Do you need valves for an electric towel rails?

Straight valves should be used when the inlets are at the bottom of the towel rail and the pipes are protruding from the floor. Angled valves will be needed if the water needs to be diverted at a 90-degree angle. This is often the case when pipes and valve inlets are situated at the side of the radiator.

How do the valves work on a heated towel rail?

What do towel radiator valves do? The valves in a towel radiator control the flow of water through the pipes, ensuring your radiator heats up effectively and efficiently. They keep your towel radiator functioning and ensure that your bathroom is heated up when needed, and your towels are dry and ready to use.

Do heated towel rails need to be wired in?

They have an electric element that heats the liquid inside the rail. Again, they can be hardwired or plugged into a power point. As well as drying and warming towels, they will provide additional warmth to your room. They require more time, and therefore more cost, to install and set-up.

How are electric towel rails controlled?

Electric towel rails are powered by mains electricity and use a heated 150 or 250-watt heated element. When the towel rail is switched on, the element heats the liquid inside the rails. Electric heated towel rails are not part of a central heating system – ideal for summer months when central heating is switched off.

What is a towel rail valve?

Heated towel rail valves are used to connect your radiator to your plumbing, whilst giving you the ability to adjust how much heat you would like by using the twisted head on the end of the valve.

Heated Towel Rail Valves - Which One Should I Use? | BestHeating

Why does a towel radiator have two valves?

Your towel radiator has two valves to enable it to control the flow of hot water and the amount of heat it emits. One valve regulates the amount of hot water entering the towel radiator while the other controls the rate at which the hot water exits the radiator.

What are the two valves on a towel radiator?

One valve accounts for the amount of hot water that enters the radiator. The other valve, referred to as the lockshield valve, balances the system by regulating how much heat the radiator gives off.

Where are the valves on a towel radiator?

There are two main types of heated towel rail valves. Straight valves should be used when the inlets are at the bottom of the towel rail and the pipes are protruding from the floor. Angled valves will be needed if the water needs to be diverted at a 90-degree angle.

How do you control an electric towel radiator?

The most common method for adjusting temperature will be to adjust the knob by turning clockwise to turn off - I.e. cool or anti clockwise to open and up the heat.

Can you leave an electric towel rail on all the time?

Can you leave a heated towel rail on overnight? A towel rail can safely be left on all the time, however you may need to think about the environmental impacts and the cost. If no one is using the bathroom in the middle of the night, then it might be wasteful to leave it on.

Can you put a plug on electric towel rail?

Plug-in models

All that is required to be installed is a power outlet (unless you already have one in the correct location), and then the heated towel rail can be installed and plugged in.

How are heated towel rails connected?

At the centre of the system is a gas-powered boiler which heats up water and send it around your home via a network of copper pipes. Your radiators and heated towel rails are connected up to this pipe network and are heated up by hot water.

Does a towel rail need a thermostat?

Mostly, yes. Many towel rails come with some form of thermostatic control, offering more advanced and convenient heat management. However, there are some products available with more basic controls, featuring only a simple on/off switch which is perfect is you prefer a barer bones approach to your bathroom heating.

Should towel rail valves be fully open?

If they're not leaking now and the radiator is getting hot, I'd leave them alone where they are or fully open them as Terry says. It's unlikely they will affect the balancing of the system (ie whether all the radiators in the house heat up evenly).

Do all radiators need thermostatic valves?

We recommend you fit a thermostatic valve on every radiator. But there's no need to fit one in a room with a fixed room thermostat.

Do I need a lockshield valve?

A lockshield valve helps to balance out that radiator and ensure the whole system is in sync, with all radiators heating at the same rate. It is therefore every bit as important a valve as without the system being balanced, there is often little point adjusting an individual temperature valve.

What FUSE do I need for an electric towel rail?

Use a 3A fuse on the fcu. Either tap off a nearby socket outside the bathroom on to an fcu or run a wire down from the loft off the lighting circuit to a switched fcu. As long as the towel rail has a 30mA RCD on the circuit, either on the circuit supplying it or at the fcu if not, you will be fine.

Can any towel rail be electric?

Most towel radiators and heated towel rails are originally designed and manufactured to be part of a central heating system. However, most of them can be converted to electric use too. To do so, instead of buying a pair of valves, you will simply need to purchase an electric heating element and a blanking plug.

Can you fit a towel radiator to existing valves?

Cut the pipe to a length that runs from the new elbow joint to the existing radiator valve. Then, apply PTFE tape to the threads of the compression fittings. Replace the old valve head by unscrewing it and attach the towel radiator to the pipework in the wall. Tighten all joints to ensure it doesn't move out of place.

Do you need one radiator without a TRV?

However, while TRVs can, technically, be installed on all radiators, it's usually a good idea to leave one radiator without a TRV and permanently switched on. Ideally, this should either be a bathroom, which would usually benefit from permanent heat, or the room with the thermostat in it.

Why is my electric towel rail not getting hot?

The entire towel rail gets warm but not hot enough.

Thermostatic element should be set to maximum temperature and turned on for at least 24 hours. If the towel rail is still not hot to touch the element is probably undersized (there may not be an alternative because the next size up may be too big).

Should both valves be open on a radiator?

You should open both of the valves on all of your system's radiator when you are starting the radiator balancing process. You will most likely need to use pliers to open the lockshield valve.

Should radiator valves be fully open?

You should also fully open the TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves). Whilst thermostatic and wheel head valves can be opened and closed by hand, the lockshield valves require a dedicated tool or an adjustable spanner.

Does a radiator need a valve?

Each radiator in your home needs a pair of radiator valves. One of the valves controls the amount of hot water entering the radiator and the other (known as the lockshield valve) balances the system by controlling how much heat the radiator emits.