See also:
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Steam Showers
You can pamper yourself at home with a steam
shower in your bathroom. Steam showers come
as complete, one piece shower enclosures
or as an addition to your existing shower
stall.
Complete units come with fiberglass enclosures
with glass doors. They include the steam
generation unit, shower heads, faucets, molded
seating, and sprays. Top of the line units
feature up to a dozen body level jets, head
or neck jets, and steam aromatherapy dispensers.
You can also assemble a steam shower yourself.
To upgrade your existing shower, or build
a custom enclosure in your own bathroom,
you need to insure that the high temperature
moisture from the steam does not penetrate
the shower walls or simply escape into the
room and cause damage to the walls and ceiling.
Line the shower stall with one half inch
cement backer board and then finish the walls,
ceiling, and floor with ceramic tile held
by a cement based adhesive. Install glass
shower doors with rubber seals, an optional
ventilation fan, and seating. Place the steam
generation unit where you can gain access
to it for maintenance, just like a hot water
heater.
The key features of a steam shower
are:
- the time the steam generator takes to generate
steam
- how the unit handles the mineral deposits
that form on the heating elements when water
boils away
- a digital thermostat to control the steam
room temperature
- an automatic timer to shut the steam unit
off
- the energy efficiency of the steam unit
The best units beginning generating
steam
in less than a minute and flush
accumulated
deposits automatically at the
end of each
use. Other units can take considerably
longer
and require a periodic manual
flushing of
the system. |
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