Contents
A bathroom is a room where an elevated temperature is required. It feels more comfortable, and warm air will quickly carry away excess moisture after taking a shower or bath. Heating in the bathroom is done infrequently. A more common way is to install a heated towel rail, which we will talk about later.
For everything to work without problems, you need to choose the right connection scheme and implement it correctly. If you do not do everything yourself, you will have to follow the plumbers. This is the only way to be sure that you will be left with a normally working dryer.
Types of dryer designs
Towel warmers come in different shapes. When choosing them, people are often guided solely by aesthetics, which is not entirely justified. These devices work normally with good water circulation, but not all models provide such circulation. With some you have to be smart for a long time, looking for the right connection scheme, otherwise they simply refuse to work.
So, all heated towel rails can be divided into four groups:
- U-shaped or U-shaped. The simplest models, elementary connection (side). Ideally, when replacing the old one, you find a model with the same center distance.
- Ladder. Modern designs with a number of crossbars. The connection can be bottom, side or diagonal. But it is not chosen arbitrarily, but according to a set of conditions (where the supply comes from, location relative to the riser).
- snake. Classic model with lateral connection. Installation of this type of heated towel rail, as a rule, does not present any problems.
Types of heated towel rails - Complicated form. There are very unusual heated towel rails. They can even be an interior decoration, but their proper connection is a problem. As a rule, consultation of a competent specialist, a plumber who is well versed in hydraulics, is required. As you can imagine, finding one is not an easy task.
It often happens that after installing a heated towel rail, it simply does not work. If the error is serious, the riser to which it is connected also stops working. Therefore, it is necessary to know and follow the connection rules.
Where to connect and where to hang
You can connect a water heated towel rail to both a hot water riser (DHW) and heating. If both of these options are available, then select DHW. There are three reasons for this: less hassle with permission to connect, you can connect at any time of the year and, most importantly, such a heated towel rail heats up all year round.
If there is no hot water in the house, you will have to connect to the heating riser. This requires permission from the Criminal Code and a project. You buy a heated towel rail, preferably of a simple design, go to the housing office with his passport (copy), write an application. If permission is given, order the project, you will also need a copy of the passport with connection dimensions. Then, according to the project, you do it yourself or hire performers, for example, plumbers from the Housing Office. Call the representatives of the Housing Office for acceptance.
When determining the installation location of a heated towel rail, questions may arise about how high it should be hung. It is most convenient to position it so that it is at head level and below. This is if you put a U-shaped or a snake. If we are talking about “ladders” of great height, the upper bar is not at the level of the raised hand, about 190-200 cm.
When choosing a place to install a heated towel rail, one must take into account the distance from the riser. In principle, the closer to the riser, the better – more chances that it will work. But, it can be attributed to a meter or so, only if the following conditions are met:
- low hydraulic resistance of the heated towel rail, simple shape and section 1″ or 3/4″;
- sufficient pressure, 2 atm or more;
- outlet with pipes of normal diameter, one step less than the riser.
In this case, be sure to follow other connection rules. Then there will be chances that such a “remote” device will work normally.
How to make bends and how to change the riser
If the riser is metal and you are not going to change it, then installation of a heated towel rail is possible with steel or polypropylene pipes. If you change the riser (the best option) and install polypropylene, there is no choice – PPR pipes also go to bends. Take polypropylene for hot water, better – reinforced with fiberglass.
Why is metal-plastic not suitable? Because he has fittings with a strong narrowing of the lumen. This is very bad for circulation. As a result, even 100% efficient circuits do not provide normal heating.
A little about why to change the riser. It makes sense to do this in old houses when repairing a bathroom or bathroom, depending on where your riser is located. First, the pipes are usually already old and worn out. Even a branch can be problematic to weld to them, so the metal has worn out. Secondly, modern renovation involves hidden laying of communications and you also want to close the riser. Hiding the old pipe, and after a few years redoing everything again, is not the best solution.
A little about how to change. You need to negotiate with neighbors from below and above, as well as with the Housing Office (DEZ, UK). With neighbors that you will cut off their riser and install a new one on the thread. Why have them? Because leaving the old pipe in the ceiling is dangerous: it will collapse and flow, flood you or your neighbors from below. Therefore, it is better to pass through the ceilings with a new pipe.
