I can tell you that my heated towl rack has made my showers more enjoyable and all while saving me laundry and time.

We sit down and explore why they make sense and the latest in technology with Amba products.

To find out more: https://ambaproducts.com/

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard

For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/

Baldwin Hardware

Baldwin Hardware

[00:00:05] Harris Wattles: You know, if you're a household of four people, you know, you're probably going through at least two towels per person per week. That's an entire load of laundry of towels a week that you have to wash. If you can use a single towel a whole week, you cut your laundry loads in half, um, right off the bat.

[00:00:39] Harris Wattles: You know, you can't put a, a dollar value on time. Um, so it, not only is it the cost savings, but I mean, for me, laundry is a ban of my existence. And I will literally leave my laundry, whether it's towels or clothes in the dryer or in the hamper until I don't have anything in my drawer to pull up, pull out.

[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you through your home, through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. We're gonna heat things up a little bit today and uh, I can say this as I'm a firm believer cause I have one in my house.

[00:01:30] Harris Wattles: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Eric.

[00:01:57] Harris Wattles: Yeah, it's uh, it's quite a. [00:02:00] I don't know if I'd say revolutionary product, but it's, it's certainly something as you, you kind of nailed it right on the head. That'll change your, your morning, your bathing routine. Uh, I don't know if I'd go so far as to say your life, uh, but, um, you know, it's, it's really something that a lot of people don't know what they're missing until they've experienced it and then they kind of have that aha moment where they're like, holy crap, how have I lived my life this long without this product?

[00:02:50] Eric Goranson: Nice. Harris, let's talk about you for just a second. What's your role there? Uh, so

[00:03:11] Harris Wattles: Um, and, uh, get involved with our operations manager with purchasing, um, And, and just, you know, people managing, making sure the team is, is operating and, and full force and everybody's happy. And, uh, you know, we're doing the best we can to provide the greatest product and service, uh, support to our customers and their clients.

[00:03:37] Peter Manidis: man. Yes, sir. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Uh, myself, I work, uh, I do basically anything from marketing to visualization, so any of the, the photography, the renderings, uh, all the way to the website to, uh, supporting the sales staff, uh, you know, through web scraping and, and for data collection present, you know, basically anything that touches a graphic design, marketing, uh, you know, small [00:04:00] business.

[00:04:21] Peter Manidis: So we've known each other for a long time. Um, so, you know, it's, we have stories then. Oh, absolutely. Uh, way too many. Um, but, um, you know, it's, it's great to have that, uh, especially when something, uh, we're all sort of passionate. We all kind of. Uh, experience this with our own towel rack. So, you know, once you get used to it, we sort of say, uh, having going without one is really, it's, it's definitely a first world problem as they say, uh, you know, yeah.

[00:04:59] Eric Goranson: funny, [00:05:00] it's like heated seats in a car once you've had it. You feel like you get robbed anytime you don't have it?

[00:05:06] Harris Wattles: Exactly. I kind of, uh, you know, correlate towel warmers to, you know, more in the same kind of industry to the bide toilet seats in the heated toilet seats that, that people are going for. And it's, you know, people are like, oh, I don't need a bidet. I've, you know, I've used a regular toilet for my entire life and Americans have used regular toilets for, for generations.

[00:05:41] Eric Goranson: guilty is charged by the way,

[00:05:50] Eric Goranson: that the Americans have a fear of the to of the Bday toilet seed. There is a honest to God fear of there's buttons and this thing looks like it could eat me. [00:06:00]

[00:06:16] Peter Manidis: But it's also something that we interact with every day. I mean, towel racks, uh, you know, we've had towel bars of all, so it's, it's something that you've never really thought to be like, you know, is there a better option? Is there something that's more modern, more, uh, you know, has benefits built into it and can really work for me versus, you know, we use our towels every day.

[00:06:46] Peter Manidis: Um, and you know, you, if you didn't know that you could be helping out your towel by putting it on a heated rack, you know, you're, that's a whole new world of possibility and, and benefits that you don't even know exist. So once you do, it's sort of, if you open the floodgates and, uh, you're like, wow, I, [00:07:00] I.

