Any advice on choosing/sourcing period/traditional cast iron radiators?

[TDiddy]

Going for these rather than radiator cabinets- plumber says cabinets block the heat despite the blurb on the internet.

Which supplier did you use? Should we choose plain or patterned? Concerned that patterned will be too much if I use in all three reception rooms + hallway.

We have these throughout our house and they look lovely - a lot better in situ than on the website pics period radiators

The Acova radiators I mean, not the other weird ones on the link too

thank you kitsmummy. It's hard to tell how fittings look in situ from web pics isn't it so that is useful reference.

We have traditional style radiators fitted, but they are made of stainless steel rather than cast iron. The trouble with cast iron is that 1) they are extremely heavy; 2) they take a long time to heat up; 3) once heated up they take a long time to cool down. We had a new boiler fitted at the same time and so it made no sense to have radiators that were so inefficient when combined with a modern boiler.

Ours are similar to this: www.theradiatorgallery.com/productinfo-Traditional%20Radiators-Sanaplan-129.html

but we got them from a company where you could customise the paint finish. Your plumber will be able to work out what size/number of columns you need depending on the heat output required. I'm really pleased with ours even though they were more £££ than normal rads. They are definitely more of a feature.

Fayrazzled- thank you so much! This is very helpful and practical advice.

This company are supposed to be good
www.theradiatorcompany.co.uk/radiators/steel_multi_column/ancona_stock.html
though Ihavent used them myself.

thanks again. You are the second person to recommend that make. This photo looks very nice.

That's the link I was looking for Pannacotta- those are the ones we have.

This is a huge help. Looks like we have already thinking of the Bianco ones from this website. Although the are cast iron, we tend to run heating day and night and turn thermostat down at night or when we are out.

Apparently it isn't that inefficient to do compared to heating up house and then letting it go cold and then heating up.

we have these

We're pleased with the radiators, but the valves aren't that great, our plumber had to strip them right down as they kept leaking.

We have also had the ones that kitsmummy linked to from B&Q, which were good too.

If buying reclaimed you need to check they have been properly pressure tested.

trixymalixy - thank you. I think i will avaoid reclaimed as it sounds junky IYWIM