Wooden radiator cover help!

[SarahEm85]

I’ve bought a wooden radiator cover with drawers, but It will only fit flush against the wall if the shelve rests on top of the radiator. It’s comes with wall straps, but I’m concerned about a) if it’s safe to have a wooden cover directly on top of the radiator & b) would the weight of it on top of the radiator cause it to damage the brackets on the radiator? It won’t be touching the floor at all so all weight will be distributed over the wall straps and on the actual radiator

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

It wouldn't damage the radiator provided the radiator to wall fixings are adequate but it seems a bit weird, surely it's supposed to sit on the floor?

 

[foxhole]

You have bought the wrong size? You could wall mount with brackets , not those silly straps If you don’t mind the weird look.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Radiator cabinets are designed to allow air flow upwards through the cabinet and out at the front/top and should not obstruct the radiator. That means having it resting directly on top will restrict airflow and therefore limit the amount of heat your radiator will be able to put into the room. They are invariably designed sit on the floor (at least, I've never yet made one which didn't), so I'd lay odds that those "wall straps" are actually just small angle brackets to fix the rad cover back to the wall, and that they simply aren't up to carrying the weight of the cabinet, especially if you load the shelf with books. TBH that radiator cover you bought isn't tall enough for that radiator, and a properly fitted cabinet would look a bit like this:

with 50 to 100mm space above the radiator inside the cabinet. There are often slots at the bottom of the cabinet, as in this sketch, to allow air flow through the cabinet and across the radiator, whilst the extra slots just below the top of the cabinet are to let air out

As an aside I'm not keen on having books stored above radiators. I've found that perfect bound books (i.e paperbacks, where the pages are just glued to the spine) have a tendency for the glue to dry out and for the books to self destruct - but maybe that's just because I have lots of cheap books!

 

[big-all]

assuming its a double you will loose around 60-70% off the efficiency off a radiator with next to no output from the back and restricted from the front
assuming the radiator have temperature control inside the cover you will probably have to turn it on full to stop it keep shutting off heat as its toasty and warm whilst the room is cold

 

[Deleted member 174758]

assuming its a double you will loose around 60-70% off the efficiency off a radiator with next to no output from the back and restricted from the front
assuming the radiator have temperature control inside the cover you will probably have to turn it on full to stop it keep shutting off heat as its toasty and warm whilst the room is cold

Yes. You need to ensure that any thermostatic valves are outside of the cupboard. In terms of efficiency, the best idea I've seen was a radiator cabinet with built-in fans at the top (actually a row of computer cooling fans), but that introduces added complexity in the form of providing a power supply, as well as being a bit noisy

 

[foxhole]

Yes. You need to ensure that any thermostatic valves are outside of the cupboard. In terms of efficiency, the best idea I've seen was a radiator cabinet with built-in fans at the top (actually a row of computer cooling fans), but that introduces added complexity in the form of providing a power supply, as well as being a bit noisy

Yeh, have a window seat around a rad , took stat valve off so always on and installed an ultra quiet bathroom fan connected to stat controlled power supply to vent the seat whenever temp triggered the fan.