Replacing current radiators with towel rails

Wile E. Coyote

Looking to change the current radiators in my bathrooms to new towel rails. Am I fooling myself into thinking this will be an easy swap job? Heating is on an oil burner system.

Joey the lips

It all depends on the size of your current rads. Most plumbers buy the rad closest and use chrom tails on the pipes.

Have you the bathroom tiled. Have you spare tiles.

Can you take a picture.

Antomus Prime

Joey the lips wrote: »

It all depends on the size of your current rads. Most plumbers buy the rad closest and use chrom tails on the pipes.

Have you the bathroom tiled. Have you spare tiles.

Can you take a picture.

As above it all depends on the size difference, unless you dont mind having horrible looking surface pipework... It doesnt matter what fuel youre using, the towel rail work the exact same as a normal rad, but as Joey said post some pics of the rads you want to swap, and make sure you get the pipes in the frame

heinbloed

It doesnt matter what fuel youre using, the towel rail work the exact same as a normal rad, ......

Unless one makes use of them by hanging towels over them.
And unless they are designed for the same output, in the same positioning. Many towel rails go high up to the ceiling whilest most standard radiators are positioned along the floor and under the window. Where they make more sense than being along the ceiling and not under the window.....

@ the OP:

Get independant advise from a heating engineer, pay for this. Otherwise it's guesswork only - as you can see.

Antomus Prime

heinbloed wrote: »

Unless one makes use of them by hanging towels over them.
And unless they are designed for the same output, in the same positioning. Many towel rails go high up to the ceiling whilest most standard radiators are positioned along the floor and under the window. Where they make more sense than being along the ceiling and not under the window.....

@ the OP:

Get independant advise from a heating engineer, pay for this. Otherwise it's guesswork only - as you can see.

Chances are there's towels on the rad in a bathroom anyway so thats a pointless statement.

It's not guess work, unless you pay around €40 for a cheap ass towel rail in B&Q, the heat output will be sufficiant for your average sized bathroom. And yeah positioning (as in height on the wall) effects the heat circulation but it doesnt effect how the rad physically works. Plus you can get short and wide towel rails just as handy as you can get long and narrow ones now a days anyway.

And There's no need to pay someone to tell you if you can swap a rad for a towel rail, theres plenty of plumbers in here, including myslef, that can tell from seeing a picture whether it will be a handy job or not. The asthetics of the rad itself are up to the OP

Joey the lips

The standard radiator is most irish bathrooms based on sales is a double panel 500 high by 400 long. I have not a chart for the btu;s on this but if you are picking a towel rail you should consider one min 500 wide by 1200 high. Ironically the centre tappings in this towel rail are at 455 from memory and on the radiator mentioned the center tappings were 450 so only slight pipe bending will be required. It will not be the same btus in the large towel rail as the rad but the mistake most make is pick a small towel rail which slashes the btus

If you start down the road of a heating engineer as suggested about the project will get out of hand.

However although they are towel rails it is unadvisable to permanantly leave large towels on them as this does block out the heat.

Antomus Prime

I just checked my chart and a single panel rad measuring 500mm x 600mm will have approx 1677 BTU, depending on weather it has fins or not.

A 500mm x 1100mm towel rail has approx 1788 BTU

If you could get your hands on something like this then the heat output will be more a less the same, but again be wary of hanging towels on it. But if you do that with the rad now and the room heats up enough then there shouldnt really be any issues.

These are just guidelines of heatmerchants rads, they are not exact figures but it should help

Joey the lips

Antomus Prime wrote: »

I just checked my chart and a single panel rad measuring 500mm x 600mm will have approx 1677 BTU, depending on weather it has fins or not.

A 500mm x 1100mm towel rail has approx 1788 BTU

If you could get your hands on something like this then the heat output will be more a less the same, but again be wary of hanging towels on it. But if you do that with the rad now and the room heats up enough then there shouldnt really be any issues.

These are just guidelines of heatmerchants rads, they are not exact figures but it should help

While you are checking. Have you an idea on the 500 x 600 double panel. It will save us paying for a heating engineer. Thanks

Stove Fan

Joey the lips wrote: »

While you are checking. Have you an idea on the 500 x 600 double panel. It will save us paying for a heating engineer. Thanks

Hi:)


DELONGHI COMPACT DOUBLE CONVECTOR RADIATOR
500mm x 600mm
Complete with factory-fitted grille & end panels

3,260 Btu's,
955 Watts



Most rad manufacturers vary in output, so a quide only.

We have a 600mm X 800 single radiator, 848 watts and a 550 watt ladder towel rail in our smallish 2.5x 2.4m showeroom. We like it warm.

Stove Fan:)

Joey the lips

Stove Fan wrote: »

Hi:)


DELONGHI COMPACT DOUBLE CONVECTOR RADIATOR
500mm x 600mm
Complete with factory-fitted grille & end panels

3,260 Btu's,
955 Watts



Most rad manufacturers vary in output, so a quide only.

We have a 600mm X 800 single radiator, 848 watts and a 550 watt ladder towel rail in our smallish 2.5x 2.4m showeroom. We like it warm.

Stove Fan:)

Thats great thanks. So at 2400 adverage btus a 500 x 1200 towel rail will provide a third less heat. So based on this try get an 1800 high towel rail for more btus or do what most of us do....

Seen as we only wash and shower in our bathrooms just go with the 500 x 1200 and close the door to prevent drafts.


Edit. I just noticed there is 3600 btus in a 500 x 1800 towel rail so really what we can deduce from this is

a 500 High by 400 long double panel convector radiator with the above above btus will require an 500 x 1800 high towel rail to replace its heat exactly...

For the record what i done is just put 500 x 1200s in my main and downstairs bathroom. I dont notice the loss in heat. Having said that i also swopped the single panel rad in the ensuite for the double panel taken out of the main. So there is no chance of heatloss upstairs.