electric towel rail

andyjack · Jul 25, 2011

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but since it concerns a towel rail/radiator it might be.

I've got a towel rail that is fed by the central heating system and also has an electric heating element in it. It gets warm when the central heating is on but the electric heating part of it seems to have stopped working. The little light on the thermostat comes on so it seesm to be drawing power, but it's not heating up.

Any suggestions as to what might have gone wrong and how it can be put right will be most gratefully received.

Mr Mike · Jul 25, 2011

The element needs to checked.
It may be open circuit.
Welcome andyjack

IQ Electrical · Jul 25, 2011

andyjack said:
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but since it concerns a towel rail/radiator it might be.

I've got a towel rail that is fed by the central heating system and also has an electric heating element in it. It gets warm when the central heating is on but the electric heating part of it seems to have stopped working. The little light on the thermostat comes on so it seesm to be drawing power, but it's not heating up.

Any suggestions as to what might have gone wrong and how it can be put right will be most gratefully received.

Yes, do a L-N continuity test on the element (stat closed) and you should have in the region of 200 Ohms (depending on the Wattage of course).

Dunc · Jul 25, 2011

If you can access the connection to the towel rail element itself you can check to see if it's faulty quite easily. IR between L+N and E first (with element disconnected). You want a reading of >200Mohms. If that comes back fine do a low ohm test between L and N. You can work out the reading you should get by dividing the rating of the element in Watts by 230V. Again if the readings you get come back fine then you're on to a winner. Finally test the supply is okay and put a clamp meter on at the FCU to see if there's load there. If it's still not heating up check to see if the central heating pump is running. If it is that would soon drag the heat away from the towel rail element.