DIYbanter - Controls on a cental heating towel rail questions

neil leslie wrote:

I've never had a heated towel rail before so If these questions seem
daft I apologise now.

Anyway......My towel rail heats the room to 24 and that's way too warm.
The towel rail has two valves at the bottom each marked with a "-" and a
"+" symbol. These valves say "bar" on them so I take it that means
pressure. If I turn the valves towards the "-" sign the towel rail does
get less hot but makes a continuous hissing noise. There is no hissing
noise with the valves both fully open. Is this hissing noise normal?

You may get a hiss one one or more of the valves is nearly closed -
especially if you have a fairly fast flow rate through your heating system.

Also, is it ok to turn both valves at once or doesn't it matter?

Does not really matter. Traditionally you would use the incoming valve
to set the temp, and the return valve to "balance" the rad with the rest
fo the system.

Finally, I take it I can turn the valves to my heart's content and it
will make no difference to the heating in the rest of the house.

That depends on how the rest of your system is plumbed... If this is
plumbed as just another rad, and there is another rad elsewhere in the
house that does not have a thermostatic valve on it, then you should be
ok. However you need to allow for the possibility that the towel rail
has been used as a bypass rad, or on systems with a hot water cylinder,
may even be plumbed into the water heating circuit and not the heating one.

--
Cheers,

John.

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