20 Best Tension Curtain Rod (2022 Updated)

These sturdy adjustable poles (by twisting one pole inside the other to extend or reduce length) are an ideal solution for light/mid weight curtains (can’t vouch for whether they’d be suitable for heavy curtains) in a recess where it isn’t possible (or desirable) to drill holes for a fixed bracket.

I got them for our bedroom windows to add blackout curtains during the heatwave. (I have unlined roman blinds as the main window dressing). I’m so pleased with them, they’re staying up, even though I had planned to put them away when the heatwave was over!.

The material has a nice finish and high quality appearance. It is SO easy to install!! Some tension rods have a weird mechanism, but this one actually compresses and then expands to create a strong hold.

I haven’t had any issues with it falling. Note: the longer rod (54”-90”) comes with a center bracket, which you install at the top of the window frame with screws or a thick foam sticker (both are provided).

i had a situation in my front porch where i wanted a rail to hang miscellaneous items on – including washed shirts on hangars so that they would dry. Unfortunately screws were not permitted so I opted for one of these rails as i had used similar ones before for net curtains.

I did wonder how much weight they would hold before crashing down under the pressure, but so far i have had four hats; my gardening trousers and jacket to dry out on the rail and nothing has moved. i am really happy to get all these things off th back of a chair.

And of course it will come down with the minumum fuss when i want to do a spring-clean. i would reccommend highly.

It looks beautiful. I am disappointed in the quality of the item. The end pieces that push against the wall fall off even though they are supposed to be screwed into the rod. Not the easiest rod to handle.

However, it is doing the job it was made for. Would not recommend this rod.

It was easy to assemble this rod and the directions were very clear as well as the illustrations. I used the two main rods, but the size I needed was the longest it could go causing it to droop slightly in the center.

I used the extender rod to support it and prevent this from happening but it then it made the rod too long. Probably my fault for not measuring properly. Overall I thought that this rod was high quality.

I’m now searching for a new place to use it in my house because I think that it’s so pretty.

I really like the quality and look of this rod. It is very well made and strong. I needed something to block off a second bedroom. I’m old school and thought there would be a spring in this, like the old tension rods.

There isn’t and the instructions on putting it together are minimal. It took me awhile to figure it out but well worth it. It fits nice and snug in my doorway. It holds the weight of my curtain, no problem.

Heavy rod. Easy to use. Tough enough for heavier drapes. Real nice. Would recommend

I absolutely love my curtain rod, it is adjustable and provides a great fit in lieu of my shower door. A little background info, I have completed some renovations of my home, including a “sprucing up” of my bathrooms.

Unfortunately, shower doors (particularly for my shower size) are quite pricey. It is for this reason that I have opted for a shower curtain. Overall, I absolutely love your establishment, I get true value for the money that I spend.

I look forward to my next purchase at Big Lots.

What a fantastic product! Again, these rods were a perfect match for my family room windows. I had gone to three different stores but neither had the size I needed. I was thrilled I was able to get them there at Big Lots.

Keep up the good selections!.

The quality and price of this curtain rod were very good. Most importantly to me I that the employees of Big Lots are great – friends day, knowledgeable and helpful. I usually go there before looking at a typical online or mainstream retailer, as the prices on the same products are usually better.

#sweepstakes.

I have concrete ceilings in my 10ft ceiling condo. I bought these because I can’t drill into the ceiling. Because I’m on the upper end of the high limit for this item, they are wobbly and I don’t feel 100% confident they won’t fall in the future, especially with popcorn ceilings where You are trying to create tension against an uneven surface.

Not recommended for a child’s room. They were tricky to install but we did it another way than the instructions and it worked well. A piece was broken and umbra customer service did a great job of quickly replacing it.

They do hold very heavy wool, thermal blackout curtains however!.

I’ve had these about 9 months. The first set was used replace the vertical blinds on my patio door with drapes. It worked so well I ordered an additional two sets. I have sliding doors to the closets in my two bedrooms.

but I hated how the doors always seemed to get in the way. So I removed the sliding doors and replaced them with drapes. I haven’t had any problem with these rods falling. even the set where I have two panels that are heavier, lined drapes.

But I made sure to adjust for enough tension to keep the verticals from slipping. I do have textured ceilings, but not exactly popcorn. I was careful to figure out exactly where I wanted to place the rods before I tried actually putting them up.

I’d put the top up against the ceiling first and then be careful not to let it move (and scrape the ceiling) while I adjusted tension on the bottom. Pay attention to the dimensions. “Room divider” may be a bit misleading.

Although these can accommodate ceiling heights of up to 10′, the maximum WIDTH is 66″, which is about 7″ wider than my patio door frame.

