Element for towel rail

[npeck]

Hi everyone,

I have a Creda PL180SC towel rail that needs a new element. My handyman (who knows electrics) has asked me to buy the element myself. I'm assuming I can buy a universal element of any wattage and would want to keep it low only for cost? Apologies if this is a stupid question but electricals aren't my area.

Thanks.

 

[sunnybob]

they come in wattages and lengths. make sure your rail is suitable for the length you buy.

If you ONLY want to warm towels in the winter then a 400 watt will be fine.
If you want the rail to help heat the room then bigger is better. If you have a tall towel rail get a 600 or even 1 kw heater with a built in thermostat and then it can literally be left on over night with no fear of becoming burning hot.

 

[npeck]

Thanks for this - I've got the length (it's 60cm) but am I right that I can choose the wattage of the element depending on preference, rather than needing a specific wattage for this rail?

 

[sunnybob]

Wattage decides how quickly the water heats up. a 1200 watt heats the water 3 times faster than a 400 watt.
the thermostsat decides when the heater should stop heating.
You need a little bit of common sense to match the speed of heating with the water inside the rail. If its a 5ft tall cast iron monster, then a 1000 watts is good. If its a tiddly single rail, then a 1000 watts is going to heat up so quickly that theres a slight risk of the water over heating even after the stat has turned off (The stat turns the power off, but the element has latent heat and will keep heating the water for a while after switch off. You REALLY dont want the water inside to turn to steam!).
Manufacturers recommendations are a good guide. Its ok to go one step higher, but not to treble the power.

If the heater does not have a visible stat, then it will be pre set to switch off when it reaches 65C. The beauty of an adjustable stat is that you can lower the temp and use it as a constant background heat, and even as a frost stat.

 

[npeck]

Brilliant, thanks that's really helpful.