Customer Reviews

GE Merlin Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

At the time when GE was about to announce this, I was a GE water products dealer. I agree this has some great features, delivers more water per minute, saves spaces and eliminates the tank associated with other models but... A water softener is highly recommended before the Merlin because if your total hardness is over 12 grains, you may face replacing membranes annually. That is 2 at a minimum cost of $80 each. after having installed over 50 of these, We have had calls for most reporting lack of performance within the first year which I attribute to lack of use. these need to be run frequently not just for the occasional glass of water. It is good for light commercial use like a restaurant but not the average home. It produces a higher total dissolved finished product than all other R/O membranes which is why it has high flow at residential line pressure than others which product lower TDS at reduced flows. These require high pressure to operated at optimum performance and are quite weak at pressures below 50 psi.
The air gap mounting that comes with the unit only works with stainless steel or cast iron sinks not granite counters. When I inquired with GE about this, they said there were no plans to change this.
GE has since sold 80% of it's water products division to Pentair and it remains to be seen how this will bode for the Merlin.
The Merlin can only be operated on treated water from a municipal supply and will foul quickly on many well waters.
I recommend this only where you can service this yourself, have a working knowledge of reverse osmosis and can backwash this about once a month without paying for this service.

Pros: I used to have the more typical sears RO system but was frustrated by low capacity. I bought one of these last summer. It was great to be able to fill a 5 gal water jug in minutes instead of hours. Cool design.

Cons: LOUD! The air-break in the spigot sounds like a jet engine. Because it is filtering so much more water per unit time than the low capacity systems, it sounds like you are pouring a bucket of water down the drain the entire time it is running. It has startled people in the next room when the ice maker goes off. Replacing filters is a $250 exercise. Mine lasted 9 months before the flow rate dropped to the point where it was no longer acceptable. Now it keeps turning on spontaneously with a trickle of water. It may be because of a bad valve or because the filers need replacing.

Having had a reverse osmosis system at an older house, when I built this house I was insistent on getting another one. This Merlin package from GE sounded wonderful. I'd always been annoyed at the periodic and unpredictable refilling that the kind with the tanks have to go through to have enough water to satisfy demand. This one supposedly puts out a lot of water, and it will only make that bubbly sound when you're actually getting water out of it. Makes sense to me. So I bought it. I've had my Merlin in service for nearly 2 years now. Let me tell you about my experience.

For several months after installation, the manifold part of the assembly switched on and off about once a second, making a fairly loud chirpy popping sound every time. It got to be extremely annoying. So to resolve the problem, I'd turn the water on to the system only long enough to fill a jug to put in the fridge, then turn it back off. (Back to tank storage, hmph.)

Eventually, I got sick of doing that, so I contacted the dealer I bought it from and tried all the suggestions they had for me--could be a water pressure problem, maybe even a water temperature problem. I had my plumbers come out and tweak my house plumbing to increase water pressure to the system. There wasn't much I could do about temperature, but I suffered from the problem equally in the winter and the summer, except that output flow was a bit more in the summer.

So finally, I insisted something was broken and demanded that they fix it, and after several emails and phone calls, and them talking to GE about the problem, they sent me a new manifold. The first time I tried it, it had the same on/off popping problem. But after running it constantly for 5 minutes, like it says to, the problem was resolved. I was so relieved.

I had a working Merlin system for about 2 months. Then it started doing it again. Garbage. I tried to contact the dealer again and they wouldn't respond to any of my email requests. So I just threw up my hands and decided to use it the way it was.

Eventually, it just stopped putting out much of any water. When you turn the faucet on, it will spit out a bit, then quickly die down to almost no flow at all. It might be that the membranes are finally clogged and need to be replaced, but I'm not going to blow $100 on a machine that pops and wheezes.

So now the machine is on my back porch, completely disconnected. It is nothing but a pile of junk. I regret the purchase very much.

I purchased the GE Merlin over a year ago and have been extremely satisfied with it. I have read all the reviews others have made but I don't use any of the fancy components that others may use like a booster pump or fridge ice makers etc. I just fill a tank with the merlin and then have plenty of RO water for whatever I need. I use about 300 Gallons of RO water per week.

