Yes, an Ella walk-in tub connects to 1.5 inch house plumbing. Every Ella tub drain is 2 inches, which is larger than the 1.5 inch drain most homes were built with, and your plumber simply steps down with a standard 2 inch to 1.5 inch reducing fitting before the P-trap. You do not need two house connections for a dual-drain tub, you do not need a special pipe, and you never need a pump. The one model worth knowing about is the LayDown, which uses a single threaded brass drain with a supplied elbow, and the team can help when your rough-in needs a straight-down exit instead.

Dual-Drain Tubs: Two Drains, One House Connection

Most Ella tubs use Dual Drain Technology: two oversized 2 inch gravity drains, each feeding a T-type body with two ports, for four 2 inch ports in total. The two drains are joined together under the tub, so your plumber brings one house connection to the tub and caps the ports that are not used. Caps for the unused ports ship with the tub. The most common build connects two of the four ports; connecting all four gives the fastest drain, and connecting just one still works. Our team has told installers that even with a single drain connected to a 2 inch floor drain, the tub still empties in about two minutes.

To meet a 1.5 inch house line, a plumber typically does one of two things, and both are standard plumbing practice:

• Fits a 2 inch to 1.5 inch reducing coupling on the tub side of the P-trap riser.
• Uses a 2 inch PVC 90 degree elbow off the drain body, then reduces to the 1.5 inch riser ahead of the P-trap.

Keep the run short and use the fewest turns you can. Every extra elbow slows the water, and a Y fitting drains faster than a T because the flow changes direction less. The T body directly under the tub is where Ella's drain ends and your plumber's work to the sewer begins, so everything past that point is ordinary PVC from any plumbing supply house. If you want to be able to pull the tub later without cutting pipe, a flexible P-trap or a no-hub coupling at that joint is a sensible choice.

This short video shows the four-port T-type drains under the tub, a live demonstration of water leaving all four ports, and how a house connection can be made on the left or the right of the tub with the unused ports sealed off. It also explains why a gravity drain means you never wait on a pump or a power failure, and why a 2 inch house drain is recommended. Use it for the port layout and capping; for which side of the tub your drains sit on, see choosing the left-hand or right-hand configuration.

Single-Drain Tubs: Same Approach

The Standard, Zen, Flow and Front Entry use one 2 inch gravity drain with an emergency pull-up chain. That single drain still sits on a two-port T-type body, so your plumber can connect from either direction and cap the other port. The step down to 1.5 inch house plumbing is identical to the dual-drain method above: one reducing fitting, then the P-trap.

LayDown Tubs: The Brass Drain and the Straight-Down Exit

The LayDown60 and LayDown72 are different. Each has a single 2 inch threaded brass drain with a copper overflow and a cable-operated opener, and the tub ships with a PVC 90 degree elbow that turns the drain toward the front or the back of the tub. That elbow is exactly what most installs need, because it lets the drain reach a horizontal chase or a P-trap that sits off to one side.

When your house drain is directly below the tub drain and you need a straight-down exit instead of the front-or-back elbow, here is the fastest way to sort it out:

1. Open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850.
2. Give your LayDown size (30x60 or 32x72) and your order details.
3. Attach a photo of the rough-in showing where the house drain comes through the floor relative to the tub drain hole.

Because the brass drain is a standard 2 inch thread, your plumber may also use a fitting of their own choosing, such as a straight coupler, if that suits the layout better. Whatever you choose, connect the LayDown to 1.5 inch house plumbing with the same reducing fitting described above. When ordering any drain part for a LayDown, ask for brass-drain parts, never a dual-drain kit; the dual-drain elbows and fittings do not fit the LayDown. For the full model picture, see the LayDown tub guide.

Gravity Only, so Test the House Drain First

No Ella tub uses a drain pump. The system is gravity driven, which is why it keeps working during a power outage and why it puts no pressure on your home's drain pipes. It also means the tub can only drain as well as the house drain lets it. Before connecting anything, have your plumber confirm the existing house drain flows freely; a slow house drain will stay slow no matter how many ports you connect. The drain configurations article walks through the connection layouts, and the drain speed article covers what to expect once everything is connected.

Common Questions

If you have a photo of your rough-in and are not sure which fitting to use, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850 and the team will look at it with you.