Can the Seat Height Be Lowered or Raised on an Ella Walk-In Tub?

No, the seat height on an Ella walk-in tub cannot be raised or lowered on its own, because the seat is molded into the tub and is not an adjustable part. What can change is the height of the entire tub: the adjustable leveling legs let an installer set the tub lower than its factory height, which brings the seat, the deck and the step-in threshold down together. The published seat heights, 17 inches on the Capri and Ultra and 15 inches on the Elite, are compared alongside door widths and thresholds in What are the door widths and step-in heights for each Ella door style?, and this page explains what you can and cannot do about the seat once you have chosen a model.

Why the Seat Itself Does Not Move

The seat in an Ella walk-in tub is formed into the acrylic shell, so it is not a separate bench that can be unbolted, shimmed or swapped. Ella publishes no riser, spacer or cushion kit for it, and the seat height listed for a model is the height you will sit at once the tub stands at its factory height on a level floor. On most models that height is 17 inches, similar to a standard chair, which is what lets many bathers sit down and stand up without the deep crouch a conventional bathtub demands. The Elite is the published exception, with a 15 inch seat that places the bather a little lower in the water.

The only seat option in the Ella catalog is the heated seat and backrest, and it is a comfort feature rather than a change to the seat. One push of its button warms the seat, it switches itself off after 20 minutes, and another push brings it back on. Turning it on 10 to 15 minutes before you enter gives it time to warm through. It warms where you sit; it does not change where you sit.

Published Seat Heights and Thresholds by Model

Seat height is only one of the three numbers that decide how easy a tub is to get into and out of. The step-in threshold is the lip you lift each foot over, and the door opening is the width you pass through. The table gathers every published seat height alongside the threshold for that model. Where Ella has not printed a seat height, the cell says not listed rather than guessing.

Read the table as a fit exercise rather than a ranking. A bather who rises easily from a kitchen chair will usually be comfortable on a 17 inch seat, and the Capri pairs that seat with the smallest published step. A bather who prefers to be lower in the water, or who is shorter, may find the Elite's 15 inch seat more natural, but it comes with a taller threshold. Because the seat cannot be changed after the fact, the time to weigh these numbers is before the order is placed. If the seat height is critical for the bather, ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 for the figure for your exact model in writing.

Lowering the Whole Tub, and What It Costs You

Ella tubs leave the factory with the frame and threshold height preset so that the 2 inch drain piping runs under the tub and above the floor. There is roughly 3 inches of clearance under the tub for that piping, which is what lets the tub go onto a concrete slab or an upper floor without opening the floor. That default height is the installation the manuals and the warranty assume. Because the seat is part of the shell, any change to the tub's height moves the seat by the same amount, so lowering the tub is the only published route to a lower seat.

A recessed installation works like this:

1. The installer runs the leveling legs down so the tub sits lower on the floor.
2. Because the drain assembly would now hit the floor, the installer cuts an opening in the subfloor and drops the drain piping below it.
3. The bottom of the front apron, and the end panel on a corner installation, is cut to clear the floor. The manuals advise masking tape and appropriate tools to protect the acrylic.
4. The 2 inch toe kick panel that normally covers the gap under the front apron is trimmed to the smaller gap, measured at both ends and in the middle, as described in Gap Between the Front Apron and the Floor: The Two Inch Toe Kick Panel and When to Trim It.

With the drain below the subfloor, thresholds can come down to about 3 to 3.5 inches, and the seat comes down with them. The legacy S-Class was offered this way, in a 3 inch low-threshold version that always required subfloor drain access, alongside its 6 inch standard version, and Step-In Threshold Heights by Model and How Low It Can Go lists the current models' figures.

The trade-off is warranty coverage. Cutting the apron or end panel voids coverage on those altered parts, and only on those parts; the rest of the tub stays covered. The shell and the frame must never be cut. Weigh the lower seat and step against owning any future replacement of a trimmed panel, and read Lowering the Tub: Below-Subfloor Drains, 3 Inch Thresholds, and What It Does to the Warranty with your installer before anyone picks up a saw.

Raising the Tub, and the Part That Really Is Height Adjustable

Ella's published installation guidance describes the leveling legs as a way to level the tub and to lower it. It does not describe raising the tub above its factory height to lift the seat, so treat a taller seat as a question for your installer and the team at (800) 480-6850 rather than something to attempt on your own. Remember also that every inch the tub rises is an inch added to the threshold the bather must step over, and the published seat height already sits close to chair height on most models.

One part of an Ella tub does have an adjustable height, and it is easy to confuse with the seat question: the drain stem. The short video on this page shows it. If the drain sits too high or too low, the stem is adjusted by loosening or tightening it, and it must never be loosened so far that it can fall off and go down the drain. That adjustment sets the drain, not the tub or the seat.

When the Seat Height Is the Real Barrier: The HoistAssist

For a bather who cannot lower themselves onto a 15 or 17 inch seat at all, no amount of tub lowering solves the problem, and Ella's answer is the HoistAssist. It is model Transfer3060HL, a battery-powered hoist ordered as a system with a 60 inch walk-in tub. Its published lifting capacity is about 440 lbs, and its seat travels from about 18 7/8 inches to 42 1/2 inches above the floor, which is the range that picks a bather up low and carries them over the door opening. The bather rides seated in a hoist seat secured by a safety harness rather than in a fabric sling. The tub's door opening is 39 1/4 inches wide with a 12 1/4 inch clearance height, and the hoist itself is about 48 7/8 by 47 by 27 3/8 inches, so plan floor space for it in front of the tub. What Sling, Lift Capacity and Battery Does the HoistAssist Hoist Have? lists every published figure and the questions, such as battery run time, that are best answered for a specific order.

Watch: Ella's Bubbles: Adjustable Drain Height with chapters and a full transcript.

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