I have figured out that the amount of RO water compared to how much it uses is about 1/5. So out of 5 gallons of water used you get 1 RO gallon. I am filtering city tap water and have it connected to a faucet which I operate manually. The TDS of my city water ranges between 80-110ppm and when it is processed it measures under 10ppm. I also have nice pressure (90psi) so i just use the included pressure gauge and open the valve accoringly until the gauge reads 80psi, and it works great.

I am boggled why it has such bad reviews. It is quiet, it has the most filtering capability for any thing in this price range. You could easily spend twice as much as this on one that has a large storage tank setup or a bunch of fancy valve tank assembly junk. This is an on demand system so produce as much as you need. It would work great in a restraunt or somthing in a cafateria where you you produce it when you need it. It takes up a small space and best of all it has 2 RO Filters, instead of other systems which cost twice as much and only have one filer and produce less volume. I find it takes about 5 minutes for 5 gallons. There is a drawback however they dont seem to provide you with very much hose to hook it up with so you might have to take a trip to your local hardware store and get some additional components. It you are try to have some sort of automated system setup or somthing, can simply hook up a simple gardening timer available at you local hardware store for anywhere from 15 bucks to 100 or so take your pick.

My advice is BUY IT. It has worked great for over a year and produces nice clean water, and it tastes good too. Dont get all fancy with the gadges and it will work fine, and always put a valve between the merlin and the water source so if it automaticly turns on one day you can shut it off. I dont understand how the thing would just turn on but, Im not getting fancy with it. But make sure to install it with care and dont be confused, it you are have a plumber to it. Hope this helps to all of you who want to be healthier by have lots of clean water to drink and cook with. Take care!

If you have a professional install it, you won't have to worry about this, but for the do-it-yourselfer, the directions included with the unit are vague about how to connect the faucet/air gap and how to adjust the valve. First, make sure you attach the blue line (product) to the threaded part of the faucet valve. This may seem obvious, but the diagram shows the black (waste) line apparently connected there, and either line will fit. The air gap connections have the pipe barbs -- black to the small barbs and red to the large barbs, then red to the rubber drain boot. Next, you may need to adjust the faucet valve itself so that it shuts all the way off or the unit will keep turning on every so often, perpetually, as water leaks out and the system turns-on to repressurize. To adjust this, slide off the faucet's black plastic lever and turn the T-nut up a little so that the valve can close all the way, then slide the lever back on. The only time you should hear air/water is when you open the faucet and for a few seconds after it is shut as the pressure builds-up. If you hear gurgling or the unit continues to run every so often, it probably means that a little water is slowly escaping past the faucet valve, and you need to adjust that valve to close all the way. Gurgling sounds can also indicate you have the product/waste lines reversed. When the unit is running, you will hear water flowing through the chambers and air sucking in through the air gap as waste water goes down the drain, but it will stop completely about 10 seconds after the faucet is turned off. It will sputter during the first few hours it is purged as the air gets out and will gradually sound better, but will always sound like the sink is running strongly when you are getting RO water. 40 PSI will produce just enough RO flow to be acceptable, but more pressure is better. It is nice not to need a storage tank and to have an unlimited supply of RO water, but its best use is probably as a space saver for under-sink cabinets.

I purchased this item for a complete house remodel after reading the information and performance specs. I had purchased all GE Profile appliances and have long respected the GE name for quality. The installation baffled the plumber but after a large amount of head scratching by both of us we finally figured it out and got it installed.

THE REASON I INSTALLED A RO SYSTEM:
This was put in front of a "pot filler" faucet installed over the cook top, the ice maker in the fridge, the insta-hot and a built-in coffee maker.

THE PROBLEMS I ENCOUNTERED:
The first problem was that the system did not provide adequate flow for the coffee maker to work, so that was disconnected. I was bummed because that is a major reason for the system. The second problem was the low flow in the refrigirator water dispenser. I had to remove the filter in the fridge or it would take forever to fill up a glass. The pot filler ran exceeding slow as well.

