Just Ducky
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday June 26, 2003
What makes a perfect tub? Domain gets naked and finds out.
I remember the ceiling over every bath tub I've ever stretched out in ... I remember the tubs, too: the antique griffin-legged tubs, and the modern coffin-shaped tubs, and the fancy pink marble tubs overlooking indoor lily ponds, and I remember the shapes and sizes of the water taps and the different sorts of soap holders. I never feel so much myself as when I'm in a hot bath. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath.
Quite so, Sylvia. Showers are like fast food; rapid, efficient and instantly gratifying. But baths are different, magical. They have to be drawn - a wonderful word - and the sound of the gurgling tap is all part of the pleasure.
Slipping into a tub of steaming water, preferably by candlelight, is one of the few rituals left to stressed-out, mortgaged-to-the-hilt modern man. The bath is a baptism, where even fierce financial directors and buttoned-up barristers can play with a rubber duck or plastic frogman.
I've always loved baths. I remember the really good ones - the giant cast iron, claw-footed tub at a hippie hotel in San Francisco, for example - and the bad ones: taps which gouged my back and plugs that numbed my bum.
Baths appeared to be becoming an endangered species a few years back. The proliferation of tiny inner-city apartments and the shower-and-run mentality of the time-poor workers who lived in them meant baths were often regarded as redundant. That's changing, according to Steven Higgins, communications manager at upmarket bathroom-ware retailer Rogerseller.
"People are taking the step back and we are having baths again," he says. "It's about creating a sanctuary at home. Things like essential oils and candles are big at the moment and people are trying to enjoy their personal space."
Tim Jordan, the managing director of Brightwater Bathware, a Marrickville company that distributes German brands Kaldewei and Hoesch, agrees baths have sometimes been neglected by apartment developers but that's changing. So are the kinds of baths we favour.
"Through the '80s and '90s the trend was for a big corner spa bath," he says "But people found they took a long time to fill, they weren't ergonomic and they tended not to get used."
Jordan says freestanding baths are making a comeback. He feels they make a clear statement: this room is designed for bathing.
Whatever your preference, it's important to choose a tub that suits. Jordan says comfort is paramount, so put your embarrassment on hold and climb into the tub in the showroom. See if the length, depth and width feel right for your body shape. If you sometimes like to share a bath, consider a double-ended model with a central plug but don't buy something enormous because most baths are still taken solo.
"Choose carefully, because the bath will improve your lifestyle if you make the right choice," says Jordan. "Besides comfort, durability is important. The bath gets bricked in and tiled up, so it has to last. Things like taps and vanities all go in after the tiling and can be replaced in five years but you can't do that with a bath."
Baths come in a variety of flavours, of course. Materials range from acrylic to porcelain-coated steel. Rogerseller's German designed and manufactured Bette baths are constructed from pressed titanium steel and range from $500 to $3850 for a model by English designer Jasper Morrison. Caroma's acrylic baths cost $195 to $1051 and its steel baths from $244 to $2149.
Higgins says the material is important but the often discussed heat-retention issue is something of a furphy. "I guess some of the cast-iron baths will hold the heat a bit longer but 80 per cent [of the heat] is lost to the air, anyway, so it's not a huge factor. The most important thing is the way the bath is pressed or formed in terms of its strength and aesthetics. You don't want it to be unstable or to sound tinny. You want something substantial that doesn't bend or move when you get in."
So, how do today's baths shape up? I road-tested five tubs in a single day. Each was in a modern apartment - one complex was still under construction - in locations including Waterloo, Sylvania and Abbotsford. The idea was to rate the comfort, design and overall
desirability of both the bath and its fittings: taps, faucets and soap holders.
As a tall man (190 centimetres in my socks) my ideal bath needs to be roomy. It must provide comfortable back support and not assault me with protruding taps and faucets. I want to linger in my bath, read a book or write a letter like Jean-Paul Marat, a leader of the French Revolution who was stabbed to death in his tub in 1793. There are worse ways to go, I suppose.
Clutching my towel, wash-bag and whatever dignity I could summon - not easy when you have to tell a burly builder you've come to assess the, um, bath - I began my quest for a top tub.
