Purchasing a bath

[Dbas]

Hi all,
I've been having problems with my acrylic bath from Victoria plum, and am having to replace it after just one month in use.

Does anyone have any recommendations / advice about buying baths? We have checked pros and cons of steel vs acrylic, and it seems as long as we go for thicker ones, then either material will be durable.

We've been looking in particular at Trojan (acrylic - 5mm and 8mm), Trojancast, Kaldewei (steel 3.5mm), but all around £100-200 price range.

Any advice or other suggestions about your (good or bad) bath experience are welcomed.

Thanks in advance

[JT05]

For many years in our previous house we had an Ideal Standard 'Ideal cast' bath. It was wonderful, I believe it was made out of a resin that was very strong. It was still in excellent condion, when we sold, after about 15 years.
They may still make something similar, although it was quite expensive at the time.

[wonkylegs]

We have a Kaldewei steel bath, it's actually our second one. We had one in our old house for over 10yrs that looked brand new when we left, I liked it so much I bought the exact same one for our new house when we did up the bathroom. We've had it for 2 years now and have no regrets.
We have Gerberit waste/plug with it. Highly recommend.

[Charlieandlola]

Bette steel bath . Pretty bombproof and solid

[Dbas]

Thanks for the replies.
I'll look into the ideal cast and Bette baths too.

If we intend on showering in these baths too, am I supposed to look out for baths specifically labelled "shower baths"?

[specialsubject]

No - all baths should take someone standing in them if correctly installed.
Try a local plumbers merchant rather than paying extra for cutesy woo adverts.

Steel soaks up heat and is very heavy. Properly installed acrylic should be fine. Have such both in my own home and the rental - the latter has probably had a lot of abuse but has survived intact. And yes, I checked underneath.

[PigletJohn]

Carronite baths are extra-thick, but they are above your budget. Somewhere around £500 IIRC. I think their standard Carron acrylic bath is a bit thicker than normal, around £300.

I think Trojan also do a thicker range.

Pressed steel baths don't absorb very much heat, it's cast iron that's very bad for that. Pressed steel includes some at very low prices, and the better ones are a bit thicker and stronger.

It's surprising that your new bath failed, unless there was a fault in the way it was fitted (e.g. feet not firm against bearers, or floor gave way).