Since childhood, as soon as my parents got an apartment (they got it, not bought it) and we moved into it from our house, I really fell in love with taking a bath. By the way, this apartment was of the "Khrushchev" type, with three small rooms, a small kitchen and a combined bathroom.
As I found out later, according to the plans of the country's government, these apartments were supposed to pull people out of unequipped with communal joys "backfill", in which people lived in a country where the war was destroyed by a huge number of cities.
According to the project, these houses were supposed to stand for thirty years, however, the reality turned out to be different - the houses are still standing. Moreover, many people are happy to buy apartments in "Khrushchevs", for example, for their children as their first home - they are much cheaper and the rent for them is low. And I have every reason to believe that these houses will stand for decades more.
The "Khrushchevs" had their own characteristics: firstly, there was no centralized supply of hot water - it was heated with using a gas water heater that was in the kitchen, and secondly, it was equipped with a cast-iron bathroom of significant sizes.
The bath was lovely. It was possible to fit into it with all the toys and there was still a lot of room for operational space. As I know now, its service life was half a century. But, again, I must say that the Soviet quality was such that these baths still serve well and, I believe, will last as long, at least.
By the way, the cost of this product significantly exceeds the price of an enamelled steel bathtub. Why, then, in the Soviet years, builders installed cast-iron bathtubs in their apartments, and not light steel ones?
The advantages of steel products from steel are as follows:
- 1. The weight of these products, in comparison with cast iron, is small, so they are easy to carry from place to place and transport to the desired object.
- 2. It is much easier and more convenient to install steel bathtubs.
However, it must be admitted that the advantages of steel products end there. And begin limitations, of which there are quite a few:
- 1. The steel bathtub loses its shape quite easily. It can be deformed with a simple push and gentle blows.
- 2. The enamel in such a bathroom is easily damaged by a hard object falling into it.
- 3. A steel bathroom makes a loud noise from water falling into it, which is annoying.
What attracts cast iron baths
The advantages of these products more than offset their serious weight:
- the large weight of the cast-iron bath (up to 170 kg) makes it difficult to install, however, as you know, the advantages are the continuation of the disadvantages. The installed cast-iron bath cannot be moved from its place with a simple effort and it will not crawl along the floor with a light touch;
- the cast-iron bath has thick walls (over 10 mm), and this allows the water poured into it to remain hot for a long time;
- the bathtub does not make a lot of noise from the water pouring into it;
- Soviet baths are not afraid of heavy objects falling into them. They do not deform and the enamel does not crumble in them.
There is another small subtlety that allowed the cast iron baths to remain intact during construction. The severity did not allow them to be easily dragged to the floors, so they were lifted by cranes. This protected them from impacts and they were installed without scratches and chips.
The service life of cast-iron bathtubs is long, and the characteristics are completely inviolable, therefore, generations Soviet and Russian citizens have been using them for many decades and get pleasure.
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