How many of you know what hard water is? If you answered "ice" that is not the correct answer no matter how cold it gets here in Minnesota. Well at least in case of what I am talking about here. Hard water actually has some pretty detrimental effects on items in your home. Some signs that you have hard water are your clothes don't get clean when washing them. There are stains in the toilet (no not from that either), and your shower head is not working as well as it once did. Your appliances can actually wear out faster with hard water and your pipes could even get clogged. No I am not a hard water specialist, but when we moved into our home over 20 years ago, I wanted to learn as much as I could about our home and how to take care of it. One of the first items we purchased was a water softener from Merles. Now over 20 years later that original water softener that we purchased is still going strong. We definitely can tell the difference between soft water in the house and hard water outside. The other nice part to all of this is that the only maintenance that we have ever had to do is every few months add a bag of salt to the salt bin of our water softener. You can purchase big bags of salt right from Merles. They even have a punch card where you can earn a free bag. If you think about the appliances alone that could be effected by hard water (dishwasher, washer, hot water heater), this is the type of product that is not only important, it pays for itself. Merles has always been great to work with and if we are ever worried about our water, we can bring a sample in for testing. To me, water is water. Like when I drink lemonade and tell my wife that lemonade is water, just with more flavor. Well water is water, but there is no doubt that soft loveable water is much better for you and your home than hard water. read more

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Merles was old-school trustworthy. With the business being family owned and operated since 1950's, I felt it was great to support, and other reviews seemed to share they had good experiences too so, why not. John examined our water and gave us a quote and Dave installed, and both brothers were very friendly and knowledgeable, even when our older house gave a bit of an issue on the install. When I called with questions, I was given helpful information too. I recommend for anyone wanting to know if they need RO or just water softening, I cannot say enough about the Merles family being great and knowledgeable! read more

This is a great business. We moved to North Oaks about 5 months ago. We never had a water softening system or well before. We called Merle's because they installed the system for the previous owners. We're glad we did. They were awesome. The owner did our inspection and instructed us on how to maintain our system. On our own (we were not "sold"), we opted to install a premium drinking water filter system and an "iron curtain" system. They did a great job with the installs and we are very glad we went this route. Last week, I visited their shop to pick-up some salt and Resu for the water conditioner. Once again, glad I did. I got two 50 pound bags of salt (you can only find 40 pound bags elsewhere). The young lady in their store was super friendly and helpful. I was even impressed with their store...it's appearance, products and overall neatness...it really gave me a sense of the correlative pride and professionalism we experienced in our home. We highly recommend Merle's for your water needs. read more

The first month in my new house, I researched water softeners and became progressively more desperate to get one installed, having had one in my previous house. I'm happy to pay for quality, but it became increasingly clear to me as I researched them that the highest priced softeners weren't necessarily better. (Cough, Cinetiko.) So I switched my focus to trying to find reviews on the people/businesses installing them. Merle's seemed to stand out in a couple of ways. They're a small business who has been doing this work a very long time. And their reviews were universally positive. I called Merle's and talked to Justin. He asked where I lived & how many people lived in my house (relevant because of the hardness of the water and how much water I would use). Thankfully, they come over the river to Hudson. He recommended their basic softener. He never tried to upsell me a bigger or premium softener, explaining why they wouldn't benefit me. And no pressure. Within a week, Justin had come out to check if my plumbing would need to be changed in any way and test my water. Dave was out to install it. Hassle free and $999. I'm very happy with the softener and the whole process. Update: One year later, I'm still very happy with this softener. It uses very little salt. I could maybe put a third 40-pound bag in now. The one at my old house easily used a bag a month. read more

I waited a month to do this review. Because I had gone with Culligan man and wasn't comfortable with the sales pitch. I interviewed 2 more companies when a neighbor told me about Merles which was right up the street. Called them & the woman was super informative & told me that I would get a better & more info if I spoke to one of two men that can schedule me if I so wanted. John Regnier came of at our appt time & laid it all out. No time wasted which i was grateful, price was perfect from the other competitions. So I got it. Man, my skin began to heal from the hard water & dry air. Wife & i are so happy. Greg was the one that installed it & we were up & running. Thanks John for your honesty, straight up info that I need to hear with out the other thing that I didn't need, a staff that I saw work together & got the job done right. I will pass you business to others who need water softer to be done. read more

My old water softener wasn't working. Through my home warranty program I was kind of obligated to use this company as it was one of two options. I'm really glad I was introduced to them. Had two of the owners come out, one to see if my old system was fixable and the second to install the new system. They were both really great! The kind of people you can tell are genuinely good people. They helped me understand how the softener works, walked me through how to change a setting if I need to and took the time to make sure I understood what I needed to understand and answer any questions. Respectful of the house and my dog. Nothing else to say really other than I really appreciated working with nice people. Seem like the kind of people who will tell you like it is and not feed you crap to sell you more stuff. Family owned business too so all the more reason to support them! read more

This is such a great company to do business with. After remodeling our bathroom we thought it would probably be a good idea to install a new water softener to help soften our hard water and keep our new bathroom looking clean and in good condition. We have well water and we had went through several water softeners since we had been in our house but they never seemed to make any difference or do much good. They used a lot of salt but our water was still always hard and it smelled pretty bad. Just two or three days after cleaning our sinks and shower etc everything would be orange again. We didn't know how to fix the problem but knew we needed to do more than simply install a new softener so we decided to call Merles. Everything they do they do with the highest level of integrity. I love that they're family owned, they've been in business a long time and they sell good quality products for a reasonable price. Justin came out and tested our water and he said he had never seen water that hard other than up in the iron range. He was very thorough in explaining all of the problems that we had with our water and how they could help us to give us the good clean quality water that we never had but had always wanted. So they custom built and installed a filtration system and a softener specifically for our needs and for the first time EVER we finally have truly soft, clean, drinkable water. And nothing is orange anymore! Something a simple water softener could never do for us. That was eight years ago and we are still very pleased with our system and the quality of our water. It was worth every penny. We usually have the same service person come out to clean and maintain our system, Joe, and he is always very polite and he does such a great job. They don't just mask the problem like some other companies do, they will find a way to fix them. I have referred several friends and family members over the years to Merles. I highly recommend this company. read more

Highly recommend this company. Very professional and friendly. I've worked with them for a year now and I have no complaints. I purchased the water filter and water softener with them and couldn't be happier. The gentleman who installed the systems was very knowledgeable and friendly. A++++ read more

Justin in Sales and Dave in Installation both did such a wonderful job of selling and installing our new water conditioning system. They replaced our old system and improved our plumbing in a convenient and masterful way. We are very pleased with how soft and wonderful our water now feels and were so impressed with Merles, that we looked for ways to tell others about their friendly and high quality service, all done at the most reasonable price we could find in our area. I checked with numerous other vendors and ended up with Merles. Glad I did...Great Job guys! Bob S. read more