What size towel warmer do you need?

Start with the towel, not the rail

Bar counts are what makers advertise, and they mean nothing until you know what you are hanging. Published towel sizes vary more than most people expect: ONSEN’s Supima waffle bath sheet is “38 x 67 in or 97 x 170 cm” and its bath towel is “31 x 57 in or 79 x 145 cm”, while Parachute publishes its waffle bath towel at 56 x 30 in.

A 67 in. bath sheet folded in half is still 33 in. of wet cloth, which is more than a four-bar rail can carry without doubling it over itself — and a towel folded onto itself dries at the fold last. The size difference between a sheet and a towel is set out here.

What a bar count actually tells you

Almost no maker publishes a towel capacity. Across the rails we cover, WarmlyYours states one for the Barcelona — “warming up to 2 large towels” on eight bars — and one for the Huron, at “1-2” towels on eight bars. Everything else publishes a bar count and leaves you to guess.

Those two published figures give a working ratio of about four bars per bath towel. On that basis:

• 4 bars: one towel, or two hand towels. The Palma, at 60 W.
• 6 bars: one bath towel with room beside it. The Ibiza, at 90 W.
• 8 bars: two large towels, published. The Barcelona, at 150 W.
• 10 bars: two towels plus hand towels. The hardwired Grande 10, at 155 W, which WarmlyYours describes as having “top-bar spacing for hand towels”.

The three footprints, measured

Size is depth before it is height. The published depths of the rails we cover run from 4.33 in. for the wall-mounted Palma to 13.97 in. for the freestanding Ibiza and 15.5 in. for the Barcelona. In a bathroom where the door swings past the rail, those 11 inches decide the purchase.

• Wall-mounted: Palma, 19.68 x 17.71 x 4.33 in. Four anchors, and the permission trade-off is covered here.
• Freestanding: Ibiza, 34.84 x 21.85 x 13.97 in.; Barcelona, 37 x 24 x 15.5 in. No fixings, but real floor.
• Hardwired: Grande 10, 34.25 in. tall, 20.5 in. wide, 4.3 in. deep, with a published mounting footprint of 19 x 27-1/8 in.
• Bucket: Zadro, 21.25 in. high and 12 in. in diameter. A different shape of answer entirely.

Wattage rises with size, and so does the bill

Bigger rails draw more: 60 W for four bars, 90 W for six, 150 W for eight, 155 W for ten. Heat output is published alongside — 205, 307 and 512 Btu an hour respectively — so the size you choose is also the running cost you choose.

At the US residential average of 18.34 cents per kWh, a 90 W rail on a two-hour timer is about three cents a day; the 150 W Barcelona on the same timer is about six. Left on permanently, a 60 W rail is about 26 cents a day. Every rail on this site is costed here.

Measure the wall, not just the rail

Two published constraints catch people out. WarmlyYours specifies its hardwired rails be installed “at least 24" away from a wet location”, which rules out the tempting spot beside the shower. And a plug-in rail is only as flexible as its cord: the Ibiza publishes a “71″” cord, the Barcelona “77″”, both on a “NEMA 5-15 (Type B)” plug. Measure from the outlet, not from the wall you pictured it on.

If you rent

Size and permission are the same question for a tenant. The freestanding sizes rate Safe on our install rating because nothing is fixed to the building; the wall-mounted Palma rates Owner-only for its four anchors, and every hardwired rail does too. How the ratings work is here.