Most bars these days, especially the towel-cum-grab bar sort, come with heavy duty drywall anchors rated for a LOT of weight- like 90 lbs or something like that.
I installed one at my parents house- one end was in the stud, but I guess whoever made their bathroom didn’t follow the usual 18" stud distance of the rest of the house, because it was like 22" away. So I used the drywall anchor, and it’s every bit as firm feeling as the one in the stud. And I yanked/hung on it quite a bit. I’m 6’1" and about 290, so that’s not a trivial amount of pulling.
As for the drilling into tile… before my parents had their bathroom remodeled, I installed a shower grab bar, and I used a masonry bit. It worked, but it didn’t do it really cleanly- there were a bunch of little chips out of the lip. It wasn’t a big deal though, as the flange and bolt for the rail completely covered the hole. If yours doesn’t cover it completely, I think I’d find a different solution though.
The long bar on the back wall is now installed. Thought for sure I was going to hit wood on one end based on (erroneous) stud sensor readings but did not. I am 99.9% confident that that bar will never fail. It seems rock solid based on me grabbing the bar and applying a lot of force to it. Three toggle anchor fasteners on each end. The ceramic drill bits worked great, I used a 3/16" bit followed by a 1/2". No cracked tile or anything. The one thing that didn’t go as planned was that unlike the YT videos, the lines I drew to lay things out seem to be permanent! The guys in the videos wiped off the pencil marks with a moistened fingertip, but I have tried that, followed by iso alcohol, followed by soapy water and a scrub brush followed by automotive abrasive polish and I can still see every mark I made! I just need to get some stainless machine screws to replace the ones that came with the anchors and do a little caulking along the top edge of the flanges.
I will probably get the shorter bar on the end wall installed tomorrow. Will do a lot less drawing on the wall!
Went really well, thankfully.
One thing I did that I got from the videos was taking a pointy awl type thing and a plastic hammer and making a little “divot” at the exact point I wanted the hole, to keep the drill bit from wandering when I started drilling. Recommended.
In case any one’s still interested, I’ve had both bars installed for a few weeks now everything seems good. I may pop the covers off the ends and put some additional caulk around the screws and unused holes in the flanges.
My main concern was me suddenly losing my balance or footing and needing something to grab to keep from falling. For that purpose I feel 99.9% confidence. Sure it may (in theory) come partially loose from the wall (actually no, it won’t, but conceivably could) but would likely save me from breaking a hip or a skull.
If I was taking baths and using the grab rails to lift my full body weight day after day, month after month, eventually it could (but most likely won’t) work loose.
All things considered I’m very happy I decided to do it and it’s worked out well and I’ve got confidence in my work.