What Are the Best Walk-In Showers for Seniors and Accessibility?

The best walk-in shower for a senior is the one whose entry matches how that person gets into the shower. A curbless roll-in shower base suits someone who stays in a wheelchair or shower chair, a low step-in base suits someone who walks in and wants a slight lip to hold the water, and a seated walk-in tub with a hand shower suits someone who would rather sit behind a sealed door and shower from the seat. What Are the Best Accessible Tub and Shower Options for Retrofitting a Home? sorts every tub and shower choice for a retrofit, and this page narrows the question to showers, the few published figures that separate them, and the point at which a tub becomes the better shower.

Start with the Bather, Not the Showroom

Ella's Bubbles manufactures walk-in tubs and also offers walk-in showers, so nobody is pushed toward one or the other. A retrofit has two fixed things: the person who will bathe and the bathroom that already exists. Settle the first before you measure the second, because the entry decides the kind of shower and the room only decides its size.

• The bather stays in a wheelchair or shower chair. A curbless roll-in shower base is the right choice, because the entry has no lip to lift a wheel over.
• The bather walks in, perhaps with a walker, and feels steadier with a small lip. A low step-in shower base keeps the water in with a 3-inch threshold that is still far lower than a bathtub wall.
• A caregiver helps with bathing. The Accessible Caregiver Shower Base has a 3/4-inch threshold, low enough to work around while still marking the edge of the stall.
• The bather would rather sit down. A seated walk-in tub with the pull-out hand shower lets a person step through a door, sit at chair height and rinse with the door closed, without standing at all.

The Shower Choices Side by Side

The table uses only figures published in Ella's current guides. Where a figure is not published, the cell says not listed.

Read the rows as a decision path. The roll-in base is the only entry with nothing at all to step or roll over, which is why it is the choice whenever a wheel or a shower chair has to cross the opening. The two bases with a lip trade a little of that openness for a defined edge, and the 3/4-inch caregiver threshold sits between the two extremes. The seated tub is a different idea altogether: the person never stands under the spray, so the figures that matter are the threshold they step over and the height of the seat they sit on.

Keeping Water Inside a Shower with No Curb

The defining feature of a roll-in shower is the floor, and the question everyone asks about a floor with no curb is where the water goes. Ella answers it with a collapsible rubber dam, a self-adhesive strip laid across the open entry. It collapses under a wheel so the entry stays flat for the chair, and it holds the water in the stall the rest of the time. The dam ships standard with the roll-in bases, so it is not an extra you need to remember to order.

Two notes help with planning. First, the ADA figure matters only if the project has to meet an accessibility standard, and the curbless base clears it by having no threshold at all. Second, grab bars, the hand shower and comfort options are added to either a shower or a tub, and none of them changes the compliance status of the room on its own, so choose them for the bather rather than for a checklist. What accessibility upgrades can a bathroom remodel add? lists every upgrade with its published figure.

Grab Bars and the Hand Shower

A walk-in shower for a senior needs something to hold and a way to wash while seated. Shower grab bars fasten into reinforced backing in the wall, so the backing has to be planned before the wall goes up, and the bars belong where the bather will actually reach for them: at the entry, beside the seat and wherever they turn. On the tub side, most seated tubs carry one or two deck-mount bars, and more can be added to the walls.

For washing, the pull-out hand shower on Ella's 2-piece and 5-piece fast-fill faucets lets a seated bather rinse without standing. Depending on the model, a 24 inch slide bar can be added so the hand shower rests on the bar instead of being held the whole time, and the shower column adds a 10 inch rain head for an overhead shower. The hand shower is the one upgrade that suits nearly every accessible bathroom, because it brings the water to the bather instead of asking the bather to stand under it.

When a Seated Walk-In Tub Is the Better Walk-In Shower

For many seniors the best walk-in shower is not a stall at all. A walk-in tub and shower combination is not a separate model in the Ella line. It is a walk-in tub fitted with showering hardware, so the same fixture gives a seated soak on some days and a shower on others. The Ella Standard ships with the 5-piece Ella Fast-Fill faucet with a pull-out hand shower, so a bather can rinse while sitting on the built-in seat with the door closed. A shower column kit mounts on the tub deck and connects to the 2-piece or 5-piece fast-fill faucet set, and its rain head pivots and swivels so you can shower standing or seated. The column must be installed before the final installation of the tub, because connecting it needs access to the back side of the tub, so decide on it when you place your order. A four-fold glass screen keeps spray inside the tub.

The Ultra video tour gives that tub an ADA compliant 17 inch seat height and notes that an extension panel lets it fit a 60 inch alcove, which is the space many households already have where a standard bathtub and shower sit today. That is the practical case for the combination: the existing alcove keeps its footprint, the bather gains a door and a seat, and the shower is still there. Are There Walk-In Tub and Shower Combinations Available for Seniors? walks through each building block, and What Is the Best Walk-In Tub and Shower Combo? covers the column's height range and the diverter.

Ordering a Walk-In Shower

Ella's Bubbles ships its walk-in tubs and walk-in showers nationwide, and the showers come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, so a bathroom anywhere in the country can receive one. Your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 can confirm which base and size fits the room you have, and Ella's Bubbles Walk-In Tubs: A General Overview is the starting point for the company itself. Bring three facts to that conversation: how the bather enters, whether a caregiver helps, and the size of the alcove or floor area you are working with.

Related Guides

• What is a roll-in shower and who is it designed for?
• Which accessible bathtub options work best for elderly users?
• Walk-in tub vs roll-in shower: which is better for my needs?

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