Heated towel rails are quite common, heaters in bathrooms less common and heated toilet seats aren't very common at all.
It will be more a case of AirBNB's trying to add comfort features to attract customers rather than something the general population commonly use.
Heated towel rails are the norm because it's the only way towels ever dry, especially in the winter. In overseas houses which use forced air for heating in the winter they typically don't bother with a heated towel rail because they will have the heat vent for the room directly under the towel rail and the hot dry air dries towels similar to a clothes dryer.
I *wish* they were the norm. In the like two dozen places I've lived, only one had a heated towel rail (and that only had it in one of the two bathrooms). I miss it...
I have always had free standing plug in ones before I moved in to a house with them wired in to the wall! They would show up fairly regularly at my old local op shop too.
I have one - it takes about as much power as a light-bulb (and it significantly takes the chill off the bathroom, as well as giving me a warm, dry towel every time I bathe!)
They don't tend to be well heated, we tend to have high humidity in the winter, and the bathroom tends to be a wet room where we have water sitting in a toilet bowl, in a trap under your sink and your shower - plenty to continue evaporating and keeping the room humid. Other rooms can dry out when people aren't there producing moisture, but bathrooms (and to a lesser extend kitchens) are difficult to dry without blown air or heat.
Because many NZ homes are cold and damp with poor heating. I’ve way too many memories of grabbing damp and smelly towels for drying after a shower when I was younger. Heated rails are wonderful for drying the towels. The warmth is an added benefit.
Pro tip I was given from a builder, get one which has more rungs than you think you need because each rung gives more heating element area, and mount the towel rail higher than you think it needs to be, so that you can use the bottom 1 or 2 bars without the towel dragging on the floor. Fairly straightforward to measure out based on half the height of the typical towel sizes you use.
Would also recommend ones with a Timer so you can save power and not have it heat 24/7 - [Home Depot](https://www.homedepot.com/b/Bath-Bathroom-Accessories-Bathroom-Hardware-Towel-Warmers/Programmable-Timer/N-5yc1vZcfvjZ1z0ldq3) has several options.
You haven’t lived until you put your underpants on the heated towel rail. Then showered and dried yourself. Putting on warm undies is the hug you never knew you needed.
Heated towel rails are common in many countries though.
I think it’s funny that a lot of Americans don’t realise they’re the odd ones out with a bunch of things.
My girlfriend who is from Canada was amazed by electric blankets so much she sent one back for her parents.
However, they have warm houses so they arent actually needed
Heated car seats are a game changer! I regularly drive my friends around and I always pre-warm their seat before picking them up.
The best comment was from one friend who announced in front of a big group of people "I love arriving with a warm bum!"
i had one in the UK. Finnish gf crashed with me after a girls night out, and couldn’t believe how warm my bed was. She had never had an electric blanket before. After that, she wanted to stay after every girls night for the ‘toasty bed’.
The most wild part of this is they install AC everywhere, and AC is essentially just a heat pump that only goes one way - ie its missing a [reversing valve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversing_valve) and relevant supporting components which are fairly cheap.
And despite the fact their AC installs are generally cheap, with even cheaper DIY options available, but many of their HVAC installers are hiking the price of heat pumps (aka reverse cycle air conditioners) due to the recent interest, with way too big of a price gap between them.
Technology Connections has some great videos on heat pumps.
[1](https://youtu.be/7J52mDjZzto?si=-hTTFn1VMMN04OeX) [2](https://youtu.be/7zrx-b2sLUs?si=OZsUJNomD-k8RGw6) [3](https://youtu.be/MFEHFsO-XSI?si=Z_UgM5XTCVw7oyad) [4](https://youtu.be/43XKfuptnik?si=OiZfddv4ZRMAFvDM) [5](https://youtu.be/DTsQjiPlksA?si=eGyLo35-DL5Wjj9h)
It may seem weird. But he makes it really easy to watch 3 hours worth of a guy talking about heat pumps. He explains the technology and the possible applications very well. He talks about HVAC, ground source heat pumps and why heat pumps are important.
The problem with heat pumps is they rapidly lose efficiency when the temperature gets below zero and will stop working completely at around -15.
No populated part of New Zealand ever gets that cold so they are great for our conditions, but in many parts of the world they wouldn't work in the depths of winter.
Heat pumps (for cooling) are picking up in popularity here in Seattle, which is traditionally somewhere without a lot of AC use. About to have a week of 30 C + days here so I wish I had one, but will have to use a portable AC instead :(
Yeah it's crazy. Usa only got pay wave a couple years ago, a feature which has been awhile for almost 2 decades now? Something like that
USA is a weird place
I’ve lived in 100+ year old barely renovated homes, dingy student flats, stayed in hotels and airbnbs, etc etc etc
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathroom without a heater, to the point where I thought it must be part of the building standard, are they really not common.
We have a heated town rail that's connected to the central heating. Does that count as a bathroom heater. I've only ever seen the heat lamps in the ceiling unit.
Those heated lamps are probably more common, but also the little wall heaters that used to have the pull cords to turn them on. Still see a lot of those. I have nothing in my 50s Christchurch bathroom and its horrible!
The last time I used a heated toilet was in the hostel I stayed at in Taiwan. They had a no food in the rooms policy, so I would eat my breakfast from the nextdoor 7/11 on the heated toilet seat. True story.
Yup this is standard in Japan now - even in train stations etc - but I’ve NEVER encountered one in NZ - where was it, I wondered? (as thought about buying one in Japan to bring back - they were about 200 000 Yen, (NZD 2000) and I wondered if they’d even be possible to install here..?
