Those large chrome bathroom radiators, any good

HugoSP

We've fitted a few of these in our house.

The one in our bathroom came from screwfix with free valves. For that special look you can also get chromed copper pipe, or Focus do a valve pack for around £20 with 2 decent valves and 2 12 inch long bits of chrome pipe to come out of the floor to the rad.

We're very pleased with the one from SFD. IIRC it cost me around £100.

Don't get a white version - they rust very quickly around the valves due to dissimilar matal corrosion. A friend of mine is now on his second after fitting one about 3 to 4 years ago.

sillyvixen

dont worry about the heat output, i have one in my bathroom (white not crome) only a small room but even on the lowest settling it throws out heat and dries the towels. my bathroom is the warmest room in the house!!

benood

We had a couple of white ones in our previous house and were very pleased with them, no rust.

I've always wondered if the chrome ones would be easy to keep as clean looking as white since they need to be polished.

Doozergirl

Ours came from screwfix, the biggest ones you can buy, both in chrome. It plumbs in to the central heating system. The main bathroom is about 12' x 8', fully tiled and it is perfectly adequate. Our ensuite shower room is much smaller but still a considerable ensuite and it is like a furnace in there! I nearly faint!

We cheated and painted the copper pipes with chrome paint. Not an exact match, but you're not really looking.

HugoSP

Doozergirl wrote: »

We cheated and painted the copper pipes with chrome paint. Not an exact match, but you're not really looking.

Yuk!

I'm afraid I would notice it straight away , but then I don't have much of a life.

As an alternative to chrome paint you can get those pipe covers in a chrome cover. Just make sure the split is at the back.

I have my chrome pipes nicely formed at 90 degree sweeps coming out of the floor together then splitting off to the valves on the rad.

It's a work of art I tell you.

The rest of the bathroom is a complete mess, avacado suite and avacado tiles with a very tasteful decal design on them. The bathroom will be the last room on that floor to be done as I keep filling buckets of water in the bath for plastering and then rinsing them out in the bath. Besides the dog gets bathed there as well.

HugoSP

Women are made to be loved, not understood.

Can I send mine back please

EliteHeat

HugoSP wrote: »

As an alternative to chrome paint you can get those pipe covers in a chrome cover. Just make sure the split is at the back.

If anyone is tempted to use the chrome tails, which do look much nice, be aware that you cannot use push-fit fittings on them. They will appear to seal perfectly but the fitting will not be able to grip the chrome and they will come flying off at some point leaving you with an unexpected internal water feature.

Just thought I'd mention it.

HugoSP

EliteHeat wrote: »

If anyone is tempted to use the chrome tails, which do look much nice, be aware that you cannot use push-fit fittings on them. They will appear to seal perfectly but the fitting will not be able to grip the chrome and they will come flying off at some point leaving you with an unexpected internal water feature.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Not 100% correct.

I have used push fit fittings with chrome. However you do have to abrade the chrome away from the area in contact with the fitting. It doesn't quite defeat the object if you only abrade the pipe to the correct depth.

As far as I know that shower with pushfit connectors and exposed chrome pipework that I fitted for a client some 3 years ago is still working fine, and hasn't exploded on her.

Given the choice I would have preferred to use compression fit joints but the Bristain shower she chose only came with the push fit fittings on the valve body.

Bearing in mind it was fed via a 3 bar pump I needed to get it right

Obviously if the bottoms of the tails are under floorboards then one doesn't have to be quite so critical about abrading too much chrome.

jockettuk

we have a small bathroom and tiled it floor to ceiling and put one of the chrome ladder ones in about 3 ft.. the bathroom can be cold but i think more to do with all the tiles.. in the summer going to be lovely and cool in the winter can be cold in the bathroom.. we dont dry towels on ours was more for the look.. but if i done it again would get a bigger one or keep rad as well

Hoploz

I have one about 5ft high in chrome and find it doesn't heat our room all that well so far, but it is 8' square, north facing and has a bit of a draughty gappy window.
I try and keep the towels off, at least when they are dry.
Bit disappointed tbh. But it looks nice.
It was from Focus for £90 a couple of months ago, valves bought separately for about £20, cost £60 to fit while the plumber did rest of bathroom as well.

Having said all that, maybe it's just been because we've had bare walls and floorboards - it seems to get burning hot to the touch so hopefully once the floor's down it'll be a bit warmer in there.