In article . com,
writes:

So my question is are electric ones any good nowdays?

Personally, I think heated towel rails are of limited use.
When I redid a bathroom a couple of years ago, I decided
not to install one. Instead, I have an unheated towel rail
(or towel shelf, as the rails are in the horizontal plane)
fixed to the wall well above the radiator. I did connect
the bathroom radiator so it's driven whenever any of the
heating zones are operating, although it also has a TRV.
I'm not saying I would never install a heated towel rail,
but my bathroom doesn't have spare space, and in considering
what I needed in there and what would comfortably fit without
making it feel cramped, a heated towel rail dropped off the
bottom of the list.

As for heating output, towel rails are much lower than an
equivalent sized radiator, and drop to almost zero when
they have towels over them, so can't be relied upon for
the room's heating.

--
Andrew Gabriel