towel radiator

[yebaws]

Have just bought a ladder type towel radiator for the bathroom. It's designed to be plumbed in to a wet system and can also take an electric element for use when the heating is off.

Don't have a wet system here, so just plan to use it with the element. It just occurred to me 'though, that I will be sealing it completely, so there will be nowhere for expanding fluid to go when it heats up, as there would be if it were plumbed into a wet system. Will this be a problem? I'm guessing not as water doesn't expand too much and you can get sealed in only electric rails that are similar, but just thought I'd better check here. Sometimes I think the sealed units are filled with oil. Maybe this is to prevent corrosion or maybe oil has a lower expansion coefficient?

Thanks

 

[bengasman]

Bad idea, this could be really dangerous.

 

[denso13]

If it's designed to take an electric element then no problem. Make/model?

 

[bengasman]

If it's designed to take an electric element then no problem.

Until the stat fails and the steam has got nowhere to go.

 

[yebaws]

If it's designed to take an electric element then no problem.

Until the stat fails and the steam has got nowhere to go.

I once had a stat on an immersion tank fail and the water started boiling. I was surprised to find out that stats failing is quite common and even more surprised to find out that they aren't fail safe - they don't just kill the current when they fail.

However, electric only liquid filled towel radiators - completely sealed - are commonplace. I don't believe that this would be the case if there was a risk of them exploding if the stat failed. This rad if fairly thick steel and the element is 250W. I'm not sure that it even has a stat - given the size of the rad I think the heat would be dissipated as fast as it is put in by the element so there would be a safe maximum temp that it could get to. Nothing with the rad, but the instructions for the element state "fill the rad 80 - 90% full with water then switch on with the bleed valve open and allow the rad to reach max temp. Then close the valve. This would sound like a reasonable enough way to avoid damage from expansion.

denso13 - yes it's designed to take an element, but it's also designed to be plumbed in (where the expanding water would have somewhere to go). I was unsure whether it was designed to have the element without being plumber in to a system also.

here's a link to the product: http://www.screwfix.com/p/kudox-curved-chrome-towel-radiator-1500-x-600mm-570w-1945btu/93859