I have one in my new apartment. Yes, it looks nice, but otherwise it’s a PIA.
Does anyone have any idea what it’s like getting into a wet tub that doesn’t have a flat surface? I have a window beside it and picture myself each morning falling through it, naked, to my embarrassing death.
The tub requires 2 shower curtains to conceal itself. THEN, the curtains have to be cut in order to fit around the faucet.
Clawfoot tubs, although attractive, suck! I miss my previous, modern tub built into two walls and with a nice flat bottom.
So, who her bought an old house and tore out the tub? And how many friends/family told you not to?
They’re generally big and deep. Meaning I can lie in one and actually stretch my legs out to a reasonable degree, and my boobs don’t stick out and freeze off. Yippee!
Though a complete klutz myself, I’ve never had trouble getting in or out of one. Have you considered one of those rubber sucker mats at the bottom?
Also - who needs a shower curtain round the bath? Except the under-5 “woohoo! splashing is so much FUN!”-set, of course.
Yeah, they’re great bathtubs. They hold heat well because of the cast iron, and they’re comfortable. I would not want one to shower in, it isn’t what they were designed for and if you have a clawfoot tub, you should ideally have a separate shower.
there are shower curtain rings and ovals for free standing tubs. i’ve seen large old bathrooms where the freestanding tub was well out into the room so that you could walk and clean around it.
I disagree. This is an oft repeated misconception. Cast iron actually draws heat out of the water. If the tub is warm before you fill it, then yeah it will keep the water warm. High quality acrylic is a much better option. Warmer, softer, safer.
But I agree clawfoot tubs in general are highly over-rated.
I like them for the back-friendly angle for soaking, plus the long and deep that has already been mentioned. I agree that you should look into some traction for your feet - as Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory pointed out, tubs are slippery. I simply use a washcloth to stand on to get better traction than a porcelain tub - it works just fine.
If your bathroom is too cold and the cast iron is taking the heat out of your bath, a little space heater should clear that problem right up.
when filling a cast iron tub use only hot water unmixed and fill half your volume then let the tub heat up for a bit. then fill the remainder volume to produce your desired temperature.
Exactly. a small electric heater placed very close to and aimed at the side of the tub. What I used to do was take my shower to get clean, then wash out the tub, then fill it for the soaking process. The shower and cleaning prewarmed the tub and bathroom, and the soak soothed my aching joints.
What others have said; the tub was big and deep, and I loved it.
What was a pain: When we put the new floor in. You have to put extra reinforcements underneath the feet.
Also, this one did not have a shower, and I really missed showers. We eventually got one of those hand-held things, and did not have a shower curtain because it would have been unsightly.
And it was a drag not to be able to set things (wineglass, soap, ashtray) on the side. It was a real pain to clean under it, which we had to do. It would have worked better free-standing instead of against the wall, but it was a very small bathroom.
The real drag was, you could put a LOT of water into it, but our water heater did not have the capacity for that. The procedure was to start with only the hot water, as fast as you could get it in there, and then keep testing, and turn the water off before it completely chilled the water already in there. This usually resulted in the tub’s being about half capacity. The tub may have held heat well, but it also held cold well, and the first few gallons of pure hot water just warmed it up, and by then, the hot water was played out.
If you primarily use it for showers it is wasted. If you like baths they are the best thing ever.
Yes companies still make them. They tend to be a relic of the past not because they aren’t made anymore, it’s because no one wants to install them. They are stupefyingly heavy, 500 pounds of awkward moving. Adding or removing them from an existing home is a recipe for disaster. The potential for damage to the house on the way in or the way out be people inexperienced in moving them is high, not to mention the chance they hurt themselves. It can be done by people that know what they are doing but that’s a much smaller percentage of contractors and they charge you for that experience.
If you want a claw foot tub in a new home it is worth telling the builder who can boom it in before the roofs on. It’s easier to work around it then it is to add it later.
And a million electricians shuddered: I don’t know about American safety standards — or even whether they are administered by state or federal authorities — but in Europe not only are sockets in bathrooms forbidden, but you aren’t allowed to take extension leads in there either.
