Dual fuel radiators and heated towel rails are becoming increasingly popular in homes today. The dual fuel rail featured in this video is from our Trade Direct Chrome Heated Towel Rail range.
They work by being connected to the convential hot water central heating system as normal, but they also contain an electric element that mens they can run independently off of your electricity supply, hence the name 'dual fuel'.
The benefit of having dual fuel radiators or towel rails is that when it's cold, you can have the rad or rail running as a regular part of the hot water central heating system, but you can also switch it on via the electrics without the need to put on your whole central heating system.
This is particularly useful in summer when you may not need to switch the heating on but you want to dry off wet clothing or towels on a radiator or towel rail. The dual fuel option allows you do do this without the expense and inconvenience of switching on the whole heating system.
In this video, James the plumber goes through the process of installing a dual fuel heated towel rail into a customer's small downstairs toilet.
You see all the prep work James has done, which includes running pipework from the closest radiator, under the kicthen cabinets and into the cloakroom where the towel rail is being installed.
He goes through the important process of measuring, marking and drilling the wall so that the towel rail hangs correctly and James also explains in detail how to install the electric element into your rail.
As you see, it's much easier to install the element before you hang the radiator, otherwise you might have difficulty and find that you don't have enough space to get the element actually into the rail.
James also shows how its better to pipe up the towel rail first before connecting it to the electrics, because if there's a leak, you need to dismantle everything to locate the leak - much easier if you haven't connected the electrics yet.
The final installation looks great and, as James says, although the new towel rail is excatly the same height and width as the old towel rail, the fact that it contains 22mm bars means is is able to generate a much higher heat output than before.