Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this system.
"I purchased the Defender Whole House Reverse Osmosis System last fall, along with the anti-scalant pre-treatment and remineralization post-treatment systems. Between the $14,500 purchase price and the electrical, plumbing, drain, drywall, painting, and installation work required, this was quite expensive and time consuming to setup. At the time, I felt the end result would be worth it. The problems began before the system was even operational. The holding tank arrived with musty-smelling water inside and had to be sanitized. Many of the fittings and components required simply to connect the system to itself were also missing. Some were specialty parts that were difficult to source locally. By the time I purchased everything needed, I had spent roughly another $1,000 and lost several weeks of time. I was told some parts were missing because I had ordered a custom-size holding tank, although not all of the missing components appeared to be related to the tank. Once installed, I was surprised by how loud the RO pump is. When the system is producing water, it is loud enough that having a conversation near the equipment is unpleasant. We can even hear it from our living room through an insulated shear wall. The reliability problems were much more concerning. A failed solenoid caused the system to continuously produce and discharge water even when the house was not using any. I initially called a plumber to check the house for leaks because I did not realize the RO system itself was malfunctioning. Because I also had the remineralization system, the repeated cycling apparently continued adding treatment material to the finished water. When I tested the water, the pH was beyond the top of my test range at 10+. At one point, the system also consumed roughly three months' worth of anti-scalant in only a week or two. I later found brown slime on rubber components and tubing inside the finished-water holding tank. I cleaned the tank and replaced the failed solenoid, but the solenoid subsequently failed again. When I later inspected the tank, the brown material had returned, and this time the water had a strong rotten-egg odor that filled the whole garage. At that point, I simply lost confidence in using the water for drinking or bathing. Even if another repair makes the system operate correctly today, I am no longer comfortable wondering whether another malfunction may be occurring without my knowledge. The most frustrating part of writing this review is that US Water Systems' customer support has actually been excellent. Their team has been responsive, helpful, and has even assisted me after hours. I genuinely appreciate the people who have tried to help. Unfortunately, good customer support cannot overcome my experience with the system itself. It is less than a year old, and I have decided to remove it and install a different water-treatment system. I will be able to reuse the UV equipment and some of the infrastructure, but I expect to lose the majority of the $14,500 system cost, along with approximately another $3,000–$5,000 in installation and related expenses. For a product purchased specifically to provide clean, trustworthy water throughout our home, this experience has not provided an acceptable level of reliability or confidence."