All that pails in comparison to the agrevation of listening to this system continue to run after each use. I am on a water meter and generally take great pains not to "waste" water. It's not possible with this system

EXCESSIVE COST OF REPLACEMENT FILTERS:
The final straw was when the system would not shut off. I decided I would try to replace the filters. My bad for not checking the cost of these items BEFORE putting the system in. The replacement RO filters and the other two required cost more than most competing units. Even after extensive price shopping the best I could do was $209 to replace the filters and membranes.

I cannot recommend this for anyone.

The "Merlin" reverse osmosis filter does the job. Our 'problem' with this filter, as in another brand we had before, is water waste. All these low pressure, below 90 PSI, filters, waste ten times more water then they produce.
We know exactly, because we recycle light 'grey' water for toilet flushing. In water shortage regions , we are on a poorly producing well, I recomend spending an extra thousand for a small salt water desalination unit such as used on ocean going ships. Run THAT motor on 12V, solar and one has the purest fresh water, free.
Desalinating 'fresh' water should be a snap with few if any, "filter" changes.
With plenty of fresh water available, one could simply redirect "Merlin's" waste water for garden or other non drinking uses. In most regions of North America,GE Merlin Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System clean drinking water will soon have more issues then Readers Digest.

I've had the system for 2+ years now. It's never worked well. It's very loud when filtering water, and has very low output pressure. I added a booster pump and a storage tank to make it moderately useful. Even though our water usage is low, the prefilter has to be replaced every month or 2, or the valve will make even more noise. It kinda whines like a dying animal as it leaks waste water throught the manifold valve. My wife will be extremely happy when it's in the trash. I'll be replacing it with a conventional RO system in the next couple weeks. I'd only recommend it if you need 200+ gallons of water per day, don't mind 60+dB of noise, only use the supplied faucet, install the unit within 2 feet of the faucet, and keep a big stockpile of prefilters on hand to swap out every few weeks.

I bought this for a house with well water (high TDS) - I have it setup to feed a non-air gap RO faucet and the refrigerator. As I have granite counters, I can't use the provided faucet that comes with the unit.
The unit is unusual in that all of the lines are 3/8 with the exception of the "backflush" tank like which isn't provided and is 1/4.
If you have under 50psi of water pressure, especially in the 30-40 range, you need a booster pump or you won't be happy with the unit.
I have extremely high TDS - like in the 1100-1300 range. A few issues: My main issue with the unit is that I have high TDS when turning the unit on. To resolve this, I added the "backflush" tank - yet another $100 or so - and have found that I had to adjust it's internal pressure just to get it to fill. It has done nothing as far as I can tell to help with high-TDS at start up. We have to run our unit for 2-3 minutes until TDS drops below the 120 range.
Second problem: I can't get it to stop leaking. I have a non-airgap faucet and non-airgap drain. I've replaced all 3 filters. It still leaks... Slowly, but it does leak. It's probably leaking 300 gallons per day according to my water softener and has cost me thousands of gallons of water. I have not contacted GE - my interm solution is going to be to install a booster pump with a cut-off solenoid to prevent the thing from flowing water when it shouldn't... Anyone with any solutions on getting to STOP leaking - let me know.

I purchased the GE Merlin 18 months ago. I am totally impressed with this product. I'm confused about the loud noise the other reviewer spoke of. My unit makes a very soft noise, water running through the three chambers. All water filters for reverse osmosis seem to be costly. The nice thing about Merlin is that filters have a longer life that your standard RO. If you happen to use the maximum (750 gallons/per day), I would guess it could be a bit on the expensive side. In my household we use water for the icemaker, cooking, drinking and watering 4 dogs. I've had a variety of systems since 1980 and none could keep up with the demand. Merlin does it hands down. Another important thing to note. My Merlin works off of my well water that is run through a water softner (recommended for most RO's). I recommend the GE Merlin, it's met every expectation I had and the water tastes great. People have wondered why my coffee is superior to theirs and they use the same brand. I tell them it's all in the magic of Merlin.