The Berkey stainless steel sight glass spigot is a wonderful new addition to the Berkey family of products, and it makes using your Berkey much easier. With it, you can immediately tell how much water you have available in your lower chamber, eliminating the need to lift up the upper chamber and looking inside.
However, sometimes the stainless steel sight glass spigot can have some issues. In this article, we now tackle what to do when you experience a stuck float ball.
- Remove the top cap from the stainless steel sleeve.
- Remove the silicone washer from inside the top cap.
- Make sure the hole in the silicone washer is completely punched out (see below).
- If needed, you can use a clean drinking straw or similar to push the float ball down.
- Reinstall the silicone washer
- Reinstall the top cap. Tighten the top cap securely by hand only. Do not use tools to tighten this cap.
- Retest the system, and hopefully that solved it!

If that does not solve things, try the following:
- Empty the water from your Berkey.
- Remove the top cap with the silicone washer inside of it.
- Carefully remove the glass tube by sliding it up and out of the stainless steel sleeve.
- Run water through the tube, being careful not to lose the float ball.
- Reinstall the glass tube.
- Insert the float ball.
- Reinstall the silicone washer.
- Reinstall the top cap. Tighten the top cap securely by hand only. Do not use tools to tighten this cap.
- Refill the Berkey and test things out.
See if that solves things. If not, we have some more tips and tricks to try such as:
Ultimately, if you cannot get something working, the manufacturer can swap things out when still under warranty. You can submit a request for a swapout by filling out the following form: https://support.berkeywater.com/support/forms/warranty-claims/
As always, you can Contact Us if you need help with anything.