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Hello. I’m in the process of remodeling the lower half of my house. My existing kitchen cabinets house a hot water radiator within a corner void. The formica top is coninuous around the corner, so the radiator really is buried in there. A 6″ spacer with a grill inserted into it was installed in the corner to allow for the hot air to escape. (Not the best solution.)
Anyhow, I’m installing a new kitchen and would like to do things right. I’ve contracted a cabinet company and they are all set to make new cabinets for the kitchen. We decided to remove the radiator and to install a toe kick heater underneath the sink base. But this is not in the scope of their supply. I’d like to learn more about toe kick heaters and where to buy one. After seeing one or hearing about them, I may try to install the heater myself. I may not. It depends on what I learn about them.
I’ve been to three local lumber yards / building supply warehouses. No one had ever heard of such a thing. I’m beginning to wonder if toe kick heaters are very rare and unusual.
If anyone can tell me anything about toe kick heaters, I’d really appreciate the info. For example? Who makes them? Where do I buy them? Do they pipe into my hot water heating system, or are they typically electric in nature? Is it the type of thing that a reasonably competant home owner could do, or is it tricky enough to warrart hiring the job out to a professional?
Any advice or experiences with them would be great. Thanks Everyone!
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Electric toe kick heaters are quite common.
Try http://www.cadetco.com/heating.html
Some one makes a hydronic "chill chaser" but I don't know who off hand.
*David,In a forced hot-water system toe-kick heaters are simply a compact loop of 1/2" copper finned tubing that winds back and forth. An aquastat that touches the tube turns on a fan or fans (depending on the size/btu output of the unit) when the water reaches a certain temperature. The fans blow air over the finned tube to extract the btus and get them into the room as quickly as possible. The units are most often piped with a diverter T off the zone loop.They can kick out a lot of btus. I have two 13K btu units in my kitchen (400 sf). They are about 30" wide by about 3 inches tall with two fans in each unit. The biggest drawback is that the fans are noisy. There is a switch for each unit that allows you to select off, low, or high for the fans. Of course off and low are quieter, but they reduce the btu output substantially.One concern I have is the longevity of the fan units. I've built the cabinets so that I can get at the units to swap out fans if needed."Toester" is the name of the unit I have. My local wholesale plumbing supply has them right in stock. Maunfactured by Turbonics, Inc. 4001 Pearl Rd, Cleveland Ohio, 44109. Phone: (216) 741-8300 Fax: (216) 741-7768. I don't know if they have a web presence.Hope this helps.Steve
*Installed an electric Nutone in the bathroom as a booster source of heat, very pleasant to have and helps reduce condensation. Wouldn't want one in the kitchen -- noisy and not very powerful (1500 watts -- like a hair dryer). But it easily heats a 40 sf bath to over 80° (I added a wall-mounted thermostat). You can purchase one for about $100, free shipping, at http://www.rinutonedistr.com/finished.htm. An electrician or educated DIY can install one; it should have its own 20 amp circuit. The Nutone can also be switched to half power (800W) easily. Fire precautions are a must.The hot water toe kick is probably a better idea, but you still have the racket of the fan. Also anything down there is going to get all kind of crud in it -- I couldn't believe how much our fridge coils with a much smaller fan had picked up in a year (Sears cleaned them for free :)). And the heat will be to focused in one part of the room, unless all you want is toasty toes at the sink. What is your primary heat source for the house? Why not bring that in?
*David,You need to look for your heater at a plumbers supply. That said I have installed one, but because of the noisey fan I took it out for the customer within a week. Never will use one again unless the noise problem is solved. I run what heat I can as near as I can to the kitchen and that has been OK so far. Will use radiant under the floor more in the near future.Prefering the sound, near the stream,J
*Andrew,I installed two of them about twelve feet apart in a room that is 30 feet long and the heat is very evenly dispersed.That said, I do hate the noise. I also have a wood stove in one end of the room. When that is fired up the whole heating zone never turns on, which is the way I planned it. The toe kicks are really just to keep the room from cooling off when the fire dies out at night.I hate forced air systems for their noise as well. I wanted to go radiant in this room, but simply could not afford it.Steve
*If electric heat is the way to go, get baseboard heaters, they're inconspicuous and work well (and can work on hot water too). Or a regular forced heater, like the ceramic tabletop heater I put in our son's room. I think the risk of fire with a toe kick heater is high so they use rapid air flow to keep it relatively cool.The noise of the toe kicks will make you unhappy. In the bathroom, we use it while the shower is running so who cares. But a kitchen in the late evening tends towards the quiet -- you'll be sitting there waiting for the thermostat to kick in.
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Hello. I'm in the process of remodeling the lower half of my house. My existing kitchen cabinets house a hot water radiator within a corner void. The formica top is coninuous around the corner, so the radiator really is buried in there. A 6" spacer with a grill inserted into it was installed in the corner to allow for the hot air to escape. (Not the best solution.)
Anyhow, I'm installing a new kitchen and would like to do things right. I've contracted a cabinet company and they are all set to make new cabinets for the kitchen. We decided to remove the radiator and to install a toe kick heater underneath the sink base. But this is not in the scope of their supply. I'd like to learn more about toe kick heaters and where to buy one. After seeing one or hearing about them, I may try to install the heater myself. I may not. It depends on what I learn about them.
I've been to three local lumber yards / building supply warehouses. No one had ever heard of such a thing. I'm beginning to wonder if toe kick heaters are very rare and unusual.
If anyone can tell me anything about toe kick heaters, I'd really appreciate the info. For example? Who makes them? Where do I buy them? Do they pipe into my hot water heating system, or are they typically electric in nature? Is it the type of thing that a reasonably competant home owner could do, or is it tricky enough to warrart hiring the job out to a professional?
Any advice or experiences with them would be great. Thanks Everyone!