[00:07:18] Peter Manidis: Shower in the mornings and the night and you know, sometimes that towels still Dr. Damp in the morning and talk about, you know, you're starting off your

[00:07:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Before that towel could be easily damped. The late afternoon Yeah. From the shower in the morning. Or I'll get home and I'll want to take a steam shower, and I sit there and oh my gosh, I just, I just got beat today and, and having a cool damp towel is not good. And what I'm gonna do, wash it every day.

[00:08:05] Harris Wattles: changer. Absolutely. And that's something that we, we try to push a lot when we're, we're talking to customers and, and end users and, and just educate the, the general public about it is, you know, it costs a lot of money.

[00:08:35] Harris Wattles: Cut your laundry loads in half, um, right off the bat. And so, you know, an average tile warmer is like 150 watts, so it's like two or three incandescent light bulbs. Compare that to, uh, you know, dryers are somewhere between what, like two to 5,000 watts on average. And then you've got your washing machines and then, For me, on top of that, it's, it's the time.

[00:09:13] Harris Wattles: I don't have anything in my drawers to pull out, pull out necessity. If I can save, save that time and, and not have to do that thing that I really dislike, um, you know, I will do everything that I can to, uh, avoid it. So,

[00:09:35] Eric Goranson: If you're that person that takes two showers a day, you need to have one of these. Absolutely. And. And it's gonna save you money in the long run. Just plant it into your project. It's not that hard to bring electrical over really. An electrician can do it if you're not capable. It can be done. It's just drywall, you know?

[00:09:57] Harris Wattles: Yeah. And it's, it's regular, you know, 1 10, [00:10:00] 1 20 volt circuits. It doesn't need dedicated or it doesn't need a dedicated circuit. So, um, Like you said, it doesn't require anything fancy besides an electrical, um, supply, which, you know, yeah. Is very easy to run.

[00:10:31] Eric Goranson: They forget to run power for the toilet. Yep. They forget to run it for the tile warmer. And it's so inexpensive when you're doing it. Whether or not you're going to do it now, bring it in, put an outlet there if you have to. Yep. But just, you know, it's so simple to do it when the walls are open and, uh, there's.

[00:10:58] Harris Wattles: absolutely. And, uh, [00:11:00] to, to your point that you made earlier, as far, you know, showering twice a day.

[00:11:23] Harris Wattles: Um, so, so having that towel on a. Heated tower rack dries it out. Um, we actually found a, um, a scientific lab in Houston. Uh, I think this was last year. Um, we've been, we'd always talked about the benefits of towel warmers from a health standpoint. Um, sure. Didn't really necessarily have. Hard facts to back it up.

[00:12:00] Harris Wattles: And what we found after three days of regular use, daily use, uh, the towels that were dried on the heat of tower rack had a 94% reduction in bacteria growth. Compared to the towels that were on the non-heated or equivalent to a towel bar. Um, and then after seven days, it was a 99% reduction bacteria growth on the towels that were dried, heated towel rack.

[00:12:41] Harris Wattles: Viruses and bacterias and just their overall health and wellness. Um, they don't necessarily think about their towels as being a, a contributor to, you know, potential harmful effects. Certainly if you have respiratory issues, that musty funky smell that you smell on your towel after two or three days of use, that's bacteria growth and that [00:13:00] can give all, you know.

[00:13:19] Harris Wattles: Um, so

[00:13:35] Harris Wattles: Nasty.

[00:13:39] Peter Manidis: I've just used shampoo and, and soap. I'm fine. My towel doesn't need to. You still have oils, skin cells and all that kind of stuff that makes this this delicious biological cocktail that bacteria feed off of. So, I mean, you, you might be the cleanest person in the world, but. That towel, if it's sitting there, it is a perfect Petri dish for bacteria.

