How Do I Rehang a Walk-In Tub Door or Replace Its Hinge?

How you rehang an Ella walk-in tub door depends on which door the tub has. The brushed stainless steel inward-swing door lifts straight back onto hinges that are welded into its jamb, which is the sequence in How Do I Rehang a Walk-In Tub Door That Came Off Its Hinges?, while an outward-swing door is unbolted from its hinge with a 3/16 Allen wrench and bolted back on the same way. As for the hinge itself, the stainless door has no separate hinge to replace because the hinges are part of the jamb, and the hinge repair Ella's technical support describes is a reseal of the existing hinge mounting, not a swap.

First, Know Which Door You Are Holding

Ella builds its doors in different ways, and the removal method follows the construction. The first video on this page is a showroom walkthrough in which the stainless door is lifted off its hinges by hand, and the second video shows an outward-swing door being unbolted from its hinge with an assistant supporting it. The table sorts the doors by family using only the figures that appear in the sources for this page, and a cell reads not listed where no figure is given.

What the table means in practice is that a stainless door found off its hinges has not broken anything, because it is built to lift off, while an outward-swing door never comes off by lifting and must be unbolted. The remaining inward-swing doors are different constructions, and neither the lift-off guidance nor the six-bolt method is written for them, so photograph that hinge and ask the team at ellasbubbles.com/support or (800) 480-6850 before you start.

Rehanging the Stainless Steel Lift-Off Door

The stainless door is not screwed into lumber. It hangs on an integrated stainless steel jamb, the door seal is integrated into that same jamb, and the hinges are welded into it. Ella's cleaning guidance expects you to detach this door to reach behind and beneath it, so a door that came off after a cleaning session, a move, or a bump from a family member has simply been lifted past the point where the hinges hold it.

1. Drain the tub if there is any water in it, and dry the door edge, the hinge area and the floor so nothing is slippery while you work.
2. Look at the welded hinges on the jamb and at the matching hinge side of the door before you lift. The door goes back on the side it came from. Swing direction is built into the shell, the door frame and the latch, and Can My Walk-In Tub Door Be Changed to Swing the Other Way? explains why it cannot be reversed in the field.
3. Lift the door with a straight back, or with a second person, and set it onto the hinges. The showroom video shows one person doing this by hand, but the door is solid and heavy.
4. Swing the door several times. It should move freely, latch, and pull evenly into the seal. The long handle clicks into place, so you can tell when the door is sealed.
5. Fill the tub above the hinge height and check the outside of the door for moisture before anyone bathes.

Taking an Outward-Swing Door Off Its Hinge and Refitting It

The U-shape and L-shape doors are bolted to their hinges, so they come off and go back on with hand tools rather than by lifting. The second video on this page shows the whole job.

1. Using a 3/16 Allen wrench, loosen and remove the six bolts on the door side of the hinge.
2. With an assistant, lift the door away from the tub. The hinge itself stays mounted on the tub.
3. To refit the door, line up the bolt holes on the door with the holes on the hinge and tighten the bolts firmly.

Because the hinge stays put, a door refitted this way returns to exactly the position it had before. While the door is off, check the handle as well. On outward-swing doors the handle sits on tabs over the latch mechanism and is held by a single locking bolt under a chrome cover, and it should face away from the hinges when unlocked and toward the hinges when locked. If the handle wobbles at the pivot or lifts off the latch, What Do I Do If My Walk-In Tub Door Handle Broke Off? covers reseating it. Never use the door or the handle as a support when stepping in or out, because the door is not designed to carry that weight and it can change the alignment.

Can the Whole Hinge Be Replaced?

On the stainless door the answer is that there is no hinge part to replace. The hinges are welded into the jamb, there are no small screws, and the door simply lifts on and off them. If a welded hinge is damaged, send the team photos of the hinge and the jamb along with your model and serial number, because any repair starts with that picture. On the outward-swing doors the hinge is a bolted component that the door attaches to, and the materials on this page show the door leaving the hinge rather than the hinge leaving the tub. Whether a given hinge is supplied as its own part is not stated in those materials, so treat it as a question for the team: a photo of the hinge, the model name and the serial number let them confirm the right part before anything ships. Ella does not send technicians. A local licensed plumber or installer does this work, and Ella's technical support can answer that person's questions by phone, email or video.

One hinge repair is fully documented, and it is a reseal rather than a replacement. When a door keeps leaking at the hinge even after the hinges have been reset, the water is getting in behind the hinge and along its bolts, and the fix is to remove the plate behind the bottom hinge, reseal it, and reinstall the same hinge. That procedure is in the next section. Do not confuse any of this with cabinet hardware: Ella vanity doors use adjustable cup hinges that the team matches by vanity model and size, and Replacement Door Hinges for Ella Bathroom Vanities makes clear those are a different part from anything on a walk-in tub door.

When the Hinge Is Where the Water Comes in

Hinge alignment controls how the door meets the seal, but a hinge-area leak that persists after the hinges have been reset is coming from the mounting itself. Sealing the outside of the hinge does not reach that path. Door Still Leaks at the Hinge After Resetting the Hinges gives the full sequence, which runs as follows.

1. Drain the tub and dry the door and hinge area completely.
2. Take the door off its hinges using the method for your door family above.
3. Remove the whole laminate plate behind the bottom hinge along with the hinge bolts.
4. Clean all old sealant from the plate, the tub surface and the bolt holes, and let everything dry.
5. Apply silicone behind the plate and around every bolt hole, then reinstall the plate and the hinge.
6. Seal the head of each bolt with silicone where it attaches to the hinge so water cannot travel along the bolt.
7. Let the silicone cure for the full time stated by the sealant manufacturer.
8. Rehang the door, confirm alignment and latching, fill above the hinge height and check the outside for moisture.

A reseal cures a leak at a sound hinge mounting. If the door is cracked near the hinges or the latches, sealant is only a stopgap and a replacement door is the answer, so photograph the crack and open a ticket before spending time on silicone.

Watch: Ella's Bubbles: Replacing An Outward Swing Door with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Bent or Loose Door Hinge: Diagnosis, Tightening, and Replacement
• Cracks Spreading Along the Door Near the Hinges or Latches: When a Replacement Door Is the Answer
• Ordering a Complete Replacement Door: What It Includes, What the Team Needs, and How It Installs

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