Copyright 2007 to 2017 Michael Bryant

First of all, thanks for visiting.

I'm Mike Bryant, also known as Mike the Boilerman. My main website is www.miketheboilerman.com. I've built this site specifically to help owners of Gledhill thermal stores understand them better, and in particular, identify common faults and how to fix them.

Gledhill make conventional hot water cylinders, and are also brand leaders in thermal store units with a series of product ranges such as PulsaCoil, BoilerMate, SysteMate, ElectraMate and GulfStream.

I've no connection with Gledhill Ltd other than having a working knowledge of their thermal store products and being one of the engineers they will recommend (should you ring and ask them who can repair yours), so this set of websites is no more than a collection of my own comments and observations. I publish it to both generate work for myself and as a free public service.

What IS a 'thermal store', exactly?

Fundamentally its a tank full of hot water stored at low pressure, but instead of being sent directly to the hot taps, the hot water is used to indirectly heat mains water on it's way to the hot taps, and in sometimes to heat the central heating radiators too. The point of this is to give high (mains) pressure at the hot taps, and in the case of the SysteMate, to allow use of cheap night rate electricity to run conventional central heating radiators during the day. The water inside the thermal store never changes.

What is a PulsaCoil?

The PulsaCoil is the basic Gledhill Thermal Store, heated by night-rate electricity and providing mains pressure hot water only. See www.pulsacoil-repairs.co.uk

And  the ElectraMate?

Same as the PulsaCoil but runs radiators too. See www.electramate-repairs.co.uk

BoilerMate?

Similar to ElectraMate but heated directly by a normal gas or oil boiler. Configured as an open-vented system, i.e. with a small header tank to fill the boiler, rads and the thermal store. See www.boilermate-repairs.co.uk

SysteMate?

Same as BoilerMate but the thermal store is heated indirectly by the boiler via a coil of pipe, i.e. the boiler water circuit is separated from the thermal store water, and pressurised as a sealed system. This allows radiators to be installed above the thermal store. See www.systemate-repairs.co.uk

The GulfStream?

Same as a SysteMate but with a gas boiler built into it instead of being a separate appliance. See www.gulfstream-repairs.co.uk

For more details on each appliance, click on the links. At the moment I've only links to my PulsaCoil and BoilerMate sites. The others will be published shortly. 

If you aren't that interested and would just like me to come around and fix yours, then my contact details are here. I mostly work locally around Reading, Berkshire but I'll travel anywhere in the UK provided my traveling time is paid for at my normal hourly rate. If you think you are too far away and would prefer a local engineer then Gledhill will usually nominate someone if you ring them and ask for a recommendation. Naturally if you ask for a recommendation in Berkshire they'll tell you to call me :-) Gledhill's phone number is 01253 474401

Finally, here's a link to Gledhill's own website www.gledhill.net

Once again, thanks for visiting.

Mike Bryant, AKA Mike the Boilerman. 

This page first published 24/01/07
Last updated 20/12/17