Continuing our series on designer radiator valves, we are today looking at the Ellipse Oval Valve Set, a striking pair which suits the most popular radiators our industry manufactures – find out more today.
WHY OVAL?
Oval shaped radiators make up a large proportion of the designer radiators sold in our market, in fact they are so popular that most of our manufacturer’s will have some version of an elliptical tube radiator.
Some, like DQ Heating, have a base oval design like the DQ Cove and have made it into the Cove Horizontal and Cove Vertical, Cove Stainless Horizontal and Vertical, the Cove Mirror, Cove Towel Rail, Cove Stainless Towel Rail and so on! Because they are so popular, and they make this oval shaped for so many designs, they have become extremely efficient at it and they are priced tremendously well.
As a result, it is one of the only designer radiator styles to have the perfect 100% matching valves made to go with it, and the resulting visual flair is tremendous.
THE ELLIPSE OVAL VALVE SET
The set itself is made from high quality brass, and is available in either shining Chrome to suit bright living spaces, or a Satin Nickel finish for a softer, more contemporary look. Due to its oval shape the Ellipse set is a manual valve only because the head can only be flush with the body if it is either on or off position. If it was thermostatic and you turned it to setting 3 for example, the oval head would be completely the opposite way around.
With an inlet and outlet suitable for 15mm pipework, the Ellipse valve set is suitable for all modern radiators. Even if you have smaller 10mm or 8mm pipework, by using microbore reducers you can still combine your designer radiator with these wonderful valves to achieve an enviable effect.
You can find all of our manual valves including the Ellipse Oval Valve Set right here. If you would like any help in picking your valves or designer radiator, don’t forget that we are always available to help, just contact us on 01257 452879 or email us at sales@designerradiatorshowroom.co.uk
This week we are going to look at the Milan Valve Set, and the flexible finishes and variations which are available for it making it ideal for most rooms in the house, especially bathrooms.
The key here is the Milan’s discreet size, neat appearance and simple operation; find out more about each of these today!
MILAN VALVE SET – SUBTLETY FOR SIMPLICITY
Compared to the Realm TRV sets we looked at last week, the Milan Valve Set is a minuscule valve which both saves on space and looks remarkably clean at the bottom of any radiator, whether in the living room or in the en suite.
While attractive and well made in a brass body with finishes of Chrome, Satin Nickel, Black Nickel, Antique Brass and Antique Copper, the real benefit of the Milan’s size is that you can use it for towel rails without the worry of the valve protruding further forward than the front of the radiator.
In very specific cases, the larger, thermostatic valves like the Realm would be every awkward to use if you were trying to make a dual fuel towel radiator – sometimes you would need one angled and one corner valve with a large set, but with the Milan set you can have matching valves without the need to split two sets just to make it look neat.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITY
Valve size and shape are the key factors in the Milan’s pretty little success story. A lot of manual valves, even the basic designer manual valves like our Apex sets are how should we say? Nutty. Yes… Nutty.
These basic valves are jagged, industrial looking things with nuts of varying sizes and bits that protrude; they aren’t so pretty. The Milan set on the other hand is smooth from top to bottom, the head is slender yet well-proportioned, the nuts are the same size and small enough to be subtle. Overall there isn’t a reason to choose a nutty, basic manual valve over the smooth Milan valve set .
EASE IS KEY
The main functional reason to go for a set like the Milan valves is so that you only need to choose between on/off settings. A thermostatic valve lets you turn the temperature up and down, but if you think about a room in the home where you have literally NEVER adjusted your thermostat once it was on full blast, that’s a room that you would have been better off using a manual valve in.
Simply put, you turn your Milan valve set one way and hot water can flow through it when the heating comes on, and you turn it the other way to close it. No fuss.
While it might not be the most complex valve on the market, often-times that isn’t needed, and when that is the case the trim shape and smaller size of the Milan is the best option on the market, and it’s a nice little saving when compared a thermostatic alternative.
To see our full range of manual valves, including the Milan Valve Set, click here.