Having agreed or not with the neighbors, go to the housing office and agree on the date of replacement and the time for which the riser will be turned off. “Local” locksmiths can work, you yourself, if you have the qualification of a welder, or people hired by you. After the tie-in, the water is turned on, you check the performance of the heated towel rail and the system as a whole. If in 30 minutes it does not begin to cool, then it is set correctly. This completes the replacement or installation of the heated towel rail.
Leave bypass
Let’s start with what a bypass is. This is a jumper between the input and output of the device, which ensures the circulation of water when the device fails or is turned off.
If there is a bypass in the circuit, shut-off ball valves can be installed at the inlet and outlet of the device. This is convenient – you can turn it off if necessary, during repair or replacement and not block the entire riser.
If there is no such jumper, no taps can be installed. In this case, the heated towel rail is part of the riser, by closing the taps you completely shut off the riser.
The bypass can be straight, as in the first photo in the chapter, or offset, in the photo below. An offset jumper is placed at the top coolant supply for better performance (circulation improves). With a bottom feed, the offset only interferes. If you do not know where the water is coming from, it is better to do a direct bypass.
Bypasses – straight or offset, make narrowed. Tapering, as well as offset, improves circulation, but only in the case of top feed. The narrowing is made with a pipe, which is one step smaller than the main one, if the riser is an inch, the bottleneck is made 3/4 ″. The size of the insert is at least 10 cm.
Once again: an offset or narrowed bypass only works with the top water supply. At the bottom, it interferes with circulation. If you are not sure, make the bypass straight and not constricted.
Categorically it is impossible to put taps on the bypass. Each tap is a loss of pressure, which means it impairs the circulation of the entire riser. In addition, this is an absolutely unnecessary detail that only brings harm, and there is no noticeable improvement in circulation in the heated towel rail. Well, and besides, this is a violation of SNiP 31-01-2003 (clause 10.6) – interference in general house communications, for which a fine can be issued.
Ways to connect
With lateral and diagonal connections, the outlets should be at the same level as the heated towel rail inlets or slightly above/below. What definitely won’t work is installing a heated towel rail if the outlets are spaced less than the distance between the inlets. The photo below is an example of a non-working diagonal connection with closely spaced taps. Black indicates the variant of its correction, with the upper water supply.
When connecting, the taps must be placed strictly horizontally or slightly at an angle. A little at an angle – this is from 2 cm per meter (2%) or a little more. The direction of the slope depends on the connection scheme and on which end this branch will be connected to. To make it a little clearer, consider several typical schemes for connecting heated towel rails.
Connecting the heated towel rail “ladder”
This circuit works regardless of the direction of hot water supply. Connection type – bottom, both outlets must be located lower than the bottom edge of the dryer. At the top feed, an option is acceptable when the edge is between the taps, but the work may no longer be as efficient.
In this scheme, shut-off valves can be installed. For its normal operation, you need:
- Mayevsky cranes (air vents) installed on the upper outlets for descent of air accumulating in the upper part. They will need to be periodically opened and air bled (as it starts to warm up worse). There is an option – to put automatic air vents. They are also compact. This will make it easier to operate.
- Bypass straight with narrowing. The size of the narrowing is a pipe one step smaller in diameter.
- Branches are made by a pipe with a smaller diameter than the main riser.
If you have this option in height, do it. The scheme works in any conditions, with towel warmers of the “ladder” type of any kind.
Second connection option
When pouring hot water from above, you can make the top outlet higher than the lower edge of the dryer. With a shifted bypass and its narrowing, it should heat up normally. This method is not the best, but it works.
The presence of air vents and air bleeding after the system is stopped are mandatory.
Universal side connection
You can bring pipes on the side to a heated towel rail of any of the standard shapes – U-shaped, snake and ladder. The connection itself does not depend on the form. In the standard version there is a straight, not narrowed bypass. Branches are either strictly horizontal or with a slight slope. There is a slope in the figure: the end of the upper branch is tilted slightly downward (2 cm by 1 meter), the lower one is pulled up a little. The diameter of the outlets is not less than the diameter of the heated towel rail.
