How Does a Walk-In Tub Work From Entering to Filling, Draining and Exiting?

A walk-in tub works in a fixed order: you step in through the side door while the tub is dry, sit down on the molded seat, close and latch the door, close the drains and fill the tub from the seated position. After the bath you open the drain while still seated, wait for the water to leave, then open the door and step out over the low threshold. The door, the low step and the built-in seat that make this possible are introduced in What is a walk-in tub and who is it designed for?, and this page follows one bath from the first step in to the last step out.

Step 1: Entering Through the Door

The defining feature of a walk-in tub is a door in the side wall and a low threshold in place of the high rim you climb over on a standard bathtub. The short video on this page shows a bather stepping in over that threshold and shows how the low entry makes the tub usable even from a wheelchair. The floor of the bathing well is textured and slip resistant. Depending on the model, the door swings inward into the tub or outward into the room. The Deluxe, for example, has an inward-swing door, while the Monaco uses an outward-swing door, and the second video shows an outward-swing door secured by its 3 latches. Every seated Ella tub has a molded seat at chair height, so you turn, hold a grab bar and lower yourself onto the seat the way you would sit down in a chair, with your feet in the footwell in front of you. Nearly every model has a built-in grab bar as standard equipment, positioned for entering, exiting and standing up from the seat, and which bars come with which model is listed in How Many Grab Bars Does a Walk-In Tub Have, and Where Are They?.

Wheelchair users have purpose-built options. Transfer-style tubs are shaped so a bather can slide in from a wheelchair across the seat, with an extra-wide L-shaped door that swings outward, and the TransferXXL at 36 by 55 inches is a wheelchair accessible bariatric model. For a bather who cannot bear weight or slide across, the HoistAssist pairs a transfer tub with its own battery hoist, and the HomeCare is designed exclusively for assisted bathing with a caregiver present.

Step 2: Closing the Door and Filling the Tub

This is the part that feels backwards to new owners. On a walk-in tub the door is part of the tub wall, so it must be closed and latched before any water goes in, and it stays closed for as long as there is water inside. On an inward-swing door the water itself presses the door into its seal, so it will not open until the tub has drained. That is by design, not a fault. Once the door is closed you close the drains, set the temperature and fill the tub while seated. Most Ella tubs ship with a deck-mounted fast-fill faucet with a pull-out hand shower, so the controls are within reach from the seat and the hand shower lets you rinse without standing. The faucet is capable of a fill rate of about 16 gallons per minute, so a tub with a capacity of around 60 gallons fills quickly, and in practice a fill typically takes 7 to 15 minutes depending on tub size and your home's water supply. The published figures are in Drainage and Fill Time.

How high you fill depends on what you want from the bath. For a soak, fill to a comfortable level. For a jetted massage, fill 1 to 2 inches above the highest seat jet before starting the pump, because a pump run dry is permanently damaged and is not covered by warranty. Tubs ordered with independent foot massage have a second hydro pump for the foot and calf jets, so you can fill only the footwell, to just below the seat and just above the calf jets, and enjoy a foot spa without filling the whole tub. That option is explained in What Is Independent Foot Massage on a Walk-In Tub?.

Step 3: Bathing with or Without Jets

Yes, there are bathtubs with built-in jets for a spa-like experience, and a walk-in tub can be one of them. Most Ella models can be ordered as a soaker with no jets for bathers who simply want a safe, comfortable bath, or with therapy options that, depending on the model, include a heated seat and back, hydro jets, air jets, microbubbles and hydrofoot therapy. Hydro massage tubs have a push button and an intensity dial, and on configurations with independent foot massage each pump has its own button and dial, with the in-line heater attached to the foot massage pump to help hold the water temperature while the foot jets run. The glossy acrylic shell acts like an insulator, so the inside walls stay comfortable, and the optional heated seat and backrest warms the surfaces you sit and lean on. It switches itself off after 20 minutes, and one press of its keypad restarts it. Whatever the package, you bathe seated with your back against the backrest and your feet in the footwell, which is the position the tub is designed around.

Step 4: Draining While You Stay Seated

When the bath is over you open the drain first and leave the door alone. Every Ella walk-in tub is built with two 2-inch gravity-driven drains rather than a single drain, and there is no pump to switch on or wait for. Water flows straight down through the two openings and out, which also means the tub still drains if the power goes out. Once the tub is connected to a proper 2-inch drain line, most tubs empty in two minutes or less, and Ella's published figure for an average size tub under ideal conditions is approximately 80 seconds. You stay on the seat during that short wait, and the insulating shell and the heated seat, if fitted, keep you comfortable while the level falls. The exit sequence is covered in detail in How do you get out of a walk-in tub safely after your bath?. If your tub seems to fill or drain much more slowly than these figures, note your model name and a timed fill before you contact your Ella dealer or the team at ellasbubbles.com/support or (800) 480-6850.

Step 5: Opening the Door and Stepping Out

1. Confirm the water is gone. An inward-swing door that would not budge during the bath opens normally now.
2. Swing the door fully open so the opening is clear of your legs.
3. Stand up with the grab bar. The molded seat sits at chair height, so you rise from it the way you would from a chair, with your feet on the textured non-slip floor.
4. Turn and step out over the low threshold rather than lifting a leg over a rim.

One planning point follows from all of this. The door and the drains sit on opposite sides of an Ella walk-in tub: a right-side door tub has its drains on the left, and a left-side door tub has its drains on the right, as you face the tub. Your existing plumbing therefore decides which side the door is on, and the door side decides which way you turn to sit down and stand up, so settle it with your Ella dealer or the team before the order is placed.

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