Castors for showers: selection criteria for furniture for doors, installation and replacement instructions

Such a popular plumbing device as a shower cubicle is most often equipped with sliding doors, which are moved by special mechanisms - rollers for shower cabins.

The right choice of fittings to replace a damaged or exhausted sliding mechanism will help restore the operation of your shower stall in the previous mode. And how to choose rollers and correctly perform the replacement - we will consider these issues in detail in our article.

We also pay attention to the device and the reasons for their breakdowns. In addition to the instructions for replacing the clips, we add visual photos and video tips for dismantling and installing new accessories.

Types and technical features of rollers

Castors for glass shower enclosures are interchangeable hardware manufactured on the basis of plastic, rubber and metal elements in a wide variety of typical configurations. They are used not only in purchased cabin models, but can be useful when making shower stalls do it yourself, if the owner decided to equip his homemade sliding door.

The main functionality of the rollers is stability in the smooth opening / closing of the hydrobox door leaves. The "heart" of the roller is a ball bearing, because it is precisely on its quality that the service life of this product directly depends. By type, bearings are divided into 2 types: rolling and sliding. They are made of ceramics, bronze, stainless steel.

The case of parts consists of ABS plastic or brass;

• Eccentric. The main elements in them is an eccentric with a rotor on which the bearing is mounted. Eccentric rollers are single and double.They mutually replace each other and are divided into upper and lower.
• Tensioned. They have special skids, a rolling bearing, mounting and adjusting screws. Stretch models come with one and two castors, lower and upper.

The mounting options for the roller supports may also differ, depending on the shape of the door panels: for straight lines, usual fixation is required, and for rounded ones you need to purchase products equipped with a rotary mechanism.

The nominal value of the diameter of the wheel should be equal to the outer diameter of the bearing + double thickness of the gasket. As a rule, the diameter of such wheels is 19-23 mm

In the process of installing roller mechanisms, you must adhere to their factory sizes, because in practice the incorrect selection of these products or surface mounting can lead to the fact that the fastening of the movable elements will be either too tight or too loose.

In these cases, mechanical damage to the roller housing and its bearings cannot be dispensed with.

Incorrect installation of the rollers, overly tightened fixing screws by 100% guarantee distortion and deformation of the movable product, due to this, careless operation of the shower cabin is possible.

When dismantling the lower rollers, the door leaf will hang on the upper. If necessary, the door can be removed with support from the guide rails.

Classic causes of roller breakdowns

Castors are installed in the upper and lower parts of the door leaves of the shower cabin. The doors are fixed to the guide elements and are moved with the help of small wheels.

Owners often use a shower hydromassage box and a cabin, so subsequent replacement of worn rollers with new ones will be inevitable.

Reason # 1 - active use of the shower cubicle

According to numerous reviews and statistics, a family of three can open the doors of the shower cabin at least eight times within 24 hours, which is considered evidence of the possible rapid wear of parts.

The roller design is extremely concise and simple: it is a wheel, bearing, axle, gasket, mounts and base. Thanks to the simple structure, the hardware can be restored with your own hands.

Movable door fittings during active and prolonged use of the shower cabin often fail, regardless of whether the plumbing was carefully maintained or not.

Reason # 2 - hard water and aggressive agents

Tap water in modern urban infrastructure and water from private wells, as a rule, are rigid in chemical composition. Detergents and hygiene products, inaccurate and abrupt opening / closing of doors - all these factors can negatively affect the material of the rollers, wash out the grease, and contribute to the appearance of corrosion defects in the bearings.

Hard water with a large amount of impurities can have a negative effect not only on the rollers, but also on the mixer, which will lead to breakage shower cartridge. As a result, repairs will be required.

The most aggressive components include chlorine-based and alcohol-based products, precipitation of calcium and magnesium salts contained in water with high hardness.

After 2-3 months, you will notice their appearance on the rollers of the cabin: salt crystals will begin to clog small holes on the doors, forming a hard-to-wash coating not only on the furniture, but also on the surface of the walls and doors. Will need more carefully clean the shower cubicle, choosing more effective means.

In addition to limescale, which can stall the movement of the rollers, the reason for their replacement may be inattention and a careless attitude: situations where the doors are often slammed or rested on them with the whole body

Over time, the rollers will begin to move the doors with a noticeable interference, creating discomfort for users of the shower room, and then an immediate replacement of the entire set of moving elements will be required.

