Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Consensus on toe kick heaters

Leon82
Leon82 Member Posts: 684
We are going to remodel our kitchen. Time is hard to come by so we are getting estimates. The kitchen currently has an 8 ft section against the back wall.

The contractor is suggesting a 4 foot section against the left wall near the basement and back door. I would have put it there myself regardless. It won't interfere with the doors.

And a toe kick heater under the cabinets we would add to the back wall. I am running fin tube at roughly 115 to 145 degrees. Do these units perform well at that temp?

Comments

  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,425
    edited October 2019
    115 to 145 degrees? That is relatively cold for fin tube, but can be done. The baseboard has a thermodisc sensor on the tube that turns on the fan at a temperature at about 120 deg. You might have to change the thermodisc. You don't want to blow cold air as it is uncomfortable. Even 115 deg air might feel cold as it mixes with the ambient input air.

    Why are you running it so cold? You need a lot more baseboard to provide the BTU's into the room at lower tube temperatures. There is also the possibly of running out of heat energy when you start out at lower temperatures in which case you can boost the flow rate, but there are limits to that.
    Leon82
  • Leon82
    Leon82 Member Posts: 684
    I've dialed it in over the past two years with a condensing boiler. The heat is adequate.

    So the kitchen would have a 50% loss of fin tube but gain the kick heater.

    My original plan was to add the cabinets above the baseboard but then it would heat the cabinet
  • STEVEusaPA
    STEVEusaPA Member Posts: 6,506
    Is floor or ceiling radiant an option?
    steve
  • Solid_Fuel_Man
    Solid_Fuel_Man Member Posts: 2,646
    Not a fan (get it) of noisy toe kicks. How about some HO baseboard or panel rad sized to be of equal output of the BB you take out?
    Serving Northern Maine HVAC & Controls. I burn wood, it smells good!
    Leon82
  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,425
    edited October 2019
    I prefer the Turbonics Toester toekick heaters over the elongated cage fan types. I had to replace motors and and bearings in those and they are noisier. The Toester uses a radial fan much like a muffin fan found in computers, but larger of course. I find that they are quieter.


    Toekicks put a lot of BTU's packed into a small space.
    Leon82
  • Leon82
    Leon82 Member Posts: 684
    > @Solid_Fuel_Man said:
    > Not a fan (get it) of noisy toe kicks. How about some HO baseboard or panel rad sized to be of equal output of the BB you take out?

    I was thinking that could be an option like the Smith heating edge
  • Leon82
    Leon82 Member Posts: 684
    > @STEVEusaPA said:
    > Is floor or ceiling radiant an option?

    Floor could be, probably a plate type
  • JeremyG
    JeremyG Member Posts: 16
    edited October 2019
    The house I moved into a couple years ago has a Beacon Morris K42 toe kick heater in the kitchen. I'm not impressed. The rest of the house is cast iron radiators sized for the house before it was insulated, so that means cool temps (110º) a lot of the heating season. The fan would almost never run until I put in the low-temp 'stat. Seems like the low fan speed doesn't move enough heat, and the high speed is annoyingly noisy. I intend to put in radiant floor heat to replace it, because it's not really adequate on paper and even less so in practice.
    markham56Leon82
  • markham56
    markham56 Member Posts: 2
    > @JeremyG said:
    > The house I moved into a couple years ago has a Beacon Morris K42 toe kick heater in the kitchen. I'm not impressed. The rest of the house is cast iron radiators sized for the house before it was insulated, so that means cool temps (110º) a lot of the heating season. The fan would almost never run until I put in the low-temp 'stat. Seems like the low fan speed doesn't move enough heat, and the high speed is annoyingly noisy. I intend to put in radiant floor heat to replace it, because it's not really adequate on paper and even less so in practice.

    I’m having the same problem with a K120 in my 1928 house even with a low temp aqua stat. It just doesn’t stay on long enough to get the room warm.

    I remodeled the kitchen and removed the radiator in the hope of saving space and that the K120 would proved better heat. Any suggestions?
  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,425
    edited December 2019
    The manufacturer will tell you the temperature that the fan kicks on at. On low temp sys, I have replaced the thermodisc to a lower cut-in (Make) thermodisc that worked great. On low temp sys, you might want to run it at a low blower speed.
    Leon82
  • MikeL_2
    MikeL_2 Member Posts: 486
    edited December 2019
    Maybe 4' of high capacity baseboard will be sufficient.
    How about a recessed convector if wall space allows? There is a vertical cabinet available for recess mounting a toe kick unit.
    Is there access below the kitchen? You could add a toe space unit after the fact if you find you need more heat.
    We prefer to install toe space units in interior cabinets so the unit discharges towards the exterior wall.......
    Leon82