Electrically heated towel rail/radiator installation

I'd have thought it should have some kind of thermostat, surely? Can you not set it so it has a lower temperature than would cause burns? Brian

Who?s gonna check it? Put it where you want it.

Tim

Is it likely to get any hotter than the 80°C of many traditional radiators or wet towel rails?

SteveW

As Tim+ says, who will know? It's not as if a jobsworth comes knocking on your door every so often to inspect your property. But you don't want it too close to the wall or you'll never get the towels to hang down the back of it, and air circulation will be restricted meaning it won't heat the room so efficiently and towels won't dry so quickly against the wall.

Well that's what I thought too.

The whole story is... The bathroom currently has a smallish towel radiator that is part of the central heating system (combi boiler). It is mounted far closer to the floor than 600mm, and the pipes run vertically from the floor directly to the rad. Obviously, in summer when the heating is not on, then the towel rad will not get hot. I know I can convert this rad to operation with an electrical element too (a little plumbing I don't fancy doing), but I don't want to get into a situation where the element fails and I have to remove the plumbed-in rad just to change said element. Changing an element on an all-electric rad is simpler.

So, for simplicity, I was just going to remove current plumbed-in rad and cap off the pipes, and then install this electric one. The house is going to be a rental property v.soon.

In which case sticking to the regs might be important. If the tenant gets injured and you've not followed the regs, you might be liable.

I'm not sure why you can't fit an element after closing the 2 valves on the current towel rail.

I'm not aware of any wiring regs reason to not have a low towel rail, but the item should be suitable for the task & the mfr says it isn't, though why I'm not clear. There is also the safety assesment, but I'm not sure why that would flag a hazard in this case.

NT

Are there building regs for rad positions?

So the proposed location for this electric rad is in zone 3. There is already a fused spur timeswitch on the landing (so someone was thinking ahead). Now to wiring up the rad. Can I just clip the wire to the skirting and then poke it into the plasterboard cavity and connect to timer? I could hide the cable in some of clip-on trunking. Can't lift bathroom floor as it is tiled.

The current piping runs vertically from the floor, through a rad valve, then into the rad. This is the same position as where the element needs to go, so I'd have to add a right angle somewhere to allow the pipe to enter the rad horizontally.

What happens when the element fails? You can't just unscrew it 'cos all the water will gush out. So you have to remove rad, invert, then replace. This must be the same for the all-electric rads too (which may be filled with oil).

We have elements in the rads in our bathrooms for when the CH isn't on, ie in the summer etc. They are very effective. I just close of one of the 'valves' on each rad, leaving the other one (the 'flow control') as normal to allow for expansion etc.

The rads are towel rail style but, while the elements get them quite hot, not enough to burn you.

We used to have an all electric towel rail (as well as the normal rad) in the family bathroom. I think it was about 60W. It was used in the summer etc. I don't recall it getting hot enough to burn you.

We have a dinky control, from Screwfix, on ours which is both a timer and can also control the level but isn't actually thermostatic- it lacks feedback.

I really can?t understand why the radiator needs to be so high or far from adjacent walls compared to a wet radiator. Seems like over-kill from a H&S POV.

I wouldn?t be too hasty about ditching the plumbed in radiator though. The output of a heated towel rail regularly covered in towels is a *lot* lower than a proper radiator.

Tim

Close valves, place tray under where the element is. Loosen element, and once rad empty, change it.

NT

Typically, you buy a T piece which fits to the leg with the element. The Heater goes through two ports into the rad, the lockshield valve into the third.

Essentially, yes. I replaced one, it wasn't a big deal. As it was the upstairs en-suite, I did a partial drain down so there was naff all to gush out.

Not sure about the oil filled ones. The one we had seemed to be sealed for life but I didn't look that closely.

Sounds simple.

When you refill the rad, close the valves, then turn on the element, is there a potential expansion problem?

The 600mm above the floor seems a bit ridiculous it, would put the top out the radiator almost 6 foot off the floor. The 500mm side spacing might be to allow replacement of the element but I would imagine it would only be to one side assuming you have a choice which side the element is fitted. Maybe that is the reason for the vertical height if like many towel radiators the openings for the valves are positioned vertically?

Richard

I'd want it high enough so bath towels don't reach the floor, and air can circulate round them too?