Stainless steel towel rad or powdercoated?

[Mr. Clueless]

Looking at a new bathroom install and a stainless steel towel rad (or rad of some description) was something i'd mentioned to the potential installer - he agreed. The existing rad was probably a chrome thing and whatever it was looks like it's been painted 100 times and i can see rust spots over it.

Now i know if you leave sopping towels on a rad then it'll eventually rust even if it's stainless.

When in a local bathroom showroom i saw some rads that looked really nice. Had a look at the labelling and it said they were powdercoated.
Now my experience of powdercoating comes from car forums where lads would get brakes, subframes, suspension parts etc powdercoated and it was supposed to help against corrosion.

But as far as i'm aware that's from the outside in, not the inside out, unlike stainless steel which i imagine the whole rad will be made of.

I liked on some rads i saw like a bracket attachment that you can hang your towels on so that they're not in contact with the radiator as such when they're all wet.

Just wondering which is better out of the two or are they both good for a bathroom?

 

[Yeahaa]

Depends how much you want to spend , and personal choice I like the grey powder coated vertical tubular but thats just preferance.
Plumbing it neatly is important , lot of bathrooms ive seen a £200 rad can look aweful with unsightly plumbing .

 

[Mr. Clueless]

Depends on how much they cost. I never go in to these things with a budget really. I just get a price and see if i accept it or not. I know that's not how most do it but that's how i do it.

And i'm looking at this more from an anti-rust point of view than a looks. I like the look of both stainless and powdercoated to be honest so if purely on looks then i'm not really swayed either way.

Like for like, which is A) cheaper and B) better when it comes to anti-rusting?

The current rad is just a typical towel rad with horizontal bars. The pipework leading to it is minimal. I'm not overly fussed about vertical or horizontal bars although after seeing it i did like the brackets that help keep your towels away from the rads.

 

[Hot&Cold]

plenty of choice when it comes to heated towel rails,power coated towel rails emit slightly more heat compared to same size stainless steel coated.

Heated towel rails have a limited warranty of 5 years,something about being fitted in areas of high humidity and damp towels draped over them,they will corrode faster with wet towels draped over them or poor bathroom ventilation.

Buy a known brand (not Chinese imports)

Henrad do some Ok heated towel rails,fitted a few of their Verona towel rails All good.

 

[ianmcd]

just remember that a towel rail is simply that , it is for heating and drying towels , it will not heat the bathroom you will need an additional rad to do that

 

[algas]

I was surprised to find that the powder coated ones were higher output for the same size, also shake them well and empty all the rust particles out before fitting.

 

[Mr. Clueless]

Had a look today and i think at the end of the day it's going to come down to price since i like the look of both. To select a preference would probably be stainless steel but not really a lot in it as i'd just as happily go for powder coated as far as looks go.

Saw a stainless towel rad with a 25 year guarantee which was nice.

I don't know if you can get those brackets (to keep the towels OFF the tubes) for all towel rads but i saw variations of the idea on different rads and it's something that would interest me definitely. If it prolongs the life of the rad then it's got to be good.

Regards heating the room, the existing towel rad does a fine job of that as it's only a tiny room (2mtr-x-2mtr).

Existing rad is 480mm-x-1700mm. We can go taller but no wider.