Stroud and surrounding areas suffer from hard water, which can lead to a build up in limescale. You may notice the limescale build up in the kettle or on the tap or even on the shower screen. But it can also build up inside your boiler and water cylinder. This can lead to costly breakdowns and repairs.
To help combat and prevent any limescale build up, our engineers install a devise called a Combimate. Combimate is a unit that is plumbed straight into the mains cold water supply in your house. The water runs through the unit and through the Combiphos balls. Combiphos is a food-grade polyphosphate compound that prevents the formation of limescale build up in your hot water system. This coats the inside of the pipes, or any metal surface that the hot water comes into contact with, in a thin protective layer. This acts as a barrier to protect it from any limescale build up. When plumbed directly into the mains cold water supply your whole hot water system is protected giving you piece of mind. Combiphos balls are required to be changed annually, if this is missed it may result in limescale damage.
The unit requires water to be run though it at least every 4-6 weeks. If there is no regular flow of water through the unit, the balls may dissolve and break down. This creates a snow like substance which can block up the combimate unit, leading to blocked pipes too and possibly a blocked heat exchanger in the boiler. Properties that are empty or only used every so often, need to be checked regularly and the water ran through the unit to ensure it doesn’t happen.
We were recently called to a property for the boiler not working and found the combimate to be all blocked up. Luckily in this case, it just required a good clean, but some boilers may not be so lucky and could end up requiring costly parts to be replaced.
For more information on Combimates and lime fighters head to our Limescale page.
