What Is the Best Walk-In Tub Shower Combo for a Small Bathroom?

There is no single best walk-in tub and shower combo for a small bathroom, because every Ella walk-in tub with an Ella deck-mount fast-fill faucet can be used as a shower. The compact tubs profiled in Can a walk-in tub fit in a small bathroom, and which models work?, the Mobile 26x45 and the Petite 28x52, both come with a fast-fill faucet set that includes an extendable hand shower, and the optional shower column kit explained in What Is the Best Walk-In Tub and Shower Combo? adds an overhead rain shower. The best combo for a tight room is the smallest tub that clears your doorway and fits your bather, with the shower hardware chosen when you place your order.

What Turns a Compact Tub into a Shower Combo

Two pieces do the work. The first is the hand shower that comes with Ella's 2-piece and 5-piece fast-fill faucet sets, an extendable multi-function shower head you can use while seated. The Mobile tour on this page shows its two-piece fast-fill faucet set, available in chrome or brushed nickel, with the extendable multi-function hand shower, and the Petite tour shows the same two-piece set with hand shower on the Petite. For many small-bathroom owners the hand shower alone is the combo: you sit on the seat, close the door and rinse without a column.

The second piece is the shower column kit for walk-in tubs with deck-mounted faucets. It connects to the 2-piece or 5-piece fast-fill faucet set and carries a height-adjustable multi-function hand shower that tilts and swivels, plus a large overhead rain shower head that pivots and swivels for a standing or seated shower. Push the diverter button on the 2-piece set, or turn the diverter handle on the 5-piece set, for a five-setting hand shower, and engage the diverter for the shower head to bring on the rain shower. The column adjusts in height to a maximum of approximately 90 inches, with 14 inches of adjustment to bring the head down to approximately 76 inches. Because connecting it requires access to the back side of the tub, the column must be installed before the final installation of the tub. In a small bathroom that rule matters twice: decide on the column when you order so your installer can fit it before the tub is set, and check the ceiling height above the tub position with your installer before choosing it.

The Compact Ella Tubs Compared

Read the table in this order. Length decides whether the tub fits the opening, width decides whether it passes the doorway and how much elbow room the bather has, and seat width decides comfort once seated. The Mobile wins on length and is the answer when the room or the doorway cannot take a 52 inch tub, but no extension panel is offered for it, so it suits a 45 inch space or a corner rather than a 60 inch alcove. The Flow and the Petite give up a few inches of floor for an inward-swinging door and an extension panel that finishes a standard alcove. The Elite keeps the same 52 inch length as the Petite and adds a wider seat at a 30 inch width. Every compact model listed with a two-piece fast-fill faucet already has the hand shower, so the shower side of the combo does not change the footprint. The figures come from the current spec sheets and video tours, and the wider list is in What is the smallest bathtub size you can buy for a bathroom?.

Getting the Tub Through the Door and into the Room

The doorway is usually harder than the bathroom itself, so measure the path first. You need a door opening larger than 26 inches to fit the narrowest tub, and the passage must be wider than the actual width of the model you choose, counting corners and turns along the way. For a 25 inch opening the Mobile is the only option, and only with the door frame removed. For the Petite, a 30 inch door is no problem, while a 28 inch opening leaves very little margin. The Flow is built to fit through a 28 inch doorway.

Door swing decides how much clear floor you need once the tub is in place. The Mobile's U-shape door swings outward 165 degrees, and the Capri tour makes the point that an outward-swing door needs about 21 inches of clear floor in front to open, which a compact bathroom may not have. The Petite and the Flow swing inward, so they ask less of the floor in front of the tub. If your small bathroom currently has a shower stall rather than a tub, note that both the Mobile at 26 by 45 inches and the Flow at 28 by 48 inches have a footprint smaller than Ella's own 32 by 60 inch roll-in shower base. Is there a whirlpool walk-in tub small enough to fit a shower space? works through that swap, provided the opening, the doorway path and the door swing all check out. If clearance is tight, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support with your measurements before ordering.

Keeping the Spray in the Tub

A shower combo in a small bathroom has one more job: keeping water off the floor you just fought for. Two approaches appear in Ella's video tours. The hand shower on its own, used seated with the door closed, is the simplest. For a standing shower under the column's rain head, the Elite video tour points to a four-fold glass screen as the way to keep spray inside the tub while you stand or sit. Ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 about the screen when you order, since the tub, faucet, column and screen are chosen together and the screen has to suit the tub you pick.

Fit for the Bather, Not Just the Room

Take hip and shoulder measurements seated in a chair, and measure head to feet while seated for length. The Petite's 19 inch seat suits average widths, and the Petite tour describes over 42 inches of interior length, a 13 1/2 inch long seat and 15 inches of soaking depth, with the size of the bather deciding the final depth. The Mobile keeps a 19 inch seat inside a 45 inch tub. Bathers over about 5 ft 10 may find legroom tighter in these than in longer models. For the same inward stainless door with a wider seat, the Elite at 30 inches wide offers 22 inches. The best combo for a small bathroom, then, is the model in the table whose length fits the opening, whose width clears the door path and whose seat fits the person, with the hand shower already included and the column added only if the ceiling height above the tub allows.

Related Guides

• Can you add a shower head to an Ella walk-in tub?
• Ella Fast-Fill Faucets: 2-Piece vs 5-Piece, Finishes, and the Waterfall Option
• How Do I Use the Hand Shower in My Ella Walk-In Tub?

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