Shattered Glass Shower Door

Fasttimes · 03-15-2018, 11:04 AM

Came home from a trip last weekend in our 27 Ultralite and found one of the glass shower door panels in pieces all over the bathroom. Not sure what happened. The shower was secured on one end, but may have had all 3 panels pushed up together. Either the bumping down the road caused them to strike each other and one broke or as I've read the extreme temperature change from a chilly morning of 55 degrees to 80 degrees plus can cause glass panes to shatter.

Lacking a local Winnebago dealer I once again must jump through hoops to even get a price on replacement. After several phone calls and multiple RV suppliers I was able to get Winnebago Towables to quote me a price of $800 to replace, and that is before Freight shipping. Insane in my opinion.

So back to what caused the issue? Are we supposed to tow the trailers with the shower door completely closed? Has anyone else had their doors crack or explode?

sd75mac · 03-15-2018, 05:42 PM

I have the same trailer and have problems with the shower doors. The problem I have is when I lock them in the closed position, the latch releases and the doors slide open. That allows them to slide back and forth as I drive, which in turns causes them to come off the track. Now if I open the first door they all move together. My solution is to zip tie the latch in the closed position on the first panel, rendering my shower unusable.

Oldchinahand · 03-15-2018, 09:23 PM

As part of my aggressive and varied work history following USN retirement, sold windows and bath accessories to residential new construction builders. Tempered glass has a number of interesting qualities. Occasionally, as part of the tempering process, the glass will pick up nickel contamination which forms a stress point in the panel. At some point in its life, who knows when, why or what, conditions will exacerbate the stress point and the panel will spontaneously shatter. Uncommon, but not rare.

Don't know if that happened in your case, but, we had a local glass guy replace a panel in our shower that had decal adhesive that did not respond to any remover.

Cost a LOT less than $800. Spent more on various adhesive removers than the new panel cost.

Badlands Bob · 03-15-2018, 09:45 PM

I'm betting that if you took the panel frame to a glass shop, they could fix you up for a whole lot less than $800. Judging from the number of showers in houses, I would imagine that replacing glass in shower doors is a pretty common thing.