Product Specification
Easy to clean luxury acrylic splashbacks
Made from 5mm Clear Acrylic and back painted to match any paint colour range.
Ideal for use in Kitchens, Bathrooms and Interiors- can be cut to size using DIY tools
Heat resistance- read carefully
Acrylic splashbacks CAN be used as a hob splashback behind induction hobs but they must be a certain distance from the heat source. We would advise that you use glass though as it is much more heat resistant. The minimum distance between you hob and an acrylic splashback is as follows:
Induction hobs: 6cm/60mm/2.5 inches
Electric and Ceramic: It is not advisable to use behind an electric or ceramic hob as they may melt (use glass)
Gas hobs: Under no circumstances use behind a gas hob (use glass)- there is a serious risk of fire.
Freestanding and Range Cookers: Under no circumstances use behind a freestanding or range cooker (use glass). Although not as much of a fire risk as gas, they can melt/disform so we would not advise you use behind these hob types unless they are protected by clear toughened glass splashback in front
Hot pots and pans cannot come into contact with acrylic sheet for any period of time as this was damage the panels.
There is not much of a price difference between glass and acrylic splashbacks, acrylic are more suited to panels either side of the hob as they can be colour matched but most importantly so you can trim them on site. As mentioned above, we always recommend glass as the best option behind a hob.
ACRYLIC SPLASHBACKS GUIDE
Coloured acrylic splashbacks, when back painted, look identical to glass splashbacks. If mixing glass and acrylic splashbacks there can be a very sight colour difference as they are two different materials. This is much less noticeable with darker colours but can be quite apparent with lighter colours.
Glass or Acrylic?
The main difference between glass or acrylic splashbacks is that you can cut acrylic yourself using the right tools (mainly HSS drill and jigsaw bits), you cannot cut our toughened glass splashbacks. They look identical on the surface and are both very easy to clean, just do not use anything abrasive on acrylic. One advantage, especially for bathroom splashbacks is that acrylic is a lot lighter than glass. A glass shower panel for example (900mm x 2400mm) would weigh 32kg- this may not sound an awful lot but when you take it up the stairs it will start to seem very heavy. The same size acrylic shower panel would just 13kg so it is a much more manageable material to safely bring upstairs to install in a bathroom shower.
While they are not in any way as heat resistant as a glass splashback they are incredibly easy to cut and shape using DIY power tools with the correct bits. This makes them ideal for DIY (or tradesman) on site installation in areas away from a heat source such as:
- Kitchen sink walls
- Bathroom and shower walls (they are ideal in the shower and barely require any cleaning)
- Utility room walls
- Behind kitchen bins and splash points
- Feature panels under kitchen islands (they can also be digitally printed to create feature panels)
The acrylic splashback on the below photo will change colour when you click the green "FIND MY COLOUR" button at the top of the page and select a colour. This photo, and the photos in the colour picker (which change if you swipe them) will help you to visualise how each colour will look in a variety of kitchens. Please do keep in mind the photos with gas hobs are for illustration purposes only. If you wish to place a glass splashback behind your hob and acrylic either side we would only recommend this with darker colours (if you want the same colour), or choose a glass splashback that is a different colour to compliment it. When painted, glass and acrylic can look very slightly different colours from the front but only something you would notice on very light colours and if side by side.
Glass vs Acrylic
There are three main differences between our glass and acrylic splashbacks.
- Acrylic can be cut and drilled, (toughened) glass cannot
- Glass is heat resistant to well over 220C, Acrylic splashbacks are only heat resistant to around 100C
- Our glass splashbacks have a machine beveled edge but our acylic panels just a straight cut, painted edge
Those points aside, they are both incredibly easy to fit and clean and look identical to each other.
Acrylic is easier to scratch than glass and should be cleaned with a high quality microfibre cloth and soapy water only. Do not use chemicals or any abrasive cloth. Glass you can clean with wire wool. Scratch resistance and cleaning
Cutting acrylic
*use HSS drill and jigsaw bits (when drilling start with the smallest bit, 3mm probably, and work your way up)
As well as looking exactly like glass when both back painted and sitting side by side, Acrylic is also very easy to cut* as it is just a hard plastic. This means you do not have to worry about getting your measurements exactly right when ordering, you can order a rectangular sheet and cut it to size or around sockets on site. Toughened glass cannot be cut once manufactured.
*Please note that while it is easy to cut and drill acrylic like any product that can be cut it is also possible to crack or chip it (this is the same with tiles, glass, wood and other forms of plastic). If you or your fitter does not have experience fabricating acrylic please read up on best practices for working with acrylic. Whilst the vast majority of our customers are able to cut and drill our products without issue some customers have had issues due to using the wrong tools etc. For this reason we do also offer a cutting and drilling service and we can fully fabricate your order for you (at an additional cost) which will remove all responsibility from you. For more info or any other queries regarding this service, or working with acrylic please email us.
Order times and delivery
The lead time on coloured acrylic splashbacks is 3-4 weeks during busy periods.
Acrylic paint colours
As with our glass splashbacks, we can colour match any paint range or colour and also colour match to a swatch if you wish. We cannot use the actual branded paint colours as we must use specialist paint to be able to guarantee our paint finishes on the rear of the acrylic for 5 years. Normal emulsion would not correctly adhere to the acrylic. For this reason we use paint formulas that are coloured matched. Generally, our colours are highly accurate but we have of course made the odd mistake but with in excess of 50,000 orders dispatched the margin of error is well under 1%. Our QA team do of course check items prior to dispatch based on the paint suppliers colour swatches but again, a very small number may fall through the net. If this happens we will of course work with you to resolve any issues but we strongly advise you order a sample here.
