Shower door sweep failing frequently

[Robere]

We have been full timing in our 2015 23' Flying Cloud FB for 10 months and replaced the shower door sweep twice. It has failed again in the same manner, tearing on leading edge (right side). Do you know of a better product than the OEM vinyl sweep? There are no visible rough spots on the threshold of the door. The OEM sweep seems "wimpy".:

[lsbrodsky]

There are some threads somewhere on the site that indicate that the door can drop down too far and that damages the sweep. Some have just replaced the door. Other, including myself, have shimmed the door up with a nylon washer at the bottom. A cheap fix.

Larry

[mixedpuppy]

After fixing it (via above suggested shim) I found that the sweep caused as much or more water to get out than having no shim. So after all the effort, I just removed it.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by mixedpuppy

After fixing it (via above suggested shim) I found that the sweep caused as much or more water to get out than having no shim. So after all the effort, I just removed it.

Us too. It's actually better without it!

[Norrie46]

Exactly the same story as us. Don't have any sweep now just squeegee or cloth wipe the door after shower. No leaks after six months of this.

[Holy Grail]

Lose the sweep and find a nylon washer 3/4" diameter by 1/2" thick. Stick the washer under the door and slide it against the hinge. Done!

[MelGoddard]

Our has minimal leakage.
We just put a towel on the floor.
K.I.S.S.

[FCStreamer]

We removed it also. Do not seem to need it.

[Flht2k]

Our door does not have a sweep, it leaks like crazy. We have caulked the edges inside, the water goes down the door onto the frame and it goes over the both outside edges. We have warranty, but it seems neither of the above suggestions will work for us

[guskmg]

I just replace mine every couple of years paying close attention to the fit. If the water is going down under and back up the glass bottom it may be a loose glass fit. In that case, wipe all the surfaces with alcohol and silicone both inside and out side of the frame edges. That is essentially what the factory does with leaking curved windows. They do not use silicone on or near the aluminum edges.
guskmg

[TSOMMY]

We have a 27ft 2012 Eddie Bauer with the same issue. Replaced it once and the same thing happened. Just cut off the part hanging down and put a bath mat rug up next to the door and we don't see much difference that before when the sweep was intact

[ibosket]

Our sweep also failed because the door is very uneven. We asked our dealer about it, and since we were going to the Airstream factory in November, he said they would probably rebuild it for us. All they did at the factory was add a shim. We pointed out to them that there was water coming out from behind the panel at the base of the shower, however they could not duplicate that when it was in the shop. They said they thought it was water building up in the channel beneath the door and spilling out the outside right corner, and they added more caulk. I told them I had watched it leak out from behind the panel, but they didn't offer to do anything else. I have realized since then that the reason the door is so uneven is because the panel at the bottom is shorter on the hinge side than at the right side, and that even if the trailer is level, the shower is always lower near the hinge. i'm still not sure where the leak beneath the shower is occurring, but now have a shower door that doesn't look like it belongs in a $62 K trailer, and I still have the leaking water.

[Wcreek]

We had an experience similar to ibosket. When one of us was using the shower the other person could watch the water leak from beneath the panel under the shower door and also the bathroom wall panel. On the first visit (for this issue) back to the dealership they replaced the sweep and re-caulked the bottom of the shower door. This did absolutely no good. Part of the issue may have been that it only leaks when there is the weight of a person in the shower, making it hard to recreate the problem. On the second visit back to the dealership they told us the panel beneath the shower door was not level and that to repair it they basically had to rebuild the door. This necessitated ordering a new door assembly from the factory. All of this happened in the middle of November and because of the holidays, ended up taking about six weeks. We complained about the loss of use and our disappointment that they couldn't have fixed it right the first time. (We had another issue that required multiple visits). The service manager explained that they document all warranty repairs with photos, etc and send the info to Jackson Center. Then the dealership follows the factory protocols for what to try first and if that doesn't work, what to try second, and so on and so on. He said if they have a lot of repeats on similar problems they look at what is going on in the assembly line. We love our airstream and don't regret buying it one bit, but it is disappointing to have these kinds of issues. PS. This is my first post although I am a long time lurker. These forums are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you to everyone.

[Jeffndaile]

Our sweep ripped too.... I think my fix will be to buy a half dozen sweeps and just replace when needed?? of course my luck, they probably want a small fortune for the darn things:-(

[BassCan]

Following this topic, but not sure what a shower door sweep is. Is it the silicone strip on the bottom of a shower door?

[prostar]

Originally Posted by BassCan

Following this topic, but not sure what a shower door sweep is. Is it the silicone strip on the bottom of a shower door?

Yes that is the sweep

[Wingeezer]

I've always had trouble with water wetting the wood outside the shower at the end opposite the hinge. Our fix has been to try to always point the shower head toward the back of the shower stall when using! Seems to work.

As well our shower door was always very hard to close - last season I put a stainless washer under the bottom hinge to lift it slightly and that made a big difference.

Now that we have these issues addressed I find we are using the shower in the trailer more and more as opposed to the campground showers - much more convenient and often I think somewhat cleaner! In fact about the only time we will use campground showers is if we don't have full hookups.

[Beaerman]

Originally Posted by mixedpuppy

After fixing it (via above suggested shim) I found that the sweep caused as much or more water to get out than having no shim. So after all the effort, I just removed it.

He is correct. Fulltime for 3 years now and do not need this strip.
Now, one year in they did shim the door. It still continued to tear. The bottom frame and door work like a paper cutter.

[Robere]

Originally Posted by Robere

We have been full timing in our 2015 23' Flying Cloud FB for 10 months and replaced the shower door sweep twice. It has failed again in the same manner, tearing on leading edge (right side). Do you know of a better product than the OEM vinyl sweep? There are no visible rough spots on the threshold of the door. The OEM sweep seems "wimpy".:

Sweep removed. Now careful to point shower head away from door, squeegee the door before opening, and use a bath mat or disposable pet training pad outside the shower. This process works pretty well.

[ibosket]

We don’t have the sweep anymore either. We never updated the info about the repairs that Airstream had to make. We read the thread about the leak occurring when there was weight in the shower, and the dealer put 5 gallon buckets of water and replicated the leak. It was leaking under the shower and had damaged the floor. All our furniture had to be removed and flooring replaced. We think the leak was fixed, however they added so much caulk around the panel beneath the shower door that we haven’t tried to remove it to look underneath to make sure. After all that the door was still uneven and ruined the sweep at the bottom corner opposite the hinge, so we just removed it. We don’t get any water leaking from the door.