For years I was a die-hard Berkey user and would refuse to touch any other water. I would refill my Berkey daily, using it for drinking, filling water bottles, cooking, washing veggies, literally anything you can use water for. We even went as far as unplugging the water line to our fridge so that our kids couldn't go up to the water dispenser on the fridge to fill up their glasses or bottles; we forced them to use the Berkey as well.
But as time went by I thought there had to be another option when it came to getting good, clean water without having to constantly fill up the container.
We looked into reverse osmosis systems, whole house filtration systems, other Berkey-type gravity filters, and multi-stage under sink filters. We looked high and low for every option out there. Let's just say we were very skeptical. We weren't upset with the Berkey's filtration effectiveness but more so the practicality of the system in general. It's just not very practical!
The goal was to get clean and safe water on-demand.
During the research phase of what our other options were, I came across an Instagram post from Clearly Filtered showcasing recent information about the water quality in our state. The post talked about contaminants like Arsenic, Pesticides, Bacteria, PFOAs, Lead in the drinking water. Basically all the things that I knew were in our water, hence the Berkey, but also I was unaware any other water filter was even capable of removing those things.
And here's the straw that broke the camel's back (no pun). I was trying to wash all of my organic veggies (we grow a lot of these in our yard) in my sink. This requires a lot of clean, contaminant-free water. And it is sooooo frustrating having to use my Berkey to do this! Haul the Berkey over to the sink, open the spigot and frantically clean the veggies with the water, refilling the Berkey and waiting for it to filter again, to then clean more veggies. I was done. This could not be the best solution.