Shower door dilemma

3 years ago

Thank your for the niche soap tips - the ridged shelf liner worked great. Unfortunately, the same shower’s glass enclosure exploded when the temps outside went from 25F to 45F in the course of a few hours. House temperature was 52F due to no gas. There is a window in the bathroom which causes a little greenhouse warming effect.
I think the fixed pane shattered because the metal bar holding the semiframeless glass was anchored in a south facing wall and heated up too quickly and warped.s
What shower enclosure should I replace it with? The obvious choice is a glass barn door shower enclosure as there isn’t much clearance in this small bathroom. But I worry that if I did that, there would still be the metal bar on the not moving pane which might explode again.
The other option, I guess, would be a bifold door.
Does anyone have an option? Are there other options I’ve overlooked?
The original enclosure was the free builder option with 1/4” thick glass and the door hits the towel bar.

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Comments (7)

millworkman
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Visit a local glass shop and do not shop "brands". 1/4" Glass is too thin. That needs to be 3/8 minimum, 1/4" is fine if a fully framed unit. People have gotten so hung up on price that safety has taken a backseat. Thicker glass and a little bit of mindfulness and the door will be fine as it is laid out currently.
Rachel Lee
3 years ago
Shower curtains never explode.
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
IMO there was some real issue with the thickness of the glass and also the install 25 -45 F is not a huge deal but exploding glass sure is. Honestly I lived in Calgary where the temp could do that everytime we had a chinook never had a glass shower wall explode something is wrong here .
gustaviatex
3 years ago
Patricia, your house in Calgary was insulated for cold weather. We just experienced an extreme event here in Texas where some of us were without heat or power or even water for days. I am saying DAYS of no power or heat when the outside temperature was in the teens or lower at night. My own bathroom was 47.8F according to the meat thermometer and the temp in front of the gas log fireplace was a balmy 57F.
millworkman
3 years ago
"I am saying DAYS of no power or heat when the outside temperature was in the teens or lower at night"

If that is the case why did we not hear about mass glass exploding. I guarantee that was not the reason behind this glass breakage. It may have been a lot of things but the temperature swing is not the reason.
gustaviatex
3 years ago
millworkman Sorry for my tone; we are still a little on edge here :-) Googling the "exploding shower glass" produced quite a few articles. See Shattered Showers and even an Wikipedia topic. What we went through was very unusual for residential construction. Poor insulation on the exterior wall with temperatures below freezing for multiple days would transfer a lot of cold to that metal bar holding the glass. Plus the glass itself could have had defects.
millworkman
3 years ago
I understand, temperature swings have nothing to do with it, you would see all kinds of glass breakage then and last I looked glass is used everywhere in the world. I could see a glass defect and that's probable. Another issue with buying these production off the shelf products, especially with bare minimum glass.