Your question is certainly something to think about before you pull the trigger. An open shower will not contain the steam from a hot shower the way an enclosed shower would. Being a big baby when it comes to cold showers, my personal preference would be to enclose it and contain the heat - especially if you live in a colder climate.

This is an interesting question, and honestly a tough one to answer, but I can give you the logic behind it so you can visualize the concept. The crucial thing to understand is that heat will always move towards the area with a lower temperature, in other words, the heat you feel from a hot shower will always move out of the shower area to try and equalize the rest of the room to the same temperature. So the bigger the bathroom, the longer it will take for the hot shower temperature to fill the room; in the end it becomes a matter "time." When a shower has curtains or doors, you limit the space the temperature can move through and thus slowing the time it takes to escape into the rest of the room. That's why you may notice when you get out of a small enclosed shower into a bigger area of the bathroom you will feel much colder.

following because I'm also considering this!

Cold and drafty was the major drawback to an open shower. If you somewhere with a temperate year-round climate and no restrictions as to flow rate and number of fixtures, you might be able to blast yourself with enough hot water to stay warm. If you do it, it might be a good idea to add the extra framing support under the tile for a glass door if you find you need to add it later.

I would glass it in and not just because of the draft. The problem with "wet rooms" IMO is that the water will splash everywhere. You can still do a curbless shower, just one with a frameless door that will still give you a feeling of openness.

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Tootsie, any chance you could share a photo of your shower setup?

I have a huge open shower. I thought it would be drafty. it's not. The best part is I have no glass to clean! (and, you can always add glass later if you don't like it open. )

water does not 'splash everywhere'. it's wide enough (about 43") so that water does not get out. The pony wall is a must up at the front to avoid the splashing.

I feel like people who like them live in L.A. and Florida. Even a closed shower is too cold for me if it's larger than tub size, so those things hold NO appeal...

Install a UL approved waterproof electric heater in the ceiling, or one right outside of the shower ceiling blowing warm air into the shower area.

Honestly, I think this depends on where you live. It seems to work well in warmer climates. We had a condo in Chicago that had a shower and tub behind the glass enclosure. I was always cold in there so I knew open wouldn’t work for me. Also, heated floors are wonderful but they don‘t do much for you while you are in the shower and they don’t heat the room.

HU-697741814 I did actully wonder if getting a heater would be a solution. I really don’t want a shower door, but would a heater be just ridiculous? Do you have any photos/examples where this has been done?

My bathroom really isn’t cold. But with the shower door open, once you get wet, it’s just like being at the pool or beach on a warm day — when you come out of the pool, you’re cold because you’re wet even though it’s not actually cold out. So with the shower door open, it’s basically like that for any part of my body that isn’t completely submerged in the shower flow.

I'm in LA and I wouldn't want a shower without a door ... I would freeze! I just turned the water heater temperature up because I was still feeling cold in my enclosed shower.

What I have found:

1) If the glass/wall doesn't extend to the ceiling, the open entry will draw cold air as the rising warm, moist air heads for the ceiling.

2) The higher the ceiling or the wider the top-ceiling gap is, the quicker it seems to flow.

3) We have 8' length shower and 4' wide tile shower. 3 full walls up to a sloping 9' to 15' ceiling over the shower. The room side is about 3' 6" of solid wall, a 2' 8" glass door and a 4' tall pony wall with 4' of glass on top. With the glass door open, it cools almost instantly, with it closed, it reamins comfortable. It seems the warm air rises more slowly with little replacement air drawing through the frameless glass door area.

4) Climate is North Texas, and the chill is noticable with heat on about 65-70.

Thanks so much, everyone, for the input.

We tested out the open shower again and realized that when we're not standing directly at the door opening, it's actually not too cold/drafty. (When we move over to where the glass shields us, even with the door open, it was better.) So now I'm hopeful that if we place our new shower opening out of the way so that we're not directly exposed when standing under the water, that it won't be an issue.

Thoughts? Any experience with this?

@Beth, my comment about the splashing was directed primarily toward set-ups where the freestanding tub is in the same wet area as the shower. I know I personally wouldn't want to wipe down the tub every time I shower. Love the look; feels like too much maintenance to me, especially if one rarely uses the tub.

Also check with your tile installers to make sure your contractor knows exactly how the floor should be framed to allow for the curbless entry.

To ensure water will run the right direction you usually have to recess the floor under the shower area as much as an inch or two. This allows the tile bed to be sloped toward the drain, and it will have a much lower probability of water running out of the shower. The drain can be in the middle or to one side, but you must have the right slope.

If you want to use large format tile, its may be easier if they install a linear drain on the back and have everything slope in that direction. This limits the amount of tile cutting needed to get the tile to follow the floor slope. For example, you can buy a Schluter sloped underlayment that has a gradual slope from entry to back wall, and there is a linear drain that installs near the back wall. You recess the underlayment so the entry side is level with the floor, which means it slopes inside toward the back wall. This should mean that all the water runs toward the drain in the back, not out into the room.

You usually want to also waterproof the entire floor, and you may want to install a linear drain or floor drain near the front of the shower to catch any overflow.

Bruce

I suspect the venting will make a difference too, we have a 2.5 x 5 shower with glass doors (reg height, like 6’) and cathedral ceilings. For a variety of reasons our vent is directly centered above shower. It works very well but adds to the draft and it’s cold (and we are in colder climate). Heated floor is great on the feet, but doesn’t add to room heat. OTOH, kids bath has shower, curtain, and a heavy duty wall towel heater, and that space is roasty toasty! (And that vent doesn’t work quite as well)

A friend of ours has a shower shaped like a snail shell and with no door. You have to walk around a wall to get to the shower head. That shape keeps the water from splashing out into the room, but I was still uncomfortably chilly in an air conditioned room. His is completely enclosed from floor to ceiling, so I suspect over the long run he will have a horrible mold problem from lack of air flow.

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