An overview of how to paint a heated towel rail with your own hands

Selecting the right paint

In order for the new coating to last for more than one year, you need to choose a paint that would be suitable for the operating conditions of the heated towel rails. The same principle is also suitable for selecting a primer, which is used to pre-treat the surface.

Requirements for paintwork materials for heated towel rails

The paint must have the following properties:

• moisture resistance;
• wear resistance;
• resistance to friction, mechanical stress (shocks, chips, scratches);
• anti-corrosion;
• non-toxic;
• environmental safety;
• hypoallergenic.

Paint for finishing walls, ceilings or facades is not suitable for painting sanitary heating equipment in the bathroom. It quickly peels off and peels off. You need paint that can withstand high temperatures at all times. Some coil systems heat up from +120℃ to +180℃, others from +180℃ to +220℃. You need to buy paintwork materials that are designed to cover the surfaces of heating radiators and pipes of heating systems.

Types of primers

The most suitable primers for applying to the surface of a heated towel rail:

• GF-21;
• primer-enamel "NOVA and Co";
• Eckart.

Soil, like paint, must withstand high temperatures and their sudden changes. After priming, the paint coating lasts longer than when painting the surface of equipment without primer preparation.

Painting

If you have ever held a brush in your hands, you should not have any difficulties with painting a heated towel rail. Follow the instructions and everything will be fine.

1. Arm yourself with a brush, but only with natural bristles. This will allow you to apply layers more evenly and not leave pieces of lint on the surface.
2. Take the above paint, some old screwdriver, for example, and mix the composition with it. The mixture should be homogeneous, so stir well. It is best to do this in several approaches in order to achieve the ideal consistency.
3. Now take a brush, carefully dip it into the paint so that the composition is literally on the tip. Start painting from the top to avoid smudges. Even if the drops fall down, they can be smeared, thereby avoiding unevenness.
4. The paint is applied in at least two layers, but three is best. Each new layer is applied only after the previous one has dried. Not necessarily completely, of course. Moreover, alkyd paints have the excellent property of drying quickly, so a gap of 2-3 hours between layers is quite enough.
5. After finishing painting, leave the heated towel rail undisturbed for about 5 days so that the composition is completely absorbed into the surface of the device and dries completely.

Useful tips

Agree that useful advice is never superfluous. Despite the fact that we have already talked about the main nuances of painting a heated towel rail, there are a few more points that you should know about.

1. It is not necessary to use brushes exclusively to apply layers of paint to the surface of the dryer. There is a great device called a spray gun. This is an effective device that can provide maximum results with minimal paint consumption. The layers are applied evenly, there are no streaks, and there is a risk of leaving brush hairs on the heated towel rails, since they are not always of good quality.
2. If you purchased alkyd enamel, but it turned out to be quite thick, you should not use it in this form. Use a special solvent, which is not at all a problem to find in any hardware store. Bring the paint to the desired consistency, after which you can begin painting.
3. Do not start painting while the dryer has not yet cooled down. Also, do not turn on the device if the layers have not dried properly. We have already noted that after painting is completed, you should wait about 5 days. Therefore, the optimal time to perform such work is the end of the central heating season if you use a water heated towel rail. Then you will not depend on any deadlines, which means you will complete the task efficiently and reliably.

As you can see, painting is a fairly simple job. It’s not difficult to decide what exactly to paint.

If you are dealing with plastic dryer tubes, then you are unlikely to need to paint them. As a rule, such material is not afraid of anything except ultraviolet radiation. But if you decide to paint anyway, use any water-based compounds. For example, emulsion, silicone, dispersed or acrylic paint.

Carry out painting carefully and without haste, so that dried drops, stains, smudges and other little things do not form on the surfaces that will spoil the appearance of the device, despite the fresh layer of new coating. Such work requires delicacy and caution.

Preliminary work and preparation of tools

You need to start painting the heated towel rail after preliminary treatment of its surface. If this is not done, the paint will quickly crack, peel off, or rust will appear through the layer, and the coating will become completely unusable.

Tools, devices, related materials

To prepare the surface of the structure and paint itself, in addition to paint and varnish, you will need:

• gloves;
• putty knife;
• wire brush or piece of sandpaper;
• Screwdriver Set;
• pliers;
• flute brush – 2 pcs. (narrow and wide);
• pile roller;
• paint sprayer (if necessary);
• adhesive primer with anti-corrosion properties;
• solvent or any detergent;
• rags.

