Are Steam Showers Worth It?

Benefits of a Steam Shower

A steam shower is good for your body and mind. Moist heat offers benefits, such as:

• Improved circulation
• Reduced blood pressure
• Clearer sinuses and respiratory tract
• Enhanced skin health and appearance
• Speedy workout recovery
• More mobility in stiff joints
• Stimulated metabolism
• Boosted immunity

Just 20 minutes of steam exposure a week can enhance your skin tone and clear up acne. Steam is cleansing. The heat encourages perspiration, which helps remove impurities from the outermost layers of skin. Steaming can reduce blackheads. It also makes your hair softer, making shaving in the shower more comfortable.

As steam widens your blood vessels, it reduces your blood pressure. When you expose yourself to moist heat, you may also secrete hormones that lower your blood pressure. Being in a steam shower can also lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

Heat penetrates deeply into the muscles. Moist heat can soothe soreness after exercise better than dry heat. Plus, every time you expose your body to hot water, you activate leukocytes, which are infection-fighting white blood cells.

Steam Showers vs. Steam Rooms

If you use a steam room at a gym or wellness center, you might wonder if it’s valuable to have a steam shower in your home. There are risks involved in visiting a public steam room. The warm, moist atmosphere is ideal for breeding germs. With so many people using the space, you run the risk of being exposed to more bacteria than you would in your own home.

Moreover, if you’re paying to access a steam room elsewhere, you’re shelling out money that you could be saving. Once you cover the expenses associated with investing in a steam shower, you can use it for free whenever you want.

What Is a Steam Shower, Exactly?

Steam showers are similar to regular ones. However, they feature floor-to-ceiling door panels that hold moisture in. They also have generators that secrete more steam than the hot water from a regular shower would produce.

A steam shower should be professionally installed. It needs to be completely encased to protect drywall and other porous elements from moisture damage.

However, steam showers don’t always look much different than traditional ones. You could install a steam shower in the same location as your current wet area. You just have to make sure that you install doors that completely encase the area so that steam doesn’t escape.

How Much Does a Steam Shower Cost?

If you use hot water in the shower and are happy with the amount of steam that it emits, upgrading to a steam shower may just entail replacing the doors. The walls and shower base are probably already set up to handle ample amounts of moisture.

Depending on whether you choose a custom or prefabricated steam shower, you will probably pay about $1,500 to $6,200 for materials. Installation typically costs extra.

You’ll likely need a plumber and electrician to make sure that everything is up to code. However, the job is less complex if you’re putting a steam shower in where your old one used to be.

Some factors can increase the price. These include:

• Size
• Seating
• Natural materials, such as stones or marble
• Remote control
• Mood lighting 

Steam showers use less water than regular ones. You may only use two gallons of water in a 20-minute steam shower, whereas you would use an average of about two gallons of water per minute in a regular shower. Therefore, you can offset the cost by saving money on your water bill.

Should You Get a Steam Shower?

A steam shower is typically worth it if you were planning to upgrade that part of your bathroom anyway. The installation costs aren’t dramatically higher than those for a traditional shower. Just make sure that you cover all of your bases. You’ll need to slope the ceiling to prevent condensation and seal any non-waterproof areas and fixtures.

Even if you don’t end up using the steam shower as much as you expected, you’ll recoup some of the costs when you sell your home. Many people seek out steam showers when they’re buying a new house. It’s a desirable extra that can set your home apart from the others in your neighborhood.

If you’re thinking about remodeling your bathroom, check out Room to Rooms for high-quality products and a hassle-free shopping experience.