Customer Reviews

Warmrails Kensington Towel Warmer and Drying Rack

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My husband and I love this towel warmer. It does what it is supposed to do. The towels get warm (not hot) and you can take another shower within a few hours and your towel will be dry. One tip: Don't place it near your air-conditioning vent. We did and it doesn't work as well. So now we keep that bathroom vent shut and it works fine.

Hi.
I've owned the Kensington Towel Warmer for several months and it's lived up to my expectations.

After having an electrician install a GFCI outlet in the desired location, installation was very easy. Kensington designed the rack so that you could install the small brackets on the wall first, then attach the rack to the brackets. They included all the necessary mounting hardware: screws *AND* drywall anchors in case there aren't wall-studs in your installation location. The illustrated instructions are also very detailed - in case you're the sort that reads the instructions...

There are several warning tags on the rack - one of which says that it is NOT to be mounted upside-down (!). It is designed to be switched on and left on, but my wife has a fire-phobia, so we switch it on-and-off as needed. The on/off switch is covered with a rubber-bubble to prevent water from shorting out the switch - very thoughtful, as our rack is positioned close to the shower/tub.

As to it's performance - the drying rack does indeed dry our towels and washcloths. No more mildewey-towels! We find that we can get two or three extra uses out of our towels before sending them to the washing machine - this undoubtedly saves money on laundry/water/dryer bills.

Kensington's web-site does recommend tenting the items for better warming performance and I'd have to agree. When there's a towel on the bottom-half and a larger towel on the top-half, the bottom towel does absorb more heat (yes, my wife gets the bottom towel). You don't need to "weave" towels through the bars, just drape them on the rack and let them dry.

My wife has also used the rack to warm up her pajamas and bathrobe with great success. My 4-year old son also enjoys being totally-wrapped in the warm towel after his bubble-bath.

The whole rack does get hot. Even the side-rails which aren't covered by towels. Not too hot to cause any physical damage, but hot enough to surprise you. Oddly enough, my 4 year-old son enjoys touching the hot bars...

We use the rack every day and getting out of the hot shower isn't as dreadful anymore.

I just bought this item and found that it does not warm towels that well. I went to the vendor's site and found this information:
* For best results when warming, towels should be folded to double thickness. This helps trap the heat in the fiber of the towel. You can put more than one towel on the Warmrail at a time. For quickest drying results the towel should be unfolded to allow the moisture to escape quickly.

We puchased this for our bathroom remodel. It seemed that this towel rack had consistantly good reviews and was one of very few in this price range. I wasn't going to pay thousands of dollars for something I've been able to successfully live without up to now! It gets the towels dry quickly. Our contractor hard-wired this through the tile to an electrical outlet in the wall. It is surprisingly hot to the touch when it's on. Also, it seems as if it would be better if it had a timer on it (a project for hubby), so you could turn it on for 4 hours or so, to dry your towels after your morning shower. We try to remember to turn it off sometime in the mid-afternoon, but we mostly forget and so it's on all day.

Living in the Sierra Nevada mountains, towels are often still damp the next day during the winter! When remodeling our master bath, we decided to install this rack. WOW! Now our towels are dry within hours!! If you are expecting "just out of the dryer" warm towels, you won't get it with this rack. But the towels are warm where they touch the rack (fold the towel in half and have most of it touching the racks...two towels fit nicely this way). Most importantly, they are dry!!

My only complaint is the covers for the mounts are of a slightly different color than the rest of the rack. They have a slight pink hue whereas the rack is a brushed nickel. Other than that, I highly recommend this rack. Another plus...it is very easy to install.

This is an OK item for the price. The brass is not very heavy, and the fittings to the wall are plastic...so not a very high quality look.
It has been my experience that the towels aren't really WARM when you use them....but they are DRY..consistently and fast...which is great.
I am sure I could have purchased a higher quality unit for ten times the price!

