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Making the switch to frameless shower doors will change how you view your bathroom. The frameless look is something that fits every style. Before you make the switch, you may ask yourself how safe are frameless shower doors?
Are frameless shower doors safe is a common question asked by many people before having them installed. Frameless doors are made from tempered glass which is less likely to break compared to laminated or annealed glass doors. This glass is fabricated in ½ inch and ⅜ inch thickness. The chances of frameless shower doors breaking are very low, but the chance is always there.
Compared to laminated glass, tempered glass is four times stronger and has a minimum surface compression of 10,000 pounds per square inch. If laminated or annealed glass were to break, it would leave long shards and jagged pieces of glass that could easily cause injury. When tempered glass breaks, if it breaks, it leaves small, more rounded pieces of glass that reduce the chance of injury by a wide margin. Tempered glass breaks this way due to the heating and cooling process that is used to manufacture it.
Safety glass can also be used for frameless shower doors and it’s manufactured by heating annealed glass at around 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s then placed on a roller table, rolled through a furnace, and then rapidly cooled. This is more commonly known as ‘quenching’.
Tempered glass is manufactured by submerging glass in a bath of potassium salt. This causes an exchange between sodium atoms with potassium atoms which results in a stronger glass.
If any modification were to be made to glass, it has to be done before either of these processes. Drilling holes or any other modifications would cause the glass to shatter.
While safety glass is more resistant to breakage, it is still possible to break it. Tempered glass is also much more resistant to shattering but it can shatter eventually if struck by a concentrated blow using a hard object.
Although these types of glass can still break, the chances of this happening or slim and it typically will never happen unless purposely done.
Frameless shower doors are constructed using the strongest glass around. These shower doors are even safer than the ones you have currently. If you want shower doors that look great and will never break, CFG Shower Doors and Closets are here for you. Visit our contact page if you have more questions.