What are acrylic shower walls, and how do they hold up?

Acrylic shower walls are finished wall panels with a glossy sanitary acrylic surface that attach above a shower base to form the sides of the enclosure, taking the place of tile and grout. Ella's Bubbles makes them as a three-piece kit, one back panel 60 inches wide and two side panels 40 inches wide in a 98 or 105 inch height, in white, CNC and digital print finishes, and they hold up with nothing more than warm water and a liquid detergent as long as the surface is never scoured. Shower Bases, Walls, and Filler Pieces lists the wall systems and the filler piece that pairs with them; this page explains what the panels are made of and how they wear.

What an Acrylic Shower Wall Is Made of

Ella's acrylic 3-panel kit is made from a 0.118 inch thick ABS and PMMA composite with a glossy, warm-to-the-touch sanitary acrylic surface. The panel is the finish: nothing is painted, tiled or coated on top of it, and the acrylic face is what you see and clean for the life of the shower. The three-piece systems come in white, CNC and digital print finishes, with ADA accessories available. Where the wall meets the base, the panel comes down over the edge of the pan so water runs onto the base rather than behind it, the same principle as the tile flange on a walk-in tub described in Can You Tile Over an Ella Acrylic Shower Base?. The base under the walls is finished acrylic too, so a tiled look in an Ella shower belongs on the walls, never on the pan.

A related term you will see on Ella's shower pages is AcrylX, the applied acrylic finish used on the made-in-the-USA one-piece shower stalls, multi-piece shower kits and barrier-free roll-in bases. There the fiberglass shell gives the unit its shape and strength, the AcrylX layer is the surface you see and touch, and Armorcore reinforced walls behind it mean grab bars and seats can be mounted anywhere on the wall. What is AcrylX and how does it compare to acrylic? explains that AcrylX is acrylic and that Ella's care instructions treat it exactly like any acrylic fixture. Whether you are looking at the 3-panel kit or an AcrylX stall, the surface you live with is acrylic.

How Acrylic Shower Walls Hold Up

• The published terms. Ella's product pages describe AcrylX as a long lasting applied acrylic finish. The AcrylX with Armorcore one-piece stalls, including the 48 by 37 by 80 inch E-3648 unit and the 42 by 42 by 80 inch Millennial unit, print a Lifetime Limited Residential Warranty and a 30-Year Commercial Warranty, while the legacy ESM series gel coat stalls print a 3 year limited warranty. Each shower product's term is stated in its own published documents, so ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 for the term that applies to the specific wall kit you are ordering.
• One care rule keeps the gloss. No abrasives. Clean with warm water and liquid detergent or a non-abrasive cleanser made for fiberglass bathroom fixtures. Never use scouring powders or pads or steel wool. Followed from the first week, that rule is the whole maintenance routine for an acrylic wall.
• Few joints. A three-piece kit has one back panel and two side panels, so the only seams are the two corners and the line where the walls meet the base. There is no grid of grout lines to clean or repair.
• Room to change later. On AcrylX units with Armorcore walls, grab bars and seats can be mounted anywhere on the wall, which matters when a bather's needs change after the shower is installed. For the 3-panel kit, ADA accessories are offered, and your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 can confirm which accessories fit the panels you choose.

Acrylic Compared with Cultured Marble and Gel Coat

Ella also offers cultured marble travertine wall panels, and the older stalls used a gel coat finish. The table sets the three side by side using only the figures Ella publishes.

What the differences mean: acrylic and AcrylX give you a glossy, warm surface that is cleaned rather than maintained, and the AcrylX stalls carry the longest printed residential term in Ella's shower line. Cultured marble is chosen for its stone look and for how it installs, since the panels glue over existing wall finishes and trim on site with a masonry blade. The video on this page shows the cultured marble panels, which come as eight, six or four panel surrounds with factory finished edges for seamless joining. Gel coat is the older finish, and its shorter printed term is the main reason Ella's newer units moved to AcrylX. Where Can I Buy Cultured Marble Shower Walls, and Is Acrylic Better? goes deeper on that choice.

Fitting Acrylic Walls to Your Shower

Measure each wall at the top, middle and bottom, use the largest figure, and note any windows, valves or niches the panel must be cut around. Shower products are sold per item rather than as one bundle, so a wall surround is put together from the panels you need, sized to the base beneath them. If a panel does not reach an adjoining wall or fixture, an 8 inch wide L-shaped plastic filler piece with brackets closes the gap, and it can be trimmed if it is too large. Ella's shower walls and bases ship from its Chicago warehouse to the dealer network, as What Products Does Ella's Bubbles Offer? explains, so confirm the panel set, finish and any accessories with your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 before you order, and have your contractor set the base and finish the walls around it.

Related Guides

• How do you install a shower wall panel kit from Ella's Bubbles?
• Drilling an Ella Acrylic Shower Wall for Accessories, and Whether Third-Party Window Kits Will Fit
• Acrylic 6-Piece Wall Panel Kit: Size, Shelves, Thickness and How It Compares to the 3-Piece Surround and SMC Panels

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