Shower Enclosures can be broken down into five main categories:
Sliding Shower Enclosures
Pivot Shower Enclosures
Bi-fold Shower Enclosures
Quadrant Shower Enclosures
Walk In Shower Enclosures
While each type of door performs the same function – “to deflect shower water into a tray” the difference comes with the way in which the entrance to the enclosure is achieved. The choice of which type of door can be made as a result of practicability or style – some people just prefer one type over another.
Let’s now look at each enclosure in detail and look at the pro’s and con’s of each.
As the name would suggest the entrance to the shower is achieved by sliding the door. This can be a single sliding door or a double sliding door, the diagram below shows the operation of a single sliding door:
The door can be setup to slide either left to right or right to left and slide along either rails or rollers. It is important to get a door which allows easy access to cleaning around the roller or rail. Be sure to purchase a door where spares can be bought as they are suceptible to general wear and tear and may need replacing after a few years. This is a popular type of door as it can be fitted into a bathroom with limited space because the door does not need to protrude out from the enclosure.
Pivot shower doors are popular because some people prefer the action of a hinge or pivot rather than that of a sliding door. Sliding doors may suffer from sticking or objects becoming trapped in the mechanism, a pivot door does not suffer any of these problems. It is important to understand that by it’s very nature a pivot door will need room to open into, it is not possible for the door to open inwards as it would block off the shower from the user.
A good quality pivot shower enclosure will have a solid metal hinge mechanism, the diagram below shows a pivot door in operation:
Bifold enclosures are a hybrid of both a slider and a pivot door. The door is split down the centre and pivots in on itself while also sliding, this is best described in the diagram below:
As you can see, the centre of the door runs along a rail while the door hinges in on itself. This system means the door can be fitted into a bathroom with limited space as it doesn’t require the width to slide a full door across and nor does it require a large space in front of it that a pivot would. This door is a popular choice for bathrooms where space is a permium.
Quadrant enclosures are suited to “corner installations” and have two straight edges and a curved front. Quadrants can have equal sides or be offset ie with one side longer than another. The diagrams below show both of these qudarant types. The doors are always sliding but can be either single or double doors depending on the size of the quadrant.
The above diagram shows a quadrant enclosure with double sliding doors.
The above diagram shows an offest quadrant enclosure with double sliding doors.
Walk-n enclosures are different from the above because they do away with the need for a door completely! The water is deflected by a series of baffles which create a walk way for the shower user to enter. This is best explained with the diagram below:
As you can see, the walk way is such that the user enters a “maze” of baffles to enter the shower.
Summary:
Each door has both pro’s and con’s and it is very much down to the user him/herself along with the circumstances and surroundings the shower will be fit into. If you have any questions just email or telephone us here at http://www.firstbathrooms.co.uk
To see our product range, visit shower enclosures
