In winter, everything gets a little more uncomfortable and inconvenient. If you want to go somewhere, you first need to start your car a few minutes beforehand to let it warm up. At bedtime, you balance your warmth with your humidifier to keep your room warm enough without the air becoming too dry. And when you step out of the shower, life flashes before your eyes as you freeze to death as you dry off with your room-temperature towel. Well, there’s an easy way to alleviate that chilly discomfort of the colder months and that’s by investing in a towel warmer. Towel warmers keep your towel nice and warm until you need them and they make for a really luxurious upgrade to your bathroom during the colder months – although they’re not exactly unwelcome the rest of the year either.
Types of towel warmers
There are two silos into which the vast majority of towel warmers can be sorted: bucket racks and warming racks. Of the two, we far prefer the former. With a bucket-style towel warmer, your towels are stored in a plastic basket with a lid. This ensures that the towels are evenly heated and keeps them warmer overall. These types of warmers are also not red hot to the touch, making them less dangerous.
Rack style towel warmers are simply less efficient at heating towels. With this type of warmer, because only a few strips of heated metal touch the towel, the heating is less even. And since they’re in the open air, they’re also less thorough. These racks also get insanely hot and the heating element is exposed, meaning you have to be careful not to touch them when they’re on. Also, many need to be hardwired to the wall, which creates some headaches during installation. On the plus side, if you plan on using your towel warmer to dry your towels, rather than just warming them before use, a rack is a better option thanks to the open-air feature mentioned above.
The best towel warmers
Keenray bucket style towel warmer
Best Bucket Style Towel Warmer
Keenray bucket style towel warmer
$146.99
$128.34 (13% off)
- Large capacity for two bath towels
- Keeps warm for up to an hour
- The round size makes it awkward to place
There are several towel warmer brands on Amazon with seemingly similar products with nearly identical features, but some hold up better than others. One of the best is Keenray, and this towel warmer sits in the “oversized” category thanks to its ability to accommodate two 40″ x 70″ towels at once.
Our tester says this towel warmer “definitely gets the job done, but it doesn’t have any wild qualities to write home about.” In other words, it keeps the advertised number of towels warm and toasty, just like it should ( it can keep them warm for up to an hour). It also includes scented discs to keep your towels smelling fresh. Our tester said that if she bought a towel warmer again, she’d get a squarer one that better fit the corner of her bathroom. She also noted that the power cord isn’t particularly long. So if you have tall outlets in your bathroom, expect to use an extension cord.
Zadro countertop towel warmer
Best compact towel warmer
Zadro countertop towel warmer
- Compact enough to fit on a countertop
- Four different timer settings
- Small size means it only holds one towel at a time
Zadro is another one of those big towel warmer brands on Amazon, and they’re the most well-known for the most part – the larger version of this warmer is the site’s best-selling towel warmer. The countertop version offers essentially the same functionality as its popular big siblings, but in a more compact size that frees up some space in your bathroom. Unlike many competitors with one-touch controls, this warmer has a second button that lets you change your heating time from four different settings ranging from 15 minutes to an hour. It also looks quite attractive with its faux wood handle and feet. However, since this is a smaller warmer, you can only fit one towel in it at a time. So if more space is needed, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Sharper image SpaStudio towel warmer
Best Slim Towel Warmer
Sharper image SpaStudio towel warmer
$249.99
$199.99 (20% off)
- The shape makes it easy to squeeze into corners
- Can still hold two bath towels
- Outside lights tell you what’s going on inside
- Only heats up for 45 minutes
Almost all bucket-style towel warmers on the market share the same basic design, but not Sharper Image’s SpaStudio. Bucking the trend for round buckets, this warmer has soft rounded corners and a slim design that makes it easy to stand up against a wall or snuggly in a corner. Despite its slim design, it still has enough space for two bath towels, and its rapid heating technology heats them up in just 10 minutes. It also has some features that are missing from lesser-known brands, like a lid that opens with just one touch and an exterior light that changes color to let you know the temperature of your towel. It even looks pretty slick thanks to its chrome-plated pen legs. Perhaps the only real downside to this towel warmer is that its auto shut-off kicks in after just 45 minutes, while most competitors can heat for an hour. In other words, you might want to skip the extra long shower with this one.
Pottery Barn Classic Towel Warmer
Best towel warmer
Pottery Barn Classic Towel Warmer
- Double as a drying rack
- Solid stainless steel construction
- Doesn’t keep your towels as warm as a bucket warmer
- Hot to the touch
If you prefer to go the rack route then the Pottery Barn Classic Towel Warmer is a solid choice. This towel warmer looks good and complements any decor style, it’s made from durable solid steel with a moisture-resistant finish and doesn’t take up too much space. Because it’s a rack, it won’t warm up your towels as well as a bucket warmer, but you can still put it to better use as it can be used as a quick drying rack for laundry. Four different sizes are available, from 18″ x 40″ up to 24″ x 60″, all of which require a hardwired connection to a 110 volt outlet.
Rejuvenation Traditional Wall Towel Warmer
Best Splurge Towel Warmer
Rejuvenation Traditional Wall Towel Warmer
$2,368.00
- Powerful enough to heat your bathroom
- Looks nice
- The installation is very complex
- Insanely expensive
Once you get past the initial sticker shock of a towel warmer costing well over two grand, you’re left with a pretty impressive device. This industrial style warming rack from Rejuvenation has actual heated liquid running through its tubes, meaning it puts out some serious heat. In fact, it gives off so much heat that it not only warms your towels (including large bath sheets), but also acts as an additional heat source in your bathroom. Turning this up during the colder months keeps your entire bathroom cozy, not just your towel, which is pretty impressive. But due to the very high cost and fairly involved installation, this isn’t the kind of impulse buy you get with other towel warmers – it’s something you should get if you’re undertaking a major bathroom renovation.
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