Buying guide for Best towel warmers
Who doesn't enjoy stepping out of the shower and being greeted by a warm, fluffy towel? We can't help you with the fluffiness, but if you purchase a towel warmer, we predict that you’ll enjoy plenty of toasty towels in your future.
The market offers a dazzling array of towel warmers with different styles, uses, pros, and cons. But you needn’t sift through the jargon, as we’ve performed the research for you. Through a combination of research and data analysis, we’ve created this in-depth guide to help you figure out what you need.
Why buy a towel warmer?
Here are just a few of the reasons why you might appreciate having a towel warmer in your life:
A towel warmer gives you a pleasant, cozy drying experience, especially in the colder months.
Some towel warmers can help dry your towels after use. This aids in the prevention of mold and mildew.
“Rail” style towel warmers can be used to dry hand-washed delicates and other items.
- Towel warmers can help heat up your bathroom, which is great news on cold mornings.
Did you know?
Towel warmers are not just for warming towels. They can also be excellent for drying delicates and other smaller/thinner clothing items that can't go in the dryer.
STAFF
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Rails vs. cabinets
Two main towel warmer styles populate the market: rail towel warmers like the Amba RWH-CP and cabinet towel warmers like the Elite Hot Towel Cabi-Warmer.
Rail towel warmers
These are essentially heated towel rails for the bathroom that may be powered by outlet electricity, hardwired in, or plumbed in and heated via a central heating system.
Pros:
Because this style can be freestanding or wall-mounted, it fits most bathrooms — even those with little space.
This type of warmer can dry your towels between uses.
Most can also be used to dry other items.
When switched on, this unit can help heat your bathroom.
Con:
- Rail towel warmers are unlikely to warm your towels as thoroughly and uniformly as cabinet towel warmers.
Cabinet towel warmers
Also referred to as “pail” towel warmers, these are cabinet- or pail-shaped boxes that plug into a power outlet with the single purpose of warming towels before use.
Pros:
Cabinet towel warmers tend to get towels hotter than their rail counterparts.
Towels are more likely to be heated all the way through.
Cabinet towel warmers require only 10 minutes or so to heat your towels. Some even have an automatic shutoff feature.
You can also warm a blanket in some cabinet towel warmers.
Con:
- Cabinet towel warmers cannot dry your towels. In this way, they’re less versatile than rail towel warmers.
Some towel warmers are designed to be mounted, which allows them to be more compact and out of the way. We investigate how well these products perform.
Freestanding rail towel warmers are designed to sit anywhere in a bathroom, adding convenience to grabbing a towel as soon as it is needed. This is something we consider when researching products to recommend.
Electric towel warmers tend to be the most dependable options when it comes to heat, capacity, and efficiency, which are all factors we take into account.
Towel capacity is an important consideration depending on how many people will be using a towel warmer. We consider the size and shape of each warmer we look at.
Some towel warmers come with additional settings, such as a timer. We take note of each setting a product comes with.
Cabinet towel warmers heat towels quickly and provide better heating throughout at the cost of versatility. We weigh the pros and cons of this option during our recommendation process.
Many warmers provide temperature control for heating the towels to your preference. We research the range of temperatures that each towel warmer offers.
Wall-mounted towel warmers require a bit of DIY installation. We research how easy each product is to install and if it comes with additional hardware to do so.
Towel warmers get more expensive depending on the design, capacity, and number of settings. We compare all of these aspects to the price point to obtain recommendations that can be trusted.
Some towel warmers are more energy-efficient than others, depending on the design. We dive into the data to find how many watts a warmer utilizes regularly.
Towel warmer features
Size and capacity
Before choosing a towel warmer, look at its dimensions and how many towels it can hold to make sure it fits your needs. The dimensions are particularly important if you have limited space in your bathroom, as you need to make sure your chosen warmer would fit the floor or wall.
Capacity may be an important consideration for you, especially if you have a large family. Cabinet towel warmers tend to be on the smaller side.
The capacity of rail towel warmers varies greatly, depending on size and how you arrange your towels. When assessing the suitability of a rail warmer, take into account both the number of rails and the unit’s width.
Electric or hydronic
All of the top picks in our product list, above, are electric. This means they could either be plugged into a power outlet or hardwired in.
However, some other rail towel warmers on the market are hydronic. These radiator-like units must be plumbed into your central heating system.
Ease of installation
If you're not much for DIY, you'll probably be interested in how easy or hard your chosen towel warmer is to install.
Wall-mounted varieties like the Amba RWH-CP are trickier to install, whereas cabinet-style and freestanding rail varieties — like the Warmrails WHC Hyde Park — require no installation to speak of.
"Rail towel warmers only touch the towel in certain places, so they may leave cool spots."
STAFF
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Wall-mounted or freestanding
As mentioned above, a freestanding unit requires no installation. This is a definite benefit in the eyes of some. However, there are other pros and cons to consider for both freestanding and wall-mounted units.
Wall-mounted towel warmers tend to fit nicely in bathrooms with little floor space. They look quite striking on the wall, and they offer a greater deal of permanence. (This could be a pro or a con, depending on how you look at it.) However, they can be tricky to install, and once you’ve installed a wall-mounted towel warmer, it cannot be easily moved.
Freestanding towel warmers are much easier to set up, and you can quickly whisk them out of the way when not you’re not using them. But they do take up precious space and, arguably, they don't look quite as smart as the wall-mounted variety.
Temperature
Towel warmers heat to different temperatures depending on the make and model. Whether you'd prefer a higher or lower temperature comes down to personal preference.
Expert Tip
If you want a luxurious, spa-like experience every time you get out of the bath or shower, a towel warmer could be just the thing for you. It also makes for a great gift.
STAFF
BestReviews
Price
Top-of-the-line towel warmers don’t come cheap, but there are still some good options for those with a smaller budget.
A rail towel warmer that stands with the best on the market will set you back at least $200 to $300. Our Best of the Best pick, the Amba RWH-CP, currently sells for $[B00B4UC38M].
Top-notch cabinet towel warmers tend to be a little cheaper. You can expect to pay somewhere between $100 and $150 for a unit of this type.
If you prefer to spend less than $100, you can pick up a passable rail warmer — one that will do the job but is smaller and not quite as effective — for around $70+.
FAQ
Q. Can I dry clothes using a towel warmer?
A. Cabinet towel warmers shouldn't be used to dry clothes, but the majority of rail towel warmers can be used for this purpose. Just bear in mind that they're designed to warm items, not dry them. So this method wouldn’t work well with anything big and bulky.
Q. Are there any safety concerns with towel warmers?
A. Towel warmers are generally safe, but you do have to exercise some caution, as there can be risks to using electrically powered items around water. Observe these safety tips.
An electric towel warmer should only be plugged into a grounded or GFCI otlet, as using a regular outlet in a wet environment is highly dangerous.
Tell children to be careful around towel warmers. The rail variety are generally safe for kids because the rails get warm but not scalding. However, people have reported getting burned by accidentally touching the inside heating elements of cabinet style towel warmers. It's best to keep youngsters away from this variety.
Make sure any wall-mounted towel rails are properly anchored. Otherwise, the appliance could fall and injure someone.
Q. How much energy do towel warmers use?
A. This depends on which make and model you choose. Power usage is measured in watts; the lower the wattage, the less energy the appliance uses and the cheaper it is to run. Notably, however, it often follows that a towel warmer with a lower wattage won't grow quite as hot as one with a higher wattage.
