Cold bathroom

[Anotherdayattheforum]

Welcome suggestions how to address or reasons why the bathroom is miserably cold. Typically room temperature sits at 15c whilst rest of house 18c.

1. SW facing with two external walls.
2. Gas central heating.
3. No black mold present in bathroom or any part of house.
4. Towel radiator is advised to meet the measurements of the room. Have put aluminium lining behind to reflect heat away from tiles. Maybe this type of radiator is simply ineffective.
5. Floor to ceiling tiled - this I wonder is the issue. Perhaps they are cheap cement base???

TIA

What kind of window does it have?

Extractor fan or just holes in the wall? One of our bathrooms has 2 x air bricks for ventilation purposes and in winter you can feel the cold air coming in.

Does the towel rad get properly hot all over? May need bleeding if not.

When you say “advised to meet the measurements of the room” do you mean using a BTU calculator? Usually these also ask about how many external walls, window dimensions & other room features. Have you put these details into the calculator and is the output still sufficient?

Is it top floor? if so is the roof insulated?

As pp said, check extractor fan or other vents. Is it just open? Or is there a flap which stops draughts when not in use?

We have a towel radiator, installed by the developer of our new build houses - it’s useless. Takes forever to heat up and doesn’t radiate heat at all, it just warms whatever you rest on it. We’ve always had traditional radiators in our previous bathrooms and they worked much better.

Double glazing. Installed 3 years ago.

My towel radiator is absolutely rubbish too if I could go back id have kept my normal radiator instead

Extractor fan.

Good point about BTU. Will check.

Ceiling mount extractor. Closed unit.

Upstairs bathroom. Insulated ceiling.

This is my suspicion. Notice the aluminium backing doesn’t get warm. Therefore no heat to reflect back into the room. Nor do the background tiles get warm.

However, the room is always consistently colder, rather than colder, than the landing. Hence I wonder if the tiles are the culprit.

Thank you all for your swift responses.

We put the blind down last night that coupled with the underfloor heating made such a difference . East Midlands no snow but soooo cold.

My bathroom is fully tiled and had a towel radiator. It was always freezing. Swapped it for a normal radiator and it is now toasty warm. The difference is amazing.

My ensuite has a towel radiator, like others have said useless for heat. I've taken to putting one of those cheap oil filled radiators in there to warm it up before shower. Obviously remove it before using the shower but it's toasty in minutes 🤗

Blind - good point. Yep! Got those too.

Re towel rail - seems to be a source.

@Mantari @Mossstitch useful info. Thank you.

The tiles won’t help, nor will having two external walls. We have the same problem in our en suite. The family bathroom is the next one along and is much warmer because it only has one external wall. And the en suite is colder than the bedroom because we have a proper radiator there!

We installed a new bathroom a few months ago and we now have a towel radiator just keep towels warm and dry and a normal radiator. I finally have a warm bathroom.

Thanks all. I’ll get a quote for a replacement radiator. Will require the system being drained, no shut-off valve on radiator. Grrr. Cheaper and more practical than stripping the tiles off the walls.

I had a cold bathroom too, even with a normal radiator. High ceiling, large sash window, two outside walls.
However the radiator was type 11, with the single fin. Last winter I replaced it with the same size but type 22 with the double fins and the difference is striking. The bathroom feels lovely and warm now.
So be sure to replace with an adequate radiator!

Does the radiator get as hot as the other radiators? Do you have lots of towels hanging over it? I have a towel radiator in our fully tiled en suite and the room is toasty warm. If yours isn't getting hot then it may need bleeding or it may be incorrectly balanced with the rest of the radiators in the house. And if it's covered with towels then this will make it even more difficult to heat the room (I do keep towels over mine even once dry because otherwise it's like an oven in there).

15c! I’m going to sought like one of the Four Yorkshiremen, but I’d be happy with that. Our north facing, two exterior walls, 3 windowed bathroom is miserable in winter. It was 9.9c in there this morning. The towel radiator is the correct size and not covered, but a complete waste of time. We have electric UFH, but it makes more sense to use a plug in heater to give it a blast than to run that. It’s lovely in hot summers though 🤪

Agree with everyone else re towel radiator. Mine keeps towels warm but the rest of the room is freezing. Planning on changing back to a normal radiator at some point.

I have a heated towel rail that heats my bathroom and is very effective, but it was very expensive. 20 years old and still going strong, it works on the central heating but also electric I think as it stays on all night even with the heating off. It was a cobra bisque but discontinued now I believe.

We had a house fire 12 years ago. The reno company told us towel rails were only for heating towels. They didn’t warm a bathroom.

So got a radiator. Our bathroom is lovely and warm. SW facing.

Have you put a thermometer in the room to measure the temp? I’m wondering if it’s feels cold rather than is cold.

Make sure the towel radiator is a an actually rad rather then a towel warmer. Also make sure it isn’t just covered in towels. If the humitidy level is high it will feel colder.