Hello there
As the title suggests, I’m looking to install a heated towel rack in my bathroom. The space is quite small, around 13m³ (450 ft³).
A connected model so I can schedule the room’s temperature based on home presence and my kids’ schedules.
Any recommendations?
P.S.: Wi-Fi and/or Zigbee compatibility would work!
EDIT: Illustration
If those towel warmers don’t have any native temperature control, then any suitable wifi/zigbee switch of the appropriate amperage will be enough.
Couple it with a temperature sensor inside the room to control on-off automations, and you should be good to go. The generic thermostat integration should get you most of the way there.
Great idea, I see your point.
Most towel dryers come with native temperature control (with basic schedule capabilities) and often include a safety feature that prevents them from powering on after an outage, so using a simple switch isn’t ideal.
Personally, I’d prefer one with a built-in sensor and control system. I really dislike battery-powered sensors, and I doubt I’ll find one that can be plugged-in.
I found a few options at my local Belgian “home depot” with Wi-Fi capabilities, but it’s hard to find comprehensive reviews or tests since they’re mostly store-branded products.
Sure, I could build something up with a D1Mini, a DHT11 or DHT22, flash ESPhome, and power it via a USB block. Then add a switch bot for the security mechanism but honestly, that’s more effort than I’m willing to put in! 
Or this but seems to only connect via Tuya or LocalTuya
The only battery device you might need is a temperature sensor. Anything else can be done with a smart relay & the generic thermostat.
For scheduling & presence, you might need another couple of integrations, but it’s pretty straightforward.
Just buy the dumbest warmer you can find (ideally under 16A max load) and a temp sensor. That should be enough for the generic thermostat. Add an optional motion or door sensor (or both) and you’ll be covered from all angles
I’ve setup my towel heaters with an external thermostat and just got a standard electric towel heater. You’ll have a lot more choices at Brico if you don’t try get one with thermostat and scheduling built in, but its your call.
I have a simple smart plug which the towel heaters are connected to and a $4 Xiaomi bluetooth temp and humidity sensor (you can flash the Xiaomi temp sensors via a desktop web browser here to work natively with Home Assistant & BTHome and not need to use the Xiaomi app).
I then have 2 automations:
I keep a regular schedule and have a sensor under the bed I made for $5 which detects me getting out of bed in the morning and turns on the towel heater. I then get a coffee, have breakfast and then take my shower, by which time my towel is nice and warm.
My partner is more sporadic as to her showering time, so I have another automation which triggers on a sudden spike in humidity and enables the towel heater. Her towel may not be as warm as mine as it may have had less time to heat, but this is the best we could come up with without her needing to interact with something additional prior to her shower (our smart home ethos is any automation should not require us to do more actions than we did prior to automating).
This humidity automation also triggers when I have a shower but the towel heater is already on. What it does is resets a timer to turn the towel heater off after 1 or 2 hours (summer / winter), so after our respective showers and we hang our towels back up on the heater & our towels stay nice and dry (especially during winter).
Additionally if my partner showers within 1 hour of me then her towel will already be warm, but the humidity spike from her shower will reset the ‘off’ timer again so her towel gets the full drying time.
I have the same humidity based automation in all the other bathrooms in the house as well so guests who are staying also have warm dry towels.
