We consider phase-type scale mixture distributions which correspond to distributions of a product of two independent random variables: a phase-type random variable $Y$ and a nonnegative but otherwise arbitrary random variable $S$ called the scaling random variable. We investigate conditions for such a class of distributions to be either light- or heavy-tailed, we explore subexponentiality and determine their maximum domains of attraction. Particular focus is given to phase-type scale mixture distributions where the scaling random variable $S$ has discrete support --- such a class of distributions has been recently used in risk applications to approximate heavy-tailed distributions. Our results are complemented with several examples.