Aquasata D Shaped Shower Enclosure

[mikethetoolman]

Hi,

Over a year ago now, we modified our bathroom, wall removed, re-located the bath, tiles, shower etc.

All of the above is fine apart from my shower enclosure, so I wondered if you could help

I'm struggling with my D shaped shower enclosure. It's a long story, but basically I have had the enclosure for just over a year, and have only been able to use it for around two months.

The reason for this is because the wheel assembly's that support the doors keep bending. This allows the door to drop and catch on the bottom guide, and then stop the door from working.

I have had quite a number of wheels over the months, and I, and the engineer have fitted the D shaped profiles at different widths, and none of them stop the wheel assembly's from bending

We have had a new enclosure fitted by the distributors engineer recently, and the wheel assembly's bent within the hour.

I see on the web that there are lot's of companies selling my enclosure, so there must be someone who has experienced the wheel asembly's failing,

So I look forward to any help that you can give me,

Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

[xdave]

Hi Mike,

Although not an Aquasata D shaped model, I had similar problems with the doors on my enclosure sticking and after about two weeks of daily use would bend off-level just enough to cause complete failure. My problem turned out to be because the top rail was very slightly off parallel with the base rail. It was about 3mm higher at the edges than at the front of the D, but because of the curve it was hard to spot that with a level and was only apparent when projecting a laser reference and using it as a datum to measure from. It would only cause it to catch if the doors were opened quickly too which made it hard to diagnose.

Maybe you have a similar problem? The extra force required to move the wheels could be causing the brackets to bend and make the problem worse. You mention an engineer has replaced the whole enclosure so chances are the top should be level if you've had two fitted now but is the base rail level too?

 

[mikethetoolman]

Hi Mike,

Although not an Aquasata D shaped model, I had similar problems with the doors on my enclosure sticking and after about two weeks of daily use would bend off-level just enough to cause complete failure. My problem turned out to be because the top rail was very slightly off parallel with the base rail. It was about 3mm higher at the edges than at the front of the D, but because of the curve it was hard to spot that with a level and was only apparent when projecting a laser reference and using it as a datum to measure from. It would only cause it to catch if the doors were opened quickly too which made it hard to diagnose.

Maybe you have a similar problem? The extra force required to move the wheels could be causing the brackets to bend and make the problem worse. You mention an engineer has replaced the whole enclosure so chances are the top should be level if you've had two fitted now but is the base rail level too?

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply, earlier today I checked the top and bottom rails with a plumb line, and they checked out pretty good, obviously not laser quality, but I thought they would be on par with the many that are in various bathrooms around the country.

The lower rail sits good on the shower base, and the base is as level as you can get.

I'm of the opinion that the weight of the 6mm doors and the fact that the rear wheel assy has an extra length of glass to lift is the main problem. However I can't prove this at the moment.

Thanks,
Mike.

 

[Sharon2012]

We are having difficulty getting the shower enclosure doors on our aquasata d shape shower doors to open and close smoothly. The wheels to the bottom of the doors keep catching and scraping along the runner.... Has anyone out there had a similar problem and managed to sort it out????

We have had the unit for some time but due to delays in the house renovations only fitted it 2 months ago. If anyone has a solution would love to hear it.

Thanks

Sharon

 

[mikethetoolman]

Hi Sharon,

I feel your pain, the reason that the bottom wheels drag on the lower profile is because the top wheels, especially the rear one's will have bent, due to the excess weight of the doors.

This is exactly what used to happen to ours.

Unfortunately the only resolve is to obtain an April Shower Identiti 2 shower cubicle, and make one cubicle out of the two.

I managed to get my Aquasata supplier to admit defeat, and purchase an April Identiti 2 and deliver it to my house FOC.

A result after many months of hassle, we thought.

However when my wife and I started installing the new cubicle it soon became clear that the top and bottom profiles didn't match the fixed glass sides.

I did consider not having a shower at this stage as it was way too much stress.

However, I couldn't leave it, so after a few days off, I got back to it.

I had two shower cubicles stripped out, and I knew the answer was with the April Identiti, because the fixed glass sides are much longer than the Aquasata, and this had to be good for the door wheels, as the doors where much smaller, and this would give the wheels more of a chance of not bending, or breaking under the weight (we had some break whilst the engineer was trying to fix the shower)

My wife beat me to the possibility (I was thinking the same thing) as the two cubicles are very similar, why not try the Identiti fixed glass parts against the Aquasata profiles ( we had nothing to lose after all)

Well the good news is that the glass fit the profiles perfectly

As if they where made for each other.

So to sum it up, I would be willing to bet that you won't, or the suppliers won't be able to make your Aquasata stop bending the top wheels.

I would also be willing to bet that you could get the suppliers to either give you your money back (ours had a lifetime guarantee, although Iv'e blown that now Although I won't need it

Or get the suppliers to buy an April Shower Identiti 2 cubicle, then you, or a bathroom fitter use the top and bottom profiles from the Aquasata, and use the glass from the April Identiti 2 to make a custom cubicle, that won't bend the wheels.

Ours has been in daily use for a number of months now, with zero problems

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Mike.