apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It would be nice to have warm towels after a shower. To warm the bath, we use a small space heater that blows warm air. Does the trick, warms the whole dressing area and bathroom without turning the heat up in the entire house. Not as pretty but it works.

I don't want to like the paper clip, but I love it!

We have a space heater in the bathroom - it makes life so much better. When traveling in New Zealand, many of the places we stayed had heated towel bars - so lovely to have a warm towel to wrap up in!

These look amazing, but what happens if you accidentally bump it or fall into one? I think I'd rather stick to dressing up a radiator than having hot metal out in the open like that :P

I think you have to really do your homework before buying heated towel warmers. They have got to put out enough heat to be worth the investment. I live in the Midwest and put two in my last house. The one in the basement bathroom, a Runtal, was awesome and heated a large part of the basement. It had a lot of surface area (looked almost like a solid rectangle from a distance). But then I got another one for my upstairs bathroom, and it was useless--didn't even warm up the towels enough to be noticeable. It was a complete waste of money, even though it looked good. It was a brand I have never heard of and can't remember now.

Honestly the best thing we ever did was install an electric radiant heating floor under the slate when we re-dd our bathroom. Nothing like warm floors when you step out of the shower.

I understand heating a floor but a towel? I've never picked up a towel and thought it was too cold. As for drying it, it's usually dry by the next morning. Should I be warming my tissues and toilet paper as well? I just don't get it.

Modernguy, until you live in a place where the towels are cold and clammy the morning after your shower, you won't get it. I have electric heated towel bars (from different manufacturers) in both my bathrooms. I agree with Madsarah that you have to be careful which ones you buy. One of mine is very effective at drying and heating the towels, while the other is nearly useless. But neither of them heats the bathrooms. I think that you need the radiator type (hooked up to your hot water system) in order to get room heat. This item doesn't make the difference between the two types clear. Still, even an electric, bar-style heated towel rack makes a great drying rack for laundry. I dry sweaters on mine.

Most of the apartments here in Paris have towel warmer/heaters in the bathroom (rarely as fancy as above - more like this http://www.castorama.fr/store/seche-serviette-casto--stemi-electrique-800w-PPRDm507310.htm) and usually the same heater in the living room. They're primarily heaters first and just happen to be shaped so that you can put your towel on them second. It makes sense b/c apartments are very space challenged, so having something serve two purposes is important.

As for getting burned, I haven't had that happen yet. They get hot and really heat the bathroom, but not that hot. Probably b/c bathrooms here are generally tiny!

You are right it is very hard to find a nice heater for the bathroom. I personally like the 3d one from the left to the right :)
I am pretty sure you have seen Joris Laarman's Radiator, but it is worth mentioning :)

I live in Canada and I've never seen those things before (well, I've seen them in magazines and all). Are they common in the US ?

I guess by the time I'm up, touching the freezing floor and then hop into a warm shower I don't think I would need a warm towel...

They aren't common in the U.S., but I've seen them quite often in Britain. They make a lot of sense in relatively cold, wet climates where people don't keep their houses very warm. I've never thought any that I've seen in my limited experience would provide enough warmth to warm the room, but even the less-hot kind do serve two functions: providing the luxury of a warm towel when stepping out of a hot shower into a fairly cold room, and helping wet towels dry in a cold environment. The latter might actually justify the environmental costs of the heater, since towels that don't dry need to be washed far more frequently. If you tend to keep your house as warm as most American houses, neither of these things would matter much, though.

Not all, in fact not many of them are designed to heat rooms. On top of that many of them are huge energy suckers and thus costly and not very environmentally friendly/sustainable.

When I was growing up our 1920s house had these cool wall insert electric coil heaters. They were fantastic for warming up cold bathrooms and were really beautifully designed with curvy chrome elements and other details of the era. Maybe something like that would work better.

There are also these cool radiant heat floor mats on the market meant to put under rugs. I have one and they do indeed heat up cold rooms and provide that same wonderful cozy heat that radiant heat floors do. You might want to look into getting one of those. They are also relatively affordable and energy efficient.

Funny, I've been looking for one of these for a while now.

I saw them used in hotels in France and Switzerland, but can't seem to find one that is available (and affordable) in the US. Any suggestions?

the paper clip does it for me too.

I'll hold out for a floor with radiant heat, however

Thanks Janet!

I know this must be unusual, but in my current bathroom, I have vertical hot water pipes that are plenty hot to heat the room, and also burn when you ... accidentally back into it. My cat likes to snuggle up to it with her face, so I had to wrap a towel around the bottom of it. My last apartment had a floor vent that was also plenty to warm the room and dry the towels by the next day. I still like the paper clip for a regular towel rod, sorry I hadn't read the full text that the discussion was up for heating a bathroom with a heated towel rod. I don't have that particular problem and probably wouldn't run out and indulge in such anyway.

Well, I grew up in Philly winters and went to college in DC so if they weren't cold enough, then I don't want to know what is.

i would imagine these are very inefficient. more of a luxury item. particularly compared to a normal radiator space heater, which you could also briefly lay your towel over to warm/dry it up. i can't imagine people without heat in their homes would be purchasing these, so if you can afford one of these, then why not just turn the heat up and/or throw your towel in the dryer for a minute. but if people have the money to throw around...

Well, it's not for people without heat at all, but some people have sophisticated heating systems that genuinely keep their homes uniformly warm and they keep the temp at 68-69 or higher. And some people live in old, drafty apartment buildings that have heat that cycles erratically and never breaks 62, and they don't have on-site laundry and wet towels tend to stay wet. A space heater is of course a cheaper, more practical solution, but there are both space and safety concerns there. Of course, such a person (like, well, me), wouldn't buy one of the really expensive towel warmers, but I have considered the $50 kind.

We saw a plug-in towel warmer at Restoration Hardware yesterday. It's about 20-24" high, 30" wide, and chrome. It was pretty nice, and if I remember correctly, less than $200. It sits on the floor, though.

I believe that it was Lauren Hutton, the model, who backed into a heater like this at The Plaza, burnt herself and sued.

I'd love one of these, but think the safety issues are real in a small bathroom.

I love those colored paperclips! Those would be perfect for my arctic bathroom but the price killed it.

I'm putting a "hot air curtain" in my bathroom ceiling - a much more elegant replacement for the big heat bulb I had hanging it in for decades. It did the job, though, at $10 for a bulb that lasted years. Just need to use a ceramic socket.

They have American distributors and seem very well made - I'm having it installed next month http://www.stelpro.com/us/index.php