Bought these for my daughter’s new apartment that has a massive window span (almost floor to ceiling) with no rods (18′ wide). Honestly if it wasn’t for these I have no idea how she could have put curtains on her windows as they would have had to been secured to the ceiling and would have cost a fortune.

I found these amazing rods and in no time we assembled and spaced them out. One hack though. If your floor or ceiling isn’t perfectly level you will have an issue. Our fix? That white tacky putty you use to secure pictures and things to the wall.

We put a small round patch of this on the bottom of each leg and the pressure adjusted the putting making the uneven floor level and keeping the rods in place. And, when she moves, these will go with her.

This is ideally a 2 person operation, one to hold the rod in place the other to tighten the bottom of the pole to make it secure. It’s not spring loaded like a shower curtain rod. Over the years there have been many times I could have used these, and they’d also be fantastic as room dividers.

These have got to be the worst curtain rods I’ve ever seen in my life — and I’m not a young person. I’ve used many tension rods over the years, but these aren’t really “tension” rods as such. There’s no spring inside, so even if you stretch it out to fit your window, there’s nothing to hold it — it just falls down.

I ordered 4 of these curtain rods for a new apartment that I just moved into that has larger windows than I had in the previous apartment, so I needed longer rods. They each came in a separate box — 3 out of the 4 boxes arrived badly crushed.

Without much protection for the rod inside the box, needless to say, they were also damaged — one so badly that half the rod was crushed flat. Obviously, I will be returning these, and won’t repurchase — I’ll look for curtain rods elsewhere.

I’m very disappointed in Walmart for this — I’ve purchased lots of different things, but have never had such a bad experience as this. Walmart may lose a customer over this.

Not a tension rod. No spring to create tension. I was looking for a shower curtain tension rod over 72”. This came up under shower tension rod which I thought was ordering. A cshower curtain rod is approximately 72” from the ground.

Average ceiling 8’ so the xtra hanger is worthless. Thanks to the inaccurate write up I now have to return this. It’s just a curtain rod ONLY.

I purchased this longer rod to create a curtain for a bottom bunk bed. It’s a little tricky to get placed but sturdy enough. If anyone puts pressure on it, it’ll pop out of place because I didn’t use the included bracket that’s needed for extra support of longer rods.

It’s only holding the flat sheet of the bedding set which is much lighter than typical curtains so it holds fine with gentle sliding of the “curtain”. The color looks good with the dark wood of the bed.

It’s a good purchase for the money spent.

I’m in love with this rod. It looks modern, elegant and simple enough that it’s not overbearing. Also, it’s currently carrying a 10lbs curtain drapes without any issues, and that was my main concern.

I highly recommend this.

This was the easiest product to install and looks more expensive than it was. 10/10 would buy again!

The price being so low, we were worried about the quality of the sheets. We didn’t need to be. they are great sheets that fit well and are very comfortable. The fitted sheet fits tight at the corners and doesn’t move around.

The sheets and pillow cases fit nice and are a very smooth feel. Appears to be a good quality. We are going back to get a second set.

I ordered these rods, as a start to the many more I would need to purchase to rod the many windows in my newly purchased home. I thought that they would be of better quality than the inexpensive tension rods I viewed in store, as they cost quite a bite more.

Well, I was wrong. The inexpensive rods in the store actually look nicer. The paint on these white rods is full of chips and small scrape marks and they appear much cheaper looking in person than when viewed on-line.

If they can’t do the finish well, then I just don’t trust that they will, as tension rods need to do, stay up in the long run. When purchasing many, the cost adds up. They are going back and I will move on to something that looks of better quality, maybe even the inexpensive ones in store.

This rod is great. I am currently hanging only 2 room darkening drapes on it and it is holding fine. The quality is excellent, you can even screw it into the walls instead of just using the tension feature.

I am only using the tension feature. I am about to add 2 more panels so we will see if it can still hold that weight w/o sliding. Otherwise, I love it, I have a window in a bedroom that has a deep frame and I wanted the drapes and rod to fit inside that sill.

This product works great. I have a Large Living Room window with a built in seat that faces the street. I am over Vertical blinds in that window. I wanted to put Sheer curtains in the window and I could not find anything that would work.

No tension rods would work. I finally found this on line, ordered it at the store, had it shipped to my house, Put it up and now I can open my drapes and still have some privacy. The rods are not flimsy! they are sturdy.

The only thing I wish is that this was carried in the store.

Felt sturdy enough for the length I extended it to; I only needed less than 60 inches. Heavy too for such a small circumference, almost just has heavy as the steel tension rod I have for my window curtains in fact.

