Drying Towels in an MVHR fitted bathroom

[TerryE]

This is one where I am asking the views of those members that already have MVHR-fitted houses.

 

Jan has decided that she wants out electrician to provision a wall-plate in our bathroom so that we can have the option of fitting a heated towel rail in our master en suite.  Her rationale is that she wants a backstop for drying damp towels. 

 

We differ on how wet we get our towels.  Jan get out of the shower and immediately wraps herself in a towel whilst still dripping wet.  I don't like drying myself with a damp towel, so over the years I've got into the habit of first rubbing myself down with a flannel or simply using my hand span between my thumb and forefinger as a blade to wipe off all the excess water on my body and then I towel myself dry.

 

I did a quick experiment by weighing  a towel in a bin liner using out kitchen scales, I then had a shower and dried myself Jan-style before weighing the towel again.  It had increased its weight by 40gm.  (I guess that with my technique the increase would be nearer 10gm.) I then hung the towel on a peg on the back of a door in our current farmhouse en-suite and weight it again 2 hrs later.  30 out of the 40gms of water had evaporated by this point.

 

To evaporate 40gm of water (plugging in the latent heat of evaporation for water) takes 2,260,000×0.04/3,600,000 = 0.025 kWh of heat out of the shower room.  Note that this the cooling on the house is mitigated since in winter most of this vapour will condense out again in the MVHR returning 90% of this latent heat to warm the incoming air. Given the extract rates / airflow through the shower room and ambient temperature, I wouldn't have thought that you wouldn't really need a heated towel rail.

 

However I would be interested in the experiences of those already living in an MVHR house.  (And also any other data points for towel weight gain, so volunteers welcome ). 

[TerryE]

@readiescards, fancy doing the towel weighing test?

[jack]

Well no-one in my house (except me) does anything other than maximise the wetness of the towels and bathroom mat, despite my efforts to get them to stay in the shower for just a few seconds and get the worst of the wet off first.  I do the "hand blade" trick you talk about (thought I was the only one!)

We've gotten into the habit of hanging our towels on the balustrade outside the bathroom, and they dry completely in short order.   I do know that the floor mat gets sodden and really doesn't dry out properly, but that's because it's usually so wet that I need to hang it over the edge of the bath.  As I said though, 3 out of 4 occupants do their utmost to saturate it with every use, so your mileage may be different.

 

I'm slightly concerned that the towels won't dry as quickly when they're hung in a more enclosed space inside the bathrooms.  Will need to wait and see on that one.

[Stones]

Have to admit to being another member of the hand blade method you mention.

 

We've now lived in several houses with MVHR and have relied on simple air drying of towels in bathrooms. A lot depends on the time frame between uses of towels.  Our experience is that towels will dry out overnight or between morning and and late evening use.  Handtowels, which get used continually throughout the day remain damp (depending on use) through the day, but do dry overnight. 

 

We dry all our laundry inside on airers in our utility, and have done for a number of years, simply because MVHR is so effective at drawing moisture out over several hours.  This method of drying replaced our tumble drier many years ago (cue discussion on fluffy towels!) 

[Jeremy Harris]

I was about to raise the dreaded "fluffy towels" issue, too....................................

[Temp]

We installed a towel rad but this winter I "forgot" to turn it on. Nobody has complained. If you shower once a day towels seem to dry fast enough with MVHR. Only issue is if you change your routine or for some reason shower twice in one day then your towel might still be slightly damp.

 

Make sure you install a big enough rail so the air can circulate. There are four of us and sometimes the kids towels end up on top of ours which obviously slows down drying. 

[ProDave]

Yes but a much more serious question. Has anyone found a way to make freshly washed towels fluffy, without the use of a tumble dryer?  Getting them DRY is no issue but "sandpaper" is a description I get told of any towel that has not wasted spent time in the tumble dryer.

 

EDIT: Jeremy beat my by  2 minutes.

[Temp]

Fabric conditioner helps make them fluffy but also stops them drying you.

[Temp]

+1 on wet mats. They are more of a problem than towels.

[oranjeboom]

Fluffy towels?? Do they exist??? Tumble driers? Do they exists also?   Camping in the static has meant the boss has forgotten about these 'luxuries'. And long may that continue once we move in!

[Construction Channel]

1 hour ago, jack said:

 I do the "hand blade" trick you talk about (thought I was the only one!)

 

you guys need one of these,

we use it to wipe down our curved shower screen but it also does a decent job on me  

 

 

http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/15422-condensing-fluffy-towel-dryer/page__hl__%2Bfluffy+%2Btowel

 

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, TerryE said:

[...]

Her rationale is that she wants a backstop for drying damp towels. 

 

 

Nothing to do with evidence, or experience. Much more subtle stuff going on here.

 

Just Do It

Ian

[Simplysimon]

that's great for towels, what about general washing/drying?

[Bitpipe]

We have a wet towel rad and electric comfort UFH in the bathroom, unsurprisingly towels dry out in no time.

 

I'd get the fused spur fitted though just for peace of mind.

[Bitpipe]

1 minute ago, Simplysimon said:

that's great for towels, what about general washing/drying?

 

We have MVHR extract in our utility, we have a heat pump condensing tumble dryer and an electric drying rack from Lakeland.

 

Quite a bit goes on the rack, which is usually off unless there's something particularly heavy (i.e. jeans) or urgent. Things seem to dry pretty quickly.

[Calvinmiddle]

I'd fit a towel rail, even if just to have a place to hang them.

 

i looked long to get a wider than normal towel rail and got the smallest element I could get, then have it just slightly above the snowflake symbol.  

 

Find it just keeps the rail slightly above air temperature which dries the towel and doesn't seem to heat the room at all - but our bathroom has a sloping roof from 3m to 3.5m so it might be warmer up there.

[TerryE]

My main gripe is that it would have been no problem at all if Jan had thought of this 3 months ago before we plastered.

 

And I am still waiting for other entrants in the "how wet do I get my towel" competition.

[Calvinmiddle]

Just get a towel rail then and don't connect it 

Tell her it's somehow connected, use your imagination battery, mobile charging, and hope she doesn't read this thread.

[Construction Channel]

11 minutes ago, TerryE said:

And I am still waiting for other entrants in the "how wet do I get my towel" competition.

 

gimme an hour and i will try to remember to weigh both our towels 

[readiescards]

+1 hand blade 

[volcane]

One towel??? I have a current wife who requires 3 towels post each shower and also manages to soak everything

[readiescards]

54 minutes ago, Construction Channel said:

 

you guys need one of these,

we use it to wipe down our curved shower screen but it also does a decent job on me

 

Wow great idea trying that tomorrow!

[joe90]

I plan an electric towel radiator as a back up and I confess I like warm towels ( it's a man thing to be efficient and save wet towels etc) also relying on the MVHR to dry them.

[Construction Channel]

before i ask my next question, are these troublesome wet mats in rooms with UFH?

[jack]

51 minutes ago, TerryE said:

... if Jan had thought of this 3 months ago before we plastered.

 

And I am still waiting for other entrants in the "how wet do I get my towel" competition.

 

Well clearly it can't be done now, and what's more it's Jan's fault!

 

Good luck with that argument! 

 

17 minutes ago, Construction Channel said:

before i ask my next question, are these troublesome wet mats in rooms with UFH?

 

No.  One of the larger errors we made when building.