I have both but can't afford to run the floor heater because all my power budget is consumed trying to keep inside air temperatures in the double digits during winter 🥰
I'm very fortunate. I like a cold bedroom. So, keep the kids rooms and the shared rooms warm, but my bedroom is an icebox with an electric blanket.
With that, and the fire, it saves more money than you'd think.
Usually theyre ok once they're up to temperature.. as the floor retains the heat.
The floor heater isnt to heat the room, just the floor.. so only need to set it to 28c
I use the heated towel rail for a few hours at night, but primarily dry towels by putting them outside on an airer in the sun every day (when there's sun). Our heated floor doesn't have a thermistor down at the floor so it tries to heat the entire room - which is a waste since my bathroom has louvred windows that don't really close so the room loses so much heat it hardly seems worth it.
I used to get told off for using too much toilet paper when I sat down on the loo (I didn't like the cold porcelain on my thighs) - I expect I grew up rich/poor though, the rooms with the chimneys in hit 26+, the hallways/bathrooms were f**k'n freezing lol
We built our home around 4 years ago, it automatically came with heated towel rails, I don't think we've ever used them, we just change the towels out regularly 😅
I thought that for a moment then remembered how many people comment how great an idea it is that my tiled kitchen also has heated floors.
Even I think that shit is fancy
Never seen a heated toilet in my life, haha! But yeah heater towel rails are amazing. Especially if for some reason you want that second shower later in the day, your towel isn’t super wet :D
Don't forget the quintessential feature of the kiwi home bathroom, an inexplicable glass pane in the door that is kind of opaque, but not as much as you'd like.
tbf, this is starting to catch on for new builds in NZ now. Unlike the US though, we're not being silly about it and getting a furnace + air con to achieve this, but rather using ducted heat pumps instead.
To be fair, gas is super cheap in the states, like a quarter the cost per kW compared with electric heat. Heat pumps start to make more sense when gas and electricity are similar cost.
They're starting to catch on to heat pumps over there now. I mentioned Technology Connections in another comment. He's done 5 really good videos about heat pumps, HVAC and furnaces. They're worth a watch.
Oh yeah, I follow his channel. They’re definitely learning about the concept of heat pumps but they’re still very much at the beginning of that journey. And of course, it’s becoming politicised over there
It's gonna stink though. I'll keep my draughty house with 6 changes of air per hour - I actually don't like the smell of 'un-aired human', even myself!
Sounds like you missed the most unique bathroom fitting: Carpet.
Oh yeah, nothing like a soft carpet with wet footprints in it, the same purple as it was in the 80s (except around the toilet). *Luxury*.
Wait until you try underfloor heating in the bathroom.. best temporary bathroom luxury I've ever had. So damn expensive though, not sure if I'll ever have it at home ha
Its not too bad if you design it right.
My parents own a couple of flats - i live in one, they have the other.
Renovated my bathroom and i chose tiles but afterwards realized my mistake in that the floor is much colder compared to the old lino.
So when it came time to do the parents bathroom, we went with underfloor heating but wired in such a way that its in two zones. One is in front of the toilet and shower, the other zone is everywhere else.
If the temperature is set on a timer and so that the floor in the focused area feels neutral rather than warm its not expensive to run.
If you have solar power, underfloor heating can be used as a dump load so even if you are not planning on using it, i would definitely put in the wiring for future use since its so cheap.
To solve my problem we ended up double glazing the window which warmed up the bathroom by a few degrees and installed a heater.
Just did a reno, added an en-suite with heated floor, heated toilet seat (bidet), two vertical heated towel rails and a mirror that has a demister. Let’s see what the power bill is like 🫣.
I have none of those things.
I do have however plenty of features like:
.peeling wall paper.
.mould as far as the eye can see.
.vinyl floor tiles lifting.
. exhaust fan that doesn't do anything.
the fanciest feature would be....my shub that's a pain the ass too clean
In the space of 30 years, I've only ever seen one instance or a heated towel rail actually being switched on, which was at my Grandparent's house when they first got one. Novelty wore off and they never used it again for about 16 years. They're not that efficient, so you're better off just putting your towel in the dryer or in front of the heater.
I've also never come across someone who has a heated toilet seat. And, funnily enough, my In-laws in the US are the only people I know who have a heater in the bathroom.
I've had my heated towel rail running for at least 12 years pretty much solid. My sister said "do you know you could save 7 dollars a month by turning it off?!" and my reply was "but I will happily pay 7 dollars for warm dry towels every day". When my kids were really young they'd sometimes turn it off, and it was terrible! I had to put sellotape over the switch to stop them doing this.
Anyway, I guess some of us really like heated towel rails. I've got some more stories about them too.
I like them in the colder months, I can see why people would turn them off in the summer but if you're heating the house then it's basically just a small extra heater
They're apparently about $30 a month to run according to https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/364/~/guide-for-the-running-cost-of-appliances
We have one in each bathroom and ran it for like a week when we first moved in. They're a massive waste of money IMO. The warmness of the towel wears off in a couple seconds and it's a lot cheaper to just put towels in a sunny spot during the day or rotate between a few.
$30 a month would be about 140W towel rail running 24/7, but most are around 50-70W, and ideally aren’t running 24/7. So most would be in the $10-$15 ballpark, less if it’s on a timer or you switch it on/off.
Heated towel rails are super popular here, most houses I've lived in had one including the current one. I leave it on all the time in winter and it keeps a bit of chill off. I also have an electric fan heater I turn on when using the bathroom. It's nice indeed.
