What's the difference between cheap and expensive acrylic tubs?

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ilyaz

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Renovating our bathroom. Want to get a new acrylic alcove tub. There are quite a few of them out there, and difference in price is significant. Question is: what's the difference between a cheaper tub like this and a more expensive one like this?

Is it simply the brand name? Is one more durable than the other? And what exactly dies "durable" mean? If I drop something sharp/heavy into it, is the expensive one less likely to crack? Installation simpler?

Thank you
 
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They are made in different thickness from 3 mm to 8 mm , 3 mm is just less than 1/8" the thicker it is will hold the heat better.

Just see if you can find a salesperson that knows what he is selling. You would think an expensive brand name would be quick to tell you the difference.
 
nealtw said:
They are made in different thickness from 3 mm to 8 mm , 3 mm is just less than 1/8" the thicker it is will hold the heat better.
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Aah, makes sense.

Chances are that we will rarely use it as a tub, though it's still good to know. More likely my teenage kids will be taking showers in that bathroom. So I am much more concerned about it not breaking/cracking. So is it correct to assume that thicker is better in this sense? Intuitively, the answer should be yes, but I've seen it otherwise elsewhere (like with some wood products).
 
ilyaz said:
Aah, makes sense.

Chances are that we will rarely use it as a tub, though it's still good to know. More likely my teenage kids will be taking showers in that bathroom. So I am much more concerned about it not breaking/cracking. So is it correct to assume that thicker is better in this sense? Intuitively, the answer should be yes, but I've seen it otherwise elsewhere (like with some wood products).
Click to expand...

Well as of now, you know as much as I do. You are suppose to set them on a bed of mortar to support them. Around here all the new houses get cheap ones out of China, they never place the mortar I have never heard of one with a problem. Go figure.
 
Neither of these require them to be set in a mortar base, and if you carefully read the details of both, you will find that the KOHLER offers significant design differences and selection than the DELTA, such as a 1yr. warranty.
 
Whichever one you choose, make sure that it will be compatible with the shower enclosure or tile that you plan to use.
Neither of these websites have information about tub thickness, yet I am sure the info is available somewhere.
 
KOHLER has a customer service #, as does this site.
 
Ended up getting the Kohler. Will see if I made the right decision... Thanks everyone for the input. Happy 4th!
 
ilyaz said:
if I made the right decision
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I'd ask myself how soon and by what method will I know if I chose correctly.

As background, the Web sometime tells me that there is almost no correlation between price & quality.

I depend on the expensive product sellers to tell me the problems with the cheaper products, and vice versa. The sellers don't want to lie outright but if you ask the right questions you can get close to the truth.
Catching them in a contradiction is a red flag; both stories can't be true at the same time. I've even caught a doctor contradicting himself.

Each seller will probably tell you little hints that will prolong the life of whichever product you buy. Sometimes the work you have to do to get a reasonable lifetime out of a product is really burdensome.

With this wide difference in price there is a lot you are not being told. Checking with Nextag, the acrylic tubs are around $1300, with not much variation.

As with HD prices, it seems the consumer is being forced to choose between a very low price and a price quite a bit higher. The prices are adjusted to put the buyer on the fence about which way to go.
 
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