Towel rails

SWMBO wants the rad in the bathroom replaced with a heated towel rail.
I've noticed that white ones give out more BTU's than chrome. For a 1000 x 550 the white ts rated at 1493 and the chrome at 1119.
And curved ones give out slightly more than flat.
Why's that then?

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Emissivity
Presumably slightly greater surface area.
Tim

In article
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The overriding rule is that they give out next to fook all if there are any towels on the rails. By all means have a towel rail rad but don't expect it to heat the room, have a separate rad for that.

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Indeed. All form and no function. I've attached a row of coat hooks above our smallish towel rad. Towels hang above and clear of rad. Dries towels AND warms room.

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+1
Unheated towel rack well above the radiator in my case.
In a relative's bathroom I did a few years ago where SWMBO required a heated towel rail, I put in underfloor heating to actually heat the room.

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message wrote:
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+1
Unheated towel rack well above the radiator in my case.
+1 works far better than a heated towel rail and far more useful to heat room

"fred" wrote in message wrote:
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We have two white "ladder" style towel rails, both much taller than needed just for the towels and they work well at both heating the room and drying towels. I fitted electric elements in them both so they can be heated when the central heating is off.
Mike

On 15/12/2012 18:25, fred wrote:
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We have four and all of the rooms are as warm as we need (even warmer when Management tweaks the TRVs) even when they're loaded with towels.
It's just a case of sizing them correctly. Three (kitchen, shower room, bathroom) are near enough 6' tall and the one in the toilet is ~3' tall.

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Allegedly chrome is less conductive to heat than white paint. And a curved towel rail has more surface area (longer pipes) than a flat one of the same overall width.

On 15/12/2012 17:03, The Medway Handyman wrote:
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I threw out a towel rail and fitted a radiator, simply for warmth.
To cope with the towels I fitted an Ikea Grundtal shelf with some of the bars removed. I cut it down a bit, so it does not stick out as much as the shelf would.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00011428/
I would tell SWMBO that she has a choice between a stylish but freezing bathroom with a towel rail, or keeping the rad and fitting a rail above it.

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Exactly what I did (without cutting down) - was much better and cheaper than any of the real ones I could find.
Shortly after I mentioned doing this on here, they introduced another version with half the bars, as a towel rail/shelf!
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On 16/12/2012 10:28, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
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I think that I got the idea from you. Thanks! :)
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On Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:03:48 +0000, The Medway Handyman
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How big is your existing rad?
If it's between 450mm and 600mm wide I have a possible alternative solution that I could be persuaded to part with (as in I bought it years ago on the spur of the moment and it turned out not to fit our bathroom radiator):
http://goo.gl/9IZlv

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Generally, replacing a properly sized rad with a towel rail will result in a cold bathroom. Remember the towel rail is covered most of the time so won't give it's rated output towards heating the room. Can you fit one in addition to the rad? Nothing wasted if you have TRVs.