virtually no other system can duplicate this performance.
I also received the fluoride filter.
I love my Big Berkey
My stand alone unit sits in my dining room. I enjoy that the boys are old enough to get their own glasses of clean water. Unfortunately, little brother likes to drink straight out of the spicket.
It stands about 20″ high and holds about 2 gallons of water.
My husband put it together pretty simply, however, we did seek out a youtube tutorial to make sure we were placing the filters correctly in the right chambers. Once they were locked in place it was ready to go.
We filled it up once and drained it to make sure it cleaned out the filters.
The water empties from the top chamber to the bottom pretty quickly and what I most enjoy is that the filters should be good for about 2,000 gallons of water before having to be replaced. Definitely a great investment to save your family money in the long run.
So how does it taste? Wonderful – clean and pure.
My only complaint is that I wish I had received the Berkey Royal which holds about 3 gallons of water.
I find that we need to fill the top chamber nearly every day since I also use the water for cooking and to fill up water bottles now that baseball season has started for the boys.
The Big Berkey is a great unit for a family of 1-4 where the Royal is a much better investment for a family of 2-6. Now that we’ll soon be a family of five, we’ll probably have to upgrade in the future.
So, in my honest opinion, the Berkey is a great solution for those on a budget and wanting the best in real food and health for their families. A “real food” food budget solution.
The Big Berkey Filter System Giveaway!
Guess what, the great people at LPC Survival Ltd were not only kind enough to give me my own system (my thoughts and opinions are my own), but they’re going to give one of my readers one as well!
The giveaway starts today and ends on May 25, 2012. Good Luck!
Subscribed! I love your blog!
I have learned so much from your site, Diana! Thanks 🙂
Yay! Awesome giveaway and just subscribed to your newsletter!
Great giveaway. Subscribed. I absolutely can’t stand the water in the area I live. If you leave a sink of soapy water sit over a couple hours to soak dishes it will turn slimy YUK. I buy a lot of bottle water but I do make sure I recycle all the bottles, but still not a fan of all the plastic.
Just subscribed
I’ve followed you for awhile on Facebook and now am subscribed to your newsletter. I enjoy your posts!
At first I read that as $25B, and thought, wow! You could put a dent in the national debt with that.
I love my berkey water!
I am subscribed to Spain in Iowa and I like both on facebook.
I keep putting a Berkey on my save up for list but so far other costs have always taken precedence because they are more immediately necessary (like car repairs). I take heart though because at least it’s not on my wishful thinking list!
Wow–cool. Water is really hard where I live, and I’m getting a little tired of filtered pitchers. Winning this would be great.
Loving your blog and ideas! sent your website to many friends.
I’m excited to have found your blog and just subscribed. We would love this filter as we are in the market for one right now, and love the natural aspect of this one — and it is shiny and pretty! 🙂
I just subscribed and would love to win. I’ve been reading your blog for over a year and really enjoy it.
I am a subscriber and so enjoy your blog.
Subscribed and would LOVE to win. I, too, live in Iowa and also am a daycare provider and would love this for everyone.
already subscribed!
great blog! great giveaway! thanks!
oh diana,
this giveaway has come at such a perfect time…i just hope i can win it! our distiller died and we’ve been purchasing the 5 gallon containers of purified water which is costly.
thanks for the review, if i don’t win at least i have a direction to head for a great water filter.
judi
This looks like a good investment…already subscribed
Awesome giveaway!! We have been going through several gallons of bottled water a week as well and I am sick of it!! We have had getting a water filter on our “to do” list for a while but just haven’t gotten it done yet! Thanks for offering this out!
I am already a subscriber!
By the way, I love your site. It has fast become my go to site for a realistic way to enjoy real traditional food. I am especially grateful for your rel food budget series! Thank you.
I would love to enter to win, but I do not and will not have a facebook page. I do subscribe to you newsletter though and love it. I can’t progress on the rafflecopter until I like it on Facebook.
I’ve been wishing for a Berkey! What a great giveaway! I liked and subscribed to both. Thank you.
I subscribe to your blog. Love it, thank you. 🙂
We love our Berkeys!! We bought the small one for traveling in the states and decided to bring it back here to use in the small house for visitors. We will FOR SURE be bringing that back with us when we visit in the fall. I don’t know what we would’ve done without!! Then we have the next size up (3 gallons) which was a gift from HCF. We usually only have to fill it up once a day (at night before we go to bed we fill it up), but now that I am drinking more water… I find myself filling it up about half way mid-day. We have a filter at our sink for cooking at such, so we use the Berkey for drinking and tea. I LOVE it. I am always sharing about it with other missionaries. All of them drink dead water and complain of fatigue, constant thirst, aching bones and a few other symptoms that are signs that the body is not getting minerals it needs and pulling it out of its own bones. Crazy huh?! Water is supposed to be refreshing, energizing and cleansing. I remember drinking dead water for the first year we were here… HATED it. We were putting in sea salt in our water to have minerals and quench our thirst. It helped, but the water still tasted dead and plastic!!
Okay, enough babbling :o) Hope you are feeling well Mama!! Excited about your girl??
I’ve subscribed to Spain in Iowa. Great give away.
I already subscribe to your blog.
I already subscribe via email!
I already subscribe to SII by email! 🙂
This would be excellent to have!
excited about the giveaway–here was the link to my pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/10273905370263230/
*kelly
[email protected]
I subscribed to receive your emails!
I subscribed to A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa via Email.
t42vek20 at gmail dot com
Just wanted to say thank you for the chance to win and having this awesome giveaway!
So excited I found your blog via a friend. Great!
thanks!
We have been going through several gallons of bottled water a week as well and I am sick of it!!Thanks for sharing.
I’ve been sharing everyday on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/vickykoen/posts/224738737629398
My 5/19 Fb post https://www.facebook.com/rusthawk/timeline/story?ut=76&wstart=1335855600&wend=1338533999&hash=7476916846257816761&pagefilter=3
My 5/19 pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/225461525065556125/
This is AWESOME! We have super high chlorine here… Without a filter our bathroom smells like a hot tub after bathing and you can smell it if you sniff a glass of water. It’s pretty bad! Right now we are using a Brita, we would love to own a Berkey!
daily FB entry https://www.facebook.com/rusthawk/posts/411400762226694
I subscribed to your emails.
my daily FB post: https://www.facebook.com/rusthawk/posts/461818473833904
my FB post for today https://www.facebook.com/rusthawk/posts/316806158399945
daily FB https://www.facebook.com/rusthawk/posts/182697511855669
I subscribed 🙂 Great, healthy giveaway! I caught it 43 minutes before the end!
Ooh, we have a 3 gallon Berkey water filter that my parents so generously bought for us. I fill it every night. It’s awesome!! We have to keep it pushed back on our portable dishwasher though to keep it from my toddler. I don’t enjoy having a lake in my kitchen. (;