NeatHeat

Ok, I'm not really about endorsing products from big box stores on this blog, so this is more of a review and sharing of my experience with a product that I was admittedly skeptical of.

Anyone who has forced hot water baseboard heat knows that over time the metal coverings for those radiators can become rusty or beat up, particularly in a bathroom and even more so if there are men/boys in the house. I'll leave you to connect the dots. In our original bathroom, the covers for the baseboard had become rusty and not very attractive.

Though it might not be overly obvious in these digital captures, the metal covers of the baseboard had become rusty (particularly adjacent to the toilet……….) and unattractive. In the kitchen, we removed the front panels and end caps, sanded them down and spray painted them. We had also heard about a product called NeatHeat and were interested to try it out. What better place than a 3 foot section in the old bathroom? On one of our trips to Home Depot, we bought a section of cover and two end caps.

Installation is super easy and is a matter of removing the original end caps, face plate and angled portion  that allows for the heat to escape. We close these in the summer to keep the pet hair and dust to a minimum.

You leave the original back plate in place as it is usually screwed directly into the wall and provides support to the pipe and fins.

One thing I would recommend, and this is long before you would ever consider replacing the original radiator material with NeatHeat, is to NOT use caulk between the drywall and back plate. Unfortunately we did in all of the original rooms of the house (not in the addition, thankfully). Having done this, it probably doubled my NeatHeat installation time because I had to carefully cut and remove as much of the caulk as possible. Not an easy thing to do without causing at least some damage to the drywall. In short, DON'T caulk between the drywall and back plate. Ever.

 So here is the new portion of NeatHeat and the two end caps I would need for this project. It is a PVC material and easy to work with.

 After measuring the original back plate (several times), I marked then cut the NeatHeat using tin snips.

 I then discovered that the end caps are made to be used on several sizes of baseboard radiator, so I had to shorten it by cutting it down. You can see the two sections in the image above.

 The final install. the main body of the NeatHeat slides down behind the original back plate, then the end caps are installed.

In this image you can see some slight damage to the drywall caused by me removing the caulk. I have since filled the damaged drywall, sanded and touched up the paint.

If I didn't have the caulk to deal with, I probably would have done this little project in 30 minutes.
I would love to do the rest of the original part of the house, but all of them are caulked, and a couple of them are long runs of radiator, so I'll need to research what lengths I can get it in.

Overall, I like this product. It's a good alternative, especially in damp areas such as bathrooms.