Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading many reviews on this site as well as prep sites etc. I bought one of these units last summer (on Amazon, from Big Fly Sports) just prior to the arrival of hurricane Irene intended as a safeguard in case of potable water loss/contamination (and because our tap water tastes like algae anyway). Well, I prepped the black filters as per the instructions and gingerly tightened the plastic nuts so that they were secure but without stripping them and filled it up; the water tasted fantastic and I felt good about the investment. There is no o-ring seal, it's a rubber gasket and both the threaded portion of the filter outlet tube and the nut are plastic so you can't really tighten them down much plus the steel in the base of the upper chamber isn't thick enough to keep it from flexing. I performed the red food coloring test and the water came out with a slightly pink tinge to it but considering that the dyed water in the top chamber was dark red, I thought that it was acceptable. We kept the Big Berkey on it's own stand, filled it with water from a pitcher, didn't take it anywhere and it wasn't mishandled. About a month and a half or so later when I was filling it, I noticed that the filters wobbled more than usual and one simply fell over leaving it's base and what appeared to be silicone adhesive behind; turns out the second filter was no longer adhered to it's base either and was simply sitting there held down by gravity. I was under the assumption that this product came from British Berkefeld, known for the performance of their ceramic filters which are used to produce safe drinking water from contaminated sources. After some research online, I found out that Fairey ceramics in the UK produce the filters for BB and Doulton, I then located the UK contacts at British Berkefeld. I emailed the company to tell them what had occurred and find out if they were aware of this issue with "their" black filters. A very nice lady emailed me within a day apologizing for my issue and told me that those filters and the units themselves were produced by a company in Florida (New Millennium Concepts) which was not a subsidiary of British Berkefeld; she even went to the trouble to get their contact info for me. I inquired as to whether I could purchase the "real" British Berkefeld ceramic filters to use with my Big Berkey and she told me that their "candles" would not fit this unit. I didn't bother to contact the company in Florida and get a new set of filters (which cost $100 for 2) because my primary reason for buying all of this was to filter contaminated water and make it safe to drink. How can I trust that there are not contaminants/protozoa/bacteria etc. that you can't see or taste flowing around the adhesive on the filters when I really need them to work or would the adhesive decide to completely let go and allow contaminated water to pass freely? As far as I'm concerned, I paid $260 for 2 very nice looking polished steel containers that came with filters which WERE NOT produced by the company that this product is named after and whose quality I don't trust. For that price range I could have bought a Katadyn pocket microfiter which is proven. I would use this as a fancy water dispenser to filter funky tasting tap water but I'm not paying $100 for those filters. My Berkey is in garage, we have a $25 faucet filter that uses $11 cartridges to make the tap water taste good and I just purchased an MSR Miniworks EX micro filter system (costs almost $30 less than a set of those black filter candles and can be carried in a back pack); it uses a proven ceramic filter with carbon and has a track record of reliability. The unit doesn't make water quickly but I TRUST what is coming out of it. MSR (Cascade Designs) states that it doesn't filter viruses but I already have a Steripen and water purification tabs to take care of that if needed (I'm thinking that those black filters weren't filtering out any viruses either). I decided to write this because I believe that many people considering these units are very serious about preparing for emergencies where your "must haves" include safe water to hydrate with and I wanted to relay my experience to those willing to plunk down a significant chunk of change for a reliable piece of insurance (plus, I really hate feeling like I was "suckered"). I do hope that this helps in your decision and am sorry to relay my bad news in the midst of all of these great reviews which I always read and use to determine my buying decisions, but I am just being honest.