Such a connection scheme is good because it is not necessary to install air vents on the “ladder” (put plugs), since the air simply goes into the riser.
With the top supply on the bypass, it is possible to make a narrower and / or move the jumper towards the heated towel rail. This will improve circulation, the dryer will heat up better. Such a scheme will only work with the top water supply.
With this scheme, it is also possible to make bends at a slight slope or strictly horizontally.
Dryer side connection option
A side connection scheme is acceptable with the location of the upper outlet below the upper edge of the heated towel rail. But with such a connection, Mayevsky taps are needed, through which air will have to be bled after the hot water supply is turned off for repair / maintenance. Periodic venting may also be necessary.
Diagonal connection
There is no particular point in connecting most heated towel rails diagonally: their efficiency is no different from the side ones, in any case, there is no significant improvement, and the consumption of pipes is greater, strobes are also required longer, and this is laborious.
The diagonal works fine if the water supply comes from above. Then the upper outlet is connected to the far edge of the “ladder”, and the lower one – to the near one.
In this case, you can also make a narrow and offset bypass, but everything should work without it. At the bottom supply, the bypass is without narrowing, exactly along the riser.
How to connect heated towel rails of complex shape
In the case of connecting heated towel rails of complex shape, in addition to conventional means, it is necessary to take into account the structural features of each particular model. They must be considered from the point of view of hydrodynamics – where water will flow better, water will be supplied there. For example, the popular model “Elegy” by Sunerzha. This is not a ladder and not a zig-zag.
The installation of the Sunerzhi Elegia heated towel rail was chosen as a side one, since any other would disrupt the circulation.
The model in the picture below is with bottom connection and complex structure, has three installation options. Provided that water is supplied from above, the second one will work best, the first one will work a little worse, the third one will be the most inefficient.
When feeding from below, options 1 and 3 remain, but only without narrowing the bypasses – it will interfere, not help. The second option is excluded completely.
How not to do
All the above schemes work stably. As you can see, all the bends go straight, without bends in the form of an arc or rings. This is not accidental, in all the irregularities air accumulates, which interferes, and sometimes completely blocks the circulation.
In the photo, the installation of the heated towel rail is incorrect. Made at least two mistakes:
- the taps are made narrower than the center distance of the heated towel rail;
- they are made of a metal-plastic pipe with loops.
Such a connection simply cannot work. Metal-plastic pipes are an excellent material, but not for connecting heated towel rails. Their fittings have a strong narrowing of the lumen, which has a bad effect on circulation. Plus, air accumulates in the loops, and the flow through the upper loop, even when supplied from above, will not go – too much hydraulic resistance to water must be overcome.
Unstable Circuits
The next two schemes may work, but not always. In the lower part of the heated towel rail, water stagnates and, with some difference in height, cannot rise. No one can say exactly when it will work, and when not. Depends on the pressure in the riser, on the diameter of the pipes and the design of the dryer itself.
With such a connection, even a working connection may suddenly (usually after a stop) stop working. It’s simple: the pressure has changed, the pipes are clogged, the water does not “push through” from below, the heated towel rail does not heat.
Another option for an unstable circuit is with a loop on top. Again, it will work under certain conditions. But sooner or later, an air lock will form at the highest point and block the circulation. Trouble can be helped if an automatic air vent is installed at the highest point, but if the pressure drops, it will not save.
Wrong connection dried
The photos below are examples of what not to do. After several years of operation, they will cease to function, the system will become clogged with dirt. Especially after the repair, because the water carries a huge amount of dirt, which settles in the bends, in the lowest areas in the first place. It is required to redo and connect correctly, but only flushing can help.
It is necessary to rinse both the heated towel rail and the supplies to it. To do this, we remove the dryer and wash it in the bathroom, and wash the outlets in turn by connecting a hose to the vacated outlets, the second end of which is connected to the sewer. By manipulating the taps, pass the flow of hot water through one outlet, then through the other. After washing, everything is installed in place. It may be possible to start the system after that.
The installation process
The very connection of the heated towel rail to the ready-made outlets is standard for plumbing – suitable fittings, linen and packaging paste or fum tape. For fastening to the wall, there are brackets or special clamps-holders into which the pipe is pressed. The process is shown in detail in the video.