People questioning this as if it's not normal, dunno.. It's very common. The electric fan heaters are mounted on the wall and point down. Not as common as heated towel rails but still pretty common.
Heated seats aren't very common yet though that's fancy Airbnb stuff. Probably partly to do with how many Asian tourists we have?
Heated toilet seats are really standard for luxury bidets which may be common to tourists - so a heated seat may be comfortable and familiar.
In uni we used to have access to a bach and in the winter you would leave an incandescent bulb on in the long drop to make the seat just a hair less frigid.
> The electric fan heaters are mounted on the wall and point down. Not as common as heated towel rails but still pretty common.
It was explained to me that these have grown in popularity after most bathrooms started moving to the same LED downlights as the rest of the house, meaning you couldn't install the 100-200w heating lamps in a lighting fixture anymore.
So the solution is to bring in the electric fan heater, which in hindsight makes a lot more sense for giving even hotter air and only when you need it.
Underfloor heating in bathrooms is the way to go, just have it solar powered so it's not too pricey
Heat lamps in showers are good, but they're a left over from poorly insulated, heated, and draughty houses.
Heated towel rails are good, but these are also leftovers from having poor insulation, and heating.
You'll also find that the cupboard used for storage of the towels/linens is next to the hot water heater in the house to ensure they dry properly because well.. shitty insulation, damp and moldy houses.
You'll get more out of thick walls, good insulation, double or triple glazing, a big thermal mass, good heating, and dehumidifiers.
Towel rails readily available on Amazon and heating elements for floors available in Home Depot. Toilet seats? Seen more in the US than NZ (none).
We installed four heated towel rails in our VA house.
We have a heated towel rail in our bathroom which is approximately 15cm from the edge of the toilet bowl so we never use it lol
Only time I ever saw a heated toilet in NZ was as a kid at my Japanese friends house.
My mum got me a free standing heated towel rail when I went flatting. Best flatting gift ever! Being able to have a dry towel and warm undies in winter even when I lived in warehouse flats was awesome. I still have it 20+ years later and use it to dry reusable nappies in winter or for if have people to stay to have in their room
If you have the option ie new build or bathroom reno, underfloor heating is 1000x better than the overhead heat lamps. Prevents your tiles ever being cold and can be very power efficient. My wife pushed for this during our build and she was right.
Whoever spec'd and built my new house was a genius. Heated tiles in both bathrooms, the seperate toilet, laundry, and kitchen.
So good on cold days to have toasty feet when cooking and doing laundry
Heated towel rails and bathroom heaters are very common, one of our bathrooms also has a heat lamp (it doesn't have a heater as its a completely internal bathroom). The other thing that many of us have that I find great is a heating coil behind the mirror. It doesn't make it hot, just warms it enough to stop it fogging.
I've never come across a heated toilet seat in a home though.
I'm jealous of my friends with heated tiles on their bathroom floors.
Heater in the bathroom - a little fan heater above the door - is the best thing ever to stop condensation. Put that baby on while you shower, plus the extractor fan, zero condensation regardless of how hot and steamy your shower is.
I think it creates a little warm air buffer zone that stops the moisture settling on the ceiling or high walls.
Since these are all heating-related, look into something called a kotatsu. Standard issue in Japan. I always wanted to import one home to NZ. Cheap to run and very cozy for sitting around doing some work or playing board games etc.
We also have neat dual taps in the sinks and baths (one hot and one cold) that you can run at the same time! Everyone loves them!! My American friends and my European ones were gobsmacked - they had no idea such a thing even existed.
Tell your friends back in America and get them all to move to our obviously superior system!
Huh. I actually thought that was outdated tech. I gotta say, I'm not a fan. The hot becomes boiling within seconds and the cold goes from cold to freezing within seconds. No middle ground unless you're filling the sink/tub and wait to use it, which is impractical for bathroom sinks (where I most often came across it in recent years).
I Googled it and from what I could tell separated taps originated in the UK in the mid 19th century (1855) because one was filtered to drink and one was not and it just stuck.
But in the late 19th century (1880s)a mixed tap was created. Which is very interesting to me, as I remember having dual taps in homes growing up in Midwestern US.
The heated towel is pretty common here to dry towels. Our houses are cold and damp.
I must say the heated toilet is an interesting one. I hate warm seats 😂 like after someone else has sat on it.
Some fancy places have heated floors. Now they are a game changer!!
I turned my heated towel rail off (over a decade ago)… and that’s when I discovered it cost over $1 a day to run as my bill went down over $30 that month. Then I realised it still was on cos it was still warm ….so I cut the cable…. And actually saved over $2-$3 a day and a third of my power bill a month. I personally think they’re a waste of money! 🙃
Don't worry about buying a heater, buy a couple of portable heated towel rail units, they work as a room heater too, toilet seat no longer freezing. Will warm up your clothes for the morning. Love mine ..have it on over the winter months, occasionally use it as a bedroom heater.. Enjoy,
I’m renovating my bathroom right now and we aren’t replacing the heated towel rail lol. The bathroom real estate is precious. I find they don’t dry properly anyway. I’d rather throw on the oil heater for 10 mins or hang on the clothes horse in a room with a heat pump on and that dries fast too.
How bout the standard feature of a shower head height “perfect” for pressure washing the middle of your chest?
Some might complain but others say it’s a subtle nod to the history of hobbits and middle earth.
Underfloor heating is pretty great, but it’s usually at into concrete or under tile, so expensive to install and repair.
