How Do I Replace or Clean the Faucet Cartridge on My Walk-In Tub?

How you replace the faucet cartridge on an Ella walk-in tub depends on which faucet the tub was built with. The two-piece faucet and the five-piece Fast-Fill faucet use conventional cartridges that come out with an Allen wrench once the handle and collar are off, and the thermostatic faucet package uses the cartridge inside the Thermostatic Control Valve, which is the part covered in Temperature Control Valve (TCV) Stuck or Not Mixing: Cleaning the Cartridge and Replacing the Valve. In every case the job begins by shutting off the hot and cold supply to the tub, and the two videos on this page show the two-piece and five-piece procedures from the first cap to the last.

First, Identify Which Faucet and Cartridge You Have

Ella builds each tub to the order, so the faucet is chosen with the tub rather than fixed by the model. Your order paperwork tells you which faucet package you have, and the team can confirm it from your serial number. Three arrangements cover the cartridges you are likely to meet.

• Two-piece faucet. A single spout handle sits on top of the spout housing and mixes hot and cold through one cartridge. The handle is held by an Allen bolt under a decorative bolt cover, and the cartridge sits under an escutcheon plate and a brass locking collar.
• Five-piece Fast-Fill faucet. This is the non-thermostatic faucet with a hot valve, a cold valve and a diverter, where the water temperature is set at the handles like a conventional tub. Each handle has its own cartridge under a red or blue cap and a plastic collar.
• Thermostatic faucet package. The Thermostatic Control Valve blends hot and cold to the temperature you set and works with two diverters. Its cartridge sits behind the control handle, cover plate and escutcheon under a metal collar, and intake screens in front of it catch the scale that arrives with the supply water.

Whichever you have, shut off both supplies before you touch a handle. If your tub has the thermostatic package and the water runs only scalding or only cold, read Tub Fills Only Scalding or Only Cold and Will Not Mix to Warm first, because the order of repair there is clean the cartridge, then replace the cartridge, then replace the whole valve.

Replacing the Cartridge on the Two-Piece Faucet

The first video shows the complete replacement on a two-piece faucet. These are the steps in the order the video performs them.

1. Remove the decorative bolt cover from the spout handle.
2. Insert a 3 mm Allen wrench, loosen the Allen bolt and lift the spout handle off. The video pauses to show where the bolt attaches.
3. Unscrew and remove the escutcheon plate.
4. Loosen and remove the brass locking collar.
5. Lift the cartridge straight out of the spout housing.

Reassembly runs in reverse, with one detail that decides whether the faucet works afterward. The new cartridge has two guide posts, and they must line up with the receptacles in the spout housing. The cartridge seats correctly only when both posts are in the correct position, so if it sits high or rocks, lift it and turn it rather than forcing it. Replace the brass locking collar and tighten it securely without over torquing, replace and hand tighten the escutcheon plate, set the handle back onto the top of the cartridge and tighten the Allen bolt securely without over torquing, then replace the bolt cover. When the handle is back on, the red side should be on the left for hot and the blue side on the right for cold.

Cleaning or Replacing the Cartridge on the Five-Piece Fast-Fill Faucet

The second video shows the five-piece faucet, where each handle carries its own cartridge. Work on the handle that is giving trouble and repeat the steps for the other one if needed.

1. Remove the red or blue cap on the handle.
2. Loosen the bolt under it with a 3 mm Allen wrench and lift the handle off.
3. Remove the plastic collar under the handle.
4. Loosen the cartridge with a 17 mm socket wrench and remove it.
5. Check for debris, foreign objects or calcification. If you find any, clean the cartridge with a soft brush and rinse it.
6. Fit the cleaned or new cartridge and tighten it without over torquing.
7. Replace the plastic collar, put the handle back on facing the correct position, tighten the Allen bolt firmly without over torquing and replace the colored cap.

Because this faucet has no thermostatic cartridge to foul, a cleaning is usually a matter of brushing off scale and rinsing. That is why tech support sometimes suggests switching to the five-piece Fast-Fill faucet for owners whose thermostatic cartridge needs cleaning again and again, with the trade-off that it does not hold a set temperature on its own. Your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 can help with that change.

Cleaning or Replacing the Thermostatic Cartridge

On the thermostatic faucet the cartridge is the part that blends hot and cold, and calcium, iron and sediment from the supply collect on it and on the intake screens. The usual signs are a dial that is stuck or hard to turn, water that only runs cold, water that runs hotter than the setting, or hot and cold crossing inside the valve so the rest of the home loses hot water while the tub is off. The team shares a video of the cleaning that a handy homeowner can follow. In outline it covers shutting off the water supply, removing the control handle and cover plate, removing the washers and the escutcheon plate, unscrewing the metal collar and the cartridge, cleaning the intake screens and the cartridge of calcification, and reassembling without over torquing. If cleaning does not restore mixing, the cartridge is replaced, and if the valve itself has failed, the whole TCV is replaced.

Two details are easy to miss. The button on the control handle is essential to adjusting the temperature; without it you lose about half of the temperature range, and adjusting the governor will not make up the difference, so mention a missing button when you contact the team. And if cold water reaches the tub but never comes out of the spout, the cause may be the check valve at the cold inlet rather than the cartridge, which is worked through in Cold Water Reaches the Tub but Will Not Come Out of the Faucet: Unlocking the TCV Check Valve. Water that overshoots the dial is covered in Why Is the Water in My Walk-In Tub Too Hot?, and the crossover symptom in Why Does the Mixing Valve Cross Hot and Cold When the Tub Is Off?.

Warranty, Replacement Parts and Who Does the Work

The published warranty lists the faucet among the supporting equipment covered on a parts-only basis under the Lifetime Limited Warranty, with one specific exception: the Thermostatic Control Valve carries a 1-year limited warranty and is excluded from the lifetime parts warranty. Cartridge fouling caused by calcium, iron or contaminated water is not a covered defect. Within the first year, a TCV that fails is replaced under the warranty once the team verifies it from your photos and serial number; after the first year a replacement valve is available as a paid part through your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850. To protect a new thermostatic cartridge, an inline filter or mesh must be fitted on the supply lines and cleaned periodically.

Ella does not send technicians. Removal, cleaning and replacement on site are done by you, a handyman or a licensed plumber, and free lifetime technical support is available by phone or ticket if a question comes up mid-job. When you open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support, include your serial number, a photo of the faucet and the cartridge, a description of the symptom and the best number to reach you, because tech support will call to talk through the diagnosis.

Watch: Ella's Bubbles: Cartridge Replacement 5 Piece with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Why Does My Tub Faucet Drip Constantly and How Do I Fix It?
• Faucet Cartridge Burst and Spraying Water: Shutting It Down and Getting Replacement Hot and Cold Valves
• Replacing an Older TCV: 1/2 Inch vs 3/4 Inch Supply Inputs, the Hidden Deck-Plate Screw, the Governor Button and What Is Supplied

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