Inconspicuous hardware accessories, but crucial to the life and experience of the shower room. When purchasing a shower room, most people mainly consider factors such as frame material, explosion-proof glass and price, and often ignore the choice of hardware accessories.
Shower room hardware accessories are inconspicuous compared with large-area materials such as glass and frames. However, in the actual use of the shower room, hardware accessories are the most important factors affecting the life and experience of the shower room.
No matter how well the glass and frame materials are selected, after a year of use, the hinges are rusted, loose, or the slide rails are stuck, not to mention how depressing it is. Therefore, in the choice of shower room hardware accessories, we must keep our eyes open.
The hardware accessories commonly used in mainstream shower rooms mainly include: shafts, hinges, pulleys, guide rails, handles, water retaining strips, etc.
1. pivot & hinge
Pivots and hinges are used in shower rooms with open doors.
Regardless of the pivot or the hinge, it is used to connect the opening and closing rotation of the solid glass (fixed glass) and the living glass (movable glass) in the shower room.
The rotating shaft is used for the pivoted structure that bears the bending moment and torque in the rotating work. Its appearance is similar to that of a hinge, and its structure is simpler than that of a hinge. The upper and lower rotating shafts are mostly used in the shower room.
Hinge, also known as hinge, is a two-fold structure composed of metal sheets, which also rotates around the middle axis. It is recommended to use stainless steel hinges for the shower room, which has high strength and corrosion resistance.
In the casement door shower room, the opening and closing hardware shaft is more durable; the hinge is more common, and the hinge configuration is more high-end, but it may be deformed after long-term use. Configure according to actual needs and shower room design
2. Guide rails and rollers
The combination of rollers and guide rails is used in sliding door shower rooms.
Rails
The upper and lower double-layer guide rails adopt V-shaped groove design. There are two main types of track materials: aluminum alloy and stainless steel clad aluminum alloy.
The track of pure aluminum alloy is mostly curved to a certain degree, because the arch is more resistant to pressure. You can pinch or press the samples displayed in the store. If there is a sinking feeling, it proves that the strength is not enough, either the thickness is not enough, or the material itself is relatively poor.
The track of the push-pull shower room has a radian. Due to the high hardness of stainless steel, it is not easy to process. Generally, the track is not made of pure stainless steel but stainless steel clad with aluminum alloy. The cladding of stainless steel can strengthen the overall strength of the track, the inner aluminum alloy can be processed into radians, and the outer stainless steel can be made straight and neat.
The easiest way to judge whether the track is good or not is to just get started and push and pull it several times to feel the feel. No resistance, no noise, smooth and quiet, it is a better guide rail. I don’t feel like trying a shower room, try a few more, and then there will be a comparison.
Rollers
The upper and lower guide rails of an excellent sliding door shower room adopt a double rollers structure, which has a self-lubricating effect and slides smoothly.
Some of our aphroshower.com shower rooms explore a more practical structure on the basis of the double rollers structure. The spring pressing structure is used in the configuration of the lower pulley. It only needs to be pressed lightly, which is convenient and labor-saving to install, and it is also convenient for daily track cleaning.
Most of the rollers are made of ABS plastic, and the quality of the rollers is judged to be the best. Push and pull on the spot, and choose a smooth and silent pulley block.
3. Handles
In terms of appearance, the shower room handle has a variety of shapes, which is enough to meet the choices of different bathroom styles. In terms of material, ordinary household shower room handles are commonly made of stainless steel and zinc alloy.
304 stainless steel handles are superior to zinc alloy in terms of corrosion resistance and durability, but the shape is relatively single and the price is higher.
Zinc alloy is easier to process, and products with radians and curves can be processed, and after zinc alloy is electroplated, its corrosion resistance is sufficient, and the price is cheaper than stainless steel handles.
The specific material of the handle to be configured can be selected according to the budget and the requirements for quality and design.
4. Water retaining strip
The height of the water retaining strip is best to choose a style of 5 cm or more. At the same time, the water retaining strip of the shower room should be pre-buried in advance, so that not only the waterproof effect is better, but the water in the bathroom will not leak through the floor tiles to the dry area; Adjust the level of the bottom of the room to reduce the difficulty of installation.
It is worth noting here that in order to achieve a good dry-wet separation effect, the water retaining strip must be pre-embedded in the leveling stage before the waterproof treatment of the bathroom, and then the waterproof construction should be carried out, or after the water retaining strip is buried. First, before laying tiles, a second waterproof construction is carried out in the shower room to ensure the dry and wet separation effect of the shower room.
This is because the shower room is a space with a large amount of high-frequency water. Although the base of the bathroom is waterproofed, there is still a layer (or layers) of cement material between the tiles and the waterproof layer. We all know that cement is not waterproof, and tiles also have joints, which cannot achieve a complete sealing effect. If the water retaining strip is not embedded in the waterproof layer, the water in the shower room may seep downward from the gaps in the tiles and flow from the tiles. The bottom bypasses the water retaining strip and seeps out to the outside of the shower room, which is more likely to cause water seepage, water stains, mildew, and even deformation and cracking of the tiles in the dry area.
Through the figure below, you can understand this problem more intuitively. This link is easy to be ignored during the construction of the bathroom, but it is a crucial link. This problem is almost impossible to repair in the later stage of decoration, so it needs special attention!
Common materials for water retaining strips on the market include quartz stone, marble, artificial stone and PVC. The hardness and texture of quartz stone are excellent, the price is relatively high, it is not easy to process, and the shape is simple. If the budget is sufficient, you can consider installing quartz stone. Marble has natural texture, beautiful but brittle, not recommended.
Since the water retaining strip is not a load-bearing part of the shower room, the requirements for strength and hardness are not high, and artificial stone and PVC materials are recommended for ordinary households. Artificial stone and PVC are easy to process, and can be made into shapes such as inline and arc shapes according to the style of the shower room, and can also be made into various imitation stone colors, which is cost-effective.
The above are the core hardware accessories of the shower room, and others such as anti-collision blocks, rubber strips, pull rods, wall clips, etc.; although the parts and hardware are not reflected in the article, it is necessary to pay more attention to and distinguish the quality when purchasing.