[00:14:19] Peter Manidis: The, the, I I would say, you know, from a, a, a boundary standpoint where people look at this when people do not understand that they can do all these things, they look at the price tag and they say, well, this is a couple hundred dollars. You know, this is just a rack. And it's really, once you say, well, no, it's pre, you know, before you shower, it's, it is your towels gonna get it warm.

[00:14:54] Peter Manidis: And then, you know, it's, it's sort of like a, exactly like the Bday toilet. It's like, how did we live without this, you know? Uh, [00:15:00] exactly. Pretty

[00:15:15] Eric Goranson: This really has a beautiful decorative look, different styles for every home, and then you guys have the finishes to

[00:15:38] Harris Wattles: Contemporary modern square bars, uh, which is what you put in your home, um, you know, to transitional with round bars to more traditional that have like finial accents. Um, you know, so we've got quite a variety of styles. Um, but I think right now, even more important than, than styles, as finishes, finishes right now is, is kind of the name of the game in the industry.

[00:16:21] Harris Wattles: Um, and kind of a, a unique thing about us is we can also do custom finishes. So whether it's, ah, what they call in Europe, ral color codes, which is the equivalent to Pantone color codes here. So, mm-hmm. Basically any color of the rainbow. Um, But we can also color match other manufacturers' finishes. So if you're working with another manufacturer on your shower heads and faucets and, and you know, whatnot, other, um, fixtures in the bathroom, we can color match, uh, a towel warmer to match or accent, um, the rest of those fixtures.

[00:17:00] Eric Goranson: the problem Harris out there is, is that every company out there that's making fixtures, Decided to come out and go, we're gonna have our own color. So it's, you know, let's, I'll throw Brizo out there as an example cuz they're one of them.

[00:17:39] Eric Goranson: You almost better to go to a a two-tone color. Yeah. Which, Isn't optimal.

[00:17:58] Harris Wattles: That was just a, a [00:18:00] calamity of, of different colors and variations. Let's try to put some kind of. Structural organ organization behind these finishes. But, but no, every brand, you know, has to have their, their own way of doing things. Um,

[00:18:19] Peter Manidis: It just sort of, oh, this reminds me of honey. So it's, this is honey bronze now, so good luck if you have a different kind of honey out there, uh, you know. Tough luck. Uh, this is my interpretation and we're sticking with it. So yeah, paint colorization, it's like everybody has a,

[00:18:34] Eric Goranson: Everybody. If you go to a paint store, everybody's got a different name for everything. It could be the exact same colors, but it's

[00:18:56] Harris Wattles: So that's, that's something that's unique and sets us [00:19:00] apart from many of our, our competitors in the, in the market.

[00:19:15] Eric Goranson: You know, for the master, for instance, which is probably the most common place, or, or even if you've got kids that hall, that hall bathroom for all the kids. Cuz you've got three kids running through tubs every night. You're just trying to keep everything clean. What's the best way to start with

[00:19:33] Harris Wattles: Coming up with an approximate size for the unit. Um, you need to know based upon where, well, first of all, to your very original point is electricity. You gotta make sure where you're gonna put it. There's electricity, because no matter how hard you try, if there's not electricity, unless you're some wizard that you, you haven't shared your, you know, special features with us.

[00:19:54] Peter Manidis: Tesla, Tesla's secret, acdc.

[00:20:17] Harris Wattles: Very modern and contemporary. You're gonna want some kind of clean, straight lines and, and sharp edges, or you bit more transitional or traditional. Um, and then finish. So those are. Initial point that, that I would start with is, is the size, the style, and the finish. Um, you know, on our website we've got, um, nine different collections.

[00:20:53] Harris Wattles: Um, then you can kind of drill down into that specific collection and we'll show you all of the different sizes [00:21:00] that we offer. Um, and then you can kind of start going through the sizes, seeing, okay, what's gonna fit best for not only the space that you're looking or that you have to work with, but also how many towels or how many people are going to use this towel warmer?

