Can I Use Bath Salts or Oils With Infusion Microbubble Therapy?

Yes to bath salts and Epsom salts, as long as they are fully dissolved and you enjoy your Infusion Microbubble Therapy first, then add the salts for the still soak afterward. Bath oils, bath beads and fragrance oils are discouraged in any Ella tub with a therapy system, and bath bombs are the one product we ask you to skip. The everyday routine is in Can I Use Epsom Salts, Bath Bombs or Bubble Bath in My Walk-In Tub?, and this page looks at the same question from the microbubble side, so you know what order to do things in and why.

What the Microbubble System Is Already Doing for Your Skin

Infusion Microbubble Therapy is one of Ella's most popular accessories, and the two short videos on this page show exactly how it behaves. One touch of the micro button and literally billions of microbubbles are generated from a single port in your walk-in tub. The water turns from clear to completely cloudy as the microbubbles fill the tub, and the video explains that the system produces up to 70 percent more oxygen than regular tap water. Ella describes the result as a warm, skin softening bathing experience that exfoliates, invigorates and detoxifies. Touch the micro button once again and the system turns off.

That description matters for the salts and oils question. The therapy is designed to work with plain, clean bath water, and the cloudy, milky look you see is the microbubbles themselves, not a product in the water. Anything you add to the bath while a therapy system is running travels with the water, which is why Ella's guidance for every therapy, microbubbles included, is about timing: therapy first, additives afterward.

The Right Order: Microbubbles First, Salts Second

Ella's published guidance says Epsom salts will not harm the jetting system as long as they are fully dissolved, and the best practice is to enjoy the hydro, air or microbubble therapy first and add the salts for the soak afterward. Keeping salts out of the running pumps is the team's best-practice advice. In a tub with Infusion Microbubble Therapy, a salt bath looks like this:

1. Fill the tub and run your microbubble session in plain water. Let the water turn cloudy and enjoy the therapy for as long as you like.
2. Touch the micro button again to turn the system off. If your tub also has hydro or air massage, finish those too.
3. Dissolve the Epsom salts or bath salts completely in a cup of warm water, so no crystals go into the tub.
4. Add the dissolved mixture to the bath and enjoy a still soak with every system off.
5. Drain right after soaking, rinse the tub, and wipe down all chrome finishes so salt residue does not spot or discolor them.

Undissolved crystals are the thing to avoid, because a crystal that has not dissolved can lodge in a jet. Salt that dries on chrome is the other one, because prolonged use may discolor or spot chrome finishes. Both are handling habits rather than problems with the salt itself, and Can Epsom Salt Damage a Walk-In Tub, Its Jets or Its Chrome? explains how to deal with marks if you already have them.

Salts, Oils and Everything Else, Side by Side

Here is how Ella's published verdicts line up for a tub with a therapy system such as Infusion Microbubble Therapy.

What the differences mean for you: salts are a timing question, while oils and bath bombs are a product question. A fully dissolved salt rinses away completely, so the only rule is to keep it for the still soak after the microbubbles are off. Oils, beads, dye and glitter do not dissolve and rinse away the same way, so waiting until the system is off does not make them friendly to the tub. The complete product-by-product list lives in our guide to Epsom salts, bath bombs, bubble bath and oils.

Why Oils Are the One to Leave Out

Bath oils, bath beads and fragrance beads can lodge in the pumps and jets, and damage caused that way falls outside the warranty. If you choose to use oils anyway, the guidance is simple: plan on more frequent vinegar flushes and rinse the tub well afterward.

You may have read that bath bombs are fine in a soaking-only tub with no jets, with a rinse afterward. That is true, but it applies to a soaking package, which has no jets, no jet holes and no pumps at all, as described in Soaking-Only Walk-In Tubs. A tub with Infusion Microbubble Therapy has a therapy system on board, so please treat it as a jetted tub when you choose bath products.

If Salts or Oils Have Already Been Through the System

There is no need to worry, because the regular monthly flush is designed to clear what additives leave behind. Combine 2 cups of white vinegar with 2 cups of water, fill the tub with water to one inch above the highest jets, add the mixture, run the tub for 10 minutes, then drain. This is the same flush Ella asks for before first use and once a month, and flushing after every bath is not necessary. If you use oils regularly, run the flush more often. For salt marks on the drain, threshold or trim, a wipe-down after each salt bath is the habit that keeps the chrome bright.

A Note on Skin Comfort

Many people who ask about salts and oils with microbubbles are bathing for their skin. Ella's bathing guidance for dry or sensitive skin is to keep the bath to 10 minutes or less, use warm rather than hot water, avoid harsh and antibacterial soaps, and apply moisturizer after the bath. The owner manuals warn that water above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit may be harmful, and a simple check is that if your skin looks red after the bath, the water was too hot. Applying your moisturizer or oil to your skin after you step out keeps it out of the tub's plumbing altogether. More detail is in our warm-water bathing guidelines, which are general guidance and not medical advice, so please follow your physician for any skin condition.

Watch: MicroBubble Therapy Infusion: Top Voted Walk-In Tub 2020 | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

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