Switched from ASUS 382_16466 to Merlin 382.1 Beta1 today. Update went without a hitch. I did not reset / re-enter settings. Looks like all my prior settings were preserved, and so far no issues. So far the RT-AC86U is great. I had been running a RT-AC87U (also very nice) but had some wifi connection drop issues with the 5 Mhz band with some older client devices. Don't see these issues with the AC86U.