Master Bath

Three separate comfort systems share this room: the steam shower (occasional-use, needs a warm-up), the heated floor (thermostat-controlled, can run on a schedule), and the heated towel rack (simple on/off or timer). None of them require each other.

The enclosure — and the one control nobody finds

This is a properly sealed steam room, not a tiled shower that steam happens to be piped into. The front glass runs floor to ceiling — no gap over the top, which is where most half-hearted steam showers lose everything. The door is solid glass and swings outward, hinged on the right-hand (west) side of the entrance; because it opens away from you, nothing inside can push it ajar mid-session.

The part a new owner would never work out unaided sits above the door: a louvred glass transom. It is the enclosure’s vent and its steam seal, and it has two positions. Tilt it open and the shower breathes normally, which is what you want for an ordinary hot shower. Twist it closed and its gasket shuts the enclosure up tight for steam. That single twist is the difference between a steam session that works and one that leaks into the bathroom — and the steam shower, sealed properly, works extremely well.

Running the steam shower

1. Twist the transom closed — the louvred glass panel above the door. Sealed enclosure first; everything after this depends on it.
2. Start the steam generator from the Mr. Steam iTempoPlus control on the shower’s main wall (the generator itself is documented on the Steam Generator page). Steam generators need a warm-up: expect roughly 10–20 minutes before steam is flowing well, so start it before you undress.
3. Set your session length on the control (commonly 15–45 minutes) and get in once steam is flowing. Pull the glass door shut behind you.
4. Use the rain head and/or handheld sprayer for a normal rinse before or after the steam cycle — they run on the home's regular hot water, independent of the steam generator.
5. Cool down gradually before you get out: let the steam cycle finish or shut it off yourself, then take a minute standing in cooler air/water before stepping out onto a dry floor.
6. Tilt the transom back open on your way out, and run the bathroom exhaust fan. A sealed enclosure left sealed and wet is the one way to spoil a room built this well.

Door and vent etiquette

• Keep the enclosure sealed while steam is running — transom twisted closed, door shut. An open door or an open transom lets steam escape into the rest of the bathroom, fogging mirrors and pushing moisture into places it doesn't belong.
• For an ordinary shower, leave the transom tilted open. There is no reason to seal the enclosure unless you are actually making steam, and a vented enclosure dries much faster.
• Run the bathroom exhaust fan after every steam session, door and transom open, until the mirrors clear and the room feels dry to the touch. This is the single most important habit for keeping the room mold-free — see Maintenance below.
• The steam outlet is at the bottom of the south wall, centred in the shower, an inch or two above the floor — steam rises, so a low outlet fills the enclosure evenly from the floor up. It also gets hot: keep feet, children and pets clear of it while the generator runs, and never sit directly in front of it. Don't block it or the exhaust vent with shampoo bottles, wash cloths, or anything else — both need clear airflow to work as designed.

The two fan controls

The master bath has two separate exhaust controls, and they are deliberately different devices. Knowing which is which saves a new owner from switching the wrong one and wondering why nothing happened.

The practical consequence: after a steam session you do not have to remember to leave the fan running in the main bath — the humidity controller will keep it going and shut it off when the room is genuinely dry, which is later than most people would leave it. Make/model of the humidity controller still to identify — it needs a photo of the faceplate.

Heated floor

The floor thermostat is a SunTouch SunStat Connect (model 500875), mounted on the wall near the towel rack — a WiFi-capable touchscreen control (now discontinued) that sets and schedules the floor temperature independently of the room's air thermostat, using a sensor embedded in the floor tile rather than room air. Tap it to check or bump the current setpoint; use its schedule feature if you want the floor warm before you get up. Programming is covered under Maintenance.

The SunStat Connect is also the room’s one WiFi-capable control, built to pair with the Watts Home app for remote access, automatic clock setting and weather-based adjustment. Whether it is joined to WiFi and the app is to confirm. Everything else in this bathroom — the Mr. Steam iTempoPlus, the two fan controls and the towel rack — is a standalone wall control with no app at all.