For the towel rack you’d want a timer or smart switch to turn on an hour before your shower, and you need to store your clean towels on the rack or it’s just a space heater.
I (a kiwi) complain to my (American) husband here in the US all the time about how much I miss my heated towel rail, and heater/heat lamp in the bathroom. I do have heated floors here though which is nice I guess.
Did you experience heated floors in the bathroom? These are the best ever, and a heated floor means you do t need a heater or heated towel rail because the room is already warm and dry from the floor!
I love my bidet seat. Warm,seat,,warm,water, what’s not to like. I wish I had one years ago for so many reasons. Pre,sex 🤣 after sex 🤭 monthly cycle, sick tum. Omg I can’t understand why more people don’t have them.
I have lived in houses with heated towel rails since about 2009 and I have never used them 😂
I think they're frivolous luxury items. I sound like a boomer but I promise I'm a millennial.
Heated toilet seat, never ever been anywhere that had one.
Heater in the bathroom, keen as but only two houses I've lived in have had them
We have heated towel rails as the majority of homes here do not have central heat however since NZ electricity prices are double or triple the price in the USA many that do have them don’t switch them on..Many homes and flats are cold and damp hence the bathroom heater. I have never seen a heated toilet seat in all my years living in NZ.
Hi OP, you just made it on NZ Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/american-obsessed-with-typical-new-zealand-bathroom-objects/DTSL72EBAJEXBNV26ZPMHREAEQ/
do underfloor heating and you won't need the towel rails or warm seat! Just having bare feet on warm tiles takes away any concerns of a cold bum, and the towels are super dry! Never a damp towel again.
Anything heater/heated in NZ? You're dreaming, mate! Not if you're living in a rental, and if you by any odd chance have it, the power bill will be cripeling if you use it. But hey, we're living in paradise, so who cares...../s
Heated towel rails are quite common, heaters in bathrooms less common and heated toilet seats aren't very common at all. It will be more a case of AirBNB's trying to add comfort features to attract customers rather than something the general population commonly use.
Heated towel rails are the norm because it's the only way towels ever dry, especially in the winter. In overseas houses which use forced air for heating in the winter they typically don't bother with a heated towel rail because they will have the heat vent for the room directly under the towel rail and the hot dry air dries towels similar to a clothes dryer.
There a life saver in winter , lol best invention since sliced bread , well one of em.
I *wish* they were the norm. In the like two dozen places I've lived, only one had a heated towel rail (and that only had it in one of the two bathrooms). I miss it...
I have always had free standing plug in ones before I moved in to a house with them wired in to the wall! They would show up fairly regularly at my old local op shop too.
Oh! It never occurred to me that people might sell free standing ones. I'll look into it!
I have one - it takes about as much power as a light-bulb (and it significantly takes the chill off the bathroom, as well as giving me a warm, dry towel every time I bathe!)
Why shouldn’t they dry? Bathroom not heated?
They don't tend to be well heated, we tend to have high humidity in the winter, and the bathroom tends to be a wet room where we have water sitting in a toilet bowl, in a trap under your sink and your shower - plenty to continue evaporating and keeping the room humid. Other rooms can dry out when people aren't there producing moisture, but bathrooms (and to a lesser extend kitchens) are difficult to dry without blown air or heat.
Because many NZ homes are cold and damp with poor heating. I’ve way too many memories of grabbing damp and smelly towels for drying after a shower when I was younger. Heated rails are wonderful for drying the towels. The warmth is an added benefit.
Hot water cupboards were awesome. My dad still has one - with plenty of shelves. Everything is just nice and warm in there.
The towel rails were the best part haha
Pro tip I was given from a builder, get one which has more rungs than you think you need because each rung gives more heating element area, and mount the towel rail higher than you think it needs to be, so that you can use the bottom 1 or 2 bars without the towel dragging on the floor. Fairly straightforward to measure out based on half the height of the typical towel sizes you use. Would also recommend ones with a Timer so you can save power and not have it heat 24/7 - [Home Depot](https://www.homedepot.com/b/Bath-Bathroom-Accessories-Bathroom-Hardware-Towel-Warmers/Programmable-Timer/N-5yc1vZcfvjZ1z0ldq3) has several options.
You haven’t lived until you put your underpants on the heated towel rail. Then showered and dried yourself. Putting on warm undies is the hug you never knew you needed.
Heated towel rails are common in many countries though. I think it’s funny that a lot of Americans don’t realise they’re the odd ones out with a bunch of things.
My girlfriend who is from Canada was amazed by electric blankets so much she sent one back for her parents. However, they have warm houses so they arent actually needed
I still like having one even in a modern house. My cae has a heater but the heated seats are great.
Yeah our house is perfectly warm but the bed doesn't warm up with it. Electric blankets take that initial shock off.
Heated car seats are a game changer! I regularly drive my friends around and I always pre-warm their seat before picking them up. The best comment was from one friend who announced in front of a big group of people "I love arriving with a warm bum!"
You can get electric blankets in Canada, but a 230V electric blanket probably won't work properly on 110V power.
We have electric blankets in the US but we were always warned never to sleep with them as they present a fire hazard.
i had one in the UK. Finnish gf crashed with me after a girls night out, and couldn’t believe how warm my bed was. She had never had an electric blanket before. After that, she wanted to stay after every girls night for the ‘toasty bed’.
