Preparing for winter II

Confuzzled

calleyw wrote: »

Don't want to put you off. But what is coated in?

As I use to stick wet washing on my towel rail in the bathroom. It was white one so coated in that paint stuff for radiators.

And it went rusty very quickly. Just somthing to think about.

Yours

Calley

looks like white coating normally found on airers, mind you this is made specifically for the job of hanging wet clothing on it to dry and it's sold by Lakeland who are pretty fussy about things they sell.

i read through about 100 reviews and the only complaints i saw were that the switch is in an awkward place and that you really need to layer your clothing to get it to dry well (ok by me much easier and faster!) but nothing about rust but thanks for pointing that out as i reckon others here with heated towel rails may have a same problem.

i suspect the issue there is (well the manufacturers argument i suppose) is that they aren't meant for drying wet laundry just lightly damp from the shower type of towels but it's good that you shared that because you might save someone that has that sorted of radiator some money on getting a new finish and rusty towels!

Bigsister

"i've heard very good things about the electric clothes airer from lakeland http://www.lakeland.co.uk/lakeland-d.../product/21736 and that got me thinking that that might be another one of those ways i could take the edge off by using something both for heat and it's original purpose."

I have the electric clothes horse from Lakeland and it is proving to work well so far. The piping won't rust, it is not that type of material so don't worry about that. The lead is a little short so an extention cable is the only other thing I have needed.

Re layering, I have worked out through trial and error which is best, I dried from wet bath and hand towels and bed sheets yesterday and they were dry by the end of the day. I stuck my dehumidifier on too as both are low electric useage and I have to watch form mould in our place and it worked great. We have no room for a tumble and I didn't want to have washing all throughout the house, very small house, and a fried recommended it.

Long things benefit from being draped down the entire one side, so sheets etc and then they touch all the pipes. Haven't tried jeans yet though.
Hope this helps.

Confuzzled

well thanks to all the personal reviews on here i decided to go ahead and order the heated airer from lakeland. :T

it says it will be delivered after Nov 30th so i guess i'll have to muddle through til then with the new unheated one... oh well my daughter will enjoy having it to make dens with once i get the heated one delivered :rotfl:

NualaBuala

Brrr, it's cold here! I'm thinking of getting an electric heater so I won't have to use the gas central heating since I spend most of my tme in one room anyway.. I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for what kind is best. I've been looking at convector heaters as I've used them before - am not familiar with halogen or fan heaters.

shegar

NualaBuala wrote: »

Brrr, it's cold here! I'm thinking of getting an electric heater so I won't have to use the gas central heating since I spend most of my tme in one room anyway.. I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for what kind is best. I've been looking at convector heaters as I've used them before - am not familiar with halogen or fan heaters.

Turn all the other GCH rads off and leave just the one on in the room you do use.....:D that will save spending on a electric rad ....:D

NualaBuala

shegar wrote: »

Turn all the other GCH rads off and leave just the one on in the room you do use.....:D that will save spending on a electric rad ....:D

Thanks shegar .... it's a long and sad story but the gas heating isn't working properly anyway and the knobs can't be turned off either. I don't know how long it will take to get sorted either and thought this might tide me over .. was looking at cheap ones in Argos (around €22) and thought it would be worth it.

triticale

NualaBuala wrote: »

Brrr, it's cold here! I'm thinking of getting an electric heater so I won't have to use the gas central heating since I spend most of my tme in one room anyway.. I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for what kind is best. I've been looking at convector heaters as I've used them before - am not familiar with halogen or fan heaters.

I have a fan heater and a convector heater. Both are great just to take the chill off the air in a room, if I had to choose between the two I think I'd go for convector (although the fan is handy as it doubles as a cold fan in summer).

I use the fan one in the bedroom to blast the chill off while I get dressed of a morning, and the convector in the front room. It can kick out quite a bit of heat after a while! (I once fell asleep on the sofa - with it on full - with me under a blanket - for 3 hours - I woke absolutely cooking and had to hang out of a window to cool down! :rotfl:)

Not sure where my convector was from as it belongs to the flat, the £20 ones from Argos look pretty similar though.

(I also use mine underneath my clothes airer sometimes - obviously carefully positioned so that the top of the heater isn't covered - it drys clothes really quickly!)

NualaBuala

Thanks Triticale, that's the kind I was thinking of and it seems to get good reviews. Hmmm, have a lot of weighing up to do but I think I will get it next time I can get a lift.

shegar

I think you would probaly be better off with a portable gas fire with a bottle in the back,I know now that the gas bottles are £29 pound each now to fill,:eek::eek: but I think they work out cheaper than electric. .......My son use one of these instead of putting his terrible expensive storage heaters on.....at least you dont get a huge bill 3 month later with a gas bottle fire..........ideal to use if your on a tight budget....pay as you go he say.....:D

Bobbykins

we had a couple of those portable gas fires in our house a few years ago when we were waiting for the central heating to be put in. We had one upstairs and one downstairs and moved them from room to room as needed. Having to refill the bottles meant we were able to keep track of what we were spending on gas and they did provide plenty of heat.

The only drawback we found was that they produced LOADs of condensation - the windwos were constantly dripping wet, so it's really important to make sure you can provide venitlation. I know it sounds daft but the best thing we found was to have the window open when we lit the fire!

HTH