How to choose a water towel rail in the bathroom

TOP-15 rating of the best water towels 2022 for the bathroom

Water heated towel rail. This is a bathroom product that can perform different tasks: drying things, heat the room and reduce moisture levels. But in order not to regret spent money, it is important to be able to choose the right model from a large number of options.

Water heated towel rail is a special device that heats up under the influence of hot water. As a result, you can dry any fabrics or towels on it.

It is very convenient if you need to quickly make the material dry, and it is inconvenient to hang on a regular battery or not.

In addition, the device in the bathroom avoids excessive humidity and maintain normal temperature.

In this article, we will consider how to choose a water towel rail.

Zehnder Staloxstxi-060-045

Design and material. This model is welded from stainless pipes and has external chromium. It resembles a ladder with 6 crossbars, which is convenient when drying a different number of towels. The developed surface gives a heat transfer of about 155 watts, which is suitable for a small bathroom. Weighs the product 3.7 kg, while its dimensions do not exceed 60.8x45x8 cm. To exclude the formation of an air traffic jam, a crane of Maevsky is provided.

Parameters and connection. Each such heated towel rail before sending to the retail network withstands factory tests with a pressure of 17.8 bar. It is designed for operating temperatures up to 120 ° C. He has a wall mount and the lower type of connection to pipes with a diameter of ½ inch with an inter.Axle distance of 42 cm.

Materials for the manufacture of heated towel rails

Its durability and procurement price largely depends on the material of the manufacturing of the heating device. The buyer is not always free in choosing the material performance of the installed equipment.

Stainless steel

Stainless steel towel rails are characterized by increased reliability and long service life. The material is easy to weld, is not subjected to corrosion, is able to withstand pressure jumps in the system, is not inclined to sticking on the inner surfaces of solid deposits, which guarantees the stability of effective heat transfer for many seasons.

For most middle and high-class models, manufacturers establish warranty obligations for 3-5 years.

Stainless steel is one of expensive alloys. Over time, it fades in the air, so household appliances often chrome from the outside. Such surfaces require neat treatment and constant care.

Non.Ferrous metals

Mop and brass towel vests are usually a high price category due to the increased cost of the source materials. The purchase of such equipment in most cases will be justified, since it will serve for many decades.

The advantages of devices of this type should include:

• Sufficiently high working pressure;
• The ability to tolerate hydraulic strokes that arise during the start and stop the heat system;
• Lack of corrosion wear;
• High heat transfer indicators;
• Minimum sticking on the internal walls of mechanical deposits.

Black steel

Carbon steel is a good budget option for a heated towel rail. From it you can easily boil any design that will be several times cheaper than similar to stainless steel or non.Ferrous metals. It is able to withstand internal stresses associated with increasing pressure on the network and temperature surges.

The disadvantages of such devices include their relative fragility caused by corrosion. They fight this problem by applying zinc coating or staining with persistent enamels.

Over time, the effectiveness of a steel dryer inevitably decreases due to the sticking on its internal walls of salt deposits, scraps and particles of rust, which reduce the area of ​​free section and worsen heat exchange processes.

Steel heated toweller covered with enamel.

The choice of a heated towel rail: how to take into account Russian specifics

Permanent author Houzz, interior journalist. At different times, he worked as a correspondent, editor, chef-editor in different editions of G.St. Petersburg. Actively wrote about the interiors for the 4living site.

Seasonal shutdown time of hot water is a good reason to think about the repair or replacement of a heated towel rail. How to improve the water and when it makes sense to spend money on electric? Which device will last longer in Russian realities. Domestic or imported? What can the heated towel can do except for drying towels?

This is archival material: the article was first published in 2016, updated in 2022

How to understand that the time towel is time to change

If the seams of the tiles are signs of the fungus (and ventilation works properly); If the black spots on the silicone at the sink or behind the bathroom screen; if it is cold in the bathroom when a towel is running, the room does not warm up well enough.

This problem can be solved in several ways.

Replace the old heated towel rail with a more voluminous option

Was a P-shaped-they made a “station wagon with a shelf” (see. Screenshot). However, the larger the area of ​​the pipes, the colder the water will go through the riser. This will surely notice the neighbors.

