Gravity Water Filter SystemRemoves Fluoride!Removes bacteria and the harmful crap from your water! Description:(1) 1.75-gallon food-grade, BPA-free plastic bucket(1) 4″x4″ low-profile silver-impregnated ceramic filter with activated charcoal and anti-fluoride core(1) Primo ceramic water dispenser with spigot(1) cool wooden stand That’s it! It’s the simplest thing in the world! But it works, and gives you good-tasting water! A friend said he got a stainless steel Berkey that does the same thing – but with this, we got the same pure water to drink at a fraction of his cost! (And, if you have a large bottle of bottled water you want to use for company, just take the filter container off, and put the bottle on top of the crock – it works as a water dispenser, too!) These filters are produced here in the US, and are just as good – if not better – than the British Sterasyl filters we used to use when we lived overseas. They are rated at 0.2 micron pore size, so they will filter 99.99% of particles larger than 0.2 microns in size. They are silver impregnated, so they actually KILL bacteria and amoeba that try to swim through the filter with the water! There is a core of activated charcoal that removes bad tastes and odors from the water, and a special matrix of anti-fluoride resin. To use this on a regular basis, you’ll have to clean the filter when the water that SHOULD flow through turns into a dribble. Some people use a green kitchen pot cleaner – if you do, make sure it’s an OLD one that’s been worn down, so you don’t wear down your filter too much. Anti-Fluoride filters like these should last 6 months, if they are used on a steady, daily basis. Shipping:Please note: This will come in 2 shipments: 1 box with the ceramic crock and wooden legs, and 1 box with the plastic filter container for the top, along with the ceramic filters. Note further – these must be shipped by either UPS or FedEx to keep the shipping charges low. If you cannot have it shipped to a street address, please don’t buy one.Installation:First, decide whether you want to use the wooden legs to support the crock, or not. If you want the legs, you’ll have to get a Phillips screwdriver and put it together. The big screw goes in the middle hole – the 4 smaller ones go around the edges. It’s very easy to install the filter in the container. Take your filter out of the box, and you’ll see a wingnut and 2 silicon washers on the bottom. Unscrew the wingnut, and set it aside. Take one of the silicon washers off. Put the threaded shaft on the bottom of the filter through one of the small holes in the bottom of the container, so the shaft comes out the bottom of the container. The filter stays in the filter container. Put the silicon washer back on the threaded shaft, and then screw the wingnut back onto the shaft. When you tighten the wingnut, please hold onto the plastic base of the filter – DO NOT hold the filter, itself. If you hold the filter and you twist it off its base, you will have to purchase another filter. Turn the wingnut so it is tight. That’s it! Now set the filter container on top of the crock, and pour about 1 1/2 gallons of tap water into the container. The first time you use the filter, it’ll seem like it takes forever for the water to work its way through the ceramic. After they get saturated, it won’t take as long for the water to run through it, but please don’t expect to get a ton of water flow-through with a bucket this size. Also, please expect tons of little black thingies in the water the first few times you use the filter. That’s normal. It’s just some of the finely powdered activated charcoal slipping through the mesh lining in the core of the filter. Some people throw that water away, and put fresh water in the top bucket. I just drink the stuff. I used to pay good money for pills of activated charcoal for stomach problems, and finally realized that I could get that same charcoal for free if I would just ignore the dark specks and drink the water! Water flow-through depends on the «head» of water that’s above the filters. If you need a lot of water, get one of the uglier 5-gallon or 6-gallon plastic bucket systems that I’ve got listed. This will provide you with tasty water to drink, but you’ll have to be diligent about refilling the top bucket every time you fill up a glass from the full crock below. It’s a tortoise – not a rabbit. Replacement filters are available. They cost $45 each plus shipping.I currently have a listing for the replacement filters – click on the «See Other Items» in the upper right hand corner of this page. I will include contact information along with the top filter assembly, so you can contact me directly with any questions, if you so desire. Rinse with clean water, and refill with any old pond or river water again.NEVER use soap on the filters. Soap will RUIN them. You can speed up the filtering by making a siphon hose:Get a piece of 5/16″ OD clear plastic hose, and push it up over the threads on the bottom of the filter. Let it hang down in the crock so the end rests on the bottom of the crock. When clear water flows and covers the end of the hose, it will start siphoning water through the filter, and will speed up the filtering process. Technical Info: These filters will remove…99% Arsenic 599% Hydrogen Sulfide (Rotten egg odor – H2S)95% Chlorine and Chloramines99% bad taste99% bad odors98% Aluminum96% Iron98% Lead90% Pesticides85% Insecticides90% Rat poisons85% Phenols85% MTBE85% Perchlorate80% Trihalomethanes 95% Polyaromatic hydrocarbons100% Giardia Lamblia100% Cyclospora100% live Cryptosporidium (WRc Standard)100% Cryptosporidium (NSF standard 53)100% E. Coli, Vibrio Cholarae99.999% Salmonella Typhil, Shigella Dysenteria99.999% bacteriaand Fluoride. Note: Because of the wide variations between municipalities and how much fluoride they put into their water systems, it’s impossible to generically determine the percentage that’s removed.At first, almost all of the tested municipalities’ fluoride will be removed. Then after 3-4 months, the efficacy goes down. These AFl filters need to be replaced approx. every 6 months to keep your fluoride levels down to the desired levels. The silver component of the filter will still be good – just dry the filter out after you replace it, and store it for later use when you are trying to filter the other impurities. Each filter should be good for a total of at least 1 year – depending, of course, how often it gets dirty and you have to clean it. Each cleaning removes the top layer of the ceramic shell…. Dry Storage Life: indefinite.Wet Usage Life: about 1 year for the silver ceramic shell, 6 months for the anti-fluoride element, if used on a continuous basis