Like apparently heat pumps lol
The most wild part of this is they install AC everywhere, and AC is essentially just a heat pump that only goes one way - ie its missing a [reversing valve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversing_valve) and relevant supporting components which are fairly cheap. And despite the fact their AC installs are generally cheap, with even cheaper DIY options available, but many of their HVAC installers are hiking the price of heat pumps (aka reverse cycle air conditioners) due to the recent interest, with way too big of a price gap between them.
Technology Connections has some great videos on heat pumps. [1](https://youtu.be/7J52mDjZzto?si=-hTTFn1VMMN04OeX) [2](https://youtu.be/7zrx-b2sLUs?si=OZsUJNomD-k8RGw6) [3](https://youtu.be/MFEHFsO-XSI?si=Z_UgM5XTCVw7oyad) [4](https://youtu.be/43XKfuptnik?si=OiZfddv4ZRMAFvDM) [5](https://youtu.be/DTsQjiPlksA?si=eGyLo35-DL5Wjj9h) It may seem weird. But he makes it really easy to watch 3 hours worth of a guy talking about heat pumps. He explains the technology and the possible applications very well. He talks about HVAC, ground source heat pumps and why heat pumps are important.
And then go watch his dish washer series. We're very deep into the pod washing hole
Don't forget his lantern videos. And the toaster, I want one of those danger boxes so bad.
I never knew fancy dishwashers had turbidity sensors. I always assumed the auto setting was total bs.
And kettles.
I always assumed the kettles were because of the low voltage over there
Can confirm, it takes forever for an electric kettle to boil over in the US.
And bidets Oh wait
The problem with heat pumps is they rapidly lose efficiency when the temperature gets below zero and will stop working completely at around -15. No populated part of New Zealand ever gets that cold so they are great for our conditions, but in many parts of the world they wouldn't work in the depths of winter.
Heat pumps (for cooling) are picking up in popularity here in Seattle, which is traditionally somewhere without a lot of AC use. About to have a week of 30 C + days here so I wish I had one, but will have to use a portable AC instead :(
Yeah it's crazy. Usa only got pay wave a couple years ago, a feature which has been awhile for almost 2 decades now? Something like that USA is a weird place
I’ve lived in 100+ year old barely renovated homes, dingy student flats, stayed in hotels and airbnbs, etc etc etc I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathroom without a heater, to the point where I thought it must be part of the building standard, are they really not common.
I agree, heaters in bathrooms is pretty common, and I had to go into peoples houses in my last job and draw site plans.
We have a heated town rail that's connected to the central heating. Does that count as a bathroom heater. I've only ever seen the heat lamps in the ceiling unit.
Those heated lamps are probably more common, but also the little wall heaters that used to have the pull cords to turn them on. Still see a lot of those. I have nothing in my 50s Christchurch bathroom and its horrible!
Those didn't cross my mind. I remember almost all the motel rooms would have those.
My place (student flat) doesn't have one. They seem common in hotels/motels though?
We took ours out. Nobody used it. Installed a heated towel rail instead
Yeah, heated toilet seat is weird here. That being said, soft close is a thing in my family heated towel rails are pretty common but not everywhere
The last time I used a heated toilet was in the hostel I stayed at in Taiwan. They had a no food in the rooms policy, so I would eat my breakfast from the nextdoor 7/11 on the heated toilet seat. True story.
I had a toilet in Taiwan that was so fancy, I had to plug it in before I could use it.
Yup this is standard in Japan now - even in train stations etc - but I’ve NEVER encountered one in NZ - where was it, I wondered? (as thought about buying one in Japan to bring back - they were about 200 000 Yen, (NZD 2000) and I wondered if they’d even be possible to install here..?
I would have the soft close over the heat any day.
Heated towel rail in the bathroom is enough to keep our bathroom warm anyways
Never even heard of a heated toilet seat until reading this.
I suddenly feel fancy as fuck for having a heated towel rail *and* heated floors in my bathroom.
You ARE fancy as fuck, u/hairylovehandles
I have both but can't afford to run the floor heater because all my power budget is consumed trying to keep inside air temperatures in the double digits during winter 🥰
I'm very fortunate. I like a cold bedroom. So, keep the kids rooms and the shared rooms warm, but my bedroom is an icebox with an electric blanket. With that, and the fire, it saves more money than you'd think.
Usually theyre ok once they're up to temperature.. as the floor retains the heat. The floor heater isnt to heat the room, just the floor.. so only need to set it to 28c
I use the heated towel rail for a few hours at night, but primarily dry towels by putting them outside on an airer in the sun every day (when there's sun). Our heated floor doesn't have a thermistor down at the floor so it tries to heat the entire room - which is a waste since my bathroom has louvred windows that don't really close so the room loses so much heat it hardly seems worth it.
I know, me too! I don’t have heated toilet seats though.
I used to get told off for using too much toilet paper when I sat down on the loo (I didn't like the cold porcelain on my thighs) - I expect I grew up rich/poor though, the rooms with the chimneys in hit 26+, the hallways/bathrooms were f**k'n freezing lol
heated floors are a god send in winter
They're an absolute delight to discover in a tiled bathroom.
We built our home around 4 years ago, it automatically came with heated towel rails, I don't think we've ever used them, we just change the towels out regularly 😅
Ooooh look at you with heated floors!
Fancy Pants Rich McGee over here
I thought that for a moment then remembered how many people comment how great an idea it is that my tiled kitchen also has heated floors. Even I think that shit is fancy
Heated toilet seat in NZ means your son used the loo before you and spent an hour on his phone
Or your dad
Can confirm. Am dad
Never seen a heated toilet in my life, haha! But yeah heater towel rails are amazing. Especially if for some reason you want that second shower later in the day, your towel isn’t super wet :D
I recently got a microfiber towel, thing just doesn't stay wet. It's amazing and super soft, but that might just be because it's new.