If the bathroom is large, there is a reason not to change the water “snake”, but to supplement it with an electric model.”Laedener”. Usually this issue is solved simultaneously with the decoration of the room (to carefully remove the wires into the wall).

Add electric warm floor.

This is a reasonable move if the bathroom is no more than 4-5 square meters.M. Then suffer from a choice of which towel is better. Water or electric, you do not have to at all. Pass the rails for towels in the lower part of the room. And everything will dry perfectly naturally.

Important! Connect a water warm floor to a riser with hot water in an apartment building is prohibited by law. You will never be agreed by such a redevelopment. Accordingly, it will not be easy to sell the apartment. In addition, the water temperature at the output will inevitably decrease. Which means that angry neighbors have every reason for complaints about you to the management company, the prosecutor’s office and Sportloto.

Water warm floor can only be done in a private house.

In a private house, a regular radiator can replace a heated towel rail. The bar over the heating battery will allow you to dry the towels without problems.

But you can use the convector as a heated towel rail only partially. Such a device can warm the bathroom (a grade of dust and proxy from IP24 and above), but it can not be covered with a towel. If you look, you can find special convectors-lancers-with a holder for towels.

Tip: Feel free to connect the management company to solving your problem. The heated towel rail (water) in Russian houses is built into the hot water supply system, or in the heating system. Government Decree of May 6, 2011. N 354 determines the following temperature minimums for hot water at the parsing point: at least 60 degrees for open centralized heat supply systems, at least 50 for closed ones (these data are in the Criminal Code). Acting SanPin 2.One.4.2496−09, regardless of the heating system used, puts a bar of 60 degrees (the temperature at which infectious pathogens die).

As for heating, the mentioned resolution refers to public utilities to heat our apartments to at least 18 degrees, and GOST R 51617-2000 sets a specific minimum for the bathroom-25 degrees on the inner wall of the room.If the water in the pipes is colder than it should be, you can demand a recalculation of the board for heat and/or hot water and take measures to increase the temperature of the water-it happens that it is enough to insulate the pipes in the basement, or cut off a water warm floor or a huge towel railway. Full.Time.

Which is better to choose a heated towel rail. Water or electric

You still decided that a heated towel rail is needed? Then let’s determine how good it will be to fulfill your tasks in your bathroom.Water on average is cheaper than an electric counterpart in half and does not require additional expenses. Electric heated towel rail will inevitably increase electricity accounts, but you can not be afraid of leaks, forget about the pressure in the pipes and disconnecting hot water. The range of electric dryers is huge, water. A little more modest. There are, of course, water with glass inserts or “branches” from collectors, but they cost more than standard electric.

Another important point. Most often, a water heated towel rail is built into the hot water supply system and works for a whole year except two “preventive” weeks. But in some houses. Usually with gas columns, a folotener is part of the heating system and will turn off for at least four months. In this case, you can also think about an electric counterpart. Especially if you are struggling with mold.

Which water heated towel rail to choose

When choosing a water heated towel rail, first of all, you need to look at the material from which it is made. The cheapest models are made of black steel, but can be painted “under stainless steel”. In hot water, circulating through our pipes, there is a lot of oxygen. Together they corrode metal from the inside (therefore, ordinary pipes for DHWs are galvanized as protection). In addition, the water is full of metal impurities that settled on the walls of the heated towel rail. Both for black steel is detrimental. And the chrome coating quickly begins to exfoliate. Such models are suitable for private houses where the water is cleaner and the pressure weaker. In addition, there are double.Circuit models where water heats antifreeze. They will last longer.

Stainless steel is not afraid of corrosion, therefore it is preferable to black. In order not to buy a fake, look at the certificate (passport) of a heated towel rail before you part with money. The material is necessarily indicated there. There are few minuses of stainless steel: too acute carving on the joints (you need a good seal) and weak protection to the so.Called “wandering currents”. But there is nothing to do with it.

Imported towels are often made of chrome plumbing brass, adding elements from anodized aluminum. They are also not afraid of rust, but are not always ready for Russian loads. In general, chrome models look “more expensive” polished, but also cost similarly. As for the quality of heating, the coating does not affect it.

