Customer Reviews

5 ft. Curved Shower Rod - Polished Stainless Steel

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fits shower openings from 57 3/8 " to 60 3/4". The supplied mounting hardware is good for drywall and wallboard but will not work with tile or fiberglass. You can get appropriate mounting hardware for tile or fiberglass at a hardware store. The directions were straight forward, but a bit chatty for my taste. Remember to close the bathtub drain in case you drop one of the small set screws.

My only complaint is that the wall mounts should be taller. The curved bar plus curtains puts a substantial amount of torque on the vertical wall mounts and the screws in the wall are not far enough apart to hold the torque. The wall mounts will thus rotate slightly with standard wall anchors and lower the rod down a bit. You need to consider this with height placement so your curtains don't drag on the floor. If you are luck enough to mount into a wall stud then this should not be a problem.

I hate shower doors and use a shower curtain so I can just throw it in the washing machine once a month. The only problem was the space was a little tight and sometimes the curtain touches and sticks to you. This curtain rod eliminated that! It almost seems to have doubled the elbow room, and I still kept the same shower curtain. I had to cut about four inches off to make it fit, but it works fantastic.

This rod is fabulous it's amazing what the little crescent shaped area provides, in terms of additional space. It also creates an optical presence that you're actually in a larger shower. I bought this at bed bath and beyond for 39.99 so anything cheaper is a great price. I have the same hangers as the picture that roll because I wasn't sure if it had an extension piece where the hangers would get stuck, but it's all one piece so any hanger would probably work better than a traditional extension rod.

If you place the mounts about 3" in from your original location you'll definitely notice how the inside curtain keeps the water in and air out.

Must have...

I put this shower rod up earlier this year and it is really beautiful. It adds much more room inside the shower as a result of the curved rod design. The seamless one-piece rod is one of the best features, especially compared to similar curved rods I saw at the box stores that use a 2-piece "adjustable" rod design. This seamless rod eliminates that annoying "bump" in the middle that catches on your shower rings when sliding the curtain open and closed.

I installed the rod over ceramic tile backed by 1/2" cement board in an alcove tub/shower. The two wall mounting brackets are all metal and seem to be plenty sturdy to support the weight of the bar, a shower curtain, and shower curtain liner. Each bracket has two mounting holes arranged vertically about 1-1/8" apart. Over tile, thinset, and cement backer board (tuff stuff), this spacing between the screws was sufficient to resist the torsional load naturally caused by weight on the middle of the curved rod. Installed over plain drywall, I can see how the torsional (twisting) load might be an issue.

Each of the two wall brackets has a deep "socket" that accepts one end of the seamless rod. Since these sockets are about 2" deep, and the rod only needs to go about 1" deep inside the socket to be secured by the set screw, there is some room for adjustment of the assembly to fit the span of the opening. This particular rod kit is for a nominal 5-foot opening. I had a 58-3/4" opening to span and I was able to install the rod and brackets without the need to cut any length off the rod. The rod and "sockets" also have a slightly oval cross-sectional shape, which helps resist twisting of the rod in the brackets. One last helpful feature (that I presume was part of the design but may have been dumb luck) is a small "speed bump" built into the top of each wall bracket. If you have the metal roller-type shower rings, these little "speed bumps" hold the outer most rings in place near the ends of the rod assembly and help keep the curtain closed.

One complaint I have is with the wall anchors supplied with the kit. They look normal but are TOTAL junk. Fortunately, I realized this right away when the first two anchors literally snapped into pieces when I tried to push them into the holes I pre-drilled in the wall. If this had gone unnoticed, it may have caused problems later. Toss out the anchors that come with the kit and go to your local hardware store and buy some replacements.

One last observation is that the color of the brackets and the rod are very slightly different. The brackets are chrome-plated and have the familiar look of polished chrome. The rod is polished stainless steel, which is great for rust resistance, but the color of this metal has a very slightly gold or copper tint. It is hard to notice unless you are studying it and does not bother me at all.

In summary, I think this is a very well designed, attractive, and functional product. It adds a higher-end look to my bathroom. Just be sure not to use the supplied wall anchors, and consider the twisting load if you plan to install over plain drywall. I would have rated this product 5 stars if the wall anchors had not been defective.

While on business travel with my wife, we experienced the ARC shower rod with a HOOKLESS shower curtain, we instantly fell in love with its style and function.
The inset end design does indeed prevent water from exiting the shower stall while the curved feature gives you the elbow room expected from a larger shower unit.
The ARC installation was very simple and took less than five minutes to install.
The ARC curved shower rod was shipped fast, well packed and comes highly recommended.

I like the price and I generally find the overall quality of the product to be acceptable, but, there is one design problem that basically makes the entire product useless; the wall mounting hardware: specifically the distance between the two mounting holes on each bracket are not far enough apart to counteract the torque created by the curved shower rod with the weight of even the thinnest shower curtain......the wall mounting brackets look very nice but from a functional stand point they need to be designed to be taller so that the screw holes could be spaced farther apart......this is a nice looking product that essentially doesn't work very well. I would not recommend buying this product.

thank you

This rod is great. The quality is good and it was very easy to install.

Fairly easy to install, but since it was first time drilling into tile, I was a bit nervous...Just need to get the right drill bit for tile and take it nice and slow and you won't have any problems...only issue I had was that the instructions said to use a 1/4" bit which was too small for the tile anchors they provided. 5/16" was just right . Other than, this has been a great purchase...

My husband and I first had a curved shower curtain in a hotel. It was so nice not to have to "fight off" the shower curtain. I hate shower curtains that attack you. With this rod, no more attack of the shower curtain.
Would buy this again in a minute.

Received this order late last night and it is plagued with problems. Either this item is not at all like what is described, or I was sent the wrong one.

What I received is chrome plate over thin-wall pot metal, not stainless steel; it is round, not oval; it is 56-inches long, not 60-inches; the mounting brackets are entirely different. It has absolutely nothing in common with the photos or the descriptions.

It was sent UPS in a 10x10-inch carton, loose (with no filler material) and the box was crushed flat in shipment - although the item itself does not appear to be damaged.

This rod is for a bath opening that is slightly less than 59-inches wide, and even if I wanted to keep this rod, it's too short to fit.

I'm concerned because the storefront vendor's return policy demands a 25% restocking fee and there's no mention whether this is waived for products that are the worng item or that are not as described.

This is the first "through Amazon" order (rather than "from Amazon" order) I have placed and it has been very shakey so far. I will update this after I hear more from the vendor.

UPDATE 02/28/2011

First, I should aplogize for rating this product so low when the real problem is that the product I received is not what's described on Amazon. Bad form to down-rate a product if the vendor may be the problem.

I received a partial refund from the seller - minus the re-stocking fee. Sigh. They were quick and courteous, but it still cost me about $10 for a product that either isn't what I ordered or isn't what's described on Amazon, and because it's not close to the described length, I can't use it.

The vendor does state that this model shower curtain rod is NOT oval-shaped in cross section, and that the Amazon product description is wrong.