Why won't my walk-in tub's air or whirlpool pump turn on?

When the air massage or whirlpool system on an Ella walk-in tub will not turn on, check four things before you suspect the pump: whether the water covers the jets, whether the control is being used the right way, whether the tub still has power at the breaker and the GFCI, and whether an air tube has slipped off behind the access panel. Each therapy runs on its own pump, so a pump that has actually failed is the least likely explanation, especially when both systems went quiet at the same moment. The gesture rules for the digital panel are laid out in Why Won't My Ella Digital Touchpad Respond When I Press a Button?, and this page walks through the whole check, from the water line to the control box, for push buttons and the touchpad alike.

Start with the Water, Not the Pump

The jets have to be covered before a system will run, and this is the step most owners skip when a tub that worked yesterday seems dead today. Fill the tub until the water sits at least 1 inch above the highest jets, then press the Water button once for the hydro jets or the Air button once for the three-speed air massage. Never press a pump button on a dry tub, because a dry run causes permanent damage that is not covered. If you filled to a lower level than usual, the water line is the first thing to raise before you test anything else.

Check, too, that the system you are trying to start was built into your tub. A tub only has controls for the systems it was ordered with, so if your tub was configured without air massage, the air icon on a touchpad has nothing to run, and that is not a fault. Your order shows exactly what the tub was built with.

Use the Right Control in the Right Way

The two therapies are started differently, and the controls are easy to misread. On push buttons, the air massage is a counting control: the first press is high speed, the second press is medium, the third press is low, and a fourth press turns the system off. If the air seems to do nothing after several presses, you may simply have cycled it off. The hydro massage button starts and stops the pump, and the strength of the jets is set with the intensity dial on the deck rather than with the button. Turning the dial up introduces more air into the jet stream for a stronger flow.

On the digital touchpad the gestures change. Touch the air bubble icon once to start, use plus and minus to raise or lower the intensity, and hold the icon down for two seconds to turn the air off. A quick tap will not stop it. The hydro button is pressed once to start and once to stop, with strength still set on the intensity dial. The video on this page shows the push-button sequence on a three-speed air massage tub and makes one more point worth remembering: the buttons do not need to be pushed hard or deep, and pushing too hard can damage the internal mechanism. For bathers with arthritis or limited mobility, a gentle push with the palm of the hand works.

One behavior that is not a fault is Auto Purge. About 20 minutes after the air pump is turned off, Auto Purge starts on its own and runs for 120 seconds, blowing residual water out of the air lines so nothing lingers in them. It cannot be stopped and is normal even if it begins while you are still in the tub. A tub that seems to start by itself after the bath is doing exactly what it should. The full operating picture for the air system is in What is an air tub and how does air bath therapy work?.

Check the Power Feeding the Tub

Ella tubs are wired to one or two dedicated circuits, and each therapy runs on its own pump. That arrangement tells you how to read the symptoms. When the air and the whirlpool both stopped at the same moment, look for a shared cause: a tripped breaker, a tripped GFCI outlet, or a cord pulled loose behind the access panel. Reset the breaker and the GFCI and try again with the water above the jets. When one system runs and the other does not, the power to the tub is fine and the fault sits with the control or the connection for the silent system.

The chromatherapy light is a useful indicator here. It runs on its own transformer, separate from the pump circuits, so a light that works while the pumps are dead does not prove the pump circuit is live, and jets that run while the light is dark prove nothing about the light. If the light stopped at the same moment as the jets, that points even more strongly to a tripped GFCI or a loose cord. Why Won't My Chromatherapy Light Turn On? covers the light side of the same panel.

Look Behind the Access Panel

The deck controls on an Ella tub are pneumatic rather than electrical. When you press a button, it sends a puff of air through a thin air tube to the control box under the tub, and the control box starts the pump. The most common reason an air massage will not start is that this air tube has come off its nipple, either on the control box or on the back of the button, and the fix is to push the tube back on and twist to secure the connection. Open the access panel, find the control box, and check that every tube is seated firmly at both ends, with the locking nut tight at the push button.

While the panel is open, confirm the power connectors on the control box are fully plugged in and that no cord was pulled loose when the panel was last removed. The typical air pump is a 4.5A 500W three-speed blower, with the Elite using a 6.4A blower, so a blower that does start is easy to hear. If reseating the tube brings the air back, you have found the fault and nothing else needs replacing.

If It Still Will Not Start

If the water is above the jets, the power is on, the tubes are seated and nothing starts, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850. Have your model name, your serial number, and whether your tub has push buttons or a digital touchpad, because the replacement switch differs between the two. The team can troubleshoot with you by phone, email or video and arrange the right part.

The pumps, motors and electronic controls of the jetting system are covered as supporting equipment under the Lifetime Limited Warranty, with the same parts coverage as the shell, frame, door and door seal. It is a parts warranty for the first purchaser at the original installation address, and it must be activated after installation. When a covered part fails under normal use, you send photos of the defective part and a description of the problem, and once the defect is verified the replacement ships to the original installation address without charge. Ella does not send technicians. The part ships under the warranty and a local licensed electrician or plumber does the labor, with free technical support for whoever does the work. Whether a specific fault is covered is a support decision, and Is There a Warranty on the Whirlpool Jets and Pumps of a Walk-In Tub? explains how that review works, including the older 5-year wording some manuals carry.

Watch: Walk-In Tub With Air Massage & Auto-Purge Technology for Self-Cleaning | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Light Chromatherapy: Using the LED Colors and Fixing a Light That Will Not Turn On
• What Does Each Icon on the Ella Digital Touchpad Mean and Do?
• My walk-in tub turned on by itself: the air massage Auto-Purge is normal

Related Videos

Common Questions