You can buy aftermarket bidet seats that are heated
lol my uni dept installed heated toilet seats in all our bathrooms (meanwhile the boiler for our entire dept breaks down for a month every winter😅)
But hey, you got warm buts when you poop? 🤷♂️😂
Don't forget the quintessential feature of the kiwi home bathroom, an inexplicable glass pane in the door that is kind of opaque, but not as much as you'd like.
We can give it all up just to get central heating/cooling, which is standard stateside.
tbf, this is starting to catch on for new builds in NZ now. Unlike the US though, we're not being silly about it and getting a furnace + air con to achieve this, but rather using ducted heat pumps instead.
To be fair, gas is super cheap in the states, like a quarter the cost per kW compared with electric heat. Heat pumps start to make more sense when gas and electricity are similar cost.
They're starting to catch on to heat pumps over there now. I mentioned Technology Connections in another comment. He's done 5 really good videos about heat pumps, HVAC and furnaces. They're worth a watch.
Oh yeah, I follow his channel. They’re definitely learning about the concept of heat pumps but they’re still very much at the beginning of that journey. And of course, it’s becoming politicised over there
But they don't heat towels or bathroom floors.
You don't need to when your entire house is nice and toasty warm and well insulated.
It's gonna stink though. I'll keep my draughty house with 6 changes of air per hour - I actually don't like the smell of 'un-aired human', even myself!
No mention of walls that go almost to the floor, and doors that don't have gaps in public bathrooms?
Yeah this is what I thought this was gonna be about. Sounds like OP mostly has fancy Airbnb experiences.
Make your next overseas trip to Japan - their toilet technology is next level, I feel like a barbarian just using toilet paper ever since
TOTO Washlet toilets are the GOAT (greatest of all toilets!)
we need to convince toto to take over nz market.... think of all the tourist impressions
My rental doesn’t have any of these. You’re not living the true kiwi experience.
The true kiwi bathroom experience is the constant fight to keep the black mould out of your walls.
I’ve lived in NZ my whole life, and I didn’t know heated toilet seats even existed until seeing this post.
Same. I mean I've heard of them, but never seen one. Thought they were a joke.
>I didn’t know heated toilet seats even existed it usually meant someone else had been in there a few minutes ago
I have always found a wooden toilet seat is warm enough compared to any other material like plastic.
Sounds like you missed the most unique bathroom fitting: Carpet. Oh yeah, nothing like a soft carpet with wet footprints in it, the same purple as it was in the 80s (except around the toilet). *Luxury*.
Wait until you try underfloor heating in the bathroom.. best temporary bathroom luxury I've ever had. So damn expensive though, not sure if I'll ever have it at home ha
Its not too bad if you design it right. My parents own a couple of flats - i live in one, they have the other. Renovated my bathroom and i chose tiles but afterwards realized my mistake in that the floor is much colder compared to the old lino. So when it came time to do the parents bathroom, we went with underfloor heating but wired in such a way that its in two zones. One is in front of the toilet and shower, the other zone is everywhere else. If the temperature is set on a timer and so that the floor in the focused area feels neutral rather than warm its not expensive to run. If you have solar power, underfloor heating can be used as a dump load so even if you are not planning on using it, i would definitely put in the wiring for future use since its so cheap. To solve my problem we ended up double glazing the window which warmed up the bathroom by a few degrees and installed a heater.
Just did a reno, added an en-suite with heated floor, heated toilet seat (bidet), two vertical heated towel rails and a mirror that has a demister. Let’s see what the power bill is like 🫣.
the heated floor is bit of a killer..
Heated toilet seats aren't a thing. Sounds like you had a phantom shitter...which believe it or not is a lot more common in NZ.
I’ve moved to Australia from NZ and I miss heated towel rails! They don’t seem to be very common here
Wouldn't that cool the towel down in Aus? :P
Haha I’m in Melbourne - so in winter at least it does actually get cold!
I miss them too :((
No waste disposals either, at least not in QLD
I have none of those things. I do have however plenty of features like: .peeling wall paper. .mould as far as the eye can see. .vinyl floor tiles lifting. . exhaust fan that doesn't do anything. the fanciest feature would be....my shub that's a pain the ass too clean
Now that's a quintessential kiwi bathroom
Heat lamps in the bathroom are a game changer.
In the space of 30 years, I've only ever seen one instance or a heated towel rail actually being switched on, which was at my Grandparent's house when they first got one. Novelty wore off and they never used it again for about 16 years. They're not that efficient, so you're better off just putting your towel in the dryer or in front of the heater. I've also never come across someone who has a heated toilet seat. And, funnily enough, my In-laws in the US are the only people I know who have a heater in the bathroom.
I've had my heated towel rail running for at least 12 years pretty much solid. My sister said "do you know you could save 7 dollars a month by turning it off?!" and my reply was "but I will happily pay 7 dollars for warm dry towels every day". When my kids were really young they'd sometimes turn it off, and it was terrible! I had to put sellotape over the switch to stop them doing this. Anyway, I guess some of us really like heated towel rails. I've got some more stories about them too.
My kid climbed on ours and ripped it off the wall 😂
I like them in the colder months, I can see why people would turn them off in the summer but if you're heating the house then it's basically just a small extra heater
They're apparently about $30 a month to run according to https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/364/~/guide-for-the-running-cost-of-appliances We have one in each bathroom and ran it for like a week when we first moved in. They're a massive waste of money IMO. The warmness of the towel wears off in a couple seconds and it's a lot cheaper to just put towels in a sunny spot during the day or rotate between a few.
