Why a gravity water filter that sits on the counter is ideal for tight budgets, renters, and emergency preparedness with a comparison of the most popular models that require no professional installation.
No healthy, sustainably-focused lifestyle would be complete without a carefully considered water filtration strategy.
If money is tight, you rent your home, or you need a setup quickly with no installation necessary, a countertop gravity water system is an effective technology to consider.
Even if you already have a whole house water system or a comprehensive water filter installed under the counter as we do, a gravity filter is a smart unit to have on hand for emergencies.
This is why the primary reason we have one, in fact!
More about this below.
What is a Gravity Water System?
The genius of gravity water filters is that they work without electricity, battery power, or manual pumping of any kind.
The energy that moves the water through the filters is the most powerful force in the universe. It also costs nothing to tap into…gravity!
All that is needed to operate this type of filter is to pour tap water manually into the top of the unit. The water naturally passes from this upper chamber through the filters under the pressure of gravity into the lower chamber.
At this point, the clean, filtered water is accessible via a spigot on the front of the filter.
Benefits
There are three main benefits of a gravity water filter.
- Gravity filters are completely portable. Thus, they are ideal for those who rent their home or plan to move in the near future.
- These units require no installation. In other words, you don’t need to call the plumber or be exceptionally handy to get them up and running. Simply unbox, assemble on the counter, and they are ready to use immediately.
- Gravity systems do not need a power source to operate. Thus, they are smart to have one on hand for emergencies. This is the case even if you own your home or already have a more permanent type of water filtration unit.
Our family has a gravity filter, for example, as part of our storm preparedness strategy.
If we lose power, we can still filter our water… even drawing it by bucket directly out of the lake in the backyard if necessary!
Important Features
The highest quality gravity water filters (this is the model I recommend) are made from high-grade polished stainless steel including the spigot at the bottom.
The filters should be made of ceramic that is impregnated with silver to prevent pathogenic microbial growth.
The technology should also be comprehensive enough to remove fluoride right out of the box without any upgrades.
The filters should be tested and certified to remove not only chlorine, but also vinyl chloride, trihalomethanes like chloramine, fluoride, heavy metals, VOCs, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals like glyphosate.
Radiant Life vs Berkey and Alexapure
When people ask me about gravity filters, I recommend this model as the best value for the money whether you live in an apartment, condo, or single family home.
Those of you who have read this blog for many years may remember that I used to recommend the Berkey about 10 years ago.
I now recommend the more advanced Radiant Life Gravity Filter over the Berkey and similar models like Alexapure for the reasons listed below.
Better Quality Filters
The standard model of the Radiant Life gravity filter removes fluoride from water without the need for purchasing add-on filters.
This reduces total out-of-pocket cost, installation time, and improves the unit’s efficiency.
The good news is that if you already have a Berkey or Alexapure, the Radiant Life replacement filters will fit these models.
No Aluminum
The Radiant Life fluoride filters are made of the safest materials and do not use Activated Alumina like Berkey.
Removing a toxin like fluoride with a material that is also toxic like aluminum makes no sense at all!
As mentioned earlier, if you have a Berkey or Alexapure and wish to transition to the aluminum-free Radiant Life fluoride filter, it will fit these models as well.
Priming Not Necessary
The Radiant Life gravity filter does not require priming such as the Berkey red food dye coloring test. (1)
Simply flush water through the chambers and it’s ready to use!
Stainless Steel Spigot
The Radiant Life gravity filter comes standard with a stainless steel spigot versus a plastic or mixed metal option for other basic models.
Lower-quality spigots can degrade over time and possibly flake toxins into the filtered water.
Lower Maintenance Costs
The filters for the Radiant Life model last longer, reducing out-of-pocket maintenance.
For example, Alexapure filters have a capacity of 200 gallons which would require changing the filter every 2 months or less with regular use.
In comparison, the Radiant Life 2 filter model provides filtered water for an entire year, only needing to be changed annually.
Thus, the maintenance cost for Alexapure is roughly 6x the cost of Radiant Life’s gravity water system.
