Heated towel rails

[fairydust]

I have decided i'd like a heated towel rail for the bathroom as we have no radiator in ours only a small storage heater.

so anyone that has one

can u put wet towels on them ( i.e when you've finished in the bath not soaking)

also how are they wired up don't want to ask dh yet as he'll moan at the thought of more D.I.Y (we've just moved u see)

also don't want to pay huge amounts so any recomendations please

many thanks in advance

I had one in my old flat and yes you can put damp, post bath towels on them without any probs. I know my landlord fitted mine but he was a builder so I am clueless as to how DIY friendly they are fitting wise. They are a lovely luxury and so much less intrusive looking than a rad/storage heater.

just had them put in and I dont know how much they are as they came in with the new central heating system. The main problem I have had is that the tiles were damaged taking the radiators off and the new heated things dont cover the damage. So I have holes in my bathroom walls.
They seem to be wonderful so far, but not sure how good they will be in summer when I dont have the heating on!

We used to have an oil filled one in our old house - absolutely wonderful thing. In some ways I miss it now - towels just don't get as dry as quickly without it!

Yes, you can put wet towels on them. Can't remember how it was wired up I'm afraid (dh did it) - don't remember it being a huge job though.

It did get pretty hot - ds was very young at the time and I was a little worried about him getting burned, but in the end it was hot enough for him to know about it and him to jump back with an OUCH but not hot enough to do any damage, if you know what I mean. He learnt the difference between hot and cold early as a result

We got ours from B&Q I think.... but I've had a quick search and can't see it now. I've found one on screwfix that is a similar style to the one we had: Oil Filled Heated Towel Rail

We got ours from Wicks, £99.99. I think they are plumbed in the same as normal radiators (although it wasn't us that fitted it - the nice man from MFI did it when fitting the new bathroom) - ours replaced our old radiator, but we have gas ch, not storage heaters. I'm pretty sure you can get electric ones, but not sure how much they cost / how they're wired. We got ours in the summer, and it was fine then, but lovely to have in the winter.

fairydust, the place where the storage heater is connected will probably be OK for connecting a heated towel rail to.

Could you extend the central heating into the bathroom instead of having an electric one or would that be too big a job? There are some dead trendy bathroom rads now, tall and quite narrow with lots of horizontal bars. No use in the summer though - an electric one would be better for all-year-round.

This is Dimplex's towel rail page.

Incidentally - don't get rid of your storage heater when you put it in. Unless you have a tiny bathroom the towel rail probably won't be enough to heat the entire room on the coldest days (although will be lovely for just taking the edge off). We had a little fan heater we would put on just before bathtime during the winter, but relied on the towel rail for the rest of normal bathroom usage ( ) which worked out great.

Another one (never heard of it though) with prices.

Jan - we have no gas central heating at all - and no gas in the house full stop.

we have electric storage heaters through out.

the one in the bathroom is a small one only as big as a shoe box as it's a small bath room is only has a bath and a basin.

but we have one tallish wall that would fit one easily i hope it will also warm it up a little

thanks jan will look into thoose

I believe Wickes produce some that are really unexpensive. You can place on them wet towels and even the laundry to dry (they are great) the only thing to consider is that if you always have them covered they are not going to warm the room as a radiator but if your bathroom is small that shouldn't be a problem.

fairydust, you could also get one of those circular light/radiant-heaters for the ceiling if the towel rail won't provide enough heat. (How handy is your DH with electrics?)