Last Updated on April 7, 2024 by Nasir Hanif
When it comes to selecting for a shower door to pair with a cubicle, Pivot shower doors are always a preference. From matching your vanity unit with the tilework to finding the ideal shower cubicle for the shower space, thinking for a renovation is no walk-through a park. Sourcing the right fixtures is one thing; making sure they smoothly fit in with your bathroom’s eco-system is another.
Even though installing a shower enclosure solves most of the problems, you need to pair it with the right shower door to work effectively. Sure, the wide range of shower doors can get confusing when finding your perfect match. Especially if it is the first time you are going to buy an enclosure. We have compared the two most widely installed shower doors to help you figure out the right one.
Pivot Shower Doors
Though often confused with hinged doors, pivot shower doors pivot hinges to move inwards and outwards. These are same like your typical household doors, but there’s a catch. While pivot doors’ to and from motion copies standard shower doors, they swing out an entire 180 degrees to fully open.
The pivoting hinges either attach to the side of the door or mounts at the centre, exhibiting a revolving mechanism. Pivot doors normally open outwards into the bathroom, compromising the room’s floor space. The downside for such doors is that these may require clearance space outside of the shower area. Thought these offers biggest entrance into the shower area. But for opening them there should be nothing near to the door which can be a problem for bathrooms where space is a problem.
Benefits of Pivot Shower Doors
There are following advantages of pivot doors.
- Don’t have bottom roller tracks. The biggest and probably the only flaw of sliding doors is the bumpy roller tracks at the bottom. These metal tracks are susceptible to forming dirt, scum, and even mildew if not properly maintained. Pivoting doors, on the other hand, remove the hassle altogether with the to and from motion.
- Offers large entryways . Even though both panels of the sliding doors are operable. They tend to overlap each other, thus keeping the entryway congested as always. The pivot door entrance depends on the width of the door itself. The wider the door, the larger the entryway.
- Work perfectly in compact corner spaces – In case your shower space is in a corner, pivot doors would be a perfect fit. They could use those extra few inches of floor space available at the corners.
- Don’t require regular maintenance – With no special rolling dynamics, pivot shower doors pose no hassle of periodic maintenance. All you need to do is keep the glass clean and prevent any mildew from building up on the hinges.
Sliding Doors
Instead of typical door hinges, sliding shower doors work on specialized rollers or sliding headers that allow doors to slide past each other, creating an entrance to the room. The roller tracks are into the floor, forming an elevated threshold. So, these are a completely different design in functionality in comparison to pivot shower door.
Since they are compatible with a variety of shower cubicles, sliding doors come in different sizes and shapes. Not to mention, you can also find curved designs in both framed and frameless versions embedded with a soft-closing feature. Sliding doors help in noise reduction creating a spa-like environment in the room.
Benefits of Sliding Shower Doors
Here we have the advantages of sliding shower doors.
- Affordable – Unless you are writing a blank cheque for your renovation budget, you’d want to save up on the costs where possible. Despite the rising prices of building materials, sliding shower doors are still comparatively affordable and more cost-effective than pivoting doors.
- Prevent water leakage – Unlike pivot doors that open out in the room, leaking water onto the floor or wooden fixtures, sliding shower doors have better protection against water leakage, keeping it in the shower pan where it needs to stay.
- Provides dual-operating doors – if you often have a congested entryway into the shower enclosure. Which is often getting splashed with cold water while its getting warm, sliding shower doors are the solution. Getting a bypass sliding door will get you two operable doors that slide past one another simultaneously, offering a wider doorway into the cubicle.
- Don’t compromise the room space – The sliding shower doors don’t budge out into the room like pivot doors. These don’t compromise the bathroom space. Not to mention, it also prevents the risk of getting your glass door bumping into any nearby fixture.
Final Thoughts
In this blog we have compared the advantages of both pivot shower doors and sliding shower doors. It is clear from our discussion that both of these are great for installation with your choice of shower enclosure. However, a pivot door is relatively better option when paired with square or rectangular shower enclosures.
On the other hand, the sliding shower door is perfect for pairing with shower cubicles. Where space saving is your top priority. It Is because pivot door requires clearance space just outside the enclosure while sliding doors don’t have any such requirements. Therefore, will be better option to go with pivot or corner fitted enclosure which is already a space saving option.
