Combimate, what to treat?

[John Rumm]

I thought it was time to give our plumbing a treat, and eBay was kind enough to furnish me with nice new combimate for thirty quid the other day! (a full on water softener may come along in a while when I get round to building a utility room!)

Hence I now need to decide which outlets are going to benefit most from the phosphate dosing...

Treat the cold feed to the combi thence all the hot outlets obviously.

I was planning on not treating the cold feed to the kitchen sink (and water filter) - but then again are there any known health/taste issues etc with drinking dosed water? The loss of scale in the kettle would be nice.

I was planning to feed the remaining cold taps and loo cisterns etc in the rest of the house as well, but is there any benefit in doing so, or is it just going to cost more in silophos balls?

What about the (hardly used) outside tap?

[Andy Hall]

You could put in a second combi so that you can compare results......

One of my relatives has one.

The treated water does taste a little funny.....

I use softened water in the loo cisterns and it does eliminate the scaling deposit issues. Perhaps the combimate would have a similar effect - not sure.

Not really worth it.

[icornish]

Newbie question... what's a CombiMate ?

[Christian McArdle]

Well, toilets use a lot of water, and hence phosphate. Personally, I would dose them though. My toilet only stays clean for a week or so due to scaling.

Definitely not.

Christian.

[Andy Hall]

It's a phosphate dosing device. It will treat water in such a way as to prevent or reduce scale, but not such that it is softened and a saving on detergent and shampoo etc. made.

[John Rumm]

OK will stick to scaley water for the kitchen cold tap and water filter...

Might as well try it and see...

The question was more directed at is there any explicit reason to not dose it, given that it will require extra plumbing to separate the feed from the rest of the pipework. (the tap onlt gets used for car or pressure washing - very rare that the garden gets watered!)

[Andy Hall]

Right. OK, if that's the application, the game is different. There won't be much water used but not really benefits either, so I'd leave it the way it is.

I have a 22mm cold supply outlet run directly from the incoming main for one outside tap used for garden purposes, then two additional taps (hot and cold) after the softener for exterior washing applications. It's certainly worth using softened water in a pressure washer and for window cleaning etc.