Heated towel rails have grown in popularity over the last twenty years, ever since founder of Bisque radiator designs, Geoffrey Ward, brought one back from a bike-riding excursion in France and believed the existing process by which towels were dried required someone like him to change it forever.

If you take a look around, whether it’s in the toilets of a department store or a jazz club, you are odds on to dry your hands on a towel hanging on a towel rail. Now you have concluded you want a towel radiator for your own en-suite. So what flavour of heated towel rail should you go for?

Do some research into whether you should have a standard chrome towel rail (a rail that connects to your central heating), an electric heated towel rail (one that plugs into your mains electricity) or a dual-fuel towel warmer (a rail that connects to your central heating system and to your mains electricity). If your house has pipes connecting to the central heating system in the room where you aim to install the chrome towel rail, then are able to have a standard towel radiator plumbed in. If you don't have pipes, it is possible to bring an electrician in and connect a heated towel rail to your mains electricity. A dual-fuel chrome towel warmer enables you to power the rail through the heating system at times when the heating is likely to be used. However during the warmer months, you can make use of electricity to switch on the towel rail.

Once you have come to a decision on how the power will reach your heated towel radiator, you can now make a decision on on the specifications. To choose the width and height, you could measure the gap between the inlet pipes in your place where you want the towel rail (if you have central heating in that bathroom). When looking at purchasing your new towel radiator, you are advised to pay attention to the ‘pipe centres’ measurement that should be included in the information on the heated towel rail. The pipe centres measurement is the distance between both pipes on the towel warmer and this should match up fairly closely to the distance between your pipes in your bathroom. You can then be satisfied you are selecting the suitable heated towel rail.

The heat output you need for your place you are putting your towel rail, can be a tad more challenging to get an accurate answer for because each bathroom is different. The level of heat of a heated towel radiator is measured in Watts or British Thermal Units (BTUs) and you can use the measurement you feel more comfortable with. It is estimated that you ought to have one hundred Watts warm up 1 sq.m. of floor space and a fast bit of moving numbers around will tell you what you must look for. Find out the length and width of your en-suite and multiply them together to get the size in square metres. Times that number by one hundred (Watts) and you have the approximate of Wattage you need for your room. To get the answer in British Thermal Units, you need to times the figure in Watts by 3.14 (due to the fact that 1 Watt = 3.14 BTUs).

Although it is possible, it is not usually advisable to install a chrome towel rail instead of a usual bathroom radiator. Sometimes a towel radiator on its own does not give off enough power in cooler months and can leave your room feeling in need of more warmth. A better decision would be to fit a towel warmer as well as a regular radiator.

Urgh, we read this article recently and it highlighted some awful things that can breed in your damp towels if you leave them long enough! We were very surprised (and disgusted) about what can appear in your towels if they are left on the floor and not washed!
Silverfish, booklice, springtail, centipede and woodlice find damp places ideal breeding grounds and can really thrive, so pick up that towel off the floor and hang it on you heated towel rails or towel radiators!

Try to obtain a radiator that is exactly the same model as the one you plan to replace. This will make the job relatively straightforward.

SIMPLE REPLACEMENT
Drain the old radiator and remove it from the wall, then unscrew both of the valve adaptors from the bottom with anadjustable spanner, or if necessary, a hexagonal radiator spanner. Unscrew the bleed valve, using the bleed key and then the two blanking plugs from the top of the radiator, using a square or hexagonal radiator spanner.

Use wire wool to clean any corrosion from the threads of both adaptors and blanking plugs, then wind four or five turns of PFTE tape round the threads. Screw the plugs and adaptors into the new radiator and then screw the bleed valve into it's blanking plug.

Hang the new radiator on the wall brackets and connect the valves to their adaptors. Open the valves, then fill and bleed the radiator.

REPLACEMENT WITH A DIFFERENT PATTERN RADIATOR
Rather more work is involved in the replacement if you can't get a radiator of the same pattern as the old one. You will have to fit new wall brackets and alter the pipe runs. (A post of how to fit new heated towel rails will be coming soon.)

Drain your central heating system, then take the old brackets off the wall. Lay the new radiator face down on the floor and slide one of its brackets onto the hangers welded to the back of the radiator. Measure the position of the brackets and transfer these measurements to the wall. You need to allow a clearance of 100 or 125mm (4 or 5in) below the radiator.

Line up the pencil marks on the wall, and mark the fixing-screw holes for them. Drill and plug the holes, then screw the brackets in place.

Take up the floorboards below the radiator and cut off the vertical portions of the feed and return pipes. Connect the valves to the bottom of the radiator and hang it on it's brackets. Slip a short length of pipe into each of the valves as a guide for any further trimming of the pipes under the floor. Connect these lengths to the original pipes with capillary or compression fittings, then connect the new pipes to the valves.

Finally, refill the system with water, and check all the new connnections and joints for leaks.

We've got some great offers over at our heated towel rails website ChromeTowelRails.com, so we thought today we would do some shameless promoting of our great products. If you are redoing your bathroom and want a stylish towel radiator to help finish it off, then take a look at our offerings below:

Our fantastic Square Bar heated towel rails look incredibly swanky and are proving to be very popular since we added them to our range a couple of months ago. Starting at the ridiculously low price of £135, these towel radiators range from 800mm x450mm to a huge 1600mm x 600mm. These towel rails look awesome and will heat your towels and bathroom superbly.

Starting at a bargain £165, our designer range called the Paisley Heated Towel Rails have just had their prices slashed and look great in any modern bathroom. These are also fairly new additions to our towel radiators range and we have received some outstanding feedback from our customers about them.Sizes range from 1500mm x 305mm to the biggest whoich is 2000mm by 570mm and a has a huge BTU output of 4,368. Look at our site for the Paisley Towel Radiators range.

With offices and support staff up in Glasgow, ChromeTowelRails.com has become a very successful retailer of heated towel rails.

Their designer range of towel rails called Paisley start at the ridiculously low price of £165 and they also have an incredibly popular standard range starting at £50.

Currently having a major price crash it's really worth looking at all the heated towel rails and towel radiators on the site if you are looking to add that extra bit of class to your bathroom.

Delivery of all towel rails is free 24 hour to any address in mainland UK and a price match policy is also in action. Get over to buy a great value quality towel rad today!