GE Merlin RO

Re: GE Merlin RO


ROs hold a small reserve of ultra filtered water and they are very slow to replace what is used.
All POU filters should have dedicated faucets and be used strictly for drinking, cooking and ice.

Re: GE Merlin RO

I've sold a couple and the customers have had praises and no complaints. Most people do not need the .5 gpm production rate of the Merlin and would better served money wise in both the purchase price and cost to maintain an RO by buying the regular type.


RO water is aggressive and will eat up copper tubing causing leaks and adding copper to the water, which can be a serious health problem.

Re: GE Merlin RO


Hello SusiQ! Another POU option available is the NSF certified Multi-Pure solid carbon block filter.
It does not reduce minerals (sodium), but it will remove Crypto, it flows over .75 gpm - no waiting,
the effluent is not aggressive, it's small and it's only maintenance consists of a yearly filter change.

Two primary reasons that RO water (from typical residential add-on systems) is not used via regualr faucets are:

The existing plumbing is quite large in diameter and the flow would like like a dribble. The volume might be the same but it would not come out very fast.

Also, RO water should be put through dedicated plumbing to avoid possible contaminants from the the existing plumbing. A closed systems provides better water, better pressure and gives the assurance that the water you treat for consumption purposes is being handled correctly.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

Thanks for all the answers!
Gary you wrote: "Most people do not need the .5 gpm production rate of the Merlin and would better served money wise in both the purchase price and cost to maintain an RO by buying the regular type."
That was the main reason I decided to go ahead and get the Merlin. I do cook and bake a lot, not only for my family. If I decide to open a small catering business in the future, I don't have to buy a new system.

As for the special faucet that comes with it, I will have my Husband install it. He just didn't have any idea and when I told him the reasons why, he understood.

You're welcome SusiQ. The Merlin may be just right for your needs then.

SusiQ. I see on another forum that you have questions about programming your Fleck 2510SE for your new softener.

You should ask H20man to help you program it but...

A heads up, the resident pretend to be a softener expert screwup guy that answered you on the other forum is leading you astray. And your math formula is incorrect.

You have bought what is mistakenly called a 32K softener; actually a 1.0 cuft softener. The K of capacity is adjustable as is the salt dose in lbs. and that in the cubic foot volume and type of resin used dictates the salt dose and the capacity divided by the salt dose pounds establishes the salt efficiency of the softener. BTW, that is true of every softener in the world.

The 32K capacity is a misnomer, the max K of capacity you can get in a 1.0 cuft with regular mesh resin is 30K and you need 15 lbs of salt to do that. That gives you a salt efficiency of only 2K grains/lb of salt used; when you might get as high as 5K per lb.

But you say you bought SST-60 resin and that you can use 50% less salt. That's wrong, you can not get 50% more capacity using 15 lbs of salt or... reduce the salt dose by 50% and get 30K of capacity.

If you try that, your softener will be allowing hard water through it in as few as 3 weeks. You can prove that by looking up the Purolite spec sheet on SST-60. Whoever told you that 50% less salt doesn't know what they are talking about. Unless you have high iron, which you have none of, you didn't need SST-60 or fine mesh resins with their much higher price tahn regular mesh resin. And with your 7 gpg hard water you will never save enough salt cost to recover the increased cost for SST-60 resin.

Anyway, the SFR of the 1.0 cuft softener may be too low for your family size and the number of bathrooms and type of fixtures you have. If so that will allow hard water at your peak demand water use gpm. You can also prove that with the spec sheet for the resin.

Hello Gary,

Thanks for your answer here. I don't know if you read my latest post on the other forum, however I finally got the softener working. I figured I did make a mistake by buying from the seller I bought it from, but I am only human and I have to deal with what I have now.
The softener has the factory settings and when I asked the seller what I have to change on the settings for the SST-60 resin he said to just set the brine refill from 12 minutes to 6 minutes. I did not change anything yet as I have the feeling he didn't want to deal with me.
I think I have about 0.8 - 1.0 cubic foot resin in the softener, which will be sufficient for us 3. I just don't know how to set it up now.
Can anyone help here?

_________________
WHAT CAN H2O MAN DO FOR SusiQ?

Hello H2O Man,

I think Gary meant that because I have a 32K softener with the Fleck2510Se valve. I would love some help from anyone who can help with the settings

You had resin go to drain, they sent you new resin. Air didn't cause that. Is all well now?

All is well now. I still don't really know what caused the resin to go down the drain.

Adding a top basket to prevent resin to drain without finding and curing the cause is not the right thing to do. Above I said air isn't responsible but, I mean if you lost 3/4 of the resin in a 1.5 cuft softener, air alone couldn't do that. You could lose some resin but not that much. Time will tell if there is still a problem.

Is your softener loaded with fine mesh resin?

IIRC they said no and the resin has been replaced. You are supposed to help her with programming.

You really should learn how to program what you sell so that you can help others.

Hello H2O man,

Gary is NOT the seller.
All I need would be the math to figure out how to program. The seller wasn't much help there (I won't order anything there again for sure).
I have put in the following numbers: Generation after 2250 Gallons used and regardless of how many gallons are used to regenerate after 14 days.
Here's the data I have:
3 people in the house
No iron
City water
Equipment I have:
Fleck 2510SE 32.000 with 1.0 cft sst-60 resin
Chlorine and Sediment pre-filter
Merlin RO (not installed yet, but will do in the next 2 weeks)

I don't think there really is a problem with the softener, it could have been plain user error, that I lost so much resin. It's working now, and there is no way that the resin could escape anywhere due to the top basket.

SusiQ, he needs to know how much hardness is in your water.

You could help others by saying who you bought from. And why SST-60 resin with no iron? How many lbs. of salt have you programmed it for?

What booklets, owners manuals or set up books came with the unit?

Also, I could care less about how much you paid and who you purchased it from.