Can I get covers for unused control holes or order a tub without them?

The cleaner route is to order the tub without the holes. Ella's customization guide lists a tub with no faucet or control holes among its special orders, so if you already know that a control or the faucet will not be used, raise it with your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 before the tub is built, as What Can and Cannot Be Customized on an Ella Tub: Add-Ons, Special Orders, and Fixed Features explains. Ella does not sell plugs for the holes it drills for the towel bar or the hand shower, and its published guidance names no factory cover for a control opening either, so once a tub is built with the holes you are choosing between a cosmetic cover of your own and the specific part the team recommends for that hole.

Why the Holes Are Decided Before the Tub Is Built

Every Ella walk-in tub is drilled to order. When your order is placed, the tub is pulled with your name on it and drilled for the faucet you selected, and the same is true of the controls, which are chosen along with the door hand, therapy package, faucet style and finish, heated seat, aromatherapy, screens and panels before the shell is drilled and jetted to match. That is why the customization guide sorts faucet and control locations into the group of features fixed by design: once the tub is built, those positions do not change, and neither do the jet counts, the tub color or the therapies themselves.

The practical consequence is that a hole you do not want is avoided at order time, not corrected afterward. A tub with no faucet or control holes is a special order, which means it is arranged through your Ella dealer or the team rather than picked from the standard product page, and it has to be settled before the tub enters production. Deck space is part of the same conversation. The aromatherapy canister, for example, can be fitted to almost any walk-in tub when there is enough deck space alongside the other options, so adding or removing deck items changes what fits.

Two controls are worth knowing about when you plan the deck. The digital touchpad belongs to the hydro plus air packages; it is standard on the ShaK, Big4One and the two-seat tubs and can be arranged on some other models where the product page does not list it. The heated seat and backrest has its own keypad and is built into the tub at the factory. If you want as bare a deck as possible, each of those is a choice to leave off.

What a No-Faucet Order Looks Like

All of Ella's seated walk-in tubs normally come with the fast-fill faucet set, so a no-faucet deck is the exception rather than the rule. The LayDown60 is the one tub that never ships with a factory faucet; it has no faucet option at all and always needs a customer-supplied faucet, usually wall-mounted. The LayDown72 lets you choose No Faucet, 2-piece or 5-piece at order time. On the other seated models a no-faucet order is possible on some tubs.

Ask one question when you place that order: whether the deck will ship undrilled or still drilled for the Ella set. Can I Use My Own Faucet Instead of the Ella Fast-Fill Set? describes a tub built without the faucet whose deck is not drilled for the Ella set, so your installer drills the holes the fixture you supply requires. Using Your Own Faucet: No-Faucet Orders, Pre-Drilled Decks, Wall-Mount Options, and Which Tubs Require a Customer-Supplied Faucet notes that on some seated models the deck still arrives drilled for the Ella set, which means planning a matching deck-mount faucet or cover plates. Which case applies depends on the model, so have it confirmed for yours.

For reference, the deck cut-outs for an Ella faucet are a 2-1/2 inch diameter hole for the faucet body, a 1/3 inch diameter hole for the mounting rods and a 7/8 inch diagonal hole for the hand shower. Those are the openings already in a deck that ships with an Ella set. When a tub does ship with its faucet, the set is assembled on the deck but not hooked up to the supply lines, so the tub can travel fully drained, and your installer connects the two included supply lines on site.

What Leaving the Faucet Off Changes

The hand shower is part of the faucet set, not a separate accessory. Every Ella fast-fill set includes an extendable multi-function hand shower with five spray settings on a 5 foot retractable hose, limited to 1.9 GPM by plumbing code and fitted with a backflow prevention check valve. On the 2-piece set a diverter button sends water to it, and on the 5-piece set a diverter handle does. Without the set, seated rinsing depends on what your own fixture provides. The shower column kit and the matched replacement parts are also designed around the Ella 2-piece and 5-piece sets, which is why the decision is best made before the tub is built rather than after it arrives.

If the Tub Is Already Built with Holes You Will Not Use

There is no factory plug for the two towel bar holes on the deck, and none ships with the tub. When a wall or fixture keeps the bar from going on, owners cover the holes with a sticker or a similar small cover from a hardware store. Choose something that tolerates water and wipes clean, and check that it sits flat so it does not catch a towel or a sleeve. Unused Towel Bar or Hand Shower Holes on the Deck: Are Plugs Available? covers both of those holes in detail.

The hand shower hole is handled differently. The standard setup is to leave the hand shower in its deck mount with the hose connected underneath. If you are moving the hose to a wall mount instead, the Leak Elimination Kit is the part the team recommends for that deck hole, so nothing drips onto the deck or behind the tub.

For an unused control opening, no cover is listed in Ella's published guidance. Send a photo of the opening, with your model and serial number, to your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 and ask what is appropriate for that position before improvising.

Why the Factory Will Not Fit Something Else in a Hole

Ella does not factory-install hardware supplied by a customer, dealer or third party, because a part it has not tested against the acrylic shell is an unknown: if its base or fasteners rub on the acrylic, the finish can be damaged, and Ella cannot warranty a part it did not make or damage to the shell caused by it. Can Ella Factory-Install a Grab Bar From Another Supplier? sets out that policy for grab bars, and it is the reason to ask before planning any hardware in a factory opening. Ella's published warranty excludes modifications and repairs made by anyone other than Ella's Bubbles, so a part your installer fits in a factory hole carries only its own maker's warranty. A cosmetic sticker over a towel bar hole is not a modification of that kind; drilling or fitting new hardware is, which is one more reason to settle the holes before the tub is built.

Common Questions