Are walk-in tubs safe for seniors and people with limited mobility?

Yes. An Ella walk-in tub is built so the bather is seated with the door closed and locked before any water goes in and stays seated until the tub is completely empty, which removes the step-over and the lowering-down that make a standard tub hard for seniors and people with limited mobility. The safety comes from a low threshold, a chair-height seat, grab bars and a sealed door, matched to the person and paired with a few steady habits. Bathing Someone With Limited Mobility in a Walk-In Tub: Features That Help and Habits That Keep It Safe covers the caregiver side; this page answers the broader question of what makes the tub itself safe and where the real cautions lie.

What the Design Does for You

• A low step-in threshold. Published drawings and figures from the team put the Monaco at 3 5/8 inches and the Mobile at about 3 3/4 inches, the Transfer family and Capri around 3 1/2 to 4 inches, the Big4One and ShaK around 5 inches, the Ultra about 6 inches and the Elite about 6 1/2 inches. Recessing the drain below the subfloor can bring a model down to about 3 to 3 1/2 inches, but the apron or end panel is then trimmed, and cutting those parts voids warranty coverage on the altered panels.
• A chair-height seat. Seat height is about 17 inches on many models, including the Ultra, most outward-door tubs and the Transfer family, about 15 inches on the stainless-door family, the Mobile and the Escape, and about 16 inches on the Front Entry. The bather sits rather than lowering to the floor of a tub.
• Grab bars on most models, on the deck, the wall or both depending on the tub, and a 5 foot hand shower so washing does not require reaching or standing.
• A door that locks. The bather is enclosed by a sealed, latched door for the whole bath, and on outward-swing models the caregiver locks the handle from outside.
• On tubs with independent foot massage, a footwell-only soak: fill to just below the seat and just above the calf jets for a shorter, shallower bath.

The Part People Worry About: Waiting in the Tub

Because the door seals, you are inside while the tub fills and while it drains. Fill time is typically 7 to 15 minutes, depending on your model and how quickly your home delivers hot water, and an average dual-drain tub empties in about 80 seconds under ideal conditions. The rules that keep those minutes safe are the ones Ella prints in its manuals. Never enter a tub that already has water in it; Ella considers that dangerous. Do not fill above the center of the drain handle. Set the temperature carefully so you are never scalded: on the five-piece fast-fill faucet, hot is on the left, cold on the right and the selector in the middle, and Ella's manuals warn that water above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit may be harmful. When the bath is over, turn every drain handle fully open and stay seated until the tub is completely empty, then open the door and step out. The full order of operations is in How to Take a Bath in Your Walk-In Tub: The Sequence From Stepping In to Stepping Out.

Habits That Keep It Safe

• Warm the seat first. If your tub has the heated seat, press it 10 to 15 minutes before getting in so the seat is warm while the water rises.
• Keep the room warm, since the bather sits in the tub before the water arrives.
• Never let anyone lean on the door, inside or out.
• Never leave a bather who needs help alone in the tub.
• Push the controls gently. One push of the air button is high speed, a second is medium, a third is low, and a fourth shuts the system off. Pushing too hard or too deep may damage the internal mechanism, and a gentle push with the palm of the hand works well for anyone with arthritis or limited mobility.

One more thing to expect: about 20 minutes after the air massage pump is turned off, the air system starts on its own and runs for 120 seconds to blow residual water out of the air lines. This is the Auto-Purge cycle. It cannot be interrupted, it stops on its own and it can begin while you are still in the tub, and there is no need to get out. Why did my tub turn on by itself? Understanding the Auto-Purge air cleaning cycle explains it so a first-time bather is not startled.

Fit Is Part of Safety

A tub that is the wrong size for its bather is less safe than the numbers suggest. The seat must be wider than the person's seated hip measurement, and Ella seat widths run from 19 inches on the Petite and Transfer26 to 29 inches on the TransferXXL. The door style should match how the person moves. Inward-swing doors on the Standard, Zen, Flow, Ultra and the stainless steel family close past the bather's knees, so the bather stands inside the tub for a moment while the door shuts, and they need no floor space in front. Outward U-shape doors open 165 degrees away from the tub with no knee clearance needed inside. The L-shape Transfer door opens 172 degrees and leaves no sidewall beside the seat, so a wheelchair user can slide straight across. Choosing between those families before the tub is ordered is the biggest safety decision an owner makes, and your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 can help match a model to the bather.

Clean Water and a Clean Tub

Hygiene is part of safe bathing. The video on this page introduces Ella's ozone sterilization: ozone is a proven water disinfectant that eliminates mold and bacteria from the water system and prevents mildew and odor from developing, so every time the tub is turned on the system is being sanitized. Auto-Purge does the same job for the air lines. For the shell and fixtures, ordinary Formula 409 or Dawn dish detergent with a soft cloth is safe on the acrylic, chrome and stainless steel, and abrasives such as scouring pads and Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads should never touch the acrylic, as Which Cleaners Are Safe on Your Walk-In Tub and Where to Find the Pump Inlet Cover explains. If your home is on well water, clean a little more often to stay ahead of mineral build-up.

Watch: Introducing Ozone Sterilization for Walk-In Tubs for Safe & Hygienic Bathing | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

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