How Do I Remove, Clean or Replace a Hydro Jet Nozzle?

A hydro jet face on an Ella walk-in tub is serviced from inside the tub, with no need to move the tub or remove a pump. The center nozzle is a valve you turn to open, reduce or close that jet, and the whole face unscrews from its threaded housing once the butterfly handles behind it are loosened. To refit it, line the half-cut opening of the face up with the hole in the housing where the water comes out, thread it back in and tighten the jet nut until the nozzle no longer turns on its own. The full routine, including the intensity dial that sets overall pressure, is in Adjusting Jet Pressure, Foot Jet Nozzles, and a Stiff Intensity Control Dial.

Know Which Jet You Are Looking at

Before you touch anything, confirm the jet is a hydro jet and not an air jet, because they come apart differently. A hydro jet face has a center nozzle and threads back into its housing. An air jet cover, such as the Air Jet V.2 fitted to many tubs, is a small chrome cap on its own threaded body with no nozzle in the middle. Hydro jets are fed by the hydro pump and their strength is set by the chrome intensity control dial on the deck. The air jets on the seat, back or floor are fed by the blower and cannot be closed off individually, because removing an air jet lets air escape from the system. The foot jets are hydro jets, and they are the ones whose center nozzle you will most often want to adjust, because the pressure at the feet can feel too high or too low. If what you have is a loose chrome cap with no nozzle, Why Are the Caps on My Jets Falling Off and Can I Replace Them? covers the air jet side.

Adjusting the Nozzle Before You Remove Anything

Most of the time the jet does not need to come out at all. The center nozzle of the jet is a valve. Turn it left or right to increase, reduce or shut off the flow at that jet. This is the adjustment shown in the video on this page: the technician turns the center nozzle of a foot jet to change its pressure, then loosens the butterfly handles behind the jet when the nozzle is too hard to turn.

1. Start with the intensity control dial on the deck, which sets the strength of every hydro jet at once. Turning it up introduces more air into the jet stream for a stronger flow; turning it down gives a gentler, softer flow.
2. Turn the center nozzle of the individual jet to fine tune that one position.
3. If the nozzle will not turn, do not force it. Seat a pair of channel type pliers on the butterfly handles behind the jet and give them a turn to loosen them. That releases the center nozzle so it turns freely left or right.
4. Once the nozzle is where you want it, tighten the jet nut so the nozzle stays put.

Forcing a stiff nozzle is how faces end up in the bottom of the tub: someone turns hard enough to unscrew the whole face instead of opening the valve. The butterfly handles exist so that never has to happen.

Removing and Refitting the Jet Face

Take the face out when it has dropped out on its own, when you want to confirm the valve is fully open, or when you are fitting a replacement.

1. Drain the tub so you can see and reach the jet.
2. Loosen the butterfly handles behind the jet with channel type pliers if the face is tight.
3. Unscrew the face from inside the tub. The jet is half cut, so as it comes out you will see the open half of the face and, inside the housing, the hole where the water comes out.
4. To refit, line the half-cut opening of the face up with that hole. When the open side faces the hole, the valve is fully open.
5. Thread the face back in, then tighten the jet nut behind the jet until the face is secure and the nozzle no longer turns on its own.
6. Fill to 2 inches above the highest jets before starting the hydro, so the jets push through water instead of spraying, and confirm the jet flows and the face stays put.

A face that keeps working loose means the jet nut behind it has loosened rather than a fault with the face itself, so tighten the nut before requesting a part. Once the face is back in, a jet that still feels too forceful is handled at the dial, the nozzle and the water level, as shown in What Do I Do If My Walk-In Tub Jets Are Too Strong?.

Cleaning the Jets

Cleaning a hydro jet is mostly done from the plumbing side rather than at the face. The routine Ella specifies, both before first use and once a month, is the vinegar flush: combine 2 cups of white vinegar with 2 cups of water, fill the tub with water to one inch above the highest jets, add the mixture, run the tub for 10 minutes, then drain. Flushing after every bath is not necessary. That flush runs through every hydro jet and the lines behind them.

At the face itself, the documented work is mechanical: take the face out as above, confirm the half-cut opening lines up with the hole in the housing, and refit it with the jet nut tight. Be gentle when wiping around jets during ordinary tub cleaning, because jet faces and air jet covers can be knocked off, and a face that is already loose on its nut will come away in your hand. If a nozzle has gone stiff, the butterfly handle release described above is the fix rather than scrubbing.

When to Replace the Face and What to Send

Replace rather than reseat when the face is cracked, stripped or missing, or when the threaded body it screws into is damaged. Hydro jet faces and complete jet assemblies are replacement parts matched to your serial number by Technical Support, and jet covers differ by production year, so a face from another tub may not seat properly. Photograph the jet next to a ruler and take a wider shot showing where it sits, then read your model and serial number from the label inside the removable panel by the door. Open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850, say how many you need and whether it is the cap, the face or the whole assembly, and the team confirms availability and ships the matching version. Air Jet Covers, Jet Faces, Tubing and Connectors: What Can Be Replaced and What Cannot Be Added Later explains what ships and what cannot be added after the sale.

Two boundaries to know. First, jets cannot be added in new positions or converted to a different therapy, because every tub is drilled and plumbed at the factory for the package ordered, with pumps, plumbing and controls matched to it. Second, any work that needs access to the underside of the tub, such as a jet leaking where it passes through the shell, is done by a local licensed plumber through the removable access panel while Ella supplies gaskets, silicone and replacement jets under the parts warranty. Ella does not send technicians. That side of the job is covered in Air Jets Leaking Under the Tub: What a Local Plumber Can Fix and Which Parts Ella Sends.

Watch: How to Adjust to Hydro Jets in Your Walk-In Tub? | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• A Jet Nozzle Broke Off: Why Some Jets Are Directional and Others Fixed, and How to Get the Right Replacement

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