steel bath or good quality acrylic bath?

[onesandwichshort]

What did you go for and why?

This is for a bath which will have a shower over it and so will be stood in. I've not heard good things about cheap acrylic baths, but are the more expensive ones - i.e. Ideal Standard rather than B&Q - better or should I just go for steel?

Price difference is about £150 more as far as I can tell, but I'd appreciate any experiences as to whether this is worth it or not.

Steel is my preference. We have a nice acrylic bath put in by the last people. It is fairly sturdy and nice enough, but IMO steel is better.

I prefer acrylic as it is not as cold as steel and keeps the water hot longer.
Cheap acrylic will be thin so look for one around 5mm miminum and fully encapsulated.

6mm acrylic - we bought a hotel spec one and its lovely

Quality acrylic. Steel is very slow to warm up in winter. I was adamant we should get steel initially but DH persuaded me of the benefits of acrylic; we got a good one and now I am a total convert.

Good quality acrylic. We have a steel bath and its a bastard to clean as minute scratches have appeared over time.

When we moved into our last house, it had a steel bath. Replaced it with a good acrylic one and I much prefer it. Keeps the water hotter for longer - both freestanding which might make a difference, but found with a steel one I was constantly having to top up the hot water.

We have steel after inheriting a cheap acrylic one. DH is tall so we wanted longer than avg. It is fab and no scratches yet 8 years on.

Anyone who has a good quality acrylic freestanding bath - where did you get it from? We need to replace our original cast iron 1930s freestanding bath and I need to be convinced that acrylic is better

Carronite -It's stronger and sturdier than acrylic and holds the heat for ages.

We have a steel Bette shower bath and it's fantastic. Wider than normal and designed so you can stand in the end and have loads of space. Seems to hold its heat well too.

Thanks everyone - it's good to be reassured about acrylic actually as a visit to the bathroom people today showed me that the poncey ones the ones I like are mostly acrylic. I will now go away and look at specs.

Blimey this finding a new bathroom is way more difficult than I thought it would be. Heaven help me when it gets to the kitchen.

After much agonising research, I've installed 2 Idealform Plus baths for my bathrooms.

We always used to install steel Bette baths, but more recently have installed a couple of Sottini baths. They are lovely.

Ours is a Banacril one of giant proportions - ordered on tinternet and shipped from Spain. I love it.

We have a kaldewei steel bath, it's really generously proportioned and has clean lines. It has withstood a large DH, a vicious cleaner & kids baths including being used as lightening mcqueen's racetrack.
It doesn't flex and although not initially warm to touch like acrylic it does retain heat well if you lounge in the bath.

Thanks for recommendations, lots more to ponder. I think I still prefer the 'feel' of iron/steel.

And sorry for hijack!