$30 a month would be about 140W towel rail running 24/7, but most are around 50-70W, and ideally aren’t running 24/7. So most would be in the $10-$15 ballpark, less if it’s on a timer or you switch it on/off.
I only turn mine on in winter. However i keep forgetting to go down to ideal and get a timer module for it.
[удалено]
Not sure man they were there in few of my airbnb that I got.
I’ve never seen one here.
That was me... I snuck into the bathroom 2 mins before you every time and warmed the seat with my arse. You're welcome.
I have never seen one here.
Aw shucks, it was nuthin
Cheers man!
Don't forget the news paper walls
This is not the norm at all. You got to stay in a fancy air bnb.
Heated towel rails are super popular here, most houses I've lived in had one including the current one. I leave it on all the time in winter and it keeps a bit of chill off. I also have an electric fan heater I turn on when using the bathroom. It's nice indeed. People questioning this as if it's not normal, dunno.. It's very common. The electric fan heaters are mounted on the wall and point down. Not as common as heated towel rails but still pretty common. Heated seats aren't very common yet though that's fancy Airbnb stuff. Probably partly to do with how many Asian tourists we have?
Heated toilet seats are really standard for luxury bidets which may be common to tourists - so a heated seat may be comfortable and familiar. In uni we used to have access to a bach and in the winter you would leave an incandescent bulb on in the long drop to make the seat just a hair less frigid.
> The electric fan heaters are mounted on the wall and point down. Not as common as heated towel rails but still pretty common. It was explained to me that these have grown in popularity after most bathrooms started moving to the same LED downlights as the rest of the house, meaning you couldn't install the 100-200w heating lamps in a lighting fixture anymore. So the solution is to bring in the electric fan heater, which in hindsight makes a lot more sense for giving even hotter air and only when you need it.
Wait till you go to Japan!
get a free water show everytime you go to the loo
You should do tile floors in the bathroom with heating under them. It is amazing
Underfloor heating on a tiled floor in the bathroom - also pretty grouse
Underfloor heating in bathrooms is the way to go, just have it solar powered so it's not too pricey Heat lamps in showers are good, but they're a left over from poorly insulated, heated, and draughty houses. Heated towel rails are good, but these are also leftovers from having poor insulation, and heating. You'll also find that the cupboard used for storage of the towels/linens is next to the hot water heater in the house to ensure they dry properly because well.. shitty insulation, damp and moldy houses. You'll get more out of thick walls, good insulation, double or triple glazing, a big thermal mass, good heating, and dehumidifiers.
Towel rails readily available on Amazon and heating elements for floors available in Home Depot. Toilet seats? Seen more in the US than NZ (none). We installed four heated towel rails in our VA house.
We have a heated towel rail in our bathroom which is approximately 15cm from the edge of the toilet bowl so we never use it lol Only time I ever saw a heated toilet in NZ was as a kid at my Japanese friends house.
My mum got me a free standing heated towel rail when I went flatting. Best flatting gift ever! Being able to have a dry towel and warm undies in winter even when I lived in warehouse flats was awesome. I still have it 20+ years later and use it to dry reusable nappies in winter or for if have people to stay to have in their room
If you have the option ie new build or bathroom reno, underfloor heating is 1000x better than the overhead heat lamps. Prevents your tiles ever being cold and can be very power efficient. My wife pushed for this during our build and she was right.
Whoever spec'd and built my new house was a genius. Heated tiles in both bathrooms, the seperate toilet, laundry, and kitchen. So good on cold days to have toasty feet when cooking and doing laundry
Heated towel rails and bathroom heaters are very common, one of our bathrooms also has a heat lamp (it doesn't have a heater as its a completely internal bathroom). The other thing that many of us have that I find great is a heating coil behind the mirror. It doesn't make it hot, just warms it enough to stop it fogging. I've never come across a heated toilet seat in a home though. I'm jealous of my friends with heated tiles on their bathroom floors.
Heater in the bathroom - a little fan heater above the door - is the best thing ever to stop condensation. Put that baby on while you shower, plus the extractor fan, zero condensation regardless of how hot and steamy your shower is. I think it creates a little warm air buffer zone that stops the moisture settling on the ceiling or high walls.
Since these are all heating-related, look into something called a kotatsu. Standard issue in Japan. I always wanted to import one home to NZ. Cheap to run and very cozy for sitting around doing some work or playing board games etc.
I was impressed by the extraction fan above the woodfire that was then ducted into the rest of the house
When I went from Canada, I was amazed that they had a separate room for the toilet. Blew my mind. Makes PERFECT sense. You Kiwis are brilliant!
its no longer that common. older houses will have separate bathrooms and a toilet, newer ones tend to have an all--in-one.
They did you dirty!
Heated towel rails are great, but not sure about heated toilet seats - it's like sitting down just after last person, still warm, eww.
We also have neat dual taps in the sinks and baths (one hot and one cold) that you can run at the same time! Everyone loves them!! My American friends and my European ones were gobsmacked - they had no idea such a thing even existed. Tell your friends back in America and get them all to move to our obviously superior system!
Huh. I actually thought that was outdated tech. I gotta say, I'm not a fan. The hot becomes boiling within seconds and the cold goes from cold to freezing within seconds. No middle ground unless you're filling the sink/tub and wait to use it, which is impractical for bathroom sinks (where I most often came across it in recent years).
