5 ft. Curved Shower Rod - Polished Stainless Steel

Well, it's a shower rod. It does 2 things. Fixes to the walls and holds a shower curtain. If you make sure that the mounting brackets are securely fixed to the walls then this rod is solid. There are cheaper rods out there, sure, but I bought this one because it was the only one that had a particular feature that made perfect sense to me. The rod itself is not round cross section. It's oval. This means it is impossible for it to turn in the mounting brackets allowing the curtain to sag. Think about it. The rod curves out and the weight of the curtain is trying to pull that down. The oval shape of the rod means it can't. Not at all.I used a 5/16 ceramic drill bit to prepare the mounting holes. The wall anchors were a tight fit but that's what makes the mount so solid. End caps on the rod sit on locators on the wall bracket and are then held in place by a large screw, down through them. Those end caps can slide a little on each end of the rod so that if your gap is not exactly 5' then you can adjust simply for a perfect fit. Once you have them at the correct placing they are also locked in place with a little grub screw using the supplied hex wrench. Get the installation right and then you can stand back and look at a very attractive, perfectly functional, curved shower rod. I just wish it made coffee too.Since installing this, I have had to remove it temporarily, three times while I am renovating the whole bathroom. By simply removing the big screw in each end, the whole rod just lifts off the wall mounts. It goes back in place just as easily. Again, you could buy cheaper but why would you want to? You and your family use the shower every day, (I would hope!! LOL), so buy one that not only looks good, but is well made enough to last.ADDITIONAL (7 years later)I sold the house that I installed this rod in. It had been up for 4 years and was still solid and rust free. It is quite possible that the new house owner may still have it in place. I was so impressed with this rod that I have just bought another to install in my guest bathroom in the new house.

I purchased this shower rod a few months ago... It was easy to install and so far has not had any issues. When installing, be sure to use the correct anchor. The tile anchors will wiggle and eventually pull out of drywall. I used drywall anchors into 1/2" drywall with not studs behind it. I have not had any problems with the bar wiggling or sagging under the weight of the shower curtain. But I would not try and do pull-ups or gymnastics on it. Make sure you use a level to mark the points where the anchors go in.Favorite features:PriceSingle piece rod - curtain does not get stuckStainless steel - will not rust like a chrome plated, regular steelOval design - prevents the shower rod from rotating in the mount under the weight of the curtainNot so great:Thicker steel - I would prefer a slightly thicker steel for the rod itself. Although, once in place, there is no way to tell how thick it is. This probably makes it easier to cut to length if you have a shorter shower.Color - Polished stainless and chrome are not the same color, but I knew that already. The polish is very good.

I searched at length for a one-piece stainless curtain rod that seemed like it was build to old-fashioned quality standards. The one I had in my previous home was a Bradford, and it was solid and of good quality, but they're getting very hard to find in polished stainless. I thought I'd roll the dice on this one.The bracketry is good--on par with the Bradford. I'm not sure the bottom-only mount is as rigid as the top-and-bottom mounting of the Bradford, but so far it seems fine. The polished/chrome finish is adequate. (I get the impression that the brackets are chromed cast aluminum alloy, but I'm not sure.)As with any curved rod, rigidity at the wall connection is the most crucial point. The two-screw mounting of this unit is reasonably solid, though I'd have preferred slightly longer screws. With less than an inch of penetration into the framing, there's the potential for deformation when someone inadvertently tugs on the curtain.My one star reduction is due to the quality of the tubing. There are visual flaws in it, as though sand was present in the machining process. Tiny dimples and specs can be seen in the sidewall, lending to a reduction in perceived quality. I wonder if it'll tarnish or show rust down the road.The tubing is also very thin. It's a hard metal, so it seems plenty strong, but hard, thin metal is noisy. Our metal curtain hooks make quite a racket when being slid along the rod. This gets to the main reason why I replaced our straight, two-piece rod in the first place--the irritating clack-clack-clack that the hooks made at the joint early in the morning. We've mostly replaced that sound with the scratch-screech of the new rod.If I was buying again I'd scrounge up a Bradford and pay for the shipping, but at this point I'm considering applying some clear tape to the top surface of the tubing on this model to act as a sound buffer and slide surface for the hooks.

Works and simple to install, but I have to spend money to buy anchors for the install since they sent me anchors that were too big.