Bathroom Radiators buying guide

Buying new radiators for your bathroom, remodelling or adding a bathroom? Choosing the right radiator can make an important impact on the bathroom in terms of functionality and style. As the weather gets that little colder, getting out of the shower, and to a lesser degree the bath, can be something of an eye-opener if the bathroom is cold.

There are a large number of choices available, and they are designed to not just warm the room but also look great too. Towel rails should be considered too, to add a little extra comfort and possibly as an alternative to radiators if the bathroom is on the small side.

What are the available options? Let's see.

Decide on whether you need a standard radiator, a heated towel rail or both

Regular, or standard, radiators are made to warm up whole bathrooms where heated towel rails are designed to heat towels (they can also, at a pinch, be used as a small room heater if your bathroom is on the smaller end of the scale). It's possibly worth your while to set aside original purposes though, and turn your attention to the results you can get out of them.

The major difference between the two though is that regular radiators make use of the central heating, and heated towel rails use either electrical elements or a combination of central heating and electrics. This provides flexibility, and element only heated rails are the obvious answer if your home is powered purely by electricity and there’s no gas (electric wall heaters are a no-go for bathrooms).

Towel rails usually have relatively low power output, because of their primary purpose, but the Eliseo Ricci Straight Chrome Towel Rail is powerful enough to gently heat a room too and being ‘duel-fuel’, it can be used as a conventional radiator.

You may decide that a regular radiator is more in keeping with your style, and if you also still require a heated towel rail, then the Reina Alicia Traditional Radiator may be more suitable.

Consider how much space you have

Many modern radiators can now be mounted vertically, as well as horizontally, making the most of the available space while still providing excellent heating for your bathroom. This is of course ideal where the available space is perhaps limited or you just prefer the slightly non-conventional.

As a general rule of thumb, the lower the amount of available space, the more suitable a heated towel rail is versus a regular radiator. If you find yourself having to choose between cramming in a radiator, vertical or otherwise, and comfortably fitting a towel rail – it makes much more sense to choose the towel rail.

This can of course also impact design choice. For instance, the Hudson Reed Kinetic and the Hudson Reed Revive (which is a double radiator, if your bathroom is at the larger end of the scale) are both capable of being mounted vertically but both sport very different design styles.

The Asquiths Vertical Radiator is a third, and completely different, design style choice to consider. As you can see, there are lots to consider.

Making sure that you bathroom installation choices match the style of the rest of the bathroom, and of course, your style is an important step in ensuring that everything is just the way that you want it.

Underfloor heating is always an option too, naturally, and this perfect for bathrooms. You may not be a total fan of this option though, especially if it is an existing fitted bathroom, but it’s worth considering if it is a possibility.

Type, space and style aside there are other things to consider too - there are also accessories to think of.

Heating accessories

Accessories are an important consideration, mostly because they are not accessories – you need them for the equipment to work – either at all or for another aspect to work correctly. Perhaps you already have the required items, which is usually the case and why they are supplied separately – in which case, they can safely be put out of mind.

On the other hand, maybe the ones that you already have are of a different style to the look that you want to achieve? Either way, the kinds of accessories we mean rank the radiator valves among them.

In the case of duel-fuel radiators and towel rails, then it is likely that the heating element will need to be ordered separately too. These will be available from the same retailer, as they are here.

As you can see, there are a lot of things to think about but it is worth taking your time over and hopefully this guide has been of use to you.