cold bathroom - options?

[inconceivableme]

We only have a chrome towel / ladder radiator in our bathroom at present. It's about 4.5fttall and 20ins wide. No idea what output that is? The room is cold. It faces north, has two external walls and is about 8ft x 7ft in size. The house has double glazing, cavity wall insulation and gas central heating and is generally quite warm, apart from the bathroom.

Am thinking of replacing the current radiator with an electric one in the same type so we can have it on even if heating isn't on. We have enough spare wall space to add a small 'proper' gas radiator too. Does that sound right?

Not sure what a gas radiator is but consider replacing the towel rail with a conventional radiator instead or adding a small radiator in addition if it's a cold room. I think an electric towel rail may not be a very economical choice and unless the heat output is higher than the current one it won't fix the issue.

Do you have an extractor fan? If so, is it letting lots of air into the room? You may need to replace if so!

Those chrome towel rails are rubbish when it comes to output. Even the white ones are better (but ugly). Definitely think about replacing with a decent rad.

We have very similar set up and same problem. It appears the chrome towel rails look snazzy and seem great to hang lots of towels on but they're just pants as a room heater. They do not convect heat into a room, they just get very hot to the touch which makes them great for warming towels but not much else. We're going to change to a double panel convection radiator and get some blinds for our Windows. Good luck.

BIL is a plumber and he added a radiator in their bathroom because despite installing a high output towel rail, it just doesn't heat the room adequately.

When you say gas radiator I assume you mean hot water radiator ie connected to the central heating? Do you have the pipework in place to put that in already, or is it easy to lift the flooring to get the pipework to the new radiator location? If not then you may find it is a big job to add in a new central heating radiator. But you could probably add an electric radiator fairly easily.

Unless you have the pipework all in place for the extra central heating rad, I think your best options are:

1. keep the towel rail as is, and add a small electric radiator.

If you want warm towels in the summer then yes also change the towel rail but you can go for "dual fuel" ie both central heating and electric - you'd switch to electric in summer and use the central heating in winter (cheaper than elec).

Or, 2) change the towel rail for a tall slimline radiator and find somewhere else to put towels.