Dual Fuel: The Towel Radiator Upgrade You Didn’t Know You Needed

Ever stepped into the bathroom on a mild spring morning and found your towel still damp from yesterday’s shower?

Or fired up the entire central heating system — just to take the chill off one room?

For most people, towel radiators only work when the heating’s on. Which means for half the year, they’re doing absolutely nothing — while your towels stay damp, your bathroom stays cold, and you miss out on one of life’s simplest luxuries: a warm, dry towel, right when you need it.

That’s where dual fuel comes in.

By adding a small electric heating element to your towel radiator, you unlock total flexibility: warm your towels without touching the boiler.

Run it on electric in summer, central heating in winter.

And the best part? You can control it however suits your lifestyle:

From a basic on/off switch to a smart app on your phone.

And most radiators can be adapted to dual fuel (so you still have near total design flexibility)

Let’s look at the different control options available — and how to choose the right one for your setup.

Simple On/Off Switch

A simple fused spur is the simplest form of control – on and off light a light switch.

You can use this to manually dry towels int he summers months when your heating is off, bu if you’re just hopping in the shower the towel radiator will just be starting to warm up by the time you get out of the shower.

So, you need to remember to come back and switch it off after a while.

If you leave it on by accident you could waste a lot of energy.

On/off with over-run

To avoid the issue above, we can use a simple control like this (which turns off after a set period of time)

This one does a similar thing, but you can alter the overrun timer very quickly and easily.

Perfect for setting the radiator to run for a set period of time to dry your towel off after a shower.

However, as with all (non-timed) models they rely on you manually turning them on when you need them.

So, they are normally only good for drying towels after the fact, and not pre-warming them (unless you are very organised!)

Manual timer

A manual timer can be set in the summer to come on, say twice a day before / after work, so you have toasty towels waiting for you when you need them (based on your schedule).

These models are the easiest to understand and set and can be switched to on/off/timed very easily as most are familiar with the interface.

Perfect for technophobes, but maybe not the best-looking model (function > form).

Digital timer

Digital timer variants like this do a similar thing but through a digital interface.

Some people find these much less intuitive to programme / understand, but they are arguably a bit better looking.

An iphone this aint!

Some modern variants can connect to Alexa / Google home also like this Lanbon model

Some people appreciate the technology and what it can do for them.

Some would much prefer models that don’t have to have an app or be connected to a router just to warm up their towels!

Summary

All of these controls will allow you to use your radiator in the summer months when your central heating is off.

So, it just depends on how you think you’ll use the radiator during the summer months.

They all have pros and cons.

Digital timers are a bit more complicated to set but once set up look a bit nicer, mechanical models work well, are simple to understand and use but arguably don’t look great.

Push button is fine but only works when you remember to push it!

Let me know what you’re thinking

Chris