Which Silicone Should I Use to Reseat a Door Gasket?

Most of the time the answer is none: an Ella walk-in tub door gasket is held by its fit in the channel that runs around the door, not by adhesive, so a gasket that has lifted out is pressed back into the groove with your thumbs or a plastic spatula and needs no sealant at all. Silicone enters the picture only when a seal has come loose or been damaged and has to be removed and refitted, and then Ella's maintenance video calls for a thin bead of ordinary silicone sealant in the gasket channel, never on the sealing face. Ella's published guidance names no brand or formula, so what matters is where the bead goes and how long it cures, which this page explains alongside Why Does the Door Gasket Pop Out Every Time I Shut the Door?.

Why Reseating Usually Needs No Silicone

The seal on an Ella walk-in tub is a soft silicone gasket that presses into a groove running all the way around the door. When you close and lock the door, the gasket compresses against the frame into a watertight seal, and on an inward-swing door the weight of the water presses the door into the seal even harder as the tub fills. Nothing in that design relies on glue. What Is the Door Seal on a Walk-In Tub? explains the mechanism, and it is why a gasket that pops out at the top or at a curve is almost always a section resting on the edge of the channel instead of inside it, a seal that was flattened or stuck to the frame in shipping, residue in the groove, or a gasket compressed for too long by a door kept latched between baths.

1. Open the door and note where the gasket lifts, usually near the top or at a curve.
2. If the seal looks flattened or stuck from shipping, squeeze it gently between your fingertips and pull it slightly away from the frame so it relaxes back into shape, then wipe it with rubbing alcohol.
3. Clean the groove and the frame with a common household cleaner so nothing sits under the gasket. If the seal feels tacky, rubbing alcohol is the only thing it needs, as My Door Seal Is Sticky. What Can I Clean or Lubricate It With? explains. No grease, oil or spray lubricant is called for.
4. Starting at one end, press the gasket into the groove and work around the door with your thumbs or a plastic spatula until it is fully seated.
5. Close and open the door several times. If the gasket stays put, fill the tub and check for leaks.

If water still appears at the door after a clean reseat, do not reach for silicone. The number one cause of a door leak is leveling, not the gasket: a leveling leg that has lost contact with the floor lets the frame warp so the door no longer meets the seal evenly. Why Does My Walk-In Tub Door Leak at the Bottom? walks through that check before anything is applied to the seal.

When a Thin Bead of Silicone Is Called for

Ella's door seal maintenance video, the first video on this page, covers the one case where silicone belongs near the gasket. If a door seal becomes loose or damaged and needs to be removed, it can be replaced and should be secured beforehand with a thin bead of silicone placed into the gasket channel. The video gives two waiting times: allow the silicone to set up for 20 minutes before reinserting the gasket, then wait 24 hours for it to dry before the door sees water. For inward-swing doors the video shows a second technique: roll the seal gasket away from the frame and run a bead of silicone down the corner where the gasket meets the frame, add a bead to the other side of the gasket if necessary, and again wait 24 hours.

As for which silicone: Ella's published material does not name a brand, a formula or a color. Where Ella's technical support calls for silicone around the door, it describes silicone sealant as a hardware-store item and tells you to let it cure for the full time stated by the sealant manufacturer before the tub sees water. Treat the 24 hours in the video as the minimum and the sealant maker's own cure time as the rule if it is longer. The table sums up what goes where.

Read across the rows and one pattern stands out: silicone is used to hold a seal in its channel or to seal a screw hole, and it is never used as a gap filler on the face that meets the frame. A seal that still leaks after a clean reseat is replaced with a part matched to your model and serial number, not patched.

Where Silicone Must Never Go

• The sealing face. Do not spread caulk or silicone over the sealