It is very common to wonder if a heated towel rail will add heat to your bathroom. After all it is a heater so why wouldn’t it add some heat?
To answer this question you need to understand that there are two main types of Heated Towel Rails, Dry Electric & Liquid-filled.
An electric rail has a element running through the rail which heats the air inside the bar causing the rail to heat up and dry the towels. These towel rails are designed to be as low energy as possible with the sole purpose of warming and drying the towels. This means they are very energy efficient and will do an excellent job in warming and drying the towels but they is not going to add heat to your room.
On the other hand a liquid filled heated towel rail is filled with liquid and heated either by a single electric element or by being connected to a hydronic system. As these rails are full of liquid they have a much higher heat output then an equivalent sized dry electric element rail. Typically a liquid rail will have a lot more bars which will help to add to the heat output. A liquid filled rail is designed to add some heat to the room however it would not typically be considered as a primary heat source for a room.
So when it comes to choosing your heated towel rail consider exactly what you are requiring it to do, add heat to the room or just warm and dry your towels. This will help you to select your rail accordingly.