Learn how to prime Berkey water filters to filter out impurities and get the best, most delicious water quickly. Follow my step-by-step procedures to make this process so simple.
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I’ve done many posts on here and my YouTube channel all about our Berkey water filter, and why we use it to filter our water for all my homemade, from-scratch recipes and ferments.
Today, I’m going to show you how to prime the filters.
Our Berkey is one my favorite items in the house. We absolutely love it to filter out all the things we don’t want to be drinking.
I use the filtered water to make all of my ferments and from-scratch recipes, to feed my sourdough starter, and of course, to drink. It is an essential part of our real-food kitchen.
We use it now that we have well water, but we loved it even more when we had city water that was full of terrible stuff we didn’t want to be drinking.
Back then, we used the arsenic/fluoride filter, and it made me feel a lot better giving that water to my growing family and drinking it when pregnant.
I just feel like if I’m going to be making all this healthy food, to not have properly-filtered water would just defeat the purpose.
What Is The Purpose Of Priming Berkey Water Filters?
When you first get your Berkey water filters, you will find they are really light. They are actually full of air, and when you’re assembling your water filter system, you want to prime the filters to get all that air out.
If you don’t prime the filters, it will take a super long time to filter out the water. You could put gallons of water in the top portion at night, and come back in the morning to barely any water in the bottom canister.
That is the point of properly priming them. You may also need to clean and re-prime the filters if you notice that the filtering rate is starting to slow down.
If you haven’t purchased a Berkey water filter system yet, make sure to check out my post on how to get a great deal on it.
Tips For Priming Berkey Water Filters
- Only use cold water; never use warm water, hot water, or soap to prime the elements.
- It can take 3-4 minutes per filter. It takes awhile sometimes, so if you feel like you’re doing something wrong, try to wait a little longer, and it may start seeping through correctly.
- Make sure you check out my post on how to assemble your Berkey water filter system.
Tools you will need:
Black Berkey Filter Elements
Priming button (it comes with filter elements)
How To Prime Berkey Water Filter
- First, take off the wing nut and washer that it comes with.
- Take the priming piece and place it on the tube where the filtered water will eventually come out.
- Turn your water on at a slow rate. You don’t want it too high, or you will make a mess when you go to push the priming piece on the faucet. Water will fly everywhere.
- Press the filter with the priming piece up to your faucet firmly. Hold it there until the water starts seeping out of the filter. The goal is to see water seeping out of all the little pores.
- You may also start seeing some bubbles forming on the filters. That’s ok; just keep holding the filter up with the priming button under the running water until all the water is seeped through.
- This may take up to 3-4 minutes per filter.
- Repeat on the other filter.
How Do You Know You Primed The Filters Properly?
You will know that the filters are primed properly when you set up your Berkey water system and the water is filtering at a pace you are pleased with.
Do you have to Prime Berkey filters?
Yes. This is an essential procedure to make sure your filters are filtering at an optimal rate. If you don’t, they will filter extremely slowly, to the point where you could leave it all night and barely any water will filter out.
More From Our Farmhouse
- Simple Farmhouse Life
- How To Do A Berkey Red Dye Test
- Filtered Water – Is It THAT Important?
- Simple Living Gift Guide
How To Prime Berkey Water Filter Printable Instructions:
How To Prime Berkey Water Filters
Equipment
- Berkey Water Filter
Ingredients
- Berkey water filter elements
- Priming piece
Instructions
- First, take off the wing nut and washer that it comes with.
- Take the priming piece and place it on the tube where the filtered water will eventually come out.
- Turn your water on at a slow rate. You don't want it too high, or you will make a mess when you go to push the priming piece on the faucet. Water will fly everywhere.
- Press the filter with the priming piece up to your faucet firmly. Hold it there until the water starts seeping out of the filter. The goal is to see water come seeping out of all the little pores.
- You may also start seeing some bubbles forming on the filters. That's ok; just keep holding the filter up with the priming button under the running water until all the water is seeped through.
- This may take up to 3-4 minutes per filter.
- Repeat with other filter
Notes
- Only use cold water; never use warm water, hot water, or soap to prime the elements.
- It can take 3-4 minutes per filter. It takes awhile sometimes, so if you feel like you're doing something wrong, try to wait a little longer, and it may start seeping through correctly.
- If after 3-4 minutes you don't notice any water seeping through, try to readjust the priming button or the water flow to see if that helps.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Pin It For Later
We filled our new berkey and the water never drained to the bottom tank. Any ideas?
Were the filters primed before adding the water. The only time I’ve ever had them not drain was when they needed to be primed again.
Thank you so much! I kept trying and trying but I couldn’t get any water to seep out. Switched to a different faucets and finally got it to work.
hi do you still use the fluoride filters now that you’re on well water?
No, I don’t now!