You can carry out such work both with the involvement of specialists and independently, the main thing here is to choose the right clips wisely for a particular model of the shower cabin and responsibly follow the technology for their installation.

Spare part recommendations

If you want to replace jammed or cracked rollers that are mounted on the doors of the shower cabin so that they are exactly the same as the “native” fittings, then you need to visit the store. The market offers an extensive assortment of mounting mobile mechanisms.

Externally similar models, as a rule, can differ in different design parameters, so it is best to take one of the clips for the sample with you. And in the event that in your shower stall there are upper and lower rollers with different sizes, you will have to grab two mechanisms.

Double casters are a common type of spare shower enclosure fittings. They require the right fit for the mounting hole of the glass door.

For remote acquisition of rollers you need to independently measure their parameters:

• The diameter of the roller wheel. If the store does not have the right size, then it makes sense to order a product with a slightly smaller diameter, but no more than 2-3 mm. Larger diameter wheels cannot be taken, even if the difference is only a couple of millimeters, because the parts supplied by the original manufacturer of the shower cubicle do not provide for a margin in width. When replacing large wheels will not fit exactly in the guide elements.
• The size of the holes on the door leaf (sashes). Here, the diameter of the sleeve can also be 2-3 mm less than the diameter of the hole in the door, but in no case more. If there is a roller with 2 fasteners, then measure the distance between them and between the holes in the doors. The parameters should be similar, match exactly up to a millimeter, so that later the mechanism could be fixed without problems.
• Length of the roll. It is important for the semicircular design of the booths: if the extension length in the new rollers will differ from the length of the old ones, then the doors will constantly jam, unnerving the owners of the house.

It is worth considering the thickness of the wing glass. Of course, roller manufacturers produce their products that are suitable in all respects to standard shower enclosure doors. But if the glass in them is thick, then it will not be superfluous to clarify the size of the rollers, based on this fact.

A ball bearing helps the rollers produce smooth door movements. Intense load on this part can lead to premature failure of the moving mechanism of the shower cabin

You should be aware of the advantages that are endowed with truly high-quality and functional rollers that play an important role as a mobile device for the door leaf of a shower cabin.

They have:

• waterproof bearingcharacterized by high working potential;
• free wheeling;
• exact dimensionscorresponding to the nominal parameters of these products;
• wear resistant housing - cast and shockproof, on which there are no visible defects.

An additional aspect in favor of a truly reliable roller will be the most effective door control, fitting to it parts that have worn out over time, so that, if necessary, it would be possible to optimally quickly select a movable element.

The most ideal bearings for roller mechanisms are single-row radial directions, preferably made of bronze or ceramic. Steel will rust quickly, while ceramic ones will be suitable for both strength and aesthetic characteristics, but their price is still high for the mass buyer.

Closed bronze bearings equipped with a plastic casing are an optimal and affordable option for replacing worn out rollers.

Wheel with bronze ball bearing - the main element in the design of the roller mechanism, which has high anticorrosive properties. It should be changed first when it runs out of resources.

In that case, if you prefer to take bearings separately from the rollers, then measure its width, outer and inner diameters in the old bearing. We recommend users to purchase nickel-plated brass axles.

Faulty Hardware Replacement Guide

In the work you will need:

• new videos;
• a wrench on 10, if it was not found, then pliers will do;
• flat screwdriver.

At the very beginning, care should be taken that the surface of the glass or plastic doors of the shower box, depending on its configuration, does not suffer from possible mechanical damage.

Take a thick cardboard or rug, lay it on the floor. The space around the cabin needs to be freed, as in crowded places it is inconvenient to work. It is possible to damage both the door leafs themselves and the glass walls. If such a nuisance has occurred and you require a new glass for the shower, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with glass selection rules and the nuances of its installation.

Step # 1 - dismantling the upper and lower rollers

First you have to remove the lower rollers, while inside the cabin. Gently holding the top of the door, press the button on the roller fully until you hear a distinctive click. If the cam was originally equipped with eccentric rollers, they must be turned down to the stop.