Summing up

From all of the above, the following conclusions can be drawn:

• In an apartment building, it is better to choose a water coil as a main bathroom toweller for a bathroom, preferably a stainless steel with a stock of pressure drops up to 10 atmospheres. The designs in the form of woodcocks and snakes look beautiful, but they do not always differ in the same strength. If you still want to purchase a designer device, it is better to first look for reviews on the Internet or consult a specialist.
• Most often, when installing a new coil, it will be necessary to cut on metal and welding, so it is best to do this during the repair in the bathroom, otherwise you can damage the tile on the wall. If you don’t want to bother with the connection, just take a classic dryer with a side type of installation.
• In a private house with your own heating system, choose any model you like, since the pressure in the pipes of such systems is at the level of 2-3 atmospheres and is not subject to large changes.
• The electric heated towel rail will come in handy as an additional device for installation in the kitchen, in the hallway, or as a full.Fledged dryer in the bathroom, if the house does not have a connection to hot water supply. Among the advantages of such devices are design variability, independence from water supply, low power consumption, reliability of rotary and telescopic systems.
• As with any other electrical appliance in the bathroom, with the installation of an electric dryer you will have to tinker. The wiring can be made an open type or mounted on the wall, but in this case, if necessary, quickly replacing the coil, you will either have to destroy part of the wall, or mess with the wire off the device.
• As for the choice of the manufacturer, everyone has their pros and cons of. For example, foreign manufacturers make their heated towel rails of less high-quality metal simply due to the fact that in their water systems the water is soft and without unnecessary impurities. But in such coils there are often different valves of adjustment of pressure and descent of air traffic jams.
• For manufacturers from the CIS, stainless steel heated towels are the most successful, which are considered the most durable and reliable. In addition, our developers adjust the end.Length distance and diameter of the connected pipes to the norms that are accepted in our latitudes.

Which heated towel rail to choose is to decide. Reliability and simplicity against functionality and practicality. What you definitely should not do when buying a coil is to save, otherwise there is a risk not only to suffer from a leak of hot water, but also to make a new repair to neighbors from below after their flooding.

Which heated towel rail is better not to choose. Water or electric.

It is well known that the bathroom is a room with high humidity. And besides a bath or shower, this very humidity is very well supported by wet things.

First of all, towels. That is why it is impossible to do without an additional heat source in this room.

Of course, the exhaust fan somewhat helps to solve the problem, but it will not dry your things.

Not to mention the fact that such source of heat as a heated towel rail:

Among other things, this coil performs aesthetic function. There are such fashionable forms that can easily decorate any naked wall in the bathroom.

Two main types of towels are common:

There are also combined, but they are used very rarely and for the most part because of their cost are not particularly in demand in our market.

If you do not have a warm floor in the bathroom, then it is not very pleasant in the winter every time before taking the bath, bring the heat cautifier there in order to raise the temperature to acceptable, and do not be covered with goose skin.

A good heated towel rail must cope with all three of the above tasks.

The very first models were only water type, so we will first deal with them.

The heat in them is radiated due to hot water circulating through the pipes. There will be no hot source. There will be no heat.

In houses of old construction, this water was usually taken from central heating systems. Today, hot water supply pipes are mainly used.

The main popularity of this type of coils lies in efficiency. This is the only thing for which he can put at least some plus.

Roughly speaking, for functioning in 24/7 mode, you additionally do not pay anything. But if you connect the electric, then here your counter will consider every extra kilowatts.

In addition to this dubious plus, there is nothing more to boast of the water heater and there is nothing. Next, some disadvantages begin and your headaches begin.

Firstly, you cannot regulate the temperature of the hot water supply water in your apartment. You can only close the tap or open.

But in electric, the level of adjustment is very wide. Everything will depend on the model you have chosen.

Secondly, this is the binding of the location. Here you are very often limited by one wall and the level of passage of hydraulic power plants, namely a boner of hot water.

Therefore, it is not always possible to enter them into a beautiful design exactly as you would like it.

On the other hand, an electric unit can be placed anywhere where there is a nearest outlet, taking into account of course wet zones and no closer than 60cm from the water intake point.

The third drawback is leaks. According to statistics, it is these water dryers in the bathroom that are the most common cause of flooding of neighbors from below.