[00:21:31] Harris Wattles: So that's typically where, where I would suggest people start is, is the size, the style, um, and then the finish. And maybe you've gotta. Pick two out of those three to really, you know, maybe there's not something that we have as a stocked item that's gonna nail all three of those on the head. Um, you know, we do have those, I said those special order options where you can do both, both custom sizes and custom finishes.

[00:22:10] Harris Wattles: Um, and, and starting there.

[00:22:31] Peter Manidis: Um, so, and in fact, I mean we, we've actually made an effort to, to really stick to heated towel racks as the nomenclature. Because it's very specific to what we do. You know, a lot of people say towel warmer, which is technically it's true, but you know, there is existing towel warmers, which are sort of those little microwave boxes, um, yeah.

[00:23:05] Peter Manidis: Um, in that case. So, um, you know, that is one thing that. I would say, I mean, to be candid, it is actually an issue as people buy one of these racks and they'll buy a lower end model thinking, oh, I'll just, I just wanna spend a couple hundred bucks. Uh, not looking at the specs and realizing, Hey, this is a 75 watt unit.

[00:23:40] Peter Manidis: Towel that way. So, you know, it's, it's sort of that expectation. It's like, you know, I put this thing on a rack for 15 minutes. Why is this not a hundred degree towel ready to go for, you know, I'm trying to steam my face and get open my pores. How, how come that's not the case? So, you know, it is, it is a little bit of expectation, you know, with any, uh, when you're buying cars, there's a range of cars of different, uh, speeds and gas [00:24:00] consumption.

[00:24:15] Eric Goranson: so yeah, you're, you're gonna have a, a lukewarm towel at best, cuz no matter what, you've gotta have the energy to go into that towel.

[00:24:40] Harris Wattles: Yeah. Yep.

[00:24:50] Eric Goranson: whole wide range of those from smart ones to countdowns and let's talk about that cuz those are important accessories.

[00:24:58] Harris Wattles: It's absolutely, [00:25:00] uh, Peter, you wanna take that?

[00:25:19] Peter Manidis: That is my regiment. I know exactly what my, my plan is. Then a programmable timer makes perfect sense because, you know, I'm gonna have my towel pop on an hour and a half before I shower. I'm gonna leave it on for three hours after I know my towel's gonna be good to go, and then that rack's gonna turn off and it's not gonna be consuming in the electricity, you know?

[00:25:54] Peter Manidis: My towel will be nice and dry, uh, and ready to go for the next time. So, you know, then we have the smart [00:26:00] functionality, which, you know, just like any smart functionality, it, it, it uses an app to schedule. You can use stuff like geolocating. So you know, if you are leaving from work for example, and you've had that, uh, location sort of set in your phone, uh, you can have this app direct your tower rack to turn on the second you leave your office and you don't even have to worry about it.

[00:26:35] Peter Manidis: And I don't have a problem with that, but that's also, I, I, you know, working from home, I maybe go and run in the morning or run in the evening. I want that towel to be ready whenever I want, uh, wanna shower. I don't want to ever have a situation where I say, oh, you know, I wanna take a shower. But now I have to wait an hour and a half because I refuse to take a shower with a cold towel.

[00:27:12] Peter Manidis: Uh, it, you know, odds are it will work with our, our rack, so you're not really, uh, beholden to our system or, or using leviton's, uh, ecosystem necessarily. Yeah.

[00:27:23] Eric Goranson: the nice thing is that's tried and true,

[00:27:36] Harris Wattles: I wanted to expand real quickly on, on two of the, the timers, so the countdown timer. Another situation or, or, or application. Where I found the countdown timers are very beneficial is maybe this is a vacation home or a second home, or somebody who has an Airbnb. And they don't want to forget to have turned that tile warmer off or have a guest who have forgotten to turn that tile warmer off and [00:28:00] have it just running, um, without ne being necessary and consuming electricity when it's not needed.

[00:28:28] Harris Wattles: Um, You can also have it turn on at six o'clock in the morning and shut off at nine o'clock at night. And that way it runs throughout the entire part of the day when you would most likely shower. But then it's shut off at night when you know, you know you're not gonna need it. So there, there's a bunch of different use cases and scenarios and and variations within each of these different timers that you can use.