It is best to use a brush with natural bristles. Then the application and distribution of the layer will be uniform, without streaks, omissions or unsightly streaks. Instead of a brush, you can use a roller with a coat of short pile.

If pipes need to be painted quickly and evenly, then use a pneumatic device - a paint sprayer. But in this case, you need to paint the structure before its installation, or cover all adjacent areas on the wall with a special painting film. The film must be secured well. Spray primer or paint on all sides of the heated towel rail.

But the standard way to paint heated towel rails is to remove them from the wall using screwdrivers and pliers. Then the whole process is carried out - cleaning to metal, degreasing, priming, painting, complete drying. Only after this is the structure installed back in its place by screwing the screws into their original sockets.

Before painting, it is best to remove the heated towel rail with pliers and a screwdriver Source polotentse-sushitel.ru

A heated towel rail without shut-off taps is removed with an angle grinder during the non-heating season Source remboo.ru

The process of painting and drying a heated towel rail in the bathroom

The paint is applied to the already dried primer. If the adhesive layer is not dry enough, then you need to wait and do not paint the surface. The mixture of paints and varnishes is thoroughly shaken or mixed gently. Some types of enamels need to be mixed in several stages, so pay attention to the consistency of the painting product. A mass well prepared for use is homogeneous, without floating oil or other liquid.

You need to apply several layers. But between them there is always a drying interval - the previous layer must be completely dry. And not touch-sensitive, but according to the instructions included with the finishing material. Approximately each layer dries and is completely hardened in 40-60 minutes.

After the heated towel rail is completely painted, it is left to dry until completely hardened for another day. There are craftsmen who recommend letting the paint dry for at least 3, 4 or 5 days. Only after this can it be used. During drying, the level of relative humidity in the room should not exceed 50-60%. Therefore, it is recommended not to use the bathtub while the paint on the equipment is drying.

Black paint was used to paint the surface of the heated towel rail Source ad-cd.net

Step-by-step painting instructions

The technology for painting heated towel rails involves dividing the process into several stages.

1. The first stage is preparatory. Preparation of the workplace, preparation of the surface to be treated for finishing work, final painting. The surface of the dryer is tidied up, made smooth, ready for the application of the main paint layer.
2. The second stage is the main one. The heated towel rail is being finished painted. It is given a new finished look.
3. The third stage is the final one. After the dryer has completely dried, the removed items and temporarily dismantled equipment are returned to the bathroom.

Pay attention to: How long does it take for spray paint to dry, depending on its type and on different surfaces?

Surface cleaning

Many people do not take this work seriously, believing that only painting can transform the old surface of a heated towel rail. Meanwhile, it is careful preliminary cleaning that creates a beautiful shape for it. Old paint and rust are removed with sandpaper. The sagging is carefully knocked down with a metal spatula. The most difficult areas to process are pipe bends. You can use a thinner spatula. To create an ideal surface after removing sagging, rust and rough roughness, the pipes are cleaned with fine sandpaper. The result is a smooth base, ready for priming.

Cleaning the surface

Heated towel rail primer

Priming is carried out with various compositions of domestic or foreign production. German-made alkyd primers are highly popular. The most common Russian-made metal primer is GF-21. It can easily withstand high heat, making it ideal for drying. Apply a thin layer of primer. Carefully ensure that the pipework is completely covered with the primer. It should take 3-4 hours for it to dry completely.

Primer GF-021

Painting

Before you start painting, you should check the contents of the paint container. Often the paint is very thick. It is impossible to work with such material, so a solvent is added to the paint. The paint composition becomes more liquid. It becomes easy to roll out on the surface. Rolling is carried out with a roller with natural bristles. It is not recommended to use foam rollers to avoid smudges. Painting is carried out starting from difficult places. After painting hard-to-reach areas, open areas are finished.

It is important to know. The heated towel rail can only be painted when cold.

