Help: How to replace the small chrome towel rail in a cold damp bathroom

[Mor9h]

Hi,

Thanks in advance for a any advice!

I have a very cold bathroom with (I think) no insulation in the roof and a small chrome towel rail. The towel rail gets hot but does nothing to heat the room. I'm thinking of replacing it with either a larger/better towel rail or a vertical radiator but aren't sure how much of a difference this could make.

Is there a way to do this using the existing towel rail pipework, as the floor is large stone slabs and I assume would make things tricky otherwise?

Cheers!

 

[pcaouolte]

Can you get some insulation in the roof? It is likely to make a huge difference at a reasonable cost if there is no insulation at present.

 

[Mor9h]

Can you get some insulation in the roof? It is likely to make a huge difference at a reasonable cost if there is no insulation at present.

Thanks. Do you think that would make a bigger difference? One of our slates fell off once so I was able to see inside and It seems like its just plasterboard with about a 6 inch gap then slates. I think I'd have to remove the plasterboard and go from there.

 

[pcaouolte]

If it is just a plasterboard ceiling then you will certainly notice the benefits of insulation. I have just topped up a room which had 70mm of insulation over the plasterboard to 270mm of insulation and have had to turn down the heating in that room. Originally the radiator had been turned up high but still never managed to warm the room, now that same radiator copes well at a low level of heat input. If you have no insulation then a towel radiator stands no chance of warming the room and a normal radiator is going to need to work hard to compensate for the rapid heat loss, costing you a lot in heating.

Have you got any access to this roof space to be able to get any type of insulation into it without taking the ceiling down (loft rolls, PIR insulation board or even blown insulation)?

 

[screamer]

Thanks. Do you think that would make a bigger difference? One of our slates fell off once so I was able to see inside and It seems like its just plasterboard with about a 6 inch gap then slates. I think I'd have to remove the plasterboard and go from there.

remove the plasterboard, insulate with PIR insulation but you have to keep 50mm of free air space between the top of the PIR insulation and the roof/tile battens/felt.
Then put a vapour barrier (a thin polythene sheet) all over the ceiling then plasterboard

(you can also get insulated plasterboard, this will reduce the ceiling height due to what thickness you pick)

 

[stem]

Towel rails, or to give them their more accurate name of 'towel warmers' aren't designed to heat a normal bathroom just dry towels. So many people have removed a radiator and installed a towel warmer only to end up with dry towels and a cold bathroom.

As a rule of thumb, a towel warmer will emit about one third of the output of a radiator of a similar size, but once it's covered with fluffy insulating towels it reduces even further.

The polished chrome finish also stops them emitting heat. When the heating goes off you normally find that the towel warmer will stay warm to the touch long after the radiators on the same circuit have gone cold.

 

[Mor9h]

If it is just a plasterboard ceiling then you will certainly notice the benefits of insulation. I have just topped up a room which had 70mm of insulation over the plasterboard to 270mm of insulation and have had to turn down the heating in that room. Originally the radiator had been turned up high but still never managed to warm the room, now that same radiator copes well at a low level of heat input. If you have no insulation then a towel radiator stands no chance of warming the room and a normal radiator is going to need to work hard to compensate for the rapid heat loss, costing you a lot in heating.

Have you got any access to this roof space to be able to get any type of insulation into it without taking the ceiling down (loft rolls, PIR insulation board or even blown insulation)?

Oh wow. That definitely sounds like the way to go then.

We have no access. The bathroom is off the side of the house with a sloping ceiling/roof. It’s either remove the slates or the plasterboard ceiling so the latter will have to be the way to go.

 

[Mor9h]

remove the plasterboard, insulate with PIR insulation but you have to keep 50mm of free air space between the top of the PIR insulation and the roof/tile battens/felt.
Then put a vapour barrier (a thin polythene sheet) all over the ceiling then plasterboard

(you can also get insulated plasterboard, this will reduce the ceiling height due to what thickness you pick)

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I’ll give this a go!

 

[Murdochcat]

I'd also put something on the floor to reduce the cold from the stone floor

 

[Mor9h]

Towel rails, or to give them their more accurate name of 'towel warmers' aren't designed to heat a normal bathroom just dry towels. So many people have removed a radiator and installed a towel warmer only to end up with dry towels and a cold bathroom.

As a rule of thumb, a towel warmer will emit about one third of the output of a radiator of a similar size, but once it's covered with fluffy insulating towels it reduces even further.

The polished chrome finish also stops them emitting heat. When the heating goes off you normally find that the towel warmer will stay warm to the touch long after the radiators on the same circuit have gone cold.

A third? A radiator sounds like a much better option then. As others have suggested, I’ll look at insulating the roof first then see if I still need to replace the towel rail after that!

 

[oldbuffer]

1. Worth checking that the towel rail is steel by using a magnet. I've seen old towel rails like yours that were made of copper, because they were fitted to the hot water circuit, rather than the boiler primary circuit. Had they been steel they would have rusted an resulted in rusty hot water. This was in a block of flats with communal heating and hot water.
2. If not steel, check what source of heat it is connected to before deciding on a replacement.