Shower Curtain Problems

Hot shower, cold bathroom: why does the shower curtain blow into the shower on me? (Yuck, col & clammy!)
- Martha (age 64)
Caldwell, NJ

I'm not sure but there are a couple of obvious guesses. One is that as the air inside the shower heats up, you get an upward convection current. That pulls cold air in lower down, dragging the shower curtain in. If there's an exhaust fan above the shower, that would make the problem worse. You can check if there's a pattern like this by tracking the air flow. That might be done by watching which way condensation droplets go, maybe illuminating them with a flashlight or laser. Or you might hang little strips of paper and see which way they blow.

The cure is probably simpler than the diagnosis. Maybe just hang some weights on the bottom of the shower curtain.

Mike W.

(published on 02/02/2014)