bathtubrepair
We've got an acrylic Mirolin tub/shower that recently developed a small pea-sized crack/hole in the bottom, causing water to gush out when the tub is filled. I just ordered a repair kit from gelcoat.ca, but I have some doubts about how well it's going to work.
Does anyone have any experience with kits like this? Can I expect a reasonably long life from it, or am I looking at replacing the whole tub/shower because of this crack?
Depends on the size of the screw and how much material you have to work with. If this is a clamp bolt, cheap tripods use screws going directly into the casting. Quality units either use a captured nut, Nyloc nut and eccentric toggle or a tee-head bolt with threaded knob.
If this is a plate with a fair amount of metal surrounding the hole and it's deep enough, I would get a Heli-Coil kit. With this kit, you drill the hole oversize with the supplied drill, use the supplied tap and then the tool to install the helical insert.
Another thread repair is Keensert which, if you have yet more metal because it's a larger device, a locking insert that doesn't require delicate use of Red Loctite to keep it in place.
All the above probably are not recommended in the case that the threaded hole is in a casting that doesn't have spare metal, so the previous recommendations of drilling oversize and tapping for a larger bolt might be the best. Which might not be a solution if the threads are common photography standard attachments between devices.
A dab of caulking might do it. Look for your color at your local hardware store.
Best Answer
Depending on where the crack/hole is, I would wonder about the support underneath the acrylic of the tub. Was the crack/hole caused by some part of the tub that was not supported getting flexed too much under regular use? If so, then I might doubt the repair kit myself. However, if the crack/hole was just due to some sharp object hitting the tub, then I suppose it will work fine. However, if it is a support issue, you might as well try the repair kit, because your other alternative is pulling the whole thing out to try to fix the lack of support, which sounds like a huge job. Just my $0.02 worth. Hope this helps.