Have you considered adding a gravity filter to your repertoire of home health technology? After suffering through an extended power outage and worrying whether we had enough drinkable water, I would never be without one!
Coupon
If you are in the market for a gravity filter and are considering Radiant Life’s model, coupon code HEALTHY10 will take 10% off your order.
HEALTHY10 will also take 10% off Radiant Life’s highest-quality replacement filters that will fit Berkey and Alexapure too.
(1) How to Do the Berkey Water Filter Red Dye Food Coloring Test
Does the RL system require performing a red dye test to know for sure it’s filtering correctly? I hate that about the Berkey, and I don’t know how long I used it while it was not filtering correctly.
How does it compare to alexapure?
Alexapure has a cheaper spigot that is not stainless steel which can degrade and flake toxins into the water. Also the Alexapure filters have a capacity of 200 gallons which would require changing the filter 2 months or less with regular use. The Radiant Life 2 filter model provides filtered water for an entire year and only needing to change filters annually. So the cost to maintain Alexapure is almost 6x the cost of the Radiant Life model.
We use a cheap magnet from ebay on water pipe to cleanse and condition water and then add a Vortex water energiser to revitalise the water. Thank You, Kind regards, Ammer
Would you be willing to check with your Radiant Life source again about re-stock? They are out again already. I saw your article and checked just a few days after they came back in stock Nov 2020. From what I’ve read I’d rather have the radiant life rather than Berkey because RL systems don’t require an additional filter for fluoride. Thank you for all the great information you share!
The Radiant Life filters are recommended to be replaced annually and the Berkey filters last 3-6 years. How do you know when you need to replace the filters? Does this still make it a more cost effective option?
We’ve had a Berkey since Fall 2020, and the multiple filters we’ve used (bought from their site and replaced through their warranty) have failed the red dye tests before 1 year—usually between 2 weeks to 2 months of using them. We only used tap water. After over a year of failed filters, they’ve sadly lost our recommendation. Our initial red flag was when our first set of filters failed so soon and they couldn’t answer my Qs as to why they say their filters last 3-5 years (i.e. what kind of water did they use for that kind of result? city vs well? etc.) …it was a big disappointment, but we kept trying their filters and riding off their warranty for over a year. With every set of replacement filters sent, they lost our trust even more… because in the process Berkey employees started giving us different red dye test and priming instructions from what was in print… i.e. prime your filters for 3-mins each; and for the red dye test, only evaluate the first cup that’s filtered—if it’s clear, then empty the rest of the dyed water into the sink…
Couldn’t get myself to throw away our Royal Berkey because of how much we paid for it—and was just starting to look into whether other companies sold reliable and third-party tested filters that would fit. This article was timely! We’ll look into Radiant Life filters.
So glad this info was helpful! I’m in a similar boat … I have a Berkey we’ve had for many years for emergencies when the power is out, but the RL filters are what we use because they are higher quality and overall better.
Would the Radian Life filters and spigot fit a Berkey system?
I would second the comment on this being not in stock. I have added my email to the notification list twice over the past two months and there has been no update or response whatsoever.
I wonder if there is a part shortage due to Covid? I’ve got an email into my contact there to find out an estimate about when they will be back in stock.
Just heard back and the gravity filter should be back in stock the first week of November 2020 or so. And yes, high demand and supply chain issues from covid have caused the problem.
I have this system and it’s working well. It did require a much longer ‘break in” period than I was expecting, and I was almost ready to stop using it.
Our city water smelled and tasted terrible when we first ran it through this filter. It took several days of our dumping the filtered water until we were able to use it.
This filter system hasn’t been in stock for months. I’ve been trying to but it since the beginning of the year…
I have the UK version of this called Coldstream and highly recommend it. Also has stainless steel tap but one thing I want to see changed is the ability to completely close off any unused filter holes when I only want to use two filters. This currently has to be plugged using a type of rubber bung stop which does not completely seal the hole and easily comes loose if moved. Not good if using unsafe water source.