When thinking about heated towel rails most folks think it’s an excellent idea in cold and wet winters when you want dry towels around the clock. They’re right, there’s nothing like dry towels on demand, especially ones that comfort you with a touch of warmth.
So it often comes as a surprise to those who’ve never owned one that heated towel racks are equally useful in summer – if not more. Summer is exceptionally heavy on towel use. Just think of all the activities you are going to get up to that necessitate packing a towel or two, not to mention shower more than once a day on those super hot and sticky days.
TOP REASONS WHY YOU NEED A HEATED TOWEL RACK IN SUMMER
Everyone’s going to get dirty and wet
Summer means you and the kids are going to spend lots of time outdoors getting wet, getting dirty, and having lots of (messy) fun. Think watersports, boating, running under the sprinkler, mud play, days by the pool or beach, midnight dipping or cool tubbing.
Schools and colleges also up their water sports activities in summer and gyms are overflowing with people trying to stay in shape. This means there is a double load of towels in circulation at any given time. With a heated towel rail in the bathroom, laundry room, mud room, or pool or lake house, you can easily, quickly and cheaply dry damp towels in a matter of hours so they’re ready for the next round.
During summer holidays family or friends from afar like to pop by for a week or two or, horrors, sometimes three. With a heated towel rack to dry all your towels, you don’t need to fork out for extra sets just to please Uncle Bob and his new wife.
Busy little businesses with demanding guests
Maybe you offer homestays or vacation rentals, or run a small boutique guesthouse or hotel. Either way, as bookings increase during the summer months, you’re going to have to do quite a bit of laundry to keep all those guest towels fresh and dry.
Clean, dry towels are at the top of the list for most guests, and generally hotels replace them every three days, or sooner if the guests request it. By installing heated towel racks to dry towels between uses – a must in summer when towel use goes up – it helps save on laundry costs, including detergent, water, energy and labor, which are some of a hotel’s largest expenses!
Tech-focused hotel chain Yotel includes heated towel rails in all their bathroom designs, having found that guests appreciate the luxury and are incentivized to reuse their towels more often. You can do the same at your beloved Airbnb abode.
When it’s hot and sticky outside
Do you live in a really humid state, where everything takes twice as long to dry (Florida, is that you?!)? Then you’ll be familiar with the smell of musty towels and the sound of washing machines and tumble dryers running around the clock.
While humidity in some places in Florida, Louisiana and Texas can reach 70% and more, any state from Minnesota in the north down to Texas in the south and the entire swath of land to the east stretching to the Atlantic Ocean is prone to high humidity in summer. Ditto for parts of California and Washington State.
Now for the bad news: as soon as humidity hits 55%, mold starts growing and leaving your towels to dry overnight will be a futile exercise as they’ll still be damp and musty the next morning.
NOAA (The National Centers for Environmental Information) has a handy graphic that shows which areas are likely to experience higher humidity in summer. If you see your town there, pop down to the handyman and get yourself a hygrometer to measure the humidity in or outside your home. If it tops 55% in summer, we have a heated towel rack for you.