Bathroom Heater or Towel Warmer: Which is Better?

Last Updated on January 5, 2023

Bathroom heater or towel warmer: which is better for keeping your bathroom warm and cosy? The simple answer is both of these products can improve the atmosphere in your bathroom. A heated towel rail not only warms your towels and eliminates excess moisture, but it can also produce extra heat output that fills your entire bathroom.

On the other hand, a bathroom heater, such as an electric radiator or a radiator connected to your central heating system, is specifically designed to heat entire rooms quickly and easily. To decide between the two options, you’ll need to think about a few factors, including the size of the bathroom you want to heat, your design preferences, and your demands for energy efficiency.

What’s the Difference Between Bathroom Heaters and Heated Towel Rails?

First and foremost, it’s worth ensuring you understand the difference between electric towel warmers and bathroom heaters. A bathroom heater is a device created specifically to heat a space. You can choose from various kinds of bathroom heaters, including central heating radiators, electric radiators, and fan-based heaters.

Radiators are perhaps the most common source of bathroom heat for most homes. They’re extremely efficient at transferring heat and keeping your whole bathroom at a comfortable temperature for as long as possible. Whether you choose a central heating system or your electric mains, you should be able to increase your room to the right temperature in no time.

A towel warmer, or a heated towel rail, is a heater specifically designed to provide a slightly lower amount of heat. Most of the time, heated towel rails work as an alternative to central heating radiators. Unlike a plumbed rail, these products operate using electricity and are often plugged into an outlet. They’re intended to keep your robes and towels warm, so you can feel cosier when you exit the bath or shower without heating your entire home.

Is a Heated Towel Rail Enough to Heat Bathroom?

So, do towel warmers heat the room and your towels and robes? This all depends on the exact type of product you purchase. There are different kinds of electric towel radiators available, and some come with adjustable thermostats that allow you to heat your entire room as well. Electric towel radiators are actually fantastic for offering homeowners the perfect combination of style, practicality, and functionality.

The key to ensuring you can heat your bathroom space effectively with heated towel rails is selecting a product of the right size with the correct level of energy efficiency. Because they’re not designed to deliver the same heat output as a standard heating source, a towel radiator is usually better suited for en-suites and smaller bathrooms.

Although they don’t create as much heat as a standard radiator, electric towel heaters, when sized correctly, can still be a fantastic way to keep your space at the right temperature. Plus, you can avoid having to heat every room in your house at once by switching on all your radiators.

What Is the Most Efficient Way to Heat a Bathroom?

When it comes to choosing between a bathroom heater or towel warmer for your bathroom, there are a few factors worth considering. You’ll need to start by looking at the dimensions of the bathroom space you’ll be buying the heater for. If it is larger, a standard towel warmer might not be enough to warm the entire room.

You can use an online British Thermal Unit calculator to help you calculate how much energy you’ll need to produce with your chosen heating product for your bathroom. The higher the BTU number, the greater the heating element will need to be for your space.

Make sure the heated towel rails are large enough to fill the whole space with warm air, similar to your central heating system. You don’t want to use a bathroom radiator and a towel rail simultaneously, as this will increase your energy bills.

It’s also worth thinking about your personal preferences regarding your bathroom style and how you want to use the space. A central heating system can be an excellent way to transform your bathroom if you’ve got plenty of space. On the other hand, a towel radiator can be a good solution to save extra room if you have a small bathroom, as they consume more wall space than floor space.

In some cases, electric towel warmers can also help reduce your heating bills, as you can ensure you’re only warming the room you’re using rather than your entire home. At the same time, these products often look fantastic and come in different designs to suit your personal tastes.

If you like the style of a towel warmer but want to stick to central heating, you can sometimes find wall-mounted towel rails which can connect to your plumbing like a traditional radiator.

How to Choose the Right Heating Options

So, bathroom heater or towel warmer, which one is better?

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for choosing the perfect heating system for your home and bathroom. The right solution for you will depend on various factors, including the size of your room and what you plan on using your system for. Typically, if you want to heat a large space efficiently, a radiator will usually be the better option.

However, if you only need a little amount of heat to fill a small area, then standard heated towel rails could be a fantastic choice.