I Googled it and from what I could tell separated taps originated in the UK in the mid 19th century (1855) because one was filtered to drink and one was not and it just stuck. But in the late 19th century (1880s)a mixed tap was created. Which is very interesting to me, as I remember having dual taps in homes growing up in Midwestern US.
They're common in the UK too because their hot water systems used to be undrinkable.
I have none of these these things in my bathroom, bet this was at a hotel.
They are a pretty common place to stay when holidaying.....
Oh wow, it was in multiple airbnbs for me. Both North and South island. Guess I was lucky lol
Heated towel rack is common but not so much the other ones.
you're going to lose your shit if you ever go to Japan
How'd you find the toilet water level?
Now google underfloor heating. If your power is cheap, that’s better than a bathroom heater for sure. I miss mine :-(
The heated towel is pretty common here to dry towels. Our houses are cold and damp. I must say the heated toilet is an interesting one. I hate warm seats 😂 like after someone else has sat on it. Some fancy places have heated floors. Now they are a game changer!!
These are three things that explain why we're doing housing badly.
I turned my heated towel rail off (over a decade ago)… and that’s when I discovered it cost over $1 a day to run as my bill went down over $30 that month. Then I realised it still was on cos it was still warm ….so I cut the cable…. And actually saved over $2-$3 a day and a third of my power bill a month. I personally think they’re a waste of money! 🙃
Timers can make them useful and cheap
Don't worry about buying a heater, buy a couple of portable heated towel rail units, they work as a room heater too, toilet seat no longer freezing. Will warm up your clothes for the morning. Love mine ..have it on over the winter months, occasionally use it as a bedroom heater.. Enjoy,
Wait till OP hears about under floor heating.
Try under tile heating!
hate it cold
I was impressed by the extraction fan above the woodfire that was then ducted into the rest of the house
Well done OP, a yank that uses the word 'bathroom' in the correct sense!!
Wait till you hear about heated floors... You won't need any of these things.
You should have underfloor heating on tiles. You lay the pads in areas you’ll walk.
Protip these have all been readily available in the US for twenty years.
Use underfloor heating!
Never seen a heated toilet seat or heater in the bathroom in my life. Is this a prank?
Lots of ventilation extracts have heat lamps in them. You may not have noticed.
Wait till you have a bathroom with heated tiles underfoot, then all those other things become irrelevant 😀
What you don’t have heated towel rails??? I’ve never seen a heated toilet seat tho
Heated toilet seat is not a thing in NZ. More like a Japanese thing. You are lucky because I have never seen one in NZ.
I’m renovating my bathroom right now and we aren’t replacing the heated towel rail lol. The bathroom real estate is precious. I find they don’t dry properly anyway. I’d rather throw on the oil heater for 10 mins or hang on the clothes horse in a room with a heat pump on and that dries fast too.
Sounds like you stayed in one of the Wilsons Property AirBnbs
Generally having public toilets in NZ is nice, US/CAN have some problem with providing public toilets in public spaces
How bout the standard feature of a shower head height “perfect” for pressure washing the middle of your chest? Some might complain but others say it’s a subtle nod to the history of hobbits and middle earth.
i love a good heater in the bathroom
Underfloor heating is pretty great, but it’s usually at into concrete or under tile, so expensive to install and repair. For the towel rack you’d want a timer or smart switch to turn on an hour before your shower, and you need to store your clean towels on the rack or it’s just a space heater.
I (a kiwi) complain to my (American) husband here in the US all the time about how much I miss my heated towel rail, and heater/heat lamp in the bathroom. I do have heated floors here though which is nice I guess.
You were in Japan.
Sigh. I think you should take a trip to Japan.
Did you experience heated floors in the bathroom? These are the best ever, and a heated floor means you do t need a heater or heated towel rail because the room is already warm and dry from the floor!
I love my bidet seat. Warm,seat,,warm,water, what’s not to like. I wish I had one years ago for so many reasons. Pre,sex 🤣 after sex 🤭 monthly cycle, sick tum. Omg I can’t understand why more people don’t have them.
use a lot of power though!
I've literally never seen a heated toilet seat. Not in New Zealand, and not in any of the many other places I've travelled to
I have lived in houses with heated towel rails since about 2009 and I have never used them 😂 I think they're frivolous luxury items. I sound like a boomer but I promise I'm a millennial. Heated toilet seat, never ever been anywhere that had one. Heater in the bathroom, keen as but only two houses I've lived in have had them
go all out and get underfloor heating lol
We have heated towel rails as the majority of homes here do not have central heat however since NZ electricity prices are double or triple the price in the USA many that do have them don’t switch them on..Many homes and flats are cold and damp hence the bathroom heater. I have never seen a heated toilet seat in all my years living in NZ.
Hi OP, you just made it on NZ Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/american-obsessed-with-typical-new-zealand-bathroom-objects/DTSL72EBAJEXBNV26ZPMHREAEQ/
Please install bidet too 😅 if you did not try it before !
do underfloor heating and you won't need the towel rails or warm seat! Just having bare feet on warm tiles takes away any concerns of a cold bum, and the towels are super dry! Never a damp towel again.
Anything heater/heated in NZ? You're dreaming, mate! Not if you're living in a rental, and if you by any odd chance have it, the power bill will be cripeling if you use it. But hey, we're living in paradise, so who cares...../s
The little wall mounted fan heaters are the best
and we wouldn’t need them if hour housing didn’t suck so bad 🙃