Materials Needed

Heated Towel Rail, Radiator Valves (Straight or Angled depending on the plumbing), Screws, Wall Plugs, PTFE Tape, Cloth.

Step 1: Preparing the Rail

Your towel rail should come with all of the brackets and nuts that are needed. Start off by installing the nuts for the top of the towel rail. These should have a rubber gasket already fitted to them so you won’t need any PTFE tape. Turn the towel rail over. Take your radiator valves and undo the part that fits into the towel rail. Put some PTFE tape around the thread. This then screws into the bottom of the rail. Start doing it up by hand and then finish off with your radiator Allen key. Reassemble the valve using PTFE tape on the thread.

Step 2: Measuring and Marking

Take your tape measure and pencil and measure between the pipes to find the centre. Use your spirit level to mark a straight vertical line up the wall to where the top brackets will go and mark a horizontal line across this at pipe level. Measure from the radiator valve on the towel rail up to where the top brackets will sit. You can then measure up from the horizontal line and mark the wall for the top brackets. Use your spirit level to mark a horizontal line on the wall where the top brackets will sit. Now measure across the towel rail to get the distance between the brackets. Mark this on the wall using the vertical line you marked earlier as a centre point.

Step 3: Drilling

Take your hammer drill and put your masonry bit in it. If youre drilling into a block or brick wall then just make sure the drill is set to ‘hammer’, and then drill in to the depth of your screws. If youre drilling into tiles, use a screw or nail and place onto the drilling point. Give it a couple of light taps with your hammer to create a small indentation in the tile. This will stop the drill bit from slipping. Make sure the drill is NOT on hammer until you get through the tile. Once into the brick or block behind the tile, engage the hammer action on the drill. Place a wall plug into each hole. If in tiles, place a screw onto the plug and tap until it goes through and sits just behind the tile. This will prevent the tile from cracking when it expands.

Step 4: The Top Brackets

Dismantle the brackets in order to fix them to the wall. Screw the top brackets to the wall with your screwdriver and check with your spirit level. Part the retaining brackets with your screwdriver and fix the back part to the bracket that is already fixed to the wall. Secure using the screws provided. Remove the locking nuts from the valves on the towel rail and place these over your pipes. Make sure that the little olive is on the outside, as this creates the seal. Lift the rail onto the top brackets and secure using the retaining part of the brackets that you removed earlier. Don’t tighten these too much as you may need to adjust when fixing the bottom brackets. This can be quite tricky on your own so try to get someone to help if you can. Loosely tighten the locking nuts onto the valves.

Step 5: The Bottom Brackets

Mark the position of the bottom brackets onto the wall. Now remove the towel rail again and repeat the drilling and fixing procedure as you did for the top brackets. Hang the rail back on the wall and secure using all four retaining brackets. This time, when doing up the locking nuts on the valves, put some PTFE tape around the thread. Place a cloth between the spanner and nut when tightening so that you don’t scratch any paint or metalwork.

Step 6: Filling The Towel Rail

Now double check all of your connections. Open up the bleed valve on top of the rail and open up the valves to start filling up the rail with water. While it’s filling up, place the caps over the brackets to hide the screws. When water starts to come out of the hole in the bleed valve, turn the bleed valve off. Just double check the connections for any leaks.