I just moved into a new place that has an awesome old clawfoot tub, thus necessitating a ceiling-mounted circular frame that two shower curtains hang from, thus making a circle of shower curtain that the bather stands inside. But when I fire up the water, which pours into this circle of curtain from above, the curtains heave and suck inward, slurping and sticking to me as I try to shower.
I don’t really know the physics involved, but it’s something about the wind of the water falling and the temperature difference and stuff that’s causing this. How can I get the two shower curtains to just hang there around me without slurping and sucking in and sticking to my body while I shower?
I used to have a similar problem when I lived in an ancient apartment with an antique tub and hanging-ring shower curtain arrangement. I solved my problem by weighting down the shower curtain with “sinkers,” the little lead weights that fishermen use. A sinker every few inches at the bottom of the curtain did the trick. I poked holes through the curtain and affixed the sinkers (each of which which had a loop at the top) by running small pieces of plastic-coated wire through the holes.
I used to live an an old apartment that had the exact same thing…old clawfoot bathtub, circular shower curtain rod, etc…and I always found that wetting down the sides of the tub and then sticking the equally wet shower curtains to them would decrease the “vortex” to the point that I was no longer attacked by the damn shower curtains. The part of the curtains above the bathtub would still “bow” inwards towards me, but couldn’t reach. (Even in modern bathtubs I stick the curtain to the walls to prevent water spraying out onto the floor.)
Then again, that"classic" bathtub had an equally “classic” showerhead…i.e., not much in the way of water pressure…so this method may not work if you have a nice modern showerhead that creates real pressure.
I loved the vintage look of that shower but I don’t miss it at all.
You can buy weighted shower curtains, some have metal weights sewn in the bottom hem, some have sand, sand is probably better if you machine was them. They should be available at most dept. stores, or a specialty store like Bed, Bath and Beyond.
I had an apartment with this too. I ended up getting two shower curtains. One I fastened to the shower head and then along the wall (I think I used thumb tacks). It extended pretty much to the end of the tub. For the other, I got a shower rod long enough to go all the way from wall to wall and went from shower head to rod.
It made the area inside the curtain much bigger, I think a little bigger than a regular shower. Also, you could still use the tub as a tub without a big wub of curtain getting in the way.
Try coating the inside of it with RAIN-X. You can get it at an auto parts store. I don’t know if it will work but water won’t stick to it so it shouldn’t stick to you when your wet.
A friend of mine uses the cutesy picnic table-cloth weights to hold down her shower curtain. She managed to find shower rods that curve outwards MUCH wider than her tub, and trimmed the curtain and added the weights so that the whole set-up looks kind of conical. It’s kind of neat, and it gives a LOT more elbow room when you’re showering than claw-foot tubs usually allow.
They’re usually heavy enough not to try to grab you in a clammy embrace and, unlike the lacy type of shower curtain, it’s very easy to keep it it free from mould.
Despite that column, I stubbornly stick with the “chimney effect”, or convection. What the mentioned experiments didn’t seem to take into account is a person standing in the shower. Instead, everything was based on the shower stream raining down past the curtain (hence all the talk about the low-pressure area in the center of the flow). When I’m standing in the shower, my body is blocking most of that flow, and much of the water between the shower head and my body is above the top of the curtain. And still the curtain blows in on me. Also, the effect is much more pronounced in the winter, when the bathroom air outside of the shower is colder.
Couple solutions that might be better than doing the weight thing.
Find a really heavy cloth shower curtain. Instead of one that is just weighted at the bottom, get a thick one who’s own weight and inertia will resist the suction.
Set up a system with a cloth outer curtain and a plastic inner curtain. The plastic one will hang inside and the cloth outside the rim of the tub. Then take the time to sew the plastic curtain to the cloth one in an single circuit 4 or 5 inches above the rim of the tub. The cloth curtain on the outside of the rim will not allow the plastic to suck in if they are sewn together all the way around.