Picked this up for just under $200 Amazon Warehouse. Prime got it to me in well under 48 hours. As is true 99% of the time with Amazon Warehouse, the item is brand new in every way. At least that is true for me and I use the Warehouse frequently. Extremely well made. Strong. Should last longer than me. Nice size. Keep in mind it has to be screwed to wall studs on a 16" center. Not a big deal, you say, every house has 16" centered studs. Not true but that isn't the real problem. The real problem is having your studs line up with where you want to place this, normally the center of a shower end wall. In other words, find the center point of where you want to hang this, then see if you have a wall stud centered 8" to the right of that mark and then another 8" to the left. How likely is that? Not. Open up the wall opposite the shower and install backing boards? A couple of spanning 2x's (redwood, cedar?) laid horizontally inside the shower and screwed to the noncooperative vertical wall studs (the seat then screwed to the horizontal boards)? In fact, we're talking a product best suited to new construction and even then we're talking holes in your shower wall. The teak is unfinished, dull or if you prefer flat, and somewhat coarse and left so will weather a still rougher gray. I'm going to coat mine with either Danish oil (which I keep around) or teak oil which I'll have to buy, rubbing in multiple coats to give the wood a bit of a sheen and slightly soften it to the touch. Either will have to be periodically reapplied. Another reviewer used polyurethane which is arguable, you can Google teak, water, and finishes to see why, just keep in mind boating applications (of which you will see many) involve a lot of uv trauma which shouldn't be an issue in your shower. In any event, I'm going to take the boards off before oiling to encourage long term consistency and more consistent protection protection. This is probably overkill for an oil but if you decide to go poly or varnish, as opposed to an oil, you should seriously consider doing the same as the finish won't bind to the frame and you will have a series of invisible lines (at least initially) that will lead to water seeping under the poly or varnish. Finally, and why I gave this thing only four stars, is the frame. It is indeed sturdy and well finished. No rough edges, no paint flaws, mechanically sound. However, the paint is the rub. When I looked at the picture and read the frame is aluminum, I envisioned a polished metal frame, akin to the stainless in my new master bath. No. The frame is painted. Silver gray. By all appearance, powder coated. Again, nice enough, but it matches nothing in the standard bath. And, unless you have a bath the size of a living room, this thing is going to be one of the more prominent features. So, if your wall studs are exactly where they need to be, gray (as to the metal and the soon to weather teak) fits your motif, and drilling six holes in your shower wall is acceptable, this thing is perfect. Otherwise, it's a very well designed and well manufactured seat that requires major tweaking prior to installation.