Things didn't get off to a good start. Arriving at the Tanika apartments in Sylvania, I discovered the water had yet to be connected to the display apartment where I was to take my first bath. "I could run a hose up there but it wouldn't be hot water," said a helpful builder.
Not wishing to fall at the first hurdle, I stripped off and sat in the empty bath anyway. It was a lonely feeling.
Seven hours and five baths later I was sweet smelling and wrinkled as a prune. My conclusion: all baths are equal but some are more equal than others.
Jump in, the water's fine
Tanika 1-9 Florida Street, Sylvania
Bath Caroma, Verona
Material Sanitaryware-grade acrylic
This relatively small bath (1525mm long x 767mm wide x 435mm deep) is somewhat overshadowed by the spacious, luxury shower and huge wash basin in this gleaming white bathroom. It's fine for a quick dip but if it's a long, lazy soak you're after - and you're over 183cm - size does matter. This feels like a bathroom for busy people who prefer showers. There's not a lot of room on the edge of the bath for fripperies such as candles or rubber ducks and the light from the central spotlight is efficient but hardly atmospheric. Water is delivered via a central faucet and is controlled by two elegantly simple stainless-steel taps. On the plus side, the Verona would be quick and easy to clean.
Rubber duck rating 7/10
Walsh Bay Pier 6/7, 19 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Bath Kaldewei, Classic
Material Porcelain on steel
Open up the doors that divide the bathroom from the living room at this luxury two-bedroom apartment and you have an uninterrupted view of the seagulls on the neighbouring wharf. Better still, you can watch your feathered friends from a hot bath. It's a German-made Kaldewei, a sturdy, smooth tub that gleams like the bonnet of a new BMW. Made of heavy 3.5mm gauge steel - many manufacturers use 1.6mm, apparently - it's lined with silky smooth white porcelain. The tub is a good size for a tall man and the marble surround is luxurious. This is a bath for the bath lover. Pass the champers.
Rubber duck rating 9/10
Riviera 5a Blackwall Point Road, Abbotsford
Bath Englefield Sapphire
Material Sanitaryware-grade acrylic
Housed in an ensuite bathroom in a two-bedroom apartment, this is a big bath designed for two (it measures 1800mm x 900mm x 540mm). The plug and faucet are both in the middle of the bath and there are back-rests at both ends. Even flying solo, I found this generously proportioned tub a real treat. My arms rested comfortably on its internal
contours and the backrest kept my head away from the tiled wall. There's enough room on the edge for candles and shampoo. The central faucet has been kept sensibly short and won't gouge you or your companion as you climb in or out.
Rubber duck rating 8/10
Macquarie Apartments 155 Macquarie Street, city
Bath Kaldewei, Classic
Material Porcelain on steel
High above Macquarie Street, in this luxurious Renzo Piano-designed apartment building, you'd expect a top-notch bathroom. It doesn't disappoint. Backed by an enormous mirror, the bath - another gleaming Kaldewei Classic - is the centrepiece of this large marble-coated room. The bath itself is equipped with six spa jets and the result is a seriously relaxing soak. For some reason the whole experience made me feel like that guy in the Imperial Leather soap commercial who has a bath on his private jet. "Simon, Tahiti".
Rubber duck rating 9/10
Mondrian 2 Powell Street, Waterloo
Bath Kaldewei, Euro
Material Porcelain on steel
The bathroom in this ground-floor, one-bedroom apartment at Mondrian is a white space with no windows to the outside world. Hardly a bathroom for poets and dreamers but a well lit, highly functional modern space. The Kaldewei bath doubles as a shower and I had to twist my body around the glass shower screen to insert the plug. Cleaning would require the same dexterity. The bath itself is a little narrow but long and quite luxurious (this was the only bath I tried that was actually a bit too long for my frame). The attractive stone edge is broad enough for your partner to sit on and chat and the taps (a Caroma Laser bath set) were like little silver Daleks from Dr Who: simple, smooth and efficient.
Rubber duck rating 7/10
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This