My parents have a big long kitchen dining room that only has one medium sized radiator in the dining room. The kitchen has units on all walls so we can not add a further radiator in there. I was wondering about adding something like a Smiths Space Saver SS9 Plinth Mounted Hydronic Heater. Has anybody got any advice. It would be quite easy to install and run new pipes along the wall behind the units back into the boiler cupboard as well as getting a fused spur from there. Does anybody know how you would go on balancing the heater so it doesn’t take all the heat away from the radiators in the rest of the house, I presume you can get the equivalent of an inline lock shield valve.

I came quite close to fitting one of these. I ended up looking at one that did both electric and from the Central heating – Myson I think?

They’re thermostatic plus you can have valves on the feed pipes so impact on rest of system can be managed.

Finally found a bit of free wall space and put a tall thin rad on that and it’s generally ok. Our kitchen is a cold room though and I sometimes think about putting an electric plinth heater in to kick start the heating in the mornings. Once the room is warm does it stay warm? Just an electric one woudl be easier to install.

I did it at my old place – the heater has a small fan blowing over a radiator, with a thermostat to stop it blowing air when the heating is off.

Didn’t really seem to do anything other than keep your feet warm when standing near the sink. If you can fit a radiator of some description I think it would be more helpful.

I wouldn’t buy one again.

Does anybody know how you would go on balancing the heater so it doesn’t take all the heat away from the radiators in the rest of the house, I presume you can get the equivalent of an inline lock shield valve

Unless the current boiler does not have the available heat capacity for the plinth heater I don’t think you need to worry about that?

No expert, but I’d be surprised.