diff --git a/cmds/balance.c b/cmds/balance.c
index c444a58c..e71a2639 100644
--- a/cmds/balance.c
+++ b/cmds/balance.c
@@ -526,6 +526,7 @@ static int cmd_balance_start(const struct cmd_struct *cmd,
 	int background = 0;
 	bool enqueue = false;
 	unsigned start_flags = 0;
+	bool warned = false;
 	int i;
 
 	memset(&args, 0, sizeof(args));
@@ -632,11 +633,37 @@ static int cmd_balance_start(const struct cmd_struct *cmd,
 
 	/* soft makes sense only when convert for corresponding type is set */
 	for (i = 0; ptrs[i]; i++) {
+		int delay = 10;
+
 		if ((ptrs[i]->flags & BTRFS_BALANCE_ARGS_SOFT) &&
 		    !(ptrs[i]->flags & BTRFS_BALANCE_ARGS_CONVERT)) {
 			error("'soft' option can be used only when converting profiles");
 			return 1;
 		}
+
+		if (!(ptrs[i]->flags & BTRFS_BALANCE_ARGS_CONVERT))
+			continue;
+
+		if (!(ptrs[i]->flags & (BTRFS_BLOCK_GROUP_RAID6 |
+					BTRFS_BLOCK_GROUP_RAID5)))
+			continue;
+
+		if (warned)
+			continue;
+
+		warned = true;
+		printf("WARNING:\n\n");
+		printf("\tRAID5/6 support has known problems and is strongly discouraged\n");
+		printf("\tto be used besides testing or evaluation. It is recommended that\n");
+		printf("\tyou use one of the other RAID profiles.\n");
+		printf("\tThe operation will continue in %d seconds.\n", delay);
+		printf("\tUse Ctrl-C to stop.\n");
+		while (delay) {
+			printf("%2d", delay--);
+			fflush(stdout);
+			sleep(1);
+		}
+		printf("\nStarting conversion to RAID5/6.\n");
 	}
 
 	if (!(start_flags & BALANCE_START_FILTERS) && !(start_flags & BALANCE_START_NOWARN)) {