The dryer is coated with two layers of paint. If you leave one layer there will be gaps. The break between the first and second staining can be 1 hour. During this time, the paint adheres sufficiently to the surface. The last finishing layer may be the third. The main thing is to create a continuous monochromatic coating. Chrome paint for heated towel rails is one of the most popular colors. The interior of the room is being transformed. A touch of chic is added to the overall design. Many people prefer to paint the heated towel rail in the bathroom bronze. Someone has a desire to treat a metal surface to look like gold. The choice of such colors should be based on the internal background. They must fit it. The colors themselves look very beautiful and create the impression of wealth. In an ordinary classic bath, they will not harmonize with the external environment. In addition to chrome or bronze paint, greenish, blue, and beige colors create a beautiful look. It is better not to use standard white enamel in the bathroom. If at first it looks attractive, it will turn yellow over time. The probability that this will happen is very high, since the main influencing factor will be temperature fluctuations. Having finished painting, the heated towel rail is left to dry for one day. For insurance, you can wait two or three days.

The result of painting a heated towel rail

Recommendations and useful tips

Tips for painting heated towel rails:

• When removing dirt or old paint, it is important to go especially carefully with sandpaper or a wire brush along the bends and joints with wall fasteners.
• Using a spray gun (paint sprayer) you can not only distribute the paint evenly over the surface of the entire structure, but also save money - reduce the consumption of paintwork materials.
• The best period for painting an already installed heated towel rail is any time outside the heating season. The heated towel rail cannot be painted when it is hot. The enamel simply won’t lay down evenly and won’t dry properly.
• If the enamel initially seems to be too dense in consistency, you need to dilute it with a solvent suitable for the type of paint.
• Before applying enamel, you need to make sure that there is no condensation on the pipes.

If you do not remove the entire previous layer of coating, the new paint will not adhere well or will not last long. This is especially true for old chrome coating - new paintwork materials are distributed extremely poorly over it.

Using sandpaper you can quickly clean rust from pipes Source mykrasim.ru

What you need to know before starting work

Painting the heated towel rail is usually required in apartments that have not seen renovation since Soviet times. The coil itself in such a home, as a rule, is already covered with several layers of paint, which peels off at the bends. To put it in order, first of all it is necessary to remove all existing decorative coating down to the metal. This stage is required, otherwise the new paint will soon begin to peel off, and the result of the work will come to naught.

The easiest way to clean a heated towel rail is to remove it from the wall. By the way, this will also be useful for painting. Most of the time, this device is under high heat. You should not apply paint to a heated surface: it will not be able to dry properly, and after drying it will give a rather unstable coating. In addition, there is a high risk of inhaling harmful fumes during work. Therefore, the first step is to disconnect the heated towel rail from the main riser, remove it from the wall and allow it to cool.

Advice: it is worth planning painting work during seasonal outages of hot water or heating (depending on which riser the device is connected to). In this case, even if the apartment does not have a separate shut-off valve installed on the coil, there is less chance of triggering a utility accident.

Preparing the surface for painting

After the removed heated towel rail has cooled, you can begin to remove layers of old paint from it. The largest fragments are removed with a spatula. You need to act carefully, trying not to damage the metal. This is especially important if the pipe is rusted under a layer of paintwork.

We recommend that you find out what functions the electronic bidet lid for the toilet has.

Read: how to choose waterproof lamps for the bathroom.

The main part of the old decorative layer can be removed in several ways:

• manually using sandpaper;
• a grinder with a brush attachment or a grinding disc;
• chemical removers;
• hot air gun.

Regardless of the chosen method, care should be taken to ensure good ventilation of the room in which the work will be carried out. Also, do not forget about personal protective equipment. Peeling must be carried out with gloves, and when using mechanical devices, also with a respirator.

Important! Before painting a heated towel rail, you need to completely remove all the old paint and primer from it, down to the metal. If there are areas of rust on the pipe, they should be carefully sanded and then treated with a special anti-corrosion compound.

After the coil is completely cleaned, it should be wiped clean and allowed to dry. Then a primer is applied to the surface of the device on all sides and wait until it dries completely. It is best to prime with a wide brush with natural bristles, strictly ensuring that no hairs remain on the pipe during the process.

Special metal compositions designed for long-term interaction with high temperatures are used as primer. German brands of alkyd-based primer are ideal. You can find them in large construction supermarkets, for example, in Leroy Merlin, or in stores that sell paint and varnish materials for cars.

Important! The primer is applied in a thin layer, ensuring that it evenly covers the metal.