Which Walk-In Tub Is Best If I Have Difficulty Stepping Over a Tub?

Every Ella's Bubbles walk-in tub replaces the tall wall of a regular bathtub with a watertight door and a low threshold, so you step in through the door instead of climbing over a rim. If stepping is your main difficulty, the strongest fit is usually the Transfer family, because its outward door opens completely out of the way and there is no sidewall beside the seat, which lets you sit down first and swing your feet in afterward. What is a walk-in bath and how does it work? covers the basics of the design, and this page matches each entry style to the way you move.

Why Any Walk-In Tub Is Easier to Enter Than a Regular Tub

The door is what makes a walk-in bath different from a standard tub. The threshold below the door is low, and the floor inside is textured and slip-resistant, so entering does not involve balancing on one leg over a tub wall. Every Ella walk-in bath also has a molded seat, which means that the moment you are through the door you are one turn away from sitting down.

Just as important, you step into an empty tub. The order of a walk-in bath never changes: step in, sit, close and lock the door, close the drain or drains, fill until the water is above the jets, run your therapies, turn them off, open the drains, wait until the tub is completely empty, then open the door and step out. Ella considers it dangerous to enter a tub that already has water in it, so you are never asked to step through standing water. The full routine, with the safety notes Ella publishes alongside it, is in How to Take a Bath in Your Walk-In Tub: The Sequence From Stepping In to Stepping Out.

The Three Ways into an Ella Walk-In Tub

Depending on the model, the door swings inward into the tub or outward into the room, and both styles are available across the line. A third style, the Transfer door, changes the entry altogether. Knowing which one suits your body is more useful than looking for a single best model.

• Inward-swing door. The Deluxe has an in-swing door, the Elite has a stainless steel in-swing door, and the Zen has an acrylic door. You step over the low threshold, turn and sit on the molded seat, then close the door while keeping your feet and knees clear of it. This suits a bather who can take one low step and can tuck their legs aside for a moment while the door closes.
• Outward-swing door. The Monaco has an out-swing door, and the Big4One features a U-shape door. Because the door opens into the room rather than into the tub, you do not close it past your feet and knees once you are seated.
• Transfer door. Ella's Transfer models are built for completely unobstructed access. The door swings open a full 180 degrees and there is no sidewall next to the seat, so you can sit first and bring your feet in second.

Entry Options Compared

What the differences mean for you: with an inward or outward door you still take one low step while standing, and the choice between them is about what happens to your legs when the door closes. With a Transfer tub the standing step can be replaced by a seated transfer, which is the biggest change for someone who struggles to lift a foot. A roll-in shower has the lowest entry of any Ella product, but it gives up the seated soak. For the step-in height of a specific tub model, ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 before you decide.

When Sitting First Beats Stepping First: The Transfer Family

The video on the walk-in bath page shows the door on Ella's Transfer models. The presenter demonstrates the two-pin system that locks the outward-swing door and seals it, which the presenter compares to a vault door, and shows the door swinging open a full 180 degrees so it is completely out of the way.

Because there is no sidewall next to the seat on a Transfer tub, there are three ways in. A wheelchair user can roll up beside the tub, drop the chair's arm and transfer onto the seat. A more mobile bather can sit on the seat and swing their feet in. Anyone else can simply step in and sit down. For someone whose trouble is lifting a foot while standing, the middle option is the one that matters, because you are seated and supported before your feet cross into the tub.

The same video points out the milled hinges mortised into the door, the stainless steel pins, and a door seal that is an integrated, permanent part of the door rather than glued on. Within the family, the Transfer60 is built to be wheelchair accessible, and the TransferXXL, at 36 by 55 inches, is a wheelchair accessible, bariatric model with extra width.

When Even a Low Step Is Too Much

Choose a roll-in shower when the person bathing stays in a wheelchair or shower chair and needs to roll straight in with no lip to cross. Ella's wheelchair accessible roll-in base is a curb-less pan in three standard sizes, 30 x 60, 32 x 60 and 36 x 60 inches. A collapsible rubber shower dam keeps water in while a wheelchair rolls over it, and a seat is optional: folding benches and seats rated from 300 to 600 pounds, or a 36 by 60 base with a molded seat.

Choose a walk-in tub when you want to sit and soak, add therapies, and still shower from the seat with the hand shower. The models toured in Ella's product videos have soaking depths of roughly 14 to 17 1/2 inches, which no shower can offer. The trade-offs are laid out in Should I choose a walk-in tub or a roll-in shower?.

What to Check Before You Decide

• One low step, then a turn. If the bather can step over a low threshold, turn and sit, most of the lineup is open to them. Ella offers 27 walk-in tub models, all in white, and Comparing Ella's Bubbles Walk-In Tub Models shows how size and door style vary.
• Legs and the door. With an inward door, feet and knees must be kept clear as the door closes. If that is uncomfortable, look at an outward-swing or Transfer model.
• Sitting first. If a seated transfer is safer than any standing step, the Transfer family is the place to start.
• Staying seated. In every walk-in tub you sit with the door closed and locked while the tub fills and while it drains. Fill time is typically 7 to 15 minutes, and on tubs with the heated seat, pressing it 10 to 15 minutes before getting in means the seat is already warm.
• Where your feet land. The drains are closed after you sit and opened before you stand, so the drain plug is open both when you step in and when you step out. Stepping on an open plug can bend or break the small brass drain lever, and that is accidental damage rather than a defect covered by the lifetime parts warranty. Someone Stepped on the Open Drain Plug, Do I Need a Whole New Drain Kit? explains what to do if it happens.
• Bathing for two. Two-seater tubs measure 32 inches wide by 60 inches long, and every two-seater model comes equipped with jets.

Describe how the bather moves, not just the bathroom, when you talk with your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850. That conversation is the quickest way to land on the right entry style.

Related Guides

• Wheelchair Transfer Tubs Compared: Transfer26, Transfer30, Transfer32, Transfer60, and TransferXXL
• How Do You Transfer From a Wheelchair Into an Ella Walk-In Tub?
• Which Ella Walk-In Tub Works With a Hoyer Lift or Patient Lift?

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