Can I remove my walk-in tub door or add a sliding glass door?

The door on an Ella walk-in tub is the way in and the part that holds back the water in the bathing well, so it is not an optional piece you take off to make a conventional tub. It can be lifted off for cleaning on the stainless-door models and unbolted for a replacement on the outward-swing models, but the tub is built around it, and whether any specific model can be set up without its door is a question to put to the team at (800) 480-6850 before you plan around it. Ella also does not make a sliding tub door; what goes above the tub to keep shower spray in is a glass shower screen or a sliding shower door from the shower line, and Sliding or hinged walk-in tub door: which fits a narrow bathroom? explains why the two jobs are different.

What the Tub Door Does, and What Removing It Means

Every Ella walk-in tub has a hinged door that swings either inward into the bathing well or outward into the room. It is hinged to the tub and sealed against the water, with a latch mechanism that pulls it tight, because it has to hold back a full tub of water every time you bathe. Each model belongs to one of four door styles: the inward-swing brushed stainless steel door used on the Petite and the Elite, the inward-swing acrylic S-shape door, the outward-swing U-shape door in white composite and tempered glass that closes with a gear-and-shaft mechanism and three latches, and the L-shape outward transfer door on the Transfer models with the same mechanism and two latches.

So the door does come off. The stainless door on the Petite and Elite is described as removable, and the door replacement procedure for the outward-swing door has the door lifting away from the hinge once its bolts are out. That is removal for cleaning or for fitting a new door, after which the door goes back on and seals again. It is not a way to run the tub as an open-sided bathtub, because without the door and its seal there is nothing holding the water in the well. If your real goal is a tub with no door at all, the published material does not describe an Ella walk-in tub in that configuration, so ask the team before buying or modifying anything.

Keeping Spray in: The Shower Screen

Most people asking about a sliding glass door over a walk-in tub want to use the hand shower or a rain shower head without soaking the floor. For that, Ella's answer is the 4-fold glass shower screen rather than a sliding door. It is a 44 by 42 inch tempered glass screen in a chrome ionized aluminum frame that mounts in a channel on the bathroom wall beside the tub and rests on the tub deck. Its panels are joined by hinges held with plastic retainer inserts, and one inside panel can be removed to turn the four-panel screen into a three-panel screen. Along the bottom runs an inward-angled rubber gasket that should brush the tub deck lightly and evenly. What is a shower screen, and how is it different from a door? walks through the wall channel, the gasket and the knobs.

The screen works on the other side of the door seal. It stops spray that bounces off the bather and the panels from leaving the tub by sending it back into the well. Position matters: when the screen is opened across the tub, its bottom edge must follow the inner lip of the deck along its full length. If it sits too far out on the deck, spray runs down the panels into the narrow gap between the door edge and the deck, outside the seal, and follows the door jamb to the floor, which is why a tub can appear to leak on the hinge side only when the jets or hand shower are running. The LayDown tubs have their own screen with a fixed panel and a hinged door screen, and the LayDown screen gasket points inward toward the tub.

Sliding Glass Doors in the Ella Catalog

Ella does list sliding glass doors, and they are shower doors. The Ella Duo is a 55 by 70 framed sliding door with two panels of clear tempered glass about 1/4 inch thick in a chrome frame, reversible for left or right opening, and it is the door commonly used on the 60 inch wide one-piece and three-piece shower stalls, whose inside opening measures 55 3/4 inches. Framed doors like the Duo have a full frame including a bottom track that the panels ride in, as Does the Ella Shower Door Have a Bottom Track or Is It Trackless? explains. The Primo 8mm frameless sliding door is the exception: its two glass panels slide past each other on a top track, there is no bottom rail at all, and a flexible water retainer gasket along the bottom edge expands about 3/8 of an inch to redirect water back toward the drain. Ella lists this 5/16 inch glass sliding door in 48 by 78 and 60 by 78 inch sizes, and it is heavy enough to need two people to install.

If you are weighing one of these over a walk-in tub, measure your opening at the top, the middle and the bottom and work from the smallest number, because a sliding door has to clear the whole height of the opening. Keep in mind what a shower door is built to do. It keeps spray inside an enclosure, and it is never asked to seal against a full tub of water, so it would sit above the tub as a spray barrier while the tub's own door continues to do the sealing. Ella shower stalls themselves ship without a door, so the sizing rules in Does the Ella Shower Stall Come With a Door, and What Size Door Fits the Opening? apply to any sliding door you shop for.

A Glass Door That Swings Instead of Slides

If the second half of your question is really about a glass door that opens on hinges rather than on a track, Ella has two answers. The first is the shower screen above, whose panels fold on hinges and swing out of the way. The second is the bi-fold glass shower door offered on the 3060 LayDown tub. The LayDown video on this page shows that door: a sleek glass door with durable chrome hinges and robust chrome brackets, with a gasket on the bottom of the door to prevent water leakage, giving easy access to shower in the 3060 LayDown tub. The same video shows the tub's own chrome locking handle, tempered glass door and low threshold, which is the entry door and a separate part from the shower door above it.

And the tub door itself always swings. On a narrow floor the useful comparison is inward swing against outward swing, since the inward-swing models need no floor space in front of the tub to open. For the gaskets along the bottom of any of these glass pieces, How Do I Replace the Bottom Gasket on an Ella Glass Shower Door? explains which door has which gasket and how a replacement is requested.

Glass Options over a Walk-In Tub Compared

The pattern in the table is the point. Everything that swings or folds is sized and gasketed to sit on a tub deck or a LayDown rim, and everything that slides is sized for a full shower opening, which is why the sliders carry 70 and 78 inch heights while the screen is 42 inches tall. A screen or a bi-fold door works with the tub's own door, and neither replaces it. Before you order glass for above a walk-in tub, tell your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 the model, the hand of the door and what you measured, and they can confirm which piece fits.

Watch: The 3060 Walk-In Laydown Tub: A Solution for Cool & Stylish Accessibility | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

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