Hi Catherine,
We haven’t done taste testing on larger systems, but many reviews I’ve read favor the Berkey for supplying large mounts of drinking water with more thorough filtration at a lower cost-per-gallon. They’re competing with water coolers and under-sink filtration units more than pitchers, and in that category they’re quite competitive.

The two biggest turn-offs based on my knowledge of the system are slow filtration time (~1 hour to fill the 1.5 gallon reservoir on the smaller countertop Berkey) and the significant space it takes up. Cleanable filters for longer life is a great money-saver, but many people would rather spend more on filters they don’t need to maintain.

I’m also living in Orange [waves hello] and the TDS readings in my apartment recently have been more like 250. I’m testing the Zero Water against the new Brita “Longlast” filter type right now: the ZW works as expected, the Brita barely changes taste profile but we’ll probably keep using that system out of habit. Like you, I’m frustrated that there isn’t a middle option between the Brita and ZeroWater without moving up to something more complicated.

too expensive. The filter is $12-13/each, and after 6-10 gallons ( depending on how bad your water is) you have to change the filter. It’s my personal experience, so I returned it

the cost is justified if the Berkey give good taste waterline the zero water pitcher and its filter does last 3000 gallons as described or promised.
Thank you in advance for your inf. I’m looking forward to your response so I can decide

Hi Catherine,
You can get the Berkey on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y1VTW9H/?tag=ybdwtr-20

Or from the manufacturer here:
https://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/berkey-water-filters.html

It’s a much more significant investment than a pitcher, and approaching the cost of a reverse osmosis system install, but people who have problems with their water and can’t afford to waste water (RO wastes a lot of water) like them.

I found the Berkey water filter.
Base on your experience, does the Berkey clean the water like the zero filter ?
Thank you John.

can you give me a full name of “Berkey” and where to buy it .
I appreciate your help and inf

Grab a Berkey, and be done with it…..

The Brita filter does not clean at all ( my tab water was measured 450-480 by the zero water meter, and after being filtered by Brita filter, the water is still 420-430 , only 20-30 items were removed by Brita filter !!!

I need to find the filter to produce much better water than Brita, but the costs is much lower than ZeroWater filter . ANY SUGGESTION ????

It’s the trickiest part of this category, for sure. ZeroWater could filter less particles… but that’s not really the reason we bought them. They could use bigger filter-media canisters… but the price would also go up and the problems with over-saturated filter media would get even worse (even if it took longer for the problems to start.)

If you want to maximize the life of your Zerowater, you could pre-filter with some kind of washable filter system. That kind of defeats the convenience of the filter pitcher, so you really have to decide if zero dissolved solids is the number that’s important.