Why this happens and how this can be avoided? When installing water towels, the human factor plays the most important role. Not its novelty and quality, namely the moments of installation and the level of the master of the installer.

Somewhere insufficiently added sealing material to thread or skewed the gasket. Somewhere they did not go away the nut. All this over time leads to a small leak.

Over, the joints of the joints are usually masked and closed with false walls, or they are drained in them. As a result, you will not even notice this leak.

Water will gradually accumulate behind the tiles and at one fine moment all this beauty will simply fall off the wall.

Watch the terrible video what really happens among the neighbors from below, when it breaks the pipe on a water towel rail under a pressure of several atmospheres.

Savings on penny fittings and masters, as a result, crawls into many months of repairs for millions. After that, people instantly switch to electric alternatives.

Safety regulations

Any electrical device can be dangerous if neglecting the rules of installation and operation. To guarantee yourself from the danger of electric shock, you need to remember this.

Room resistors are installed at a certain distance from all sources of water. At least 1 m. At least one meter in the plan should share an electric dryer for towels and a bath, a toilet, a washbasin, a shower cabin. So that a person in contact with water could not accidentally grab a hand over the body of a heated towel rail.

Electric towel Terminus

The outlet must be made according to the rules of equipment of electrical installation products for wet rooms. In particular, it should have a moisture protection index at least 4.

All sockets in the bathroom should be connected to the mains exclusively through the RCD (a protective shutdown device that turns off the supply of electricity during current leakage, which occurs, for example, with some breakdowns, when the current is supplied to the metal case). As soon as a person touches such a body under voltage, a leakage point through the body in the ground occurs. And the RCD instantly reacts to the leak. For safety, you need to arrange a protective shutdown, responding to small leaks, a sensitivity of 30 mA or 10 mA (the less the better, but the RCD with a sensitivity of 10 mA can give false triggles when connecting a large load). So the current will be disconnected and the person most likely does not even feel anything.

Rating of budget water heated towel rails

Top 4 included heated towel rails

Tera m-shaped 600 × 400

TERA M-shaped 600 × 400-a simple and inexpensive heated towel rail made of stainless pipe with a diameter of 32 mm. The intericier distance of the coil between outputs is 500 mm.

Dvin D with shelf 50 × 50

Dvin D with a shelf 50 × 50. A heated towel rail with a side connection. The thickness of the pipe wall is 2 mm, it is made of stainless steel AISI304. The model was tested at a pressure of 40 atm. 7 crossbars and 2 shelves were installed on the case.

Tera Victoria 500 × 800 PSB

TERA Victoria 500 × 800 PSB. A heated towel rail that can be used as a heating device in the bathroom. 6 crossbars were installed on the case. The design is made of stainless steel corrosion resistant to corrosion. The center distance is 500 mm.

• Price. 3199. 3736;
• User rating. 4.5;
• Form. Ladder;
• Material. Stainless steel;
• Size. 800 × 500 mm;
• The number of crossbars. 6;
• Working pressure-3-15 atm;
• Test pressure. 25 atm.

Dvin d Pobeda 50 × 50

Dvin d Pobeda 50 × 50. A heated towel rail connected to the central heating system or hot water supply. The design is made of stainless pipe with a wall thickness of 2 mm. It is possible to connect on the right or left side.

Additional functions. Tiemers and switches

Modern heated towel rails are very energy efficient, and the most effective way to use them is to leave them constantly on. This is due to the fact that the energy necessary for heating the initially cold heated towel rail is much greater than it is necessary to maintain the heat of the already preheated device. Manufacturers, however, try to take into account the wishes of all users and equip their products with timer and shut.Off switches.

Due to the presence of a timer, you can set the inclusion of your heated towel rail long before taking a bath or shower, so that your towel is pleasantly warm when you finish washing. Some manufacturers install built.In timers or switches, others offer them as a separate option. Some models are also equipped with a thermostat to maintain the temperature of the heated towel rail in accordance with your preferences.

We tried to give you general ideas and help answer the question of how to choose a heated towel rail to the bathroom. We hope that this leadership will help you in the process of making a decision, and you will ultimately find your perfect heated towel rail.