Heated towel rack

The wall-mounted heated towel rack runs independently — turn it on when you want warm towels and off when you don't (or leave it on low in cold months). Confirm at walkthrough whether it has its own switch/timer or runs continuously.

Steam room habits

• Squeegee the walls and glass/door after every use — this is the single biggest thing you can do to keep tile grout and glass looking new and to cut down on mildew. A cheap shower squeegee kept on a hook inside works fine.
• Run the exhaust fan for 20–30 minutes after each steam session (longer than after a normal shower) — steam showers put far more moisture into the room than an ordinary shower, and that moisture needs somewhere to go.
• Leave the door cracked between uses (once the room has dried) so the enclosure isn't sealed and damp between sessions.
• Wipe down or re-seal grout lines periodically — ordinary tile/grout care, just more important here given the humidity load. A stone-look porcelain tile like this is generally low-maintenance and doesn't need the sealing that natural stone would.

Steam generator descaling

Steam generators need periodic descaling (removing mineral buildup from the water tank) to keep producing steam efficiently and to avoid error codes — this is a generator-side maintenance job, not something you do from the bathroom. See the Steam Generator page for the descaling schedule and procedure once the exact model is confirmed.

Heated floor thermostat

• The SunStat Connect runs a floor-sensor probe embedded in the tile, not just room air — the displayed "floor" reading is the actual slab/tile temperature. Program a schedule (e.g., warm 30–60 minutes before your usual wake time, cooler overnight) rather than running it at one temperature all day; this is both more comfortable and cheaper to run.
• No filter or bulb to replace — radiant floor heat is essentially maintenance-free electrically. The only real failure mode is the thermostat itself or (rarely) the heating element/cable in the floor, which would need a flooring contractor.
• This exact model — the SunStat Connect (500875) — is discontinued. A failed unit isn’t a like-for-like swap; a flooring/electrical contractor would replace it with SunTouch’s current touchscreen line instead.

Towel rack

Wipe down periodically; if it's hardwired (no visible cord), there's nothing else to maintain. Confirm hardwired vs. plug-in at walkthrough.

• No steam / weak steam: check the transom above the door first — if it is tilted open, the enclosure cannot hold steam no matter how well the generator is running, and this is far and away the most common reason a steam shower "doesn't work." Then check the door is shut and the generator control shows a cycle running. If the control itself won't start a cycle, that's a generator issue — see the Steam Generator page.
• Steam smells musty or the room won't dry out: almost always insufficient post-session ventilation. Leave the transom tilted open between uses, run the exhaust fan longer, and check that the fan itself is working. In the main bath the fan is on a humidity controller, so a fan that never runs points at the controller rather than the fan.
• Rain head or handheld pressure/temperature is off: that's the house's normal hot-water and pressure system, not the steam generator — see the Plumbing & Hot Water page.
• Floor doesn't feel warm: check the thermostat's setpoint and schedule first (it may simply not be scheduled "on" right now); a floor that never heats regardless of setpoint is a job for an electrician/flooring contractor who works with radiant heat.
• Towel rack stays cold or won't turn off: check for a dedicated switch near the rack or at the light-switch bank before assuming it's faulty.

• Mr. Steam — safe use guidelines for steam showers
  General, brand-agnostic safety guidance for steam bathing — session length, hydration, who should check with a doctor first.
• Mr. Steam — best practices for using and ventilating a steam shower
  Why sealing the enclosure and running the exhaust fan afterward matters.
• Mr. Steam — iTempoPlus control product page
  Official product page for the in-shower steam control — the temp/time/aroma/chroma/two-preset feature set of the keypad in this shower.
• SunTouch — SunStat Connect (500875-SB) product page
  Official SunTouch/Watts product page for this thermostat. Now a discontinued product line.
• SunTouch — SunStat Connect installation & operation manual (PDF)
  The model-specific manual for the 500875, official suntouch.com.
• SunTouch — underfloor heating installation & operation manual (PDF)
  General SunTouch floor-heating system (cable/mat) manual, official Watts source — separate from the thermostat manual above.