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?
--
Andy

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 18:58:46 +0000 Andy wrote :
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?

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

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk

On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:58:46 +0000, andy wrote:

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?

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.

In message , John Stumbles
muttered:
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.

Look OK?

http://tinyurl.com/yfqrql

Certainly cheap enough!

--
Andy

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 18:58:46 +0000, andy wrote:

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?

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.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Certainly cheap enough!

i would go for a 750 wide bath myself

"andy" wrote in message
...
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?
--
Andy

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.

In message , Bill
muttered:
Steel is fine

Even a *really* cheap one?

--
Andy

On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 23:48:21 +0000, andy wrote:

In message , Bill
muttered:
Steel is fine

Even a *really* cheap one?

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

"andy" wrote:
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?
--
Andy

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):
http://www.bathroom-association.org/faq-baths.asp

andy wrote:

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?

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

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.

"Jim" wrote in message
...
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.





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

In article ,
"mikes" writes:

"Jim" wrote in message
...
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.

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

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.

--
Andrew Gabriel

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:

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.

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.

--
Tony Williams.

Jim wrote:
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.




It gets warmer slower , not colder quicker.

In message , andy
muttered:
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?

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

--
Andy

andy wrote:
In message , andy
muttered:
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?

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

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.

In article , Andrew Gabriel
wrote:
I've heard that insulating the underside of a steel bath with loft
insulation helps with the heat loss problem.

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.

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.

--
Aidan
Aberdeen, Scotland
Written at Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:24 GMT, but posted later.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

andy wrote:
In message , andy
muttered:
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?

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

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.

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.

In message , Aidan Karley
muttered:
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.

How did you attach it?? Sounds like a good idea!

--
Andy

andy wrote:
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?
--
Andy

Steel.
Easy to clean. For a cheap white bathroom suite, I'd go for a steel one.

In article , Andy wrote:
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.

How did you attach it?? Sounds like a good idea!

I slopped wallpaper paste onto the back side of the strips of
insulation, then fed them down the long side of the bath against the
wall, levered them in position with a broom handle, and propped them up
on books overnight. Cleaning up the GF was a bitch. Gluing them onto
the bath before plumbing it into place would have been much easier (can
you get insulation on glueable backing paper?). On the front and side
of the bath I just wedged strips of the insulation in as I was screwing
the side panel on.
The idea is probably good, but a proper implementation would
probably be best done while making the bath, and it's going to be a
bitch putting it around the plumbing. It looks as if many hot water
tanks these days come with a rigid foam insulation applied directly to
the metal, which would be much better.
I get much more effect on the long-warm-bath front by putting
bubble bath in - the foam blanket greatly reduces both evaporation and
convection routes for loss of heat ; by deduction, conduction through
the metal of the bath is a minor route of heat loss. I wouldn't waste
my time doing the GF job again, though if I "got someone in" to do a
bathroom (big "if", including "if ever") I would consider specifying a
bath with built-on insulation. The wife would over-ride it on grounds
of colour, of course.

--
Aidan
Aberdeen, Scotland
Written at Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:27 GMT, but posted later.

In message , Aidan Karley
muttered:
I slopped wallpaper paste onto the back side of the strips of
insulation, then fed them down the long side of the bath against the
wall, levered them in position with a broom handle, and propped them up
on books overnight. Cleaning up the GF was a bitch. Gluing them onto
the bath before plumbing it into place would have been much easier (can
you get insulation on glueable backing paper?). On the front and side
of the bath I just wedged strips of the insulation in as I was screwing
the side panel on.

That made me laugh!

The idea is probably good, but a proper implementation would
probably be best done while making the bath,

I think that's how I would do it.

I get much more effect on the long-warm-bath front by putting
bubble bath in - the foam blanket greatly reduces both evaporation and
convection routes for loss of heat ; by deduction, conduction through
the metal of the bath is a minor route of heat loss.

Think I'd agree with that as well, think I'm becoming a bath anorak!

I wouldn't waste
my time doing the GF job again, though if I "got someone in" to do a
bathroom (big "if", including "if ever") I would consider specifying a
bath with built-on insulation. The wife would over-ride it on grounds
of colour, of course.

Women, all the same. They probably don't even realise the real benefit
of bubble bath...

--
Andy

In article , Andy wrote:
Think I'd agree with that as well, think I'm becoming a bath anorak!

Just remember that your nice warm duvet jacket is damn-all use in
the shower G.

Women, all the same. They probably don't even realise the real benefit
of bubble bath...

Pleasently slippery.
--
Aidan
Aberdeen, Scotland
Written at Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:10 GMT, but posted later.