Combi-Mate - any good?

[piper64]

Combi Mate is advertised as preventing limescale in hard water and soft water corrosion, but no independent reports of it being any good. At £110 and £30 a year to refill with some special balls, I'd like to know if it's worth it.

We have a Salamander scale inhibitor on one of our rising mains, that was installed long before we bought the house 10 years ago.

I was surprised to find it, as we have real bad scale in our water. The taps go crusty and the kettle cakes up in no time. We have just bought a new kettle, with a window in the side. This window is starting to fill up with scale already.

I'm looking for a better solution, but notice that a water softener i not recommended if you have a combi boiler and radiators don't like soft water either.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Those salamander things are flicking stoopid.

Take it out.

Combi mates are pretty good by all accounts, personally I prefer a salt softener.

 

[Whitespirit66]

Yes, as above, rip the Salamander in-line nonsense out. Or leave it in - same result. They seem to be the modern day equivalent of snake oil and are about as effective.

I fitted a Combi Mate for my brother and he seems pleased with the result. He reckons he can tell if he neglects to change the Siliphos balls on time, because he starts noticing limescale increasing.

Yes, there is a cost to replacing the Siliphos (I think a £30 tub lasts a couple of years), but a much greater cost in wasted power in scaled up boilers and appliances and their repair and premature replacement.

 

[3DGuy]

Well, we live in an area that's 290 (cant remember the scale name) for the line scale rating. We have been renovating our first house since the end of May last year and brought my parents old kettle over.

This area has terrible water. You can descale a kettle, and it be scaled up within 1-2 days again.

Now, we had a Combimate fitted with all our new pipework and central heating install (wasn't any before). We have not needed to descale the kettle once. There very light lime scale in it now but not bad since May last year! Certainly doesn't need de-scalling ever 2 weeks or so like at my parents.

So this device gets a thousand thumbs up by me, it Is amazing. Definatly well worth getting one if you are In a hard water area. My parents just had one fitted as they probably spent more on de-scaler per year than having one fitted and the yearly cost £18 to fill it is cheap for the benefit you get. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Siliphos-Combimate-Refill-Bottle-800g-with-O-Ring-UK-/191089445886[url]

Remember fitting it on the mains in-let to the house = protects washing machine, dishwasher, Combi-Boiler etc also as well as kettle so its a pretty good all rounder

Just my 10C

 

[piper64]

Thanks for all the replies chaps. It looks like the Combi Mate is a good bet then?

I might need to buy two, as for some reason I have a mains in the kitchen and another in the outhouse??? The below ground pipework is blue plastic, so it's a recent-ish change to the original 40's pipework.

The one in the outhouse feeds the toilet and basin, as well as the combi boiler. The other feeds the main house.

I'm quite sure that they are not connected, but will have to turn them off at their respective stopcocks to check.

 

[Boilerman2]

I personally rate Combimate very highly (or at least second - only to a water softener!) However some Combi boiler makers such as Vaillant do not approve of them and if the house is to left un used for a period of time it is a good idea to drain the combimate abd remove the siliphos balls because they can start to break down and block everything with a thick paste which may require a complete strip down of your combi boiler to remove
apart form this one distinct disadvantage I think they are good at what they do!

 

[3DGuy]

I personally rate Combimate very highly (or at least second - only to a water softener!) However some Combi boiler makers such as Vaillant do not approve of them and if the house is to left un used for a period of time it is a good idea to drain the combimate abd remove the siliphos balls because they can start to break down and block everything with a thick paste which may require a complete strip down of your combi boiler to remove
apart form this one distinct disadvantage I think they are good at what they do!

Our plumber is Vaillant certified installer. 7 year warranty with our installation

He recommended a Combimate and its brilliant. Your advise there actually reminded me. He said exactly that, if the house will be empty for a while just take the Siliphos balls out and let them dry, then just pop in upon return. Guessing this means a 3+ week holiday or longer? I cant imagine a couple of weeks would result in them breaking down that fast?