Basket Or Bar? Which Kind Of Towel Warmer Is The Best For Your Bathroom

One of the most uncomfortable feelings is getting out of the shower or bath to a cold bathroom and an equally cold towel. If you've ever been to a spa, high-end hotel, or resort, you may have been provided a towel warmer, which delivers incredibly cozy and perfectly warmed towels to bundle up in.

You don't have to stay at luxury resorts or spas to get this level of luxury in your daily life, though. You can purchase a towel warmer for your own bathroom and access them whenever you want for a relatively menial price. An excellent way to add extra comfort and luxury to your everyday routine for pamper nights, house guests, and so on. Towel warmers come in two primary forms — bars, typically termed as racks, which are basic towel racks with heated metal, and baskets, also known as buckets, which encompass the entirety of the towel in one heated bin. Each has its pros and cons in terms of price, aesthetics, and how much space they take up, but one model takes the cake in terms of practicality.

Towel rack warmers tend to be more affordable, don't take up as much space, and have more visual appeal, especially in vintage styles, but they're not nearly as practical or effective as bucket warmers. This comes down to how each model warms the towels. A bucket warmer insulates the entirety of the towel, enclosing it to ensure an even result and keep it warmer for longer.

Rack warmers, however, only heat the towel where the heated bars touch it. One common trick is to loop the towel over or under each rod, leaving lots of untouched towel space. Plus, once the towels are heated, they aren't insulated or enclosed like a canister warmer. Unless you use them immediately, this means they'll likely quickly cool down. Also, the actual temperatures a rack can achieve aren't nearly as hot as those provided by canisters. All in all, it's worth it to invest a little more money in a canister or bucket-style towel warmer.

Not only are canister or basket-style towel heaters better functionally, but they're also safer. If you bump into a canister warmer, you won't be burnt or even feel the heat. However, bar and rack heaters are exposed to hot metal, which can very quickly burn you on accident and quite severely, too. This makes them a very unsafe choice if you have small children or pets.

Plus, canister models are multifunctional. Racks can only heat body, hand, or face towels, whereas canisters can warm pretty much anything that safely fits inside them. This can include towels, of course, as well as blankets, shirts, sweaters, socks, and more. So, while they tend to be a bit more expensive than rack hangers, you can get a lot more use out of them. And even though they're more expensive, they aren't wildly overpriced — the Zadro model on Amazon costs $137 for a large-sized canister, for example.