What's wrong with my heated towel rail please?

[Celeriacacaca]

It works when the heating is on but not when it's off. I've replaced the fuse on the switch outside the bathroom but this makes no difference. Does anyone know what it could be please? Keen to get it going again as in this mild weather it's so hard to get bath towels dry in between use. Many thanks.

Have you tried bleeding it?

I'm pretty sure DH bleeds them regularly but if not, will do. What will this do, given that it works fine when the heating is on but has stopped working when the heating is off?

Oh I see. Sorry I didn't read that but properly. They should be connected to the hot water rather than heating so check your settings on the control panel. Ours is quite high tech but shows that the bathroom radiators are aligned with the hot water. Sorry not much help otherwise. As it was working before then it's obviously connected. Sorry. Hope someone who knows what they're talking about.

We had to replace the element on ours - the bit that actually goes into the radiator to heat it up.

Caurnie, if it's heating up ok when the central heating is on does that mean the element is ok or is the element only for when it's used electrically iyswim.

mine is attache3d to both the central heating and an electric element.
so in winter it is run with the heatig but in summer we have a electric timer switch.
Could yours be the same, so the element could be gone as someone said.

the element only for when it's used electrically iyswim.
yes to this bit

Ahhh okay, thanks. It seems the element may be the problem then. Is this something a reasonably good DIYer (DH, not me!) could replace, or is a professional needed?

The element has gone, yes. So has mine. It's a pain because a plumber thinks it is an electrician's job and an electrician thinks it's a plumber's job. Leave it till spring when you turn the heating off again!!

they should be easy to change, its just a rod like piece which bolts into the radiator. I would have thought all you need to do is drain radiator down and unbolt the old element, put the new one in and then refill radiator - job done.

It sounds so easy when you put it like that.

The element goes in from the bottom, so you have to take the towel rail off the wall.

But yes, drain it, take it off, replace it, wire it up, put it back on the wall, refill it. That's the job.

We had to get a plumber/heating engineer to fix it - the electrician wasn't comfortable doing it as it entailed draining and removing the towel rail.