Imperial Berkey Water Filter System, 4.5 Gallon Gravity Filter

7.4
UsabilityScore
7.0
SocialScore
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7.4
SVT SCORESRead review

4.5-gallon stainless gravity filter that expands to six elements and up to 16.5 gallons per hour.

$451

SKU: IMP6X2-BB Category: Brand:

Usability

Where Berkey Stops Being Slow
Expert Score

The Imperial is the first size where throughput stops being the complaint. Six elements and 16.5 gallons per hour is a different appliance from the 2.75 you get out of a Travel Berkey, and it is the reason to step past the Royal rather than the extra 1.25 gallons of storage. The catch is that the elements you would need to get there are the ones nobody can currently buy.

Contaminant Reduction8.0
Certification Coverage3.0
Flow Rate8.0
Filter Life10.0
Build Quality9.0
Warranty & Support7.0
Ease of Installation7.0
Value7.0
PROS
  • Expands to six elements for up to 16.5 gallons per hour, far beyond the Big or Royal ceiling
  • 4.5 gallons of storage suits three to eight people, offices and pet households
  • Runs on gravity alone with no electricity, plumbing or water pressure
  • 6,000 gallons per pair of elements, so a six-element Imperial holds 18,000 gallons of capacity
  • AISI 304 stainless construction with no plastic in the water path except the spigot
  • Lifetime warranty on the stainless chambers and hardware when bought through the authorized dealer
CONS
  • No NSF certification for any filtration claim; all performance data is manufacturer-commissioned lab testing
  • Standalone Black Berkey replacement elements are out of stock industry-wide under an EPA stop-sale order, so the four- and six-element upgrades are not currently purchasable
  • At 26 in. tall it will not fill under most kitchen faucets
  • Ships with only two of its six element slots populated, so out-of-box flow is well below the headline figure
  • Priming six elements is a long job and the most common first-use complaint across the line
  • Heavy and awkward to move once the lower chamber is full

The Imperial Berkey holds 4.5 gallons across two AISI 304 stainless chambers and is the first size in the range that accepts six Black Berkey elements rather than four.

It ships with two, which give up to 5.5 gallons per hour. Four take that to 11 and six to 16.5, so a fully populated Imperial filters faster than any Berkey below it by a wide margin. Up to six PF-2 elements can be fitted below for fluoride and arsenic reduction.

At 26 in. tall and 10 in. across it needs a dedicated spot and a tall faucet or a bathtub tap to fill comfortably. It is generally sized for three to eight people, small offices and households with animals.

Social Scores

Social Score

Excludes the seller's own on-page 4.9/5 widget. No Amazon pool is recorded: Amazon is not an authorized Berkey seller and its listings are third-party. No Walmart listing with a usable rating volume was found for the Imperial specifically, so the retailer figure below is product-line rather than product.

Reddit Score6.0

Brand-level. r/Berkey and r/preppers threads are dominated by flow problems rather than water quality, and Imperial owners in particular describe topping the upper chamber off before bed so there is filtered water by morning. The recurring fix is scrubbing and re-priming elements as flow degrades.

Google Score7.0

Brand-level. Water Filter Guru's Tap Score testing on city water showed complete reduction of lead, chlorine, copper, barium, manganese and the PFAS compounds tested. TechGearLab's numbers were more middling - 88.3% chlorine, 79.4% iron, 30.4% sulfate - and placed Berkey around the average of the field it tested.

YouTube Score6.0

Product-line. A widely viewed Water Filter Guru lab-test video found aluminum at 1.44 ppm in filtered city water, above the EPA's 0.2 ppm limit, and attributed it to the activated alumina media in the optional PF-2 add-on rather than the Black Berkey elements. Recurring reviewer criticism across the line is that priming is fiddly and flow slows without periodic cleaning.

User Review Score9.0

Product-line. Walmart's Berkey systems listing covering Travel through Crown sits at 4.0 out of 5 from 4 reviews, and the factory-blemished listing spanning the same five sizes holds 4.6 from 30. No Imperial-specific listing carries enough volume to stand alone.

Additional information

Specification: Imperial Berkey Water Filter System, 4.5 Gallon Gravity Filter

Water Filtration Specifications
Certifications

Not certified

Contaminant Removal

Arsenic, Chloramine, Chlorine, Copper, Fluoride, Herbicides, Pesticides, PFAS, THMs, Bacteria, Cysts, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Pharmaceuticals, Viruses, VOCs

Filter Lifespan / Capacity

Not published

Flow Rate / Water Pressure

Gravity-fed

Connection Size

No plumbing connection

Filtration Type

Gravity-Fed, Ultrafiltration

Housing Material

Stainless Steel

General Specifications
Warranty

Lifetime

Dimensions

26 in. H x 10 in. Dia.

Weight

11 lb (shipping)

Country of Origin

USA

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