Can I Get the Digital Touchpad With Hydro and Foot Massage Jets?

Yes on some models, and by push button on the rest. The digital touchpad is offered only on tubs ordered with a combination of jetting systems, and even where it is fitted the independent foot massage keeps its own push button on most single-seat builds, so a hydro plus foot massage tub runs its foot jets from a push control. The Shak and the Big4One are the exceptions, because their standard digital controller lists foot jet on and off among its functions. Digital Keypad or Push Buttons: Which Therapies It Controls and Which Is Easier to Use describes the keypad in general, and this page works through the hydro and foot massage setup specifically.

The Rule That Decides Whether a Touchpad Is Possible

The digital keypad, which Ella also calls the digital controller, digital control panel or touchpad, is available only on tubs ordered with a combination of jetting systems, such as air plus hydro. A hydro-only tub uses push controls with an intensity dial, and the keypad cannot be fitted to it. If you want the keypad on a tub that would otherwise be hydro-only, the order would need to move to a dual-jetting package first.

Hydro massage paired with an independent foot massage is one of the five jetting options Ella lists, alongside soaker, hydro, air plus hydro, and hydro plus microbubble. Walk-In Tub Therapy Options and Features introduces each one. What the published guides make clear is that the foot massage itself never needs the keypad to work: it is built as a separate system with its own button. So the practical question is not whether your foot jets can be on a touchpad, but which deck control will run the hydro massage, and that is settled when the order is configured. On tubs with many options the keypad may be the only practical way to fit all the controls, and before a loaded tub is built the warehouse asks the team to confirm with you which functions will be on the keypad and which on buttons.

What Stays on a Push Button Even When a Keypad Is Fitted

A keypad does not replace every control on the deck. These functions keep their own hardware on single-seat builds:

• The independent foot massage keeps its own push button. On a tub with air, hydro, hydro foot massage and microbubble therapy, the keypad handles air and hydro while the foot jets and the microbubble system each keep a push button.
• Microbubble therapy keeps its own push button and is a custom upgrade done in the warehouse.
• The hydro massage intensity dial stays on the deck whichever controller family you have. The dial is an air control on an air hose, not an electrical control, so it remains mechanical even on the digital schematics.
• On two-seat tubs with heated seats, each seat carries a separate heat keypad.

For a hydro plus foot massage order this means the foot jets are a button either way, and the choice you are really making is whether the hydro massage starts from a chrome push control or from a touchpad.

Model by Model: Where the Controller Is Standard, Optional or Not Offered

Read the table from the top. If you want the touchpad and you want the foot jets on it, the Shak and Big4One are the models where the published guide lists foot jet on and off among the controller's functions. On every other single-seat tub the foot massage stays on a push button, and whether the hydro gets a keypad depends on the package and the model. The therapy systems underneath are the same either way, so this choice is about how you operate the tub, not what the tub can do. Is the digital control panel available on every Ella model and does it replace push buttons? has the same list with more detail on each row.

How the Two Controls Feel in Use

The controls video on this page shows both styles working. With push controls, the air massage button is pressed once for high speed, a second time for medium, a third time for low and a fourth time to shut off. The hydro massage starts with one touch of the water button, and jet stream intensity is set with the intensity dial: turning it up introduces more air into the jet stream for a stronger flow, turning it down gives a gentler flow. On the digital touchpad, the air bubble icon is touched once to activate, the plus and minus keys change intensity, and holding the icon for two seconds turns the air off. The hydro button is pressed once to start and once again to stop, with intensity still set by the dial. LED chromatherapy works the same on either control: press once for the full range of colors, repeat a single press to select a specific color, and hold for two seconds to turn the light off.

For a bather with limited vision, hand strength or coordination, the standard push buttons are usually the better choice, because they are large, work with a single press and can be pushed with the palm of the hand. The keypad's keys are smaller, which suits a bather who wants finer control of the massage settings but is harder for someone who cannot see or press a small key accurately. If reach is the concern, the keypad can be installed on the front apron of the tub rather than the deck so a seated bather can operate it without leaning; this is an added option to request when the order is configured. The digital controller and heated seat schematics show how the controller, the control box and the dial are wired on the models that use them.

Watch: Walk-In Tub with Push Controls & Digital Touchpad for Easy, Effortless Bathing | Ella’s Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

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