Blog Posts & Useful Tips by ADIGE Towel Radiators

If you wish to add value to your property, have a moisture free bathroom and to heat up in style, it's a good investment to make. Not only you will have storage to place your towels, but your bathroom's temperature will be adequately managed. Some designer towel radiators are now used as the centre piece of the bathroom like a feature wall.

Homeowners are always looking to add a new feature to their bathrooms. Already, there are many components, objects and furniture in the bathroom like the shower and/or bathtub, sinks and toilets, clothes baskets, bath mats, cabinets and towel rails.

Although not too common in smaller bathrooms, designer towel radiators are now a necessity in the average bathroom around the country. They're a handy tool which holds towels. It's incredibly convenient for a homeowner to have a built-in towel rail in their bathroom. All the family's towels are all in one place, so they don't need to worry about travelling to their closets to grab their own towel for bathing.

What is more important is that a bathroom without sufficient heating and the changing temperatures can also affect the entire environment in a negative way, causing mold, mildew and other unsavory things to affect the bathroom. Heated towel rails are a solution to this problem. By having one of these installed, it helps to reduce the amount of moisture, humidity and mildew found in bathrooms. Heated towel rails are an inexpensive investment to make when considering ways to reduce moisture in the bathroom.

Most towel warmers or designer towel radiators are relatively inexpensive, though you're likely to find several on the market in a variety of different prices and types. In fact, the two main types of towel warmers are electric and central heating heated towel rails.

Electric towel rails have lower energy consumption rates, making them rather energy efficient since they consume the same power as your standard light bulb. Central heating type towel warmer uses the hot water heated by the boiler, mainly by running said water through the warmer's rails. Today's electric towel rails also include safety features like safety thermal fuses and automatic shut-off devices.

Towel rails can be wall mounted, floor mounted and free standing—not to mention, they come in a variety of different size, shape and styles which will fit to any bathroom’s design.

Most properties in the UK have central heating systems in place and more and more home owners are replacing their standard panel radiators in their bathrooms with towel radiators. If you already have a central heating in place and have an existing radiator in your bathroom, it is quite a straight forward job to replace these radiators with a brand new shiny, polished and an eye catching towel radiator.

But what if you live in a flat? What if your property does not have gas supply? What if you do not have a central heating system in you home? Why do you have to stick with a fan assisted, noisy and most of all, not very functional and efficient electric heaters? Well you don’t! You can easily convert a towel radiator to an “Electric Only Towel Radiator” or as we call it, “Electric Use Only”.

Most towel radiators and heated towel rails are originally designed and manufactured to be part of a central heating system. However, most of them can be converted to electric use too. To do so, instead of buying a pair of valves, you will simply need to purchase an electric heating element and a blanking plug. Installation of those is also quite straight forward. In fact, it is probably easier as there is no pipe work involved.

So how do you convert a towel radiator to an electric use only?

Assuming you have the following parts and the required tools,

• Towel Radiator
• Electric Heating Element
• Blanking Plug

1. First, you will need to insert the electric element into the radiator from one of the bottom entry points. This can be either the left or the right side but the usual practice is to insert and install it to the right hand side of the radiator as you look at it.

2. You will then insert and screw the blanking plug into the other entry point at the bottom of the radiator.
   Tip: Please note that you will need to use PTFE tape or similar on both threads!

Once you have both entry points used and sealed, you are left with one more entry point on top of the radiator which will be sealed with bleed valve, also known as air-went.

3. Next, you will need to fill the radiator with water from the top entry point.
   Tip: As you fill the radiator, shake and tip the radiator to the left and right. This will enable water to flow through all the horizontal bars. You will also need to leave a gap of an inch or two on top of the radiator.

4. After you complete the steps above by sealing the bottom ends, filling the radiator with water leaving a little gap on the top, you will then hang the radiator using the wall brackets supplied with the towel radiator and wire the electric element to a fused spur.

5. Once ready, you will need to turn the electric element on and wait for a while for the water inside the radiator to get as hot as possible.  If you have followed the steps above, you will find that the top entry point is still not sealed. By leaving this open to air, you will let water expand freely without causing any pressure inside the radiator. You now gather why you needed to leave a  gap on top the radiator on step 3. By doing so, you will avoid water spillage.

6. Last stage will be to seal the top entry point using the bleed valve supplied. But you should only do this when water inside the radiator has reached its hottest possible level , again using a PTFE tape or similar.

There you have converted a central heated towel radiator to an electric only towel radiator, or electric only use for your bathroom.

So you are looking to buy a new towel radiator and you have done your homework. Know exactly what size radiator you need and you have used our BTU Calculator to find out your heat requirements but the search is still on simply because you are confused!

You have seen a few heated towel rails from various online or high street retailers but you are puzzled with fact that same or very similar size radiators gives out different heat. You are asking yourself  “How come these two same/similar size radiators gives out different heat?” While your search for the perfect towel radiator may be still on,  you have at least come to the right place to get your answer for the question above.

A simple one word answer to your question would be Delta (a.k.a. Delta T). The heat output of a radiator depends on three temperatures; Flow (water entering the radiator), Return (water exiting the radiator) and Room/Ambiance temperature. To ensure that a sensible and accurate comparisons can be made between different products, all radiators are tested in controlled laboratory environment as per BS EN442 standards. From 1st July 1997 all radiators manufactured in the EU must comply with BS EN442 standards and all radiators must be tested using the following temperatures;

Flow = 75℃  (Water Temperature)
Return = 65℃ (Water Temperature)
Room/Ambiance = 20℃

So the calculation would be;
75 + 65 = 140
140 / 2 = 70 (mean average water temperature)
70 – 20 = 50 (Delta50)

Once we know the heat output of a radiator in Delta50 we can easily convert it to Delta60 by multiplying this figure with “1.264″. Now lets explain where the differences is coming from. If a towel radiator is advertised as 1000 BTU’s in Delta50, it can also be advertised as 1264 BTU’s in Delta60. Radiator is the same and the heat output is fixed but different suppliers may display their towel radiator’s BTUs in different Delta T figures and this is why you may see same or similar size radiators have discrepancies in their heat outputs.

You may now ask yourself; If whole of Europe is using Delta50 and all radiators are tested to Delta50 standards, why here in the UK  we are still using Delta60? Prior to July 1997 BS 3528 was used which was based on Delta60 and most plumbers and heat engineers here in the UK are still using Delta60.