Bathroom radiator/ towel rail

[GB]

I want to buy a radiator/towel rail similar to this one from Screwfix, but larger and with more heat output. Any suggestions for what to buy and where, please?

[Bob Mannix]

Plumbworld are cheap and well-known.

Personally, if you are going to fit an electric heater to it for the summer, I would limit the power. I bought a beefy one (so it would heat up quicker). It kettles noisily and wakes us up. A lower power one would have been better.

[fred]

In article , Bob Mannix writes

If you haven't found a solution yet, a series mains rated power diode will half the power but if you want it lower still a hidden phase control dimmer should bring it down to what you want. My small towel rail has a 60W element and I reduced that to 30W with a diode and that is plenty for base level heat. I prefer to keep my bathroom heating separate from the towel rails.

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:53:19 +0100 someone who may be "GB" wrote this:-

Why do you want more heat output? If it is to provide heat then that is better done by a separate radiator, something which is designed to put heat into a room. Then heating and drying towels can be controlled separately.

[GB]

Yes I want more heat output, cos the bathroom tends to be a bit chilly. I am just wondering whether what we want is a radiator with a towel rail that fits round it. It doesn't have to be fitted to the radiator - just something that we can sling the towels over so they'll dry. Any suggestions?

[S Viemeister]

I simply mounted a towel rail on the wall above the radiator.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The most effective combination I've used is a regular radiator, with an unheated towel rack mounted high up on the wall over it, so the towels don't block the radiator output, but they are heated by the warm air rising off the radiator. I looked around bathroom stores for a while and couldn't find a towel rail I liked and which was practical. In the end, I used an IKEA kitchen rail shelf

only fitted alternate rails to make it easier to drape towels over.

Towel rails even with no towels on them give off only a tiny proportion of the heat a similar sized radiator would give off, and when covered in towels, a radiator or towel rail will give off no heat of any significance, hence a cold bathroom.

[Ziggur]

?

[GB]

I think that sounds just the thing! I was looking for something suitable, but the towel rails did not provide enough depth. What I wanted was a rail that could go at waist height, for convenience, but where the towels would be in front of the radiator. Of course that will reduce the heat output, but most of it will still go vertically upwards between the wall and the towels.