Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2005

Towel warmer a luxury within reach

By Stacy Downs
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Towel warmers are finding a home in American bathrooms.

These comfort items are prevalent in European hotels, where they often hook American travelers. In Europe, their main function is drying towels in a damp climate.

In the United States, towel warmers are popular for a variety of reasons — they heat terrycloth in harsh-winter states; they dry plush fabrics in humid states; and their radiating heat warms the stone and tile surfaces of today’s bathrooms, and that is a comfort no matter where you live.

Kent and Carol Granger of Kansas City, Mo., became familiar with towel warmers because their previous house had one. Now the couple swears by them: Having one installed was a top priority for their new condominium. “It’s a nice perk,” says Kent Granger, a retired lawyer. “I’m at the point in my life where I’d like to start pampering myself.”

Towel warmers look like a series of metal towel bars. Two main types exist:

• Electric models have tubes filled with mineral oil. They can be plugged into an electrical outlet or hard wired with a 110-volt line connected to an electrical box.

Hydronic models use a standard water heater to warm up their water-filled tubes. They require a copper-tubing return line to connect to valves and a pump for the circulating loop to make the water move through the tubes. Because there are no electrical restrictions with hydronic towel warmers, they can be placed in a moist environment — on the deck of a jetted tub or at the end of a walk-in shower.

Customers like electric models best because they are easier to install and are more portable. They come in stand-alone units. Otherwise, towel warmers have to be mounted to the wall with blocking support behind them.

Small four-rail plug-in units start at $100. However, people can spend up to $8,000 for a 22-carat gold-plated towel warmer that takes up the length and height of an entire wall. The average price range is $800 to $1,200, say bath showroom salespersons.

Sizes can be customized to specific dimensions at no additional cost, says John Bernard, owner of Wesaunard, a Virginia-based towel warmer company. Compact warmers are 18 by 24 inches. Large models are 30 inches by 6 feet.

A variety of finishes cover the metal tubes. The most popular one is oil-rubbed bronze, says Ray Farley, vice president and general manager of Myson, a towel warmer manufacturer. The metal tubes also can be color matched to the paint of a bathroom wall for a 10 percent charge, he says.

Most towel warmer customers are new-home builders, says Megan Murray, a bath showroom sales associate at Expo Design Center in Lenexa, Kan. “They tend to be younger people who have studied abroad and became familiar with them, or older people who have vacationed in Europe.”

Kent Granger, who because of a physical disability has limited use of his arms, finds the design of his warmer easier for hanging towels than a standard towel bar. He and his wife have not had any problems with their towel warmers.

In bathroom remodeling jobs, towel warmers are not usually a priority, says Holly Mann, showroom consultant for Ferguson Enterprises in Lenexa. But there are avid fans out there. “If people have had a towel warmer before,” she says, “they tend to get them again.”