Why do my walk-in tub jets turn on by themselves after a bath?

If the jets in your Ella walk-in tub come on by themselves about 20 minutes after you switched the air massage off, that is Auto Purge, a built-in cleaning cycle of the air system, and it is working exactly as designed. It starts automatically, runs for 120 seconds to blow leftover water out of the air lines, and cannot be stopped, even when you are still sitting in a full tub. The cycle is described alongside the air massage sequence in Can You Use Epsom Salts in an Air Jetted Walk-In Tub?, and this page gives the symptom its own explanation so nobody is startled by it.

What Auto Purge Is and Why Your Tub Has It

Ella air massage pushes air through small holes in the seat and floor of the tub. When the air pump is turned off, some bath water flows back into the air pipes. If that water were left in the lines, it would create mildew and bacteria. Auto Purge exists to prevent that. Twenty minutes after the air pump is turned off, the control box turns the pump back on and runs it for 120 seconds, forcing the residual water out of the lines. Then it shuts off again on its own, and the lines stay clean until the next bath.

The first video on this page shows the air massage control box itself. The technician points out the power connector, the connector for the air pump and the nipple where the push button tube attaches, explains that this box gives the air massage its high, medium and low speeds, and notes that it also has the Auto Purge, which kicks on 20 minutes after the system has been used. The purge is built into the box, not into a button on the deck, which is why nobody has to touch anything for it to start.

Why It Can Happen While the Tub Is Still Full

The timer counts from the moment the air pump is switched off, not from the moment the tub is drained. That explains the most common version of this question. You run the air massage for a few minutes, press through to the fourth press to turn it off, and settle in for a quiet soak. Twenty minutes later the bubbles come back on their own, run for about two minutes and stop. The same thing happens if you turned the air off, left the room and came back to find the tub bubbling with nobody near the controls.

• Full tub with the bather still seated: the purge runs through the water as a burst of bubbles. It is brief, and it is normal even if it starts while you are still in the tub.
• Tub drained within 20 minutes: the purge runs in an empty tub and the pump blows the leftover water out of the holes and down to the drain.
• Epsom salt soak after the air massage: whatever is in the water goes where the water goes, so dissolve the salts completely and expect the purge to push a little of that water through the lines. The Epsom salt article linked above covers the routine.

Caregivers should keep this in mind. A bather who does not know the purge is coming can be alarmed by it, so explain it before the bath. The order of a safe bath, from warming the seat to opening the door only when the tub is empty, is laid out in the Printable Caregiver Bath-Time Checklist for a Walk-In Tub.

How to Tell Auto Purge from a Real Fault

Auto Purge has a recognizable signature, so a few observations tell you whether what you saw was the cleaning cycle or something that needs attention.

1. Check the timing. Auto Purge follows a use of the air massage. If the air pump was switched off roughly 20 minutes earlier, the purge is the explanation.
2. Time the run. The purge lasts 120 seconds and then stops without any input from you. An air pump that keeps running well past two minutes is not purging.
3. Look at which jets are active. Auto Purge uses the air pump only, so you see fine bubbles rising from the small holes. Stirring water from the larger jets is the hydro pump, which is operated by one press of the Water button and is not part of the purge cycle. If you are not sure which system is which, What Does This Button on My Walk-In Tub Do? walks through identifying each therapy with the tub filled.
4. Note whether it repeats. One purge follows each air massage session. A pump that starts again and again with no one using the controls is behaving differently from the purge.

If the hydro pump starts on its own, or the air pump runs on and on or restarts repeatedly, stop using the tub for the moment. Open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support with your model and serial number and a short description of what happened and when, or call (800) 480-6850.

A Push Button That Is Stuck Down

On tubs with push controls, the buttons work by air pressure rather than electricity. Pressing the button sends a pulse of air through a tube to the control box, where it trips a relay, and you can hear an audible click inside the box when the relay is activated. The second video shows what happens when that tube and button develop an air lock: the button stays stuck in the down position and the control cannot reset. The fix is simple. Disconnect the tube at the control box and the button pops back up. Reconnect the tube at the box, press the button and listen for the click. The video also shows the two connections to check, the tube pushed firmly onto the box and the locking nut tightened at the push button. A button that is stuck down is a control fault to clear before you assume anything else is wrong with the tub.

Other Things on the Tub That Run Without You

A few other parts of an Ella tub operate on their own, and knowing them keeps the list of surprises short.

• The ozone generator on a hydro tub. On a hydro only tub it is powered whenever the tub has power, so it runs around the clock. On an air plus hydro tub it switches on and off with the hydro pump. It feeds ozone into the hydro lines, and when the pump is off no water moves, so the generator does not make the jets run. The details are in Why Does My Walk-In Tub Ozone Generator Run All the Time, and Can I Turn It Off?.
• The heated seat timer. The heated seat turns itself off after 20 minutes, so a seat that goes cool on its own is not a fault.
• The digital panel backlight. On tubs with a digital touchpad the backlight stays on all the time, which is normal.

None of these is a reason to cut power to the tub. The ozone article's advice applies here as well: leave the tub powered during and after jetted baths whenever practical, so the automatic systems can do their work.

Related Guides

• Why Does the Air Massage Blow Cold Air? There Is No Heating Element
• Why Do My Air Jets Not Work Even Though the Auto Purge Still Runs?
• What is ozone sanitation, and is the light humming noise from my tub normal?

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