steel or acrylic bath?

[andy]

Hi,

Looking to buy a new bathroom suite, and screwfix have a set for £195. But the bath is steel. Are steel baths OK?? Any issues or arguments either way?

[Tony Bryer]

Steel baths are fine but they come in different qualities: mine cost £155 and is almost indistinguishable from CI.

Go to eBay and type in Kaldewei (a quality make) and you will find lots of options including different sizes which may suit you better than the standard 1700x700

[John Stumbles]

IMHO cheap steel baths are infinitely better than cheap acrylic baths, which you can often see light through and are liable to crack up after a few years' service.

[andy]

In message , John Stumbles muttered:

Look OK?

cheap enough!

[Dave Liquorice]

Weight is the first thing that comes to my mind. Just fitted an Ideal Standard "Space" shower bath, very light the packed weight was 25kg easy= to move on ones own. Steel I can envisage being considerably heavier. Drilling tap holes will be harder as well, if you need to do that.

[Philipj.cosson]

i would go for a 750 wide bath myself

[Bill]

Steel is fine, at least it will not split or crack easily if you drop something, and they don't go on fire if you happen to drop a cigarette - when the bath is dry I must add.

[andy]

In message , Bill muttered:

Even a *really* cheap one?

[John Stumbles]

Yup, £70 from plumbers' merchants are fine for no-nonsense installs

[DIY]

One advantage of a steel bath is that they are rigid compared to acrylic. Cheap acrylic baths flex due to the weight of the person and water, unless you install a supporting frame. Flexing makes it difficult to get a waterproof seal between the edge of an acrylic bath and the wall.

Pros and cons of steel versus acrylic are covered in the following link, but they don't mention the acrylic flexing issue (which isn't surprising):

[gort]

We have just updated our bathroom and fitted a steel bath ( wifes nephew is a plumber so we got the fitting free). We still added a wooden frame to give a bit more support to it, especially at the front where you climb in. Seem just as good as our old cast iron one although it was certainly much lighter when we were handling it.

HTH

Dave

[Jim]

Steel is much less likely to flex so you don't get the problem of the sealant parting company with the bath/wall when fyull. Downside is the bath water gets colder quicker ( or so I'm told) We've got a steel bath and can't say I've ever noticed this though.

[mikes]

I've heard that insulating the underside of a steel bath with loft insulation helps with the heat loss problem.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Considering the bottoms of most baths are boxed in with panelling I just don't believe there is any significant heat loss from them compared with the wide open top.

[Tony Williams]

We used to have an iron/steel bath in our icy cold dormer house in Cheltenham. I do have to say that, when sitting in it in winter, your bum was the first thing to feel the reducing temperature. In that warm air heated? house I regularly pondered the technical problems of a) heating the bog seat, and b) heating the underside of the bath.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It gets warmer slower , not colder quicker.

[andy]

In message , andy muttered:

Thanks to all who replied Seems almost unanimously in favour of the steel bath!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not me, but at rock bottom pricing they are marginally less nasty than a plastic one.

Can't be made to such interesting shapes tho.

Gimme a decent really thick acrylic anyday.

[Aidan Karley]

I put a couple of rolls of loft insulation onto the underside of the (plastic coated) steel bath before I put it back in place. For keeping the water warm while having a soak and a read - use bubble bath. Much more effective, and doesn't make your skin itch.

[sm_jamieson]

Or a "carronite" reinforced acrylic. Very strong, improved "legs" also. You hardly need to frame the edges to stop them flexing. Returned the cheapo special acrylic in horror when part of the fibre-glass was missing, and I could almost see through the thing. I recently used a cheap steel bath, and it felt and sounded like I was getting into a tin can ! Simon.