Towel radiator siting

I'm considering changing the bog (as it were...) standard radiator in the bathroom with a heated towel rail. It's small bathroom and a simple swap-out would mean that anyone using the basin would be in danger of burning themselves on the towel rail - which is possibly not ideal.

So the provisional plan is to move the rail to a free wall space above the bath, and to move the bath - which is being replaced anyway - 20cm away from the wall, with the space filled by a tiled surface/shelf. This means there's plenty of room for anyone in the bath to avoid hot pipes, which will probably be chased into the wall anyway.

This seems fine in theory, but in practice it means the top of the rail will be some 50cm above the heating pump. And there will be an extra 4m or so of 15mm piping run both to and from the new rad.

What are the chances of this new load completely unbalancing the rest of the system - which at the moment seems to work well?

My main concern is that at best the top of the radiator won't get warm. And that at worst the pump will pump over, and Very Bad Things will happen.

On 6 Feb 2006 14:02:50 -0800 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com wrote this:-

Unless being fed by high temperature hot water (over 100C, pressurised system, not used in houses) the surface temperature of a towel rail is going to be 80C or lower. The chances of being burnt are close to zero, unless one was to remain in contact with it for a long time gripping it.

It may feel hot to the touch of course. That is good, it dries towels by getting hot.

Will they be able to avoid the hot pipes that comprise the towel rail? If so, how will the towels be draped over it?

I take it that the towel rail does not have a supplementary electric element for summer use?

Doesn't sound like a problem. Does the heating system have a header tank and if so where is it? Is this to be a new radiator or the old one repositioned?

That rather depends on the rest of the system. The chances are that it will probably not make much difference, but only you can see the existing system.

The top of the radiator or the towel rail? Both will probably work fine, but only you can see the existing system.