Towel warmers - Do they make effective radiators?

ahfh1

Hi,

If I go for a heated to towel warmer for the bathroom, would it also be sufficient enough to act as a radiator for the bathroom? Or is the towel warmer only warm enough to heat towels, but not heat the bathroom itself?

I would prefer a good quality stainless steel one, but if I went for chrome plated would it be prone to scratching or rusting if the chrome were to come off?

Thanks

McKneff

No, they arent powerful enough to act as heating. You need something in addition.

WestonDave

Depends on a lot of factors. Ours does fine in a fairly draughty bathroom - albeit small. You need to work out carefully the sizes of the room, and then use one of the online calculators to work out what heat output (BTu's etc) you need for a room that size, and then add a bit for the towels blocking/absorbing heat in order to choose a "radiator" of the right size to give out enough heat.

One tip - there are differences in heat output between radiators of the same size depending on manufacturers, and in particular whether they are white, chrome plated, or polished stainless steel. If you want a chrome one, but are a bit short on space for one powerful enough then its worth looking at stainless steel as they give out more heat for the same size - they are more expensive but its hopefully a one off purchase so better to do it right than bodge it and regret it.

Second tip - ours is a radiator on the gas central heating system, but it also has a secondary electric element in it. We use this in summer wired via an immersion heater programmer so that when the CH is off and we want the towels to dry it heats for a short while each morning after shower time - before we added this we used to have slightly damp towels unless we took them out of the bathroom and hung them up to dry off.

ahfh1

WestonDave wrote: »

Depends on a lot of factors. Ours does fine in a fairly draughty bathroom - albeit small. You need to work out carefully the sizes of the room, and then use one of the online calculators to work out what heat output (BTu's etc) you need for a room that size, and then add a bit for the towels blocking/absorbing heat in order to choose a "radiator" of the right size to give out enough heat.

Thanks. My bathroom is small and I don't have enough room to have both a towel warmer and a radiator, so don't mind spending a bit more on a high heat output stainless steel towel warmer that can act as a radiator as well.

anotherbaldrick

We have a towel airer which incorporates a small rad in the centre. keeps the bathroom warm just fine. Also the trick is to have the towel rad fed from the primary circulation to the HWS cylinder so that it will dry the towels through the summer months when the heating is not on.

Tucker

I put in a very tall one plumbed to the central heating.

It gets hot and as it's big and not completely covered by a towel it provides enough heat for the bathroom.

Dippypud

Your wish..

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p50496

diable

£117 delivered, churns out enough heat.........

Becles

We've got this one - plenty of drying space and plenty of heat

http://www.bathroomsulike.com/product374564_1082100.aspx

Plumberman

Towel rail and radiator...
http://www.victoriaplumb.com/Heated-Towel-Rails/Traditional-Heated-Towel-Rails/Elizabeth-Heated-Towel-Rail_631.html

keystone

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

Also the trick is to have the towel rad fed from the primary circulation to the HWS cylinder so that it will dry the towels through the summer months when the heating is not on.

No its not a trick. The primary reason for piping this way is to provide a bypass for the boiler. The towel warming is a secondary function.

Cheers