We're considering putting a towel rail rather than traditional rad in our new bathroom (cos we're fashion victims!). What surprises me though is how narrow they are - typically about 400mm wide, 600 max. This would mean any bath towel would have to be folded in quarters to fit on the rail, making the place look hellishly untidy, and meaning the towel will take an age to dry.
Am I missing something?
Good question. I presume it's because typically bathrooms are pretty small rooms anyway, and the length of available wall space on which to fit a towel rail is further reduced by the presence of the sanitaryware. Then consider that towel rails are less efficient at heating than ordinary radiators, an effect made worse by insulating them with layers of towels... so ideally you probably want to be fitting a standard radiator in there as well, for space-heating purposes!
You can get larger towel rails if you look beyond the local DIY sheds and try specialist bathroom outlets etc; eg I got one from:
David
A trip to
Decent prices and delivered on time.
Standard width for a bath towel is 680mm.
Excellent - how come I didn't find this place after 3 weeks of researching?!? I knew I should have asked earlier!
Do check heat output (towel rails have very low heat output compared with a radiator), but also note that the quoted figure is with no towels on it, and it drops to virtually zero as you cover it with towels, which could leave the room without any direct heating.
I went for a standard radiator, and an unheated towel rack mounted above it, which I believe works very well, but I'm not a slave to fashion.
Note that stainless steel towel rails have a significantly higher output than the chrome versions.
The other approach is a rack (as seen in many hotels) for the towels above a radiator . Probably cheaper.
Robert Robert
On 24 Jun 2006 00:27:49 -0700 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote this:-
Far better to have a radiator to provide heat and a towel rail to dry towels.
The towel rail can be heated by various means. Electric oil filled ones are completely independent. Water filled ones should ideally be fed from the hot water system so they can be used in summer and controlled independently. An alternative is an electric element for summer use.
My towel rails are about 50cm wide. Bath towels fit on them in a single layer, by scrunching them up a little. As I am of the male persuasion this doesn't bother me, but others might have trouble with the domestic authorities about this. In this case the towel can either be folded in half, which does slow down drying as much of the heat avoids the towel, or folding over about 1/4 of the towel to make it fit across the full width of the rail and so get most of the heat.
I would also look at a towel rail in the kitchen, to keep towels and dishcloths dry. Electrically powered are often best here, unless there is a suitable source of hot water.
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