Gledhill Systemate 2000:

What IS a SysteMate 2000?

The SysteMate is a close relative of the BoilerMate. They are both thermal stores heated by a separate gas (or oil) boiler, and they provide almost instant heat to radiators when the heating is turned ON, and large quantities of mains-pressure hot water to hot taps and showers.

The difference between the two is that the boilermate has an open-vented store, topped up by a header tank, and therefore cannot be connected to any radiator higher in the building than the height of the header tank. The SysteMate has a pressurised, sealed system radiator circuit, so can have radiators installed above the appliance.

The SysteMate III is circular in footprint with pumps, valves, heat exchanger all attached rather untidily to the outside. The SysteMate 2000 on the other hand has a square outer case and all the gubbins (technical term) are contained neatly inside the case.

How does the SysteMate 2000 work?

A conventional central heating boiler heats the water in the SysteMate 2000 directly. The radiator/boiler pipework is a sealed system with an expansion vessel built into the SysteMate. The boiler is fired and it heats the store by pumping boiler water through a coiled-pipe heat exchanger inside the store. Unlike the SysteMate III which has two pumps and a diverter valve, the SysteMate 2000 has three pumps. One circulates stored water through the hot water heat exchanger during hot water demand, and the other two are fitted after a tee in the flow pipe from the boiler, with non-return valves on the inlets. One pump runs to take boiler water to heat the store, the other runs to circulate boiler water directly though the rad circuits during CH demand. Confusing system to grasp!

The SysteMate 2000 delivers hot water to the hot taps by using an external plate heat exchanger. The pump starts when a hot tap is turned on and pumps hot store water through the plate heat exchanger, thus heating the cold mains water very effectively on it's way to the hot taps or showers.

Faults known to occur in the SysteMate 2000:

1) Non-return valve failure.

The non-return valves on the CH and store pumps have a habit of jamming open, leading to a variety of puzzling symptoms. The rads may get hot after using hot water or a shower, and the hot water is likely to be warm but just not as hot as it used to be. Or the opposite, the rads just never seem to get as hot as they used to but hot water is fine.

2) Water scale-contamination of the plate heat exchanger.

The plate heat exchanger was hailed my manufacturers as the answer to water scaling, but this has proved not to be the case. Hard water in certain areas still seems capable of blocking a plate heat exchanger with calcium deposits causing restricted hot water flow from the taps and warm (instead of hot) temperatures. The answer now is to fit a repalcement plate heat exchanger, which takes around an hour instead of several hours to descale the previous copper coil heat exchanger.

4) Heat sensor failure.

Hot water temperature from the taps and/or shower becomes unreliable and unpredictable. The hot water temperature sensor delivers a signal to the control board and this controls the pump speed. They seem to fail with age (after three or four years) and replacement restores reliable hot water performance. I believe they are thermistors but there is more to them than that as there are three conductors in the leads. Their true nature is shrouded in secrecy. No-one at Gledhill gives anything away when I ask questions... quite frustrating really but I'll get to the bottom of them eventually....!

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