What Features Should I Look for in a Walk-In Tub for Aging in Place?

Look for a low threshold the bather can clear comfortably, a chair-height seat that is wider than their seated hips, a door that swings the right way for the room, grab bars, a textured floor, and drains and a faucet that are easy to work while seated. Therapy and comfort features come after those basics, not before them. That order of decisions is laid out in How Do I Choose a Walk-In Tub for Aging in Place?, and this page turns it into a feature-by-feature checklist with the published figures to compare.

The Safety Basics Every Walk-In Tub Should Have

A conventional bathtub asks the bather to lift a leg over the rim, lower down to the floor of the tub, and later stand up from that floor on a slippery surface. The features worth looking for first are the ones that remove each of those moves. Every Ella walk-in tub is built around the same four safety basics:

• A low threshold door. The bather steps in near floor level instead of climbing over a tub wall.
• A built-in seat. Bathing happens seated behind a sealed door instead of standing on a wet surface.
• Grab bars. The Ella S-Class 30x52 and 30x60, for example, have wall and deck grab bars and a built-in towel rack.
• A textured floor. It gives the feet grip during the step in, the turn and the sit.

Two more details belong on the same list. A chrome stainless steel door latch pulls the door tight against its seal, and oversized easy-turn drain openers with a large 2 inch drain and a safety chain let the tub empty without the bather bending for a small stopper. The acrylic surface is durable and easy to clean, which matters when the person cleaning the tub is also the person bathing in it. The reasoning behind each of these basics is covered in Are Walk-In Tubs a Good Choice for Seniors and Aging in Place?

Seat Width, Seat Height and Soaking Depth

The seat is the feature that has to fit one particular person, so measure the bather before you compare tubs. Have them sit in a chair facing a wall, in a relaxed position, and take three measurements: hip width while seated, shoulder width while seated, and length from head to feet while seated. The tub seat must be wider than the hip figure, the shoulder figure tells you whether the tub has proper shoulder room, and the seated length gauges the tub length that fits.

Across the Ella lineup, seat width runs from 19 inches on the Petite and Transfer26 to 29 inches on the TransferXXL, so the hip measurement narrows the field quickly. Seat height is 17 inches on most models, similar to a standard chair, so sitting down and standing up use the same motion as rising from a dining chair. Soaking depth is set by the interior length, the seat length and the depth from the top of the seat to the overflow drains. That seat-to-overflow figure runs roughly 15 to 18 inches across the mid-size models, and the Ultra, for example, gives 17 1/2 inches. A tall bather with a long torso sits higher in the water than a shorter bather on the same seat.

Bigger is not automatically better. The long-seat models, the Big4One and the ShaK, suit a bather around six feet or taller, and those long seats can be uncomfortable for an average or shorter person. Weight has no single published limit across the lineup, because every shell sits on a rustproof stainless steel frame that carries the load to the floor. The full measuring method is in How do I choose the best walk-in tub for a senior?

The Feature Checklist, with Published Figures

What these differences mean in practice: the threshold and the seat decide whether the bather can use the tub safely every day, the door swing decides whether the tub works in the room, and the exterior width decides whether the tub can reach the bathroom at all. A tub that will not pass through the house cannot be installed, so measure every doorway and hallway and work from the actual dimensions on the spec sheet, not the nominal size. The door side matters too. The door and the drains sit on opposite sides of an Ella tub, so facing the tub, a right-side door puts the drains on the left and a left-side door puts them on the right. The Front Entry 32x40 is the exception to choosing a side, because its outward U-shape door sits on the 32 inch end of the tub and the bather walks straight in from the front.

Faucet, Hand Shower and Temperature Control

The faucet is a feature many shoppers overlook. The second video on this page explains that Ella tubs come with a range of faucet options, including a two-piece high-flow faucet, a five-piece high-flow faucet and a TCV faucet, and that each tub is drilled and fitted for the faucet and features selected when the order is placed. Tubs equipped with an Ella thermostatic faucet package include a built-in Thermostatic Control Valve that mixes hot and cold to a set temperature, which is a helpful feature for anyone who is sensitive to water temperature.

Every Ella tub with the 5-piece fast-fill faucet includes a pull-out hand shower, so the bather can rinse while seated. If the tub will also serve as the household shower, a slide bar, a rain shower column or a wall-mounted rain system can be added for showering on your feet, as described in Can a Walk-In Tub Be Part of an Aging-in-Place Shower Remodel?

Therapy Features, Installation and Support Come Last

The first video on this page sums up the order: consider mobility, comfort and safety, measure the bathroom, select features that enhance the bath such as hydrotherapy or heated seats, and make sure of professional installation and reliable support. Therapy features are a real pleasure, and they are also the easiest part of the decision once the fit is right.

Installation and support are features too. Ella's Bubbles builds the tub and provides free lifetime technical support, and a local licensed plumber or electrician does the installation work. Be honest about whether a tub is the right product at all. If the bather will use a wheelchair in the bathroom and prefers to shower, Ella also makes shower bases with a zero threshold that sit flush with the floor. For neutral help with that first decision, the agencies described in State Assistive Technology Programs and Area Agencies on Aging can compare bathing equipment with you and arrange a home assessment. Neither one sells tubs or is connected to Ella's Bubbles. Your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 can then match a model to what you learn.

Watch: Luxury Faucet Options for Your Walk-In Tub, Voted Best/Safest 2020 | Ella’s Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

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