The cheapest and easiest solution to warm your bathroom would be to add the heated towel rack and a warming light/vent like the one from panasonic. I would be weary of any contractor that would try and lower your original concrete slab. Once you remove your tile and smooth down the leftover thin set, you glue or tape down the heated flooring mats/wires then cover them with SLC or mortar and let it dry. Then you install your tile or membrane as normal. The added height will be about 1/8". Are you redoing the tile outside the bathroom? Is the same type of tile?

Remodeled our master bath two years ago. Had always enjoyed towel warmers during our frequent hotel stays and decided to install one as part of the remodel. There are two basic types of warmers out there, electric and hydronic. The layout of our bathroom made it necessary to place the warmer within the entryway of the shower so an electric unit would have been a shock hazard and a hydronic unit was the only option. Next decision was whether to use an "open" or "closed" loop system. Most of the hydronic towel warmers out there are only compatible with closed loop systems. These units are less expensive then their open loop counterparts but they require a water heater or boiler and a plumbing loop that is independent of the "open" plumbing loop to your sinks, toilets, etc. If you've already got a "closed loop" hot water heating system, adding a warmer wouldn't be much of an additional investment but, since we had gas heat, the lower overall cost of an open loop installation was pretty attractive. We did quite a bit of on-line research and decided on the Myson B31-1. Myson's online documentation made it clear that the unit was acceptable for open loop installation and that the unit was guaranteed for 5 years. We connected into our existing bathroom plumbing hot water supply and added a hot water recirculation pump and a return line. This gave us the added benefit of having instant hot water when we turned on our shower. We loved the style of the unit and our warm dry towels every morning. All was great for almost two years when I noticed a small leak in one of the corner castings of the unit. Wrote to Myson seeking warranty and got the runaround for a couple of months. Finally was told that the unit suffered from "de-zincification", that this was typical in open loop installations, and that this was not covered by the warranty. We chose the unit specifically because the Myson documentation proclaimed it's suitability for open loop installation and celebrated the "de-zincification" resistance of the materials used in its construction. Also don't find any language in the Myson's warranty document defining open loop installation or dezincification as issues. So now we're the proud owners of a pricey boat anchor. Big fan of towel warmers and actively searching for a replacement but very disappointed in Myson's complete lack of support for their products and would recommend avoiding them.

I have a hydronic Runtal, not an electric, however my understanding is that Runtal makes radiators... yes towel bars, but their function is actually as radiators. That is why they have BTU ratings, so one can calculate the heat requirements and choose an appropriately sized unit. As stated on their website referring to both electric and hydronic, "Runtal towel radiators offer comfortable radiant heat in the bathroom while at the same time providing the luxury of warm, dry towels and bathrobes." BTW, my hydronic one is even a little too warm!! There is a way to calculate how many BTU's one needs... but it can be complicated.

No argument heating with electricity is the most efficient? I can't let that statement stand. Let me quote: The efficiency of any system depends on the definition of the boundaries of the system. For an electrical energy customer the efficiency of electric space heating can be 100% because all purchased energy is converted to building heat. However, if the power plant supplying electricity is included, the overall efficiency drops. For example, a fossil-fuelled power plant may only deliver 4 units of electrical energy for every 10 units of fuel energy released. (That's only 40% efficient.) Even with a 100% efficient electric heater, the amount of fuel needed for a given amount of heat is more than if the fuel was burned in a furnace or boiler at the building being heated. If the same fuel could be used for space heating by a consumer, ***it would be more efficient overall to burn the fuel at the end user's building.*** So if your goal, at the end of the day, is to produce the most heat with the least fuel, burning natural gas in a boiler at your house will win over the natural gas-steam turbine plant-electricity-back to heat at your house every time. And I'm reiterating this because there seems to be some sort of disagreement. Also, because for example on the bathrooms forum, I'm surprised at how many people I see installing radiant electric heat systems in their bathroom floors. "Don't they get it," I wonder, "how wasteful it is to heat the space this way". But if there are authoritative voices (like engineers) throwing around terms like "electric heat is 100% efficient", then I can see why they'd make such choices. It's like saying the garbage goes to zero mass after you put it out on your curb for collection and it crosses your property line. Sure, maybe it weighs zero to you once it's gone, but you have to take into account the whole cycle. Same for the electricity you use. If you're only looking at what happens inside your property line, you're not seeing the whole picture. Let's end this thread. I've fallen into one of those gardenweb black holes that I want to avoid. Future comments are welcome of course, but I may not respond, except to those pertaining to the original topic, which was steam towel warmers. Willtv, thank you for your encouraging comment.