Getting in the bath is a simple, pleasurable, and relaxing way to finish your long day, especially in the colder months when all you want to feel is warmth and comfort in your everyday life.
Baths are a simple but effective task, one that we all deserve to spend more time doing to soothe our aching muscles, put our feet up after a stressful day, or take a calmer approach to wash. However, when having a bath, there can be nothing more disappointing or annoying if the bathwater falls cold, often more quickly than expected, especially if you’re a long bather.
You may question ‘why does my bathwater not stay hot’ or ‘what is the most efficient way to heat a bathroom’ when thinking about bathing and wanting to optimise your experience even more – and we’re here to offer our best advice and tips on how to help you.
If you’re looking for handy ways on how to keep your bath hot, here are the top ten tips.
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- Keep your doors and windows shut
- Use a bath cover
- Preheat your bath water before getting in the tub
- Using bubble bath
- Try hot stones
- Consider a space heater
- Light a couple of candles around the tub
- Top your bath up with hot water
- Consider the insulation in your bathroom
- Make the most of the shower curtain or tub door
How long does a bath stay hot?
While there is no hard and fast time for how long a bath stays hot, generally speaking, the temperature can start to drop as early as 5 minutes in.
How quickly your bath cools down will depend on a couple of key factors such as how cold the temperature is outside as well as the material the bath is made from. If the material radiates heat more easily, the bath will cool much quicker.
How to keep your bath hot
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to slow down heat loss. Here are some of our top tips for keeping your bath hot for longer.
1. Keep your doors and windows shut
It may sound like an obvious tip, but any type of draft coming into your bathroom can make the water in the tub cool down a lot quicker, so if you take the preventive methods, you can keep the bath at that hot temperature for longer.
When running a bath, make sure the windows are shut and check for any drafts. It’s worth ensuring any draft is reduced as much as possible.
Naturally, you will close the door anyway for privacy reasons but make sure it’s shut as you are running the bath and whilst you’re in it to prevent any drafts. A closed-door will trap the steam coming from the hot water and warm the air around the tub, preventing heat transfer and losing your hot water.
Closing the door and windows will also help create a private and tranquil ambience to help maximise your full bathing experience – it’s not just about keeping clean.
2. Use a bath cover
When thinking about how long does your bath stays hot, you need to consider why it may be losing heat so quickly.
For instance, it could be due to the amount of open air in your bathroom, especially if you have a larger room. One way to prevent this is to invest in a bath cover during bath time.
You might not have heard of this device, but they can be great for maximising the length of time your bath stays warm for.
You can cover the other half of the bath where your feet are, resulting in less surface area for the heat to escape. Bath covers are safe and usually made of wood or plastic material – and are easy to use.
All you have to do is place them over the bathtub, and you’ll be able to notice the difference in temperature during the duration of your bath. It’s similar to how hot tub covers help retain the heat of hot tubs when not in use.
3. Preheat your bath water before getting in the tub
In the same way that you preheat water before boiling an egg or some pasta in a pan, you need to warm up your bathwater.
By preheating the water to a temperature that’s slightly above what you like, it’ll allow the tub material to absorb the heat before you get in, prolonging the time the water will stay hot and lengthening your relaxation time.
If you don’t preheat the water, then the cold tub material won’t be able to retain the heat, and you’ll find the water cools down faster. This is why we’d recommend giving yourself some extra time to prepare for your bath.
4. Using bubble bath
A bubble bath is the most exciting part of your bathing experience as it can make the water smell nice and coat your body with a moisturising feel. Bubble baths can come in every flavour, with many that suit lots of different skin types, so you shouldn’t be short of finding the right one for you.
They’re not just good for your skin, however. Bubble baths are also helpful to keep your bath hotter for longer and lengthen your time in the bathtub.
The bubbles help keep the hot water inside the tub, as they create a barrier to prevent the steam from being replaced by the cold air. The more bubbles used, the longer your water will stay warm.
5.Try hot stones
Some people like to go all out for their baths as you’re never too old to experience a little bit of luxury. If you’re looking to go more of a therapeutic route, then hot stones may be the answer.
They’re made of basalt, a volcano stone, and have the ability to retain heat, and that means keeping your bath as hot as possible.
Before running your bath, heat the stones up in the oven, and once added to the bath, they’ll give an extra boost of warmth when you need it. Add them all together or one by one to maximise the length of your bath.
6. Consider a space heater
Heat doesn’t only need to come from the bath itself for it to stay warm. There are other solutions you can consider, for instance, a space heater.
This option needs to be done with caution and care, as having electrical appliances in the bathroom isn’t advised for safety purposes.
Space heaters are multipurpose as you can use them throughout the home and in your bathroom too.
If you switch the space heater on and place it at a safe distance from the bath, the portable device can help add some warmth into the air and result in prolonging the heat in your bathtub.
7. Light a couple of candles around the tub
Another way to radiate as much heat as possible is with candles. Candles are the perfect way to set the ultimate serene atmosphere for your bath time and, when lit with caution, a great method to light up the room as well.
To get the most out of candles, we’d suggest lighting a couple of them in your bathroom out of easy reach. By doing this, the heat from the candles will add to the overall temperature in the room.
Although turning the lights off adds some ambience, in this situation, keeping it on is better as that extra bit of heat from the bulbs can help you out with keeping the room warm.
8. Top your bath up with hot water
Although all the above options can help keep your bath warm for a long time, if you’re someone who enjoys a dip for an hour or longer, naturally, the bath will begin to cool down after a while.
Unfortunately, none of the methods we’ve mentioned can completely stop that natural process from occurring.
That is when you can revert back to topping your bath up with hot water; there are two ways in which you can do this: either drain some of the existing water already in the bath and add new water or, every ten minutes, add a small amount of hot water and swish it around your bath to keep up with the temperature.
9. Consider the insulation in your bathroom
The more heat the room radiates, the warmer the room becomes and can increase the temperature overall in your bathroom.
Insulation can come from many different areas, including underfloor heating, double glazing or having a rug/carpet on the floor.
Insulation prevents any form of draft in the room. It creates a warmer atmosphere as it prevents cooler air from coming into the room and keeps your optimum temperature the same for a long time.
10. Make the most of the shower curtain or tub door
Retaining the bath heat is all about trapping the heat in for the bath to stay hot for longer, and that’s why you should make use of a shower curtain, panel, or bath door. Ensure the shower curtain or panel is pulled all the way across, and the bath door is shut.
By doing this, you’re essentially trapping the warm water in and a tighter space to keep the water warm for that extra bit longer.
Keeping your bath warm is key to a completely relaxing and enjoyable experience in the evening or morning, depending on when you’d like to bathe.
There’s nothing worse than your water falling cold or slowly losing its heat when you’d like to soak for a long time – and these tips are guaranteed to help you to prevent this. We offer a whole range of walk-in baths so why not explore to find your perfect bath today?