Casters in showers are usually fixed with eccentrics, thanks to which you can easily remove the door to install new fittings on it

Then you need to remove the upper rollers with a guide element, lift the door and remove it from the guide rails. The door must be very carefully placed near the wall in an upright position, it is advisable to place rags and other soft material under it.

When disassembling the rollers yourself, you need to remember that here the edges of the doors and corners will be quite vulnerable. The doors of the shower cabin are made of toughened tempered glass, but this fact does not deny the possibility of accidental damage to the door when replacing / removing rollers.

Never put the door of the glass shower cubicle straight on the tile and concrete floor, in addition, it also should not be lifted and carried by the handle: it is structurally not designed for such efforts and can come off.

Then use a screwdriver and a wrench to unscrew the rollers from the door. Rusted and jammed parts that cannot be removed must be carefully broken into small pieces with pliers.

Step # 2 - cleaning the door surface

Now it’s time to well clean the glass surface of the doors from dirt, salt deposits and rust located in the fastening loop of moving mechanisms. As a cleaning agent, a normal synthetic detergent solution is suitable, preferably without the inclusion of abrasive particles.

Next, the glass and plastic doors should be thoroughly rinsed and wiped well with a dry soft material, after which you need to start cleaning the dirt, plaque and grease residues that remained in the cavities of all the guides. Take the trouble to thoroughly clean the skids of the doors: the future smoothness of the course of the door leaf of the cabin will depend on the final result.

Step number 3 - installation of new videos

For this stage of work, you need to unscrew the fasteners installed on the back of the roller casing. It is carried out both on the upper and lower rollers. Then carefully push the fasteners and slide them onto the glass so that the bushings fit into the corresponding mounting holes at the same time.

In dismantling worn rollers and replacing them with new ones, safety precautions should be observed: the glass door leafs are quite heavy, so you do not need to carry out these works alone

Be very careful not to get confused. You can confuse the place for the lower roller with a place for the upper: then, alas, your mechanisms will not last long and will soon break down.

When all the rollers are aligned, the screws need to be screwed back in without tightening too tight. It is better to play it safe and not accidentally damage the expensive glass of the shower cabin.

Step number 4 - installation of the door and its adjustment

The next step is to gently lift the door and position the upper rollers in the guide rail. This is followed by a repetition of the operation, but with the lower rollers: they press a button and also placed in the guide rails.

After installation, adjust the most convenient position for the cab door. To do this, either tighten the screws on the rollers or loosen their clamp. The final step is to additionally lubricate the inner surfaces of the guide elements in order to make sure that both wings, which move without any difficulty, are actually smooth.

Service technicians and shower manufacturers advise replacing all rollers at the same time. Some separate parts of the rollers, for example, wheels or bearings, may also be defective, but the case itself remains intact.

Cabin doors will serve their users for a long time in the event of careful and careful use of movable mechanisms subject to contamination.

Then they act in this order: they remove the doors, the rollers are dismantled and the damaged elements are replaced in them. Repaired parts can be reinstalled. This technique is quite economical: individual spare parts from the roller mechanism are an order of magnitude cheaper than a new set of accessories.

You can extend the life of the rollers for a long time if you wash the shower cabin and its accessories more often, inspect the runners with guide elements weekly, cleaning out the dirt from them. Add grease to the rollers, preferably silicone, and they won’t let you down!

If you encounter other types of malfunctions, we recommend that you read the list of popular shower cabin breakdown and methods of their repair.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

The video describes in sufficient detail the most popular modifications of the clips that can be found on the Russian market of sanitary fittings.

We offer you to watch another useful video with a story about repairing a shower cabin, or rather, with detailed video instructions for replacing roller mechanisms that have become unusable.

For the efficient and safe operation of the movable rollers, which are equipped with modern shower cabins, you need to take care of hygienic and preventive care for these plumbing devices.

Even the absolutely right choice and technologically competent installation can not always guarantee users perfect service of roller mechanisms.

Are you going to replace jammed rollers on the door in your shower cubicle yourself? Maybe you still have questions after reading our article, which we did not pay attention to? Ask them in the comments below - our experts will try to clarify incomprehensible points.

Or maybe you want to supplement our material with recommendations for choosing the best clips or tell us about your own experience in their installation? Write your opinion about the commercials that you purchased - are you satisfied with their quality? Was it difficult for you to install them?