Should You Buy Designer Radiators? [Questions to Ask Yourself]

Thinking about buying designer radiators for your home?

If so, that’s great! Designer radiators can be a fabulous addition to any home – big or small! However, there are probably some things you’ll need to know first.

As an experienced engineer with over 20 years fitting radiators in the Edinburgh area, I pride myself on helping my customers make the right choice for them. After all, I’d hate for people to come back to me saying they regret their choice – or even worse, say that they’re not warm enough – six months down the line!

So, if you’re on the fence about whether designer radiators are the right choice for you, here are some questions to ask yourself.

1. Do you want to add some extra style to your home?

Designer radiators can be brilliant if you want to make a statement in your home. For the most part, they’re just like adding a nice bit of furniture to a room – only more practical. So, if you’re looking for that extra special touch to make your rooms stand out, this could be it.

2. Are you aware that you’ll need more of them to heat a room?

As a general rule of thumb, designer radiators typically don’t give out the same heat as standard ones. This is a shock to some people, because they think that all radiators should be made equal. Maybe in an ideal world. Unfortunately, this means paying to have more radiators in your room to ensure it’ll get warm enough in winter.

You can check out my blog ‘Do Designer Radiators Give the Same Heat as Traditional Ones?‘ for a better idea of why you might want to think very carefully before ordering designer radiators. And if you do, be sure that you’re ordering the correct heat output for your home (more about that below).

3. Have you measured your home’s heat loss?

Because you’ll typically need more designer radiators to heat a room, it’s vitally important that your home’s heat loss is properly measured. Why? Well, it will help ensure that you’re ordering enough radiators of the correct outputs to heat your home.

TIP: This is something you can get an idea of via this  online heat calculator. However, to be completely sure, I’d recommend getting your chosen engineer to advise.

4. Did you know you might need to upgrade your pipework?

Depending on the style and type of designer radiators you’re looking to install in your home, you may need to upgrade your pipework. For instance, if you’re choosing to install vertical radiators where horizontal ones have been – and more of them – then you’ll definitely need some extra work done.

However, you may also just want to upgrade your pipework for aesthetic reasons. There are really multi-faceted reasons as to why you might need to upgrade your pipework, and I’ve explained this in a lot more detail right here.

5. What about colours – have you chosen wisely?

There are two reasons for asking this.

1. The colours you choose can affect how hot your radiators get – matte black and grey are the worst 
2. Your designer radiators will be an investment, so choose your colours wisely so if you redecorate in a few years, they’ll still look good

Remember, you can order radiators in just about any color you want (except tartan), so there’s nothing wrong with getting creative!

6. Did you know you can mix and match?

If you’re looking to make a statement in your home, there’s no hard and fast rules. Some people think they need to install the same type, style and colour of radiators in every room of their house. Wrong! You can mix it up as much as you like.

For instance, you can have grey flat panel radiators in your kitchen, but when it comes to your living room, colourful red tubular column radiators! Really, anything you want, you can have. And don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise!

Okay, good – now, here’s some advice

When it comes to designer radiators, I get customers speaking to me saying they want something different. The first thing I do is point them in the direction of these two links:

• TradeRadiators.com – and;
• TheRadiatorCompany.co.uk

This is because there’s such a vast array of choice, and it’s a very personal decision. What I like, they might think “Oh, that’s horrendous!” So, do your research, and only then come back to your engineer.

Most of the time, the radiators my customers choose end up being too small an output for the room (because designer radiators – what can you say?) and when that happens I have to advise more radiators.  It’s the worst thing thinking I might have underheated someone’s home, so I refuse to let that happen. We always need to work together to get it right.

Another big thing to mention here is when measuring for sizes of your radiators, always remember that the valves take up an extra 80mm. You don’t want the valves hanging over, and you can’t cram your radiator in without leaving space for valves at either side. Or angled valves, or vertical valves. Check with your engineer. Ensure they know the score.

Otherwise, your engineer might have to come back and break tiles or uplift part of your floor to ensure that the radiators can be fitted properly. Nightmare!

Conclusion

Thanks for reading. Since designer radiators are only just becoming a popular thing, not everyone’s aware of some of the things I’ve mentioned above. So, hopefully now you’ve come away with a better idea of some of your main considerations and questions to ask yourself before investing in designer radiators.

Do you have any questions about designer radiators? Let me know in the comments. I’m always happy to help!