There was a split running down the opposite end of the poll though, but I think that just how it’s manufactured. I’m sure others will vouch for this fact. The knobs look to be well made, more so in fact than the rod itself; my observation about the rod reinforcing this belief.

Pushing in the spring is no where near as effortless as the one hanging in my windowsill, which is a big draw back. My advice is to pay an extra $10 on a steel tension rod whose spring mechanism and material are objectively better than this average product.

It’s holding up my curtains but if I pull at them they start slipping down. It’s flimsy and won’t tighten anymore. The curtains have been up for 2 weeks and haven’t fallen though so it’s doing it’s job.

I put it in the guest room so there’s not too much traffic but I wouldn’t recommend them somewhere where you’d be opening and closing the curtains often.

I bought this tension rod to use in the bathroom so I could hang a valance above the shower curtain rod. Although the diameter was a bit thick, I couldn’t find any smaller diameter tension rods in this length and it turned out to work perfectly.

I have a valance instead of a cloth shower curtain so the liner I use will dry faster after using the shower.

I bought these rods in the Spring because we were redoing our patio. They worked wonderfully and my outside curtains look great on them and they hold them perfectly.

This rod is attractive, and it does the job it is supposed to do, unlike the cheaper tension rods I had ordered.

This curtain rod looks good and works well. Just what I needed for an odd sized window with a deep ledge.

It’s difficult to find small tension rods locally for glass inset door. Allows me to hang seasonal decor over door.

I like that there are 2 color choices. I would have preferred the white but it wasn’t on the shelf so i bought the chocolate brown. What i don’t like is that its kind of cheaply made. One rod doesn’t meet the other.

In other words, you can see the rod underneath. For the price, i bought it because it.

Would like to share that I am very satisfied with the product of the adjustable rod. Have not had any issues of it coming with any type of defect. On the contrary I am very satisfied with the good quality at a very low price.

Amazing.

Just a budget item but fit in kitchen window easily. Will find a light curtain for it. Not extremely durable but that should be obvious. Works just fine for what I need.

Overall it’s a nice tension rod. I ended up having to reinforce it even though I hadn’t exceeded the weight limit. Once I did that, it’s great

I needed a tension rod for 99 inches. This doesn’t work at that length. It fell down. However, I used the drywall screws that came with it, as you have the option to permanently mount the end caps, then fit the tension rod in after.

I couldn’t use the circular bracket that goes in the middle to support it for great lengths, as the rod was way too long to put it through, so I used a screw with a small wire to hold up the middle. I would give 5 stars had it worked as a plain tension rod.

The metal is pretty and solid.

The rod is pretty much what we expected. The tension function works perfectly for our application. I’m disappointed that we have to take off the ends to get our “grommet” curtains on an off, and the setscrews are so small that they are easy to drop and lose.

So far so good, the stainless steel is great for our outdoor use.

These were purchased to support lightweight outdoor curtain panels on my patio. I did not want to drill into the stucco of the house. IF you plan to use this for outdoors, such as I am, strongly suggest you use circular furniture pads on each end, as the ends of the the tension rod are a very thin rubber pad.

Probably perfect for a shower wall, but, again, I’m using this for outdoor patio curtains. It does come with additional hardware for the more permanent mounting option, but I am doing well just using the rods as tension rods.

I have three lightweight sheer panels (with grommets) on the outdoor patio and these rods are holding up well. Even survived two rainstorms and some 15 mph winds.

This is a sturdy rod. I wasn’t even able to use the middle stabilizer as I can’t drill into my ceiling (apt living) but with the ends and the small screws to hold the rod in place, it still works well! They’re light weight and I love that.

Perfect!!!! Exactly what I thought I was going to get. Used this to hold up my outdoor curtains on my patio. I needed a rod that measured 133 and it didnt need support. I was very impressed.

I really enjoy that this has the extra expansion rod to extend the length should you need it. This seems to be doing the trick, I did not need the extension rod for my current use so I have it stored away for now.

I do like end cap design as the curtain is able to go right up to the edge of the rod. Was just what was needed and no issues thus far. Overall I am pleased.

We have had issues finding a curtain rod that fits our terribly old window frame. This tension rod was the perfect fit. It took me a few minutes to figure out how it worked but after I did, it was easy as pie.

I’m not using it for room darkening like it is supposed to be. One of the best tension rods I’ve used.

Very pleased with my purchase. No need to drill holes in walls. Ideal if you are renting a property. This easily holds a single curtain at my front door to keep the draught out. With the convenience of removing it easily in the summer months.

I will more than likely buy another one of these for another room in my rented flat, now that I am happy with the quality and functionality.

Easy to use cane with simple instructions and small but sturdy. Used it for my door doortain to Keep out the flies

Great rod for curtains. Easy to use