How to fix towel radiator to wall?

[Davy]

I've bought a towel radiator which fixes to the wall. Four brass 'pistons' at the back of the radiator slide into four cylinders which are screwed to the wall using just one screw in the middle of the cylinder (I am sure there are better ways to decribe it but I cannot think of one now).

The problem is that the pistons are a tight fit into the cylinders - perhaps only a thou clearance. How do I screw the four cylinders to a tiled wall such that the cylinders are within a thou of the positions of the pistons in the radiator?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

I fitted a pair of these buggers last week - very accurately, although there was a slight bit of give and take with them the tilehole cutting was a one-off affair. Just measure up carefully, is all. What I did was mount the front pieces to the rail, and mark the wall for the first one, hung that temporarily and marked position two. Then did the two bottom ones the same way. Don't, whatever you do, attempt to mark and drill all four in the one go - that way lies tears.

[Jethro]

Especially if you have the radiator the wrong way up when you mark ... I managed to punch the bottom 2 holes in the wrong place when I fitted ours, having just retiled the entire bathroom. Luckily SWMBO didn't notice the small dots I managed to fill in.

[Andrew May]

There may only be a thou clearance between the piston and the cylinder but there will probably be a lot more between the screw and the cylinder enabling some adjustment of the cylinder position before tightening the screw.

Of course, how you do that and tighten the screw when the screw is not accessible because the piston is covering it is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Bert Coules]

This might not be practical with a radiator, but when I fitted something with similar fixings I put the wall-mounting bits (your cylinders) in place on their lugs (your pistons) and used a water-based black marker pen to completely cover the rear surfaces of the mounts with ink. Then I held up the thing I was fixing in position against the wall and applied a bit pressure. When I moved it away again I had four black circles on the wall marking the place where the mounts had to be screwed.

Bert

[John Rumm]

On many of these the "piston" bit is clamped to the rad, and can be left slack until the ends are pushed into the cylinders. The cylinders themselves usually also have elongated holes to allow a little movement on their screws.

[Davy]

I think now, with your help, that I can answer my own question. The 'cylinders' have a slotted hole in the base which allows about 5mm of movement. Because the cylinders are round then this slot can be aligned in any direction - so the cylinders can be moved about 5mm in any direction - that should be enough! Thanks for your help, Davy