If you live in a big city like London, you’ll be familiar with the annoyances of limescale and the need for some kind of water filter to reduce the hardness of the water.
Our lightbulb moment came when we had friends over and saw that all of our glasses were streaked with limescale stains. It was then that we decided that when we bought our house (we were renting at the time), we would get a water softener installed.
And so we did. We live an aggressively hard water area in London, so decided the best course of action would be a water softener solution that would soften all the water in the house. We got a Harvey’s Water Softener system plumbed into our water system, which has been great. We could immediately feel the difference in the softness of our skin, hair and clothes and of course, no more streaks on our glasses.
But then we decided to have a child. And because the Harvey’s water softeners uses cylinders that are made up of microscopic beads that form a resin that traps magnesium and calcium and replaces them with the sodium from the block salt that is part of the water softener, we needed to find another solution for drinking water. The sodium levels are fine for adults, but are slightly too high for young children.
For the past three years, we been buying 10L boxes of Harrogate Spring Water for J to use as drinking water, which has never sat well with me as the most eco-friendly or economical solution.
Enter the Berkey water filter. This is an eco-friendly drinking water solution that removes pathogenic bacteria, parasites, herbicides, pesticides, organic solvents, radon 222, VOCs and trihalomethanes. It also removes chlorine, fluoride and arsenic, as well as reduces lead and mercury. Another benefit of the system is that it removes pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, BPAs, triclosan, progesterone and ibuprofen and reduces synthetic oestrogens from the filtered drinking water. This last element was really important to me as I do everything I can to reduce my hormone load and the pressure on my liver.
It was delivered on Friday and took 5 minutes to put together.
At £253, the Big Berkey is definitely an investment. For us, the math works out: we’ve been spending £4.29 a week for the past three years, buying 10L boxes of water, so the cost of our Big Berkey works out to one year of buying 10L boxes of water. The Big Berkey holds 8.5L of water at a time, however they also sell 12, 17 and 23L solutions for larger families and offices.
The water is really delicious. Sounds bizarre to say that about water, but it’s true – I already notice the difference compared to bottled and tap water.
Do you have a water softener? Has it made a difference in the quality of your drinking water?
Do you want to talk more about your hormone health? Get in touch for a free 30 minute hormone & menstrual health review.
Le’Nise Brothers is a nutritional therapist, women’s health coach and founder of Eat Love Move.
Le’Nise works primarily with women who feel like they’re being ruled by their sugar cravings, mood swings and hormonal acne & bloating.
They want to get to grips with heavy, missing, irregular & painful periods, fibroids, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, post-natal depletion and perimenopause.
Her mission is for women to understand and embrace their hormones & menstrual cycle!
Hi there,
I’m considering a Berkey for my home. We have a water softener as well. Did you have a hard water line put in so that you can fill the berkey? I have read you can’t Fill it with soft water. Seeing that your water is really hard will that cause a lot of scale inside your Berkey.
Hi there! Yes, we needed to have a hard water line put in to accommodate the Berkey. It was a fairly easy process, with a plumber installing a second tap at the sink in about 20 minutes.
That site you linked to has the berkey sold out worldwide until 2020, however I found them in stock in the US…..if one is willing to pay for the shipping.
https://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/big-berkey-water-filter.html
Thank you for sharing this new link!
Hi Le’Nise, I am thinking about getting a Burkey filter but also live in a hard water area. I lived in London for 20 years and thought water didn’t get any harder but I was proved wrong when I moved to the Kent coast.
I was hoping you could give an update on how you are getting on with your filter now it has been a few years since you started using it.
Finally, when I was in London and where I am now if I make a cup of tea without filtered water I get the most horrible scum floating on top – would you know if the Burkey helps brew a prettier tea or coffee?
Hi Esther!
I still really love my Berkey! My only regret is that I didn’t get the bigger one!
And yes, there’s no scum on a cup of tea or coffee!