How Do I Open or Close the Drain in My Walk-In Tub?

To open the drain on an Ella walk-in tub, stay seated and turn the chrome drain handle on the tub deck completely to its open position. On a tub with two floor drains, turn both handles. Models with a chain-operated plug open by lifting the plug with its chain instead. The parts behind the handle are explained in What Is a Drain Cable on a Walk-In Tub?, and this page covers the everyday routine: which drain you have, how to open and close it, and what to check when it does not respond.

First, Find Out Which Kind of Drain Your Tub Has

Ella walk-in tubs use one of two ways to open and close the drain, and the right motion depends on which one is in your tub.

• Handle and cable drains. A chrome handle on the tub deck is linked by a stainless steel cable, inside a protective black plastic sleeve, to an armature in the drain connection box under the tub. Turning the handle pulls the cable, the armature moves, and the stopper rises or lowers through the drain stem. This is the arrangement on every Dual Drain tub, from the stainless inward-swing family and the Ultra to the outward-swing, Transfer and two-seat families. It is also used on the Front Entry with its single 2 inch drain and on the LayDown tubs with their brass drain and copper overflow.
• Chain-operated drain plugs. The Standard, Standard60, Zen, Zen60 and Flow use a chain-operated drain plug with an emergency pull-up chain and have no cable at all. The Standard, for example, has one 2 inch gravity floor drain with an overflow and the emergency pull-up chain.

On a Dual Drain tub there are two handles and two cables, one for each 2 inch floor drain. Each handle works only its own drain, so both need to be opened for the tub to empty the way it was designed to.

Opening the Drain After Your Bath

1. Stay seated when the bath is finished. The drain is opened from the seat, and the door stays closed until the water is gone.
2. Turn the chrome drain handle completely to the open position. The handle sits straight up and down on the deck and has two positions, one open and one closed. On Transfer models the drain openers have extension handles, and handle up means open.
3. On a Dual Drain tub, turn the second handle completely to open as well.
4. On a tub with a chain-operated plug, lift the plug with its chain.
5. Watch the water level go down. Ella drains are gravity driven, and under ideal house plumbing an average size tub drains in about 80 seconds, so the wait is short.
6. Wait until you can see the tub is empty before you touch the door. Every Ella's Bubbles manual gives the same instruction: never open the door until the tub is completely empty.

If you are not sure which handle position is which, turn the handle and look at the stopper. A raised stopper is an open drain, and a lowered stopper is a closed one. A handle that is only partly turned leaves the drain partly open, and the tub empties slowly. That is the most common reason a door seems stuck after a bath, as explained in Why Won't My Walk-In Tub Door Open After My Bath?. On an inward swing door the weight of the water holds the door against its seal, so a fully open drain is what frees the door.

Closing the Drain Before You Fill

Closing is the same motion in reverse. Turn each handle back to its closed position so the stopper lowers and seals, and on a Dual Drain tub close both drains before you start the faucet. On a chain-operated model, seat the plug in the drain. A quick look at each stopper before filling confirms it has dropped fully into place.

If a handle has been tightened, removed or refitted, turn it open and closed once more and confirm the plug seals and lifts fully before the next bath. The handle should sit straight up and down so it clearly indicates open and closed.

The One Habit That Protects Your Drain

Step around the stoppers, and never push a stopper closed with your foot. Stepping on an open drain puts tremendous stress on the mechanism, which is why warning stickers are placed on every tub before it ships. A foot on the open plug forces the small brass lever inside the drain body, so afterward the plug drops back down instead of staying up, or a small brass piece comes out of the drain opening. It can happen on a brand-new tub as easily as an older one, and a drain that closed fine while filling can still refuse to open afterward.

The encouraging part is that this rarely calls for a whole new drain. The usual replacement is the drain lever on its own, as covered in Someone Stepped on the Open Drain Plug, Do I Need a Whole New Drain Kit?. Damage from stepping on an open drain is accidental damage and not a manufacturing defect, so that replacement part is not covered under the lifetime parts warranty.

If the Drain Will Not Open or Will Not Close

Match what the handle is doing to the list below. Each symptom points to a different, fixable spot.

• The handle wobbles but still lifts the stopper. The small allen screw holding the handle, or the retaining ring and lock nut under the deck, has loosened. The few minutes of tightening are described in Why Are My Drain Handles Loose and How Do I Tighten Them?. Firm is enough, so do not over torque.
• The handle turns freely and the stopper never moves. The handle is no longer connected to the drain. The cable barrel end has slipped off the armature in the connection box, or the cable has broken. Behind the front access panel, the small panel on the drain connection box comes off so the barrel end can be reseated with the flat side facing up.
• The plug will not stay up. Check the small screw lever at the drain before assuming anything broke. If it is simply loose, threading it in further is often the whole fix.
• The handle is stuck open, or turns one way but will not turn back. The brass lever inside the overflow assembly has travelled past its normal stop and jammed. The permanent fix is in Drain Lever Stuck in the Open Position: Adding a Screw Stop So It Does Not Happen Again. A pull-up drain plug with a chain can be supplied so you can keep using the tub in the meantime.
• The drain is open but the water goes down slowly. Check that the handle is fully open and that the house drain flows freely before suspecting the cable.

The Drain Cable Replacement video shows the inside of this mechanism clearly. You see the service panel come off the connection box, how the cable activates the armature, and how the armature opens and closes the drain through the drain stem, so it is easy to picture what your handle is doing under the tub.

If the checks above do not settle it, contact your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850, or open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support. Have your model, your serial number and a short video of the handle turning ready, and say whether one drain or both are affected. Parts ship to you, and a local licensed plumber does the hands-on work.

Watch: Drain Cable Replacement with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• My drain will not open or close: replacing the drain cable and adjusting drain height
• Broken Drain Lever, Drain Cable or Full Drain Assembly: Which Part You Need and How It Is Replaced
• Drain Plugs, Plug Stems, Drain Gaskets and Hair Catchers: Adjusting, Replacing and Keeping Them Out of the Drain

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