Heater Behind Tub

[Singhsongs]

We finished doing demo on my bathroom and I noticed that my hot water baseboard heat was installed by my tub. This bathroom has been in my house like this for years! My old tub has absolutely no damage to it. I live in Northeastern PA. My house has very thick solid walls and it retains heat heat fairly well we run our thermostat about 65-68 in the dead of winter (if any of that matters).

My contractor and several of the guys at work said they’ve never seen anything like this before. I don’t want to go through the hassle of removing it. I don’t even know where I’d put the heat of not here. The bathroom is tiny.

I’m planning to build the wall out a little bit as I’m adding a new window. This one was uncovered in the demo. Will it be OK to leave this heater here? I do have access to the pipes from a nearby closet. My HWBB heating is fairly new installed about 10 years ago. I regularly maintain it at the end of every season. Still, I stay up at night worried about ripping out this bathroom because of a heating problem.

thanks!

 

[oldVermonter]

If I understand the photo correctly, it looks as if (somewhere in the past) the tub was retrofit in front of an already-existing radiator.

To me, it would be worth it to avoid heat buildup in an enclosed space. I would consider replacing the radiator with a straight pipe, and wrapping it with insulation. It's not hard to do, since you've already got the wall open.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Dj2]

I think the same way, to move the heater and to add a piece of pipe.