Can Scratches on the Brushed Stainless Steel Tub Door Be Buffed Out?

Light scratches on the brushed stainless steel door of an Ella walk-in tub can usually be blended out by hand, as long as you work along the brushed grain and keep the abrasive off the acrylic shell, the glass and the seal. Clean and dry the door, find the direction of the grain in good light, and rub gently in long, straight strokes with a non-scratch pad, a fine abrasive pad or a mild stainless steel polish, testing on a hidden spot first. Deeper scratches may fade without disappearing completely. This page applies only to the brushed stainless inward-swing door described in What Is the Stainless Steel Inward-Swing Door on a Walk-In Tub?, so confirm your door type before you pick up a pad.

Which Ella Doors This Applies to

Ella uses several door platforms, and only one of them is brushed stainless steel. The Elite, Petite, Royal, Deluxe, Ultimate, Companion and Escape have the inward-swing door with a brushed stainless frame and a frosted tempered glass panel, and on that door both the panel frame and the door frame are stainless steel. The towel bar on an Ella tub is also brushed stainless steel, finished to match the door, so the same blending method works on it. The full materials list is in What Are the Shell, Frame, Door and Towel Bar of an Ella Walk-In Tub Made Of?.

The outward-swing U-shape doors on the Capri, Monaco, Front Entry, Mobile, Lounger, Shak, Big4One and Tub4Two are made of a plastic composite frame with tempered glass, not metal, so stainless steel polish and abrasive pads have no place on them. The Standard, Standard60, Zen, Zen60 and Flow have a molded acrylic S-shape door, which must be treated exactly like the acrylic shell. The Ultra has an inward door of brushed aluminum with frosted glass, a different metal, and the method on this page was written for stainless. If you are not sure which door you have, Is My Tub Door Inward or Outward Swing, and Which Door Do I Have? walks through identifying it by model name and by looking at the door itself. Brushed stainless with a frosted glass panel that swings into the tub is the door this page is about.

How to Blend Out a Light Scratch

1. Clean the door with a mild, non-abrasive cleaner, rinse it and dry it completely. Grit left on the surface will add new scratches as you rub.
2. Look closely at the door in good light and find the direction of the brushed grain. On a brushed finish the fine lines all run one way, and every stroke you make has to follow them.
3. Choose a hidden spot and test your pad or polish there first. If the test area turns hazy or the finish changes character, stop and do not go further on the visible face of the door.
4. Using a non-scratch pad, a fine abrasive pad or a mild stainless steel polish, rub gently in long, straight strokes that follow the grain. Never rub in circles and never cross the grain, because both leave marks that show more than the scratch you started with.
5. Wipe the area clean, dry it and look at it again in the same light. Repeat with light pressure until the scratch blends into the surrounding brushing.

Because the stainless door is removable for cleaning, you can also lift it out, as you would to clean the seal and the tub wall behind it, and work on it on a towel-covered flat surface where the light is better and nothing is pressing on the hinge or the seal. If you leave the door in place, do not lean into it or put your weight on it while you work. The door and seal warranty is valid only when the alignment is correct and has not been changed by a bather's weight, and that applies to a person leaning on the door with a polishing pad just as much as to someone using it to lower themselves into the seat.

Deeper Scratches, and Knowing When to Stop

A scratch that is deeper than the brushing may need progressively finer abrasives, working from a slightly coarser pad to a finer one and always along the grain. Even then it may never disappear completely. The realistic goal is to make the scratch blend with the brushing so it stops catching the eye, not to erase it. Every pass removes a trace of metal and changes the sheen of that spot, so the moment the scratch is noticeably less visible is the moment to stop. Reworking the same patch again and again produces an area with a different sheen from the rest of the door, and that patch is usually more obvious than the original scratch.

It is worth keeping in mind that Ella's published care guidance for this door is a mild, non-abrasive cleaner for the frame and glass. Blending a scratch is a one-time repair done with a light hand on a tested spot, not a cleaning method, and it should not become part of your routine.

Keep the Pad Off the Acrylic, the Glass and the Seal

The stainless frame sits right next to three surfaces that abrasives damage, so the hardest part of the job is staying on the metal.

• The acrylic shell. Any abrasive, including a melamine sponge, permanently scratches and dulls glossy acrylic, and damage from scouring is excluded from the finish warranty. Stop every stroke short of the acrylic around the door opening, and read Can I Use a Magic Eraser on My Walk-In Tub Acrylic? before you let any pad near the tub.
• The frosted tempered glass panel. Clean it with the mild, non-abrasive cleaner only. A stainless steel pad or polish has no job to do on glass.
• The door seal. Clean it with rubbing alcohol and leave the pad away from it. The seal is what keeps the tub watertight, and abrading it is not something a flush or a cleaner fixes.

Routine Care That Keeps New Scratches Away

Most scratches on a stainless door come from everyday contact, so the published care habits matter more than any repair. Wipe the frame and glass with a mild, non-abrasive cleaner, clean the seal with rubbing alcohol, and remove the door from time to time to clean the seal and the tub wall behind it. Leave the door open when the tub is not in use. Never lean on the door or use it to lower yourself into the seat, since the handle, hinge and seal alignment are what the door warranty depends on. The video on this page shows the brushed stainless door with its frosted glass panel and notes that it lifts out for convenient cleaning, which is also the easiest way to inspect it for marks in good light. If a mark looks like more than a surface scratch, or the door no longer seals or locks the way it did, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850 with your model name, your order details from where you purchased, and a photo of the area.

Watch: Walk-In Tub with Custom Brushed Stainless Steel Inward Swing Door for Safe Bathing | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Chrome Trim Peeling on Walk-In Tub Jets: Why a Touch-Up Pen Beats Replacing the Fittings
• Scratches, Scuffs, or Discoloration on the Acrylic: Surface Care and Touch-Up Kits
• How Do I Polish a Dulled or Scratched Acrylic Walk-In Tub?

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