Should I choose a shower slide bar or a grab bar?

A shower slide bar and a grab bar do two different jobs, so the choice is usually both rather than one or the other. The slide bar is a wall-mounted holder that parks the hand shower at standing or seated height, while grab bars are the bars you hold for support and are mounted into reinforced backing by your installer. Can I Add a Hand Shower Slide Bar or Rain Shower Column After My Tub Is Installed? covers the slide bar in detail.

What the Slide Bar Does

The Ella slide bar kit is a 24-inch wall-mounted bar with a holder that slides up and down, a 5-foot hand shower hose and a coupling kit that seals the hand shower connection. It is an accessory rather than part of the 5-piece fast-fill faucet, and because it attaches to the wall and uses the hand shower you already have, it can be added on installation day or long afterward. Once it is up, you hang the hand shower on the bar at standing height for a rinse or at seated height for hands-free use.

The bar has two working pieces: a short slider, about three inches long, that rides up and down and locks at the height you choose, and a cradle that rotates to angle the hand shower. The slider holds by tension, and when it wears it creeps down the bar under the weight of the hand shower. That tells you what the bar is built to carry. It is a hand shower holder, not a support bar.

The Ella waterfall wall-mount faucet already includes a 24 inch slider bar with its hand shower, so you do not need to add one with that faucet. The Waterfall Wall-Mount Faucet lists what comes in that package.

What Grab Bars Do

Grab bars are the bars meant to be held. An Ella shower kit ships with the grab bar set listed for that kit, packed loose in the carton, and mounting them is part of the installation: they go into the wall's reinforced backing zones with grab bar screws. Confirm the grab bar count against your order when you unpack. What Comes in the Box With an Ella Shower Kit explains what is and is not included.

How to Decide

• You want the hand shower within reach while sitting or standing. Choose the slide bar. It parks the hand shower at either height and can be fitted to a finished bathroom.
• You need something to hold while stepping in, sitting or standing. That is a grab bar, mounted into reinforced backing by your installer.
• You want both. Plan them together. A shower kit does not include a hand shower or slide bar, so choose that hardware with your plumber when you select the valve so the wall openings can be planned at the same time.
• You would rather not depend on a slider. Ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 about the shower column kit, which holds the hand shower on a column that mounts at the deck position and is best ordered with the tub because it connects from behind.

If the Slide Bar Holder Will Not Stay Up

A slider that grips for a while and then gives way has lost its tension. Tightening helps only briefly, and the lasting fix is a replacement holder or the complete slide bar kit, sent as a part under the lifetime parts warranty. Slide Bar Holder Will Not Hold the Hand Shower Up explains how to tell whether the slider or the cradle is at fault and what to send with your ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support.

Related Guides

• Grab Bar Length, Diameter, Weight Rating and Wall Spacing
• Grab Bars: What Is Included, Installing the Deck-Mount Bar, and Add-On Wall Bars
• Mounting Grab Bars on Ella Shower Walls: Reinforced Backing, Finding the Zones, and Which Screws to Use

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