Can I stop the air blower from starting until I get out of the tub?

No. The burst of air you hear about 20 minutes after an air bath is the Auto Purge, and it is fully automatic: it starts on its own, runs for 120 seconds to blow residual water out of the air lines, and stops by itself, with no button, timer or setting that can hold it back until you have left the tub. How Long Does Auto Purge Run After a Bath, and Can I Change It? explains the fixed schedule, and this page is about the one thing you do control, which is when the countdown begins, and how to plan a bath so the purge runs after you are out.

Why the Blower Cannot Be Held Back

After an air bath, a little water flows back into the air piping and into the jets on the floor and seat. If it sat there, it could grow mold and mildew. Auto Purge is the answer to that: the system waits about 20 minutes after the air pump is switched off, then runs the blower for 120 seconds to push the leftover water back out through the air jets, so the lines are dry before the next bath. Because that job protects the tub, the cycle is fully automatic. It cannot be interrupted once it begins, and there is no purge button anywhere on the tub. The deck buttons or the touchpad run the hydro massage, the air massage, the microbubbles and the light, and none of them controls the purge.

The cycle also does not look at what the tub is doing. It runs whether the tub is full, empty or still filling, and whether or not anyone is sitting in it. That is why a request to hold the purge until the bather has left cannot be met by any control on the tub. What Is Auto Purge on a Walk-In Tub? has the background on the feature, including the point that some printed manuals say the purge fires after the pump is turned on, which is a known wording error. The trigger is the pump being turned off.

The One Thing You Do Control: When the Countdown Starts

The two numbers never change: a wait of about 20 minutes and a run of 120 seconds. What you choose is the moment the countdown begins, because it always counts from the last time the air was turned off. That gives you two ways to plan a bath.

• Turn the air off early and keep soaking. If you switch the air massage off and stay in the water for more than 20 minutes, the purge will start while you are still in the tub. That is normal and harmless, and you can stay where you are.
• Turn the air off at the end and get out within 20 minutes. If the air massage is the last thing you switch off before you drain and exit, and you are out of the tub inside the 20 minute wait, the purge will run after you have left. Nothing on the tub needs setting for this. It is simply how the countdown works.

Because the wait counts from the most recent shutoff, switching the air back on for a moment and off again moves the purge later by the same amount. It never cancels it. To switch the air off on the push controls, remember that the first press is high speed, the second is medium, the third is low and the fourth turns the system off, so count your presses; Why Does My Air Massage Stay on One Speed? walks through that sequence. On the digital touchpad, hold the air bubble icon for two seconds to turn the air off.

If the Purge Starts While You Are Still in the Tub

Stay where you are if you like. Water at bath level does not interfere with the cycle, and there is no harm in remaining in the tub while the jets blow for two minutes. If you would rather get out while it runs, drain and exit normally; the blower stops on its own when the 120 seconds are up. The video on this page shows the three-speed air massage and the Auto Purge, and it makes the same point: the purge can be surprising if you are still in the tub, but it is just the tub taking care of itself, and if you need to exit while it is running, drain the water and step out as you normally would.

Why Cutting the Breaker Is the Wrong Shortcut

Switching the tub's dedicated GFCI breakers off at the panel is the one thing that does keep the purge from running, because the control box and the air pump lose power together and nothing is left to start the cycle. Does Auto Purge Run if the Tub Is Off at the GFCI Breaker? explains why. But the water that flowed back into the air lines then stays there for as long as the power is off, which is exactly what the purge exists to prevent. Please do not cut the breaker just to quiet a normal purge. On the Shak and Big4One the equipment is spread across three GFCI protected 20 amp, 120 volt outlets, so switching off a single breaker on those tubs only removes power from part of the equipment, which is another reason the breaker is not a practical purge control.

When There Is No Purge at All

The purge belongs to the air system only. If you run a bath with the hydro massage alone and never switch the air on, there is nothing to purge and the blower stays quiet. Hydro-only and soaking tubs have no air blower and therefore no purge cycle at all; that includes the Standard, Standard60, Zen, Zen60 and Flow. Any Ella tub ordered with the three-speed air massage has Auto Purge, whether the air came alone, as Hydro plus Air, or in a triple package.

When the Blower Is Not Purging but Faulting

A normal purge is one burst of air roughly 20 minutes after the air massage was turned off, lasting about two minutes. A blower that keeps running past that, or a purge that comes on twice in the same hour, is not the purge at all. It is the control box failing to shut the air pump off, or an air pump plugged straight into the wall outlet instead of the outlet on top of the blue control box, which runs continuously by design. In that case switch the tub off at the breaker so the blower stops, then follow Why Won't My Tub Stop Purging? for the plug check and the control box reset. If the box will not reset, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support with your model and serial number, a photo of the control box showing the LED, and whether your tub has chrome push buttons or the digital keypad.

Watch: Voted Best Walk-In Tub in 2020 With Air Massage & Auto Purge Function | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Why Do My Air Jets Not Work Even Though the Auto Purge Still Runs?
• Why Does the Air Massage Blow Cold Air? There Is No Heating Element
• Why does my air blower trip the GFCI or breaker while I bathe?

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