Freestanding bathtub or drop-in bathtub? Which one is better?
Bathroom takes an important role in one house, soaking in the bath with a glass of wine can eliminate all the fatigue of the working day. Considering you already have a shower space like shower enclosure or shower door, and need one more bath in your bathroom to enjoy better life, then how to choose? Freestanding bathtub or drop-in bathtub? Which is better?
Firstly, what’s the difference of drop-in and freestanding bathtubs? Most drop-in bathtubs are made of acrylic or ABS-acrylic with bottom reinforced by fiberglass, as it usually need further construction and been built and dropped into the wall corner or on the sand surroundings, it’s called drop-in. The freestanding bathtubs are made of acrylic materials too, the bottom is also reinforced with fiberglass and resin, but with framed feet to stand alone on the floor freely, so it’s called freestanding bath. The other difference is drop-in bathtubs are only one layer of sheet material, while freestanding bathtubs are two layers of acrylic sheet, jointed together at the bath edge seamlessly that layman can’t even noticed it. It’s more beautiful and looks like one-piece bathtub from interior to exterior.
Many aboard homeowners may not have too much chances to meet the question at beginning, as most of the houses are built with Interior decoration, we call it hardbound room, opposite of roughcast room. Since 2017, China carries out the hardbound room policy, and gradually cancel the roughcast room in the house property market, Chinese people have less chance to face this problem too, except they need some changes and re-build the bathroom.
What kind of bathtub you would choose if you need one bath now? Drop-in VS freestanding bathtub, we will definitely suggest freestanding bathtubs, mainly 4 reasons:
1, More convenient.
Freestanding bathtub no need extra construction as drop-in bathtub does, you buy it and move in, simply install the water faucet and connect the sewage lines which are easily to be done by DIY, that’s all. It’s also very convenient to remove if you are bored of it and wanna change to shower enclosure one day in the future, just move it out.
2, More modern and stylish.
There are various of kinds freestanding bathtub designs to choose, normal shapes like rectangular, square, oval, or a little weird high-heel design, you can choose your favorite freely.
3, More heat preservation.
When you take bath, especially in not that warm weather, you may hate the water cool down so quickly, it will turn your bathing into suffering…. While the freestanding bathtubs usually are made of two layers of acrylic sheets, and seamless jointed at the edge, the structure enable it more heat preservation than drop-in bathtubs. A kind remind: don’t expect too much of its keep-warm function in winter the cold bathroom surroundings, water temptation still goes down as it has too big heat dissipation area.
4, Easier to maintain.
Once the accessories of freestanding bathtubs get broken and need repair, it’s easy to move, check, repair or replace new, which is much more convenient than those built drop-in acrylic bathtubs. I’m sure it would be headache to repair and remove the drop-in bathtub once it damaged, we will make a report on how much it would cost to replace drop-in bathtub with shower enclosure later, which I unfortunately experienced the whole painful experience.
So, it seems there is no advantages at all for drop-in bathtub? While we can’t say that, it does have. Let’s list the pros of acrylic drop-in bathtubs one by one:
1, More budget friendly.
Comparing on the manufacturing cost or FOB price for export of drop-in bathtub and freestanding bathtubs, drop-in bathtubs are about seven times of cheaper than freestanding bathtub cost. We didn’t calculate the cost of surrounding construction for drop-in bathtubs, it may be a little different in each market. If you choose DIY, then it’s only the raw materials cost….
2, Looks tidy and clean.
While it’s two different style for drop-in and freestanding bathtubs. Drop-in tub may make the whole bathroom looks tidy and clean, maybe also easier to clean, because it’s usually built in the corner with three walls as surroundings and leave only one side outside. Freestanding bathtubs may look more high-end, but it may not easy to clean the floors if you put it into a narrow bathroom space with too small space against walls. Freestanding bathtub is more suitable for big bathrooms, but not for small. Below is a bad example to put oval freestanding bath tub in too narrow bathroom space, making people feel chocked even just see it not bathing in it…
Every coin has two sides. There are still people like and choose drop-in bathtub, but we believe there will be more and more people choose freestanding bathtubs in the future. For homeowners to have a comfortable bathroom and enjoyable bathing experience, freestanding bathtub is better. We will introduce you the top 10 freestanding bathtub models in the market later.