Which Walk-In Tubs Offer Quick Fill, Heated Seats and Programmable Therapy?

Quick fill, a heated seat and automatic therapy operation are all available in the Ella walk-in tub line, but none of them is tied to a single model. Quick fill comes from the deck-mounted fast-fill faucet set, the heated seat and backrest is an option listed for the Transfer family and for all four two-seat tubs, and the one fully automatic therapy cycle is Auto Purge on the air massage system. The guide Which Ella walk-in tubs offer quick fill, auto heat and programmable cycles? covers the fill and the in-line heater in depth; this page adds the heated seat and matches all three features to the models whose published guides list them.

Quick Fill: The Faucet Set, Not the Tub

An Ella walk-in tub does not store or heat its own water. It fills fresh for every bath through a deck-mounted fast-fill faucet and drains completely afterward, so there is nothing to sanitize or test between baths. On the Transfer family the faucet choices are a 5-piece or a 2-piece fast-fill set, each with an extendable multi-function hand shower. The Escape fills through a twin two-piece fast-fill faucet set with two hand showers, one for each seat. Because the water comes from your home water heater, the starting temperature and the pace of the fill depend on that heater's capacity and recovery, which is why water heater sizing matters more with a walk-in tub than with a hot tub.

Emptying is part of the same routine. The Transfer models use Dual Drain Technology with dual 4-port 2 inch drains that connect directly to the home drain for fast, gravity-driven draining, and the Escape drains through dual 2 inch drains as well. The full Transfer line, with its faucet and drain details, is compared in Wheelchair Transfer Tubs Compared: Transfer26, Transfer30, Transfer32, Transfer60, and TransferXXL.

Heated Seat and Backrest: How It Is Built and Which Tubs List It

The heated seat and backrest is a factory option rather than an accessory added later. Ella's two-seat therapy schematic shows how it is built: surface heater pads in the seat and back, driven by an HSB box (heated seat and back) and switched from a Heat Keypad with an on/off push button. On the two-seat tubs there is one Heat Keypad and one HSB box per side, so each bather controls their own seat, and the diagram prints that it is available on the Companion, Escape, Tub4Two and Big4Two. The whole two-seat package, heated seats included, runs on three dedicated electrical lines, as explained in What the Two-Seat Full Package Schematic Shows: Two Foot Pumps, Two HSB Boxes and Three Dedicated Lines.

For single-seat tubs, the Transfer series overview lists a heated seat and backrest among its options alongside Infusion microbubble therapy, LED chromatherapy, a four-fold glass screen and support pillows. The Escape overview names microbubbles and the heated seat and backrest as its two options. Because the option is wired at the factory, ask for it when you order rather than after installation, and let your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 confirm it for any model not named here.

Programmable Therapy: What Runs by Itself and What You Press

Ella's published guides describe no programmable timers or therapy sequences. What the tubs have is a short list of automatic behaviors and simple push controls:

• Auto Purge. On every air massage system, Auto Purge activates automatically 20 minutes after the air pump is turned off and runs for 120 seconds to blow residual water out of the air lines. It cannot be stopped and is normal even if it starts while you are still in the tub.
• In-line water heater. It has no switch of its own and comes on whenever the hydro pump runs. It maintains the temperature of the water you filled with; it does not heat a cold fill and cannot raise a lukewarm one. It comes with every hydro package and is not on soaking or air-only tubs.
• Three-speed air massage. The first press of the push control is high speed, the second press is medium, the third press is low, and a fourth press turns the system off.
• Digital controller. On the two-seat tubs the air massage and the seat hydro massage run from an on/off digital controller, while the foot hydro massage and the optional microbubble system have their own on/off buttons.
• Microbubble therapy. The video on this page shows the one-touch operation: a single press of the micro button starts the microbubbles, and the water turns from clear to cloudy as they fill the tub.

Which Models List Which Feature

The table gathers what the published guides state for the models that name these features. A cell reads not listed where the guides give no figure.

What the table means in practice is that the features follow the package, so the model decision is really a size and door decision. Every tub above fills from a fast-fill faucet and relies on your water heater for pace. The heated seat is an option on each of them, and on the two-seat tubs each bather gets their own keypad. Programmable operation stops at Auto Purge, the self-switching in-line heater and the three-speed push control, with the digital controller on the two-seat tubs as the most hands-off interface in the line. The Companion, which fits a standard 60 inch alcove and holds 100 gallons unoccupied, and the Escape, at 72 inches long with 145 gallons unoccupied, are profiled in What is the Ella Companion two-seat walk-in tub for couples? and What does the Ella Escape 36x72 two-seat walk-in tub offer?.

Watch: Infusion Micro-Bubble Therapy For Walk-In Tubs | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Heated Seat and Back: How It Works, Which Tubs Offer It, and How to Add It to Your Order
• Which Bathtub Faucets Offer Quick-Fill Flow Rates for Walk-In Tubs?
• Can each bather in an Ella two-seat tub control their own therapies?

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