I just wanted to respond to the two reviewers who were disappointed with their purchase:

There is only so much a towel rack can do - if you want towels that feel like they've just come out of the dyer, you are going to have to put them in the dryer! Obviously the layer of towel directly touching the rack is going to be hotter than part of the towel folded over without direct contact to the heat. You don't seem to understand the enormous amount of heat the rack would have to generate to make the outer levels of towel hot - it would burn your skin if you touched it!

Don't fold the towel before putting it on the rack if you want more heat, so more of the surface area comes in contact with the rack. It's like when you are standing in front of a fireplace - your face and hands may get warmer, but it doesn't do much for your back side unless you turn around and put it close to the heat source.

If you are one of those people who has never used a heated towel rack before, keep in mind that you have to have realistic expectations! The rack will make your towels warm and will help wet towels dry faster, but it's not going to perform miracles.

We came back from a research trip to Paris in early January and immediately decided we had to try a towel warmer here. Now, this Kensington model cannot compete with the towel warmer in our Paris apartment, but it is sure better than no towel warmer at all. Since we had to mount it on the laundryroom wall adjacent to our bathroom, it also comes in handy to finish-dry our perma-press and delicate laundry. This is a great product for the price and seems not to have increased our electric bill by very much, either.

We just finished remodeling our laundry room and remember reading something on Warmrails website (which by the way is very informative)that the Towel Warmers are great for drying delicates and warming blankets & babies clothes as well. My husband has been on my case for hanging all of my delicates (and items I don't want to throw in the dryer) on the door knobs, shower rod and the door ways (ladies you know what I'm talking about). There is never a good place to hang these items. Well, I purchased the Kensington unit a couple weeks ago and mounted it in my laundry room. This thing is amazing! I can't tell you how great it is to lay all my clothes on this rack. It can hold quite a bit and does an excellent job of gently drying my clothes (and my husband is happy that it's not taking over our house). I got the following information off of Warmrails website:

** When drying items and garments on your Warmrail it is important that a towel is placed over the rail and the garments are placed on top of the towel. You need to be sure that items are colorfast to avoid discoloration or bleeding of color. Garments should be free of detergents or other residues that may cause discoloration.**

We also have the Traditional model in our bathroom. I can't imagine living without it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

PS. Shih Ku K. Yang & C. Smith "nrwgnwd you obviously didn't read the instruction manual. It seems like you are expecting too much. If you still own the unit you might want to check out the Warmrails website and read the WHY & FAQ portion. It's very informative (helped me out).

What is a conflicted germ-a-phobe like me to do here in hot-and-humid Houston? I get grossed out when I think of how mold and mildew is growing in our towels when we hang them to dry after our shower. Using a new towel each and every day doesn't make good sense if we've scrubbed well- the towels aren't dirty, they're just wet. However, here in Houston, they never dry out! Who can remember to toss them into the dryer, then replace them later? Since I only use a towel two times, that's a lot of energy to burn to get them dry. Besides, the more you wash your towels, the shorter life they have - you are literally throwing your towels away every time you clean the dryer lint screen. If that weren't enough, skyrocketing gas and electric prices served to convince me that a Warmrails towel dryer was right for us.

I can't think of when I have been happier with a purchase. We opted for the Kensington wall-mounted model because we have a 2 year-old toddler and an infant and did not want to have them reaching for the towel warmer. I was attracted to Warmrails because of how energy efficient they are. I thought if they work even half as good as reported, then this would be a wise investment.

I really like the balance of how they get hot enough to dry towels and my delicates, but not hot enough to cause burns to children. My daughter grabbed the lower rung and quickly let go - it is only hot enough to teach her not to touch, but not hot enough to scorch her skin.

Best of all, it dries our towels and keeps them toasty warm - a real treat to walk into a cozy towel when getting out of the tub or shower, especially now that we have this nationwide cold snap! I am grateful for the Warmrails because it is hygienic, eliminating the growth of mold and mildew, and I estimate my gas and electric bill will have a noticeable drop due to fewer loads of towel laundry that I used to do.