The media within the Black Berkey® Elements is not designed to remove beneficial (ionic) minerals from your water supply. These kinds of minerals can be reduced if they are in high concentration, but some will still be allowed through. We have not paid for any third-party testing with accredited laboratories for the removal rate of ionic minerals, as they are not supposed to be completely removed to begin with. There are no water filtration companies on the market (that we are aware of) that publish a test of that nature. We know that the Black Berkey® Elements do not remove all types of minerals. We, and numerous consumers, have tested the influent water (unfiltered) and the effluent water (filtered by Black Berkey® Elements) with a TDS meter and typically the mineral count remains about the same.
Again, our focus is not the removal of beneficial minerals, but rather the removal of harmful and undesirable contaminants, of which you can reference in the numerous accredited third-party laboratory test results we have posted on our website. It stands to reason that if our filters remove undesirable and potentially harmful dissolved solids (such as heavy metals) as our tests clearly demonstrate, and a TDS meter still indicates there are dissolved solids in the water after passing through our filters, one could conclude that the remaining dissolved solids are most likely beneficial minerals.
Electrolytes are compounds such as sodium, potassium, calcium, etc. They help perform the functions of muscle contraction and heartbeat among other various bodily tasks. Many electrolytes also fall under the category of beneficial minerals, so we do not have specific test results for electrolytes. We do have test results for one particular electrolyte, chloride, which is reduced by the Black Berkey® Elements in excess of 99.6%. If you would like to add electrolytes to your water, we recommend using electrolyte additives in the lower chamber of your Berkey® System.
*Please note that TDS meters only measure the levels of total dissolved solids (with ions that are charged) such as minerals in your water (many of which are known to be beneficial to your health, and some heavy metals which are not). Because a TDS meter only detects charged ions, a TDS meter cannot measure uncharged contaminants. Uncharged contaminants can include: toxic chemicals (like pesticides), petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, arsenic, fluoride, hexavalent chromium, PFAS, biological microorganisms (like viruses, bacteria, parasites such as cryptosporidium and giardia, etc.) and many other typical contaminants that might be present in your water. Therefore, TDS meters cannot tell you if water is safe to drink or not, and this is why consumers should use and trust test results from accredited third-party laboratories as testimony for the effectiveness of specific water filters to remove harmful contaminants—rather than depending on a TDS meter.
Read the test results for the Black Berkey® Elements.
Learn more about beneficial minerals.
Read our blog post: What a TDS Meter Can (and Can’t) Tell You