[00:28:53] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it, uh, for me, I'm the same way. Mine just runs 24 7. I am not, uh, although I [00:29:00] get up about the same time in the morning, the afternoon or evening or whenever is the part that I, I just don't want to go in there and.

[00:29:13] Peter Manidis: anyway. Correct. Absolutely. Exactly.

[00:29:33] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And plan for it versus that. But, uh, if I'm that organized.

[00:29:40] Eric Goranson: Um, so what do you see for, uh, I mean this is something that I think people should be really looking at out there. What do you see in the future for. For where, where is this headed? I mean, this was big, you know, in, in the steam days that you would see back in when people had steam.

[00:30:20] Harris Wattles: yeah, I mean, I think, you know, for us, a, a big thing obviously, Right now the bathroom is, is the main location where, where tile warmers are being placed, and that's still where I would say 95 and 99% of our sales are.

[00:31:06] Harris Wattles: The intensity from that tumble dryer will cause 'em to peel or crack or fade over time. And so having a, a towel warmer and, and a laundry room, it's, it's a heated drying rack. You know, if you have a a, a, a walk-in dedicated laundry room, most likely if space allows, you're gonna have some sort of drying rack feature in there to hang anything that sure cannot be put in the, the tumble dryer.

[00:31:43] Harris Wattles: And they don't get hot enough to harm or damage, you know, the, the more delicate fabric. So silks and stuff like that, um, you know, cashmere sweaters and whatnot, and it doesn't shrink it like a tumble dryer would. So, um, you know, it's as far as where towel warmers are going within the home. [00:32:00] They're going outside of the bathroom, so they're expanding into laundry rooms.

[00:32:22] Harris Wattles: You come back inside. Do you need somewhere to hang that stuff up to dry? Um, having a towel rack in one of these, you know, mudrooms wet room utility rooms when you walk back into the home to hang up to dry. It gives you that nice com comfort and convenience of not only. Hanging it up somewhere rather than throwing it on the floor.

[00:33:00] Harris Wattles: Um, again, rather than putting it directly in a tumble dryer, which consumes a lot more electricity than a towel warmer, um, and may not be readily available, um, having a towel warmer when you walk back into the house, uh, gives you a place to hang all that stuff up. And, you know, there's a lot of trends with these, you know, Uh, uh, entryways that are being built to be much more functional.

[00:33:38] Eric Goranson: like if you had that pool room, you know, pool room or something out there.

[00:33:55] Eric Goranson: Probably should put one of those on the inside so that way you've always got a fresh Wendy Go tell coming outta the hot [00:34:00] tub.

[00:34:01] Peter Manidis: you have the, the entryway kinda laundry room. If you're in a, you know, colder climate, you've got snow boots, you've got jackets that will get snow and, and moisture on them.

[00:34:27] Peter Manidis: There's nothing moving that towel and moving that air. And I mean it, so if you have that, you know, uh, that towel rack there, uh, you don't even have to worry about that. You don't have to have ventilation necessarily. And I mean, I talk from my personal experience, I had one of our plug-in freestanding models, which is a very popular kind of entryway because it's, doesn't require any installation.

[00:35:09] Peter Manidis: So that was fun. But, uh, you know, having, ooh, Yeah, my bathroom was pristine. I mean, I, I, I'm pretty sure I plugged up my vents and I just said, you know what? Towel, towel rack, you know, I'm gonna rely on you. Please don't let me down. And so, you know, it, it makes a, a huge difference. Uh, I mean, especially in that case for dorms, um, you know, they're not, uh, I'm sure.

[00:35:50] Peter Manidis: And, and, you know, and again, it's, it's passive. You don't, for, for kids, for people who are, uh, you know, lazy, um, Who end up throwing their towel on the bed in the [00:36:00] morning and then coming back and finding, um, you know, a nice, uh, moist, uh, mattress. Uh, you know. Oh yeah. It's, it's, it's something that, it is one tiny thing that you do anyway, just, just hanging it up and there's actually.

[00:36:35] Peter Manidis: Um, you know, we should, we should definitely do that. They take care of us. We deal with a lot of our stuff, and I will

[00:36:58] Eric Goranson: In my head I go, shouldn't have done [00:37:00] that. Should have hung it back up. Yep. You're penalizing yourself by not doing it. So I think even a, even a kid that has no care in the world, whether, whether it's sitting on the bed and there's a wet spot on the bed of the bed because of the. Of Wau. I think naturally you're gonna train with that just because you go, oh man, I got this cold damn towel.

[00:37:23] Harris Wattles: benefits. And then also, you know, you're gonna hopefully stop having mom or dad on you for. Not putting the towel back on the towel bar, you know, you put it on your bed or you left it on the ground, or blah, blah, blah. You know, eventually nobody likes to have their mom or dad yell at them over and over again.

[00:37:59] Peter Manidis: So you'd have these [00:38:00] giant, you know, iron thinned, uh, radiators that sit in the bathroom and it was sort of this thing. Um, you know, I remember specifically my grandma, she would make sure before we get in the bath, you gotta take your towel off the rack off off the, the single bar and you gotta throw it over that, that radiator.

[00:38:30] Peter Manidis: You know? It's, it's, uh, yeah, it's something that you don't forget and then you know you need it. No question.

[00:38:47] Harris Wattles: So there's one of two ways.

[00:39:06] Harris Wattles: Um, it'll take you to a map of, uh, north America and you'll see all sorts of pins or dots all over the place showing, uh, retailers kitchen showrooms that we work with across the country. Uh, that are authorized distributors or sellers of our products. Uh, if you are more, uh, e-commerce inclined, then we also sell online through a whole variety of different, uh, e-commerce channels.

[00:39:51] Eric Goranson: great because, uh, yeah, that's a game changer.

[00:40:06] Harris Wattles: go? Yeah, so custom finishes generally about a three monthly lead time, roughly product.

[00:40:15] Eric Goranson: pretty good. Heck, last year people were waiting 18 months for a dishwasher for four months. Really quick. Yeah, it's,

[00:40:31] Harris Wattles: Uh, we stock everything here in Atlanta, Georgia, so if you're, you know, where you are, Eric, across the country for us, you know, maybe it's on the upper end of that. Week and a half lead time. Um, you know, if you're in the souther or something like that, it may be just a couple days. So, um, anything that's stopped is gonna be a quick turnaround time.

[00:40:51] Eric Goranson: Cool. And website. What's the best way to find you there?

[00:41:03] Eric Goranson: amba. There we go. Yep. There we go. Is there anything we didn't touch on today, guys? Yeah,

[00:41:19] Peter Manidis: A additional addon to the bathroom, but sort of one of the core appliances that you put in your bathroom because I mean, uh, as you said, the, the, uh, the Japanese and, and higher end toilets, um, you know, with all the functionality are sort of coming, coming up now and people are seeing that there's a lot of room for improvement in some of the stuff that they probably hadn't thought about.

[00:41:56] Harris Wattles: Yeah. And that tactile the [00:42:00] interaction. On our where to buy, uh, showroom. Look at our website, you can filter by, uh, retailers that actually have our product on display. So if you're kind of one of those people that really likes to interact with products before you mm-hmm. Feel confident enough to, to make that purchasing decision.

[00:42:37] Eric Goranson: Perfect. Yeah. Perfect. Peter Harris, thanks for coming on today guys. This is great. And, uh, make sure guys you head over to the website and take, take a look at this stuff cuz uh, I'm a believer now that it's in my house, it's one of those things that, uh, is a complete game changer in the bathroom. And, uh, now, now I'm thinking about other places in the home too.

[00:42:58] Harris Wattles: that up. Absolutely.

[00:43:02] Eric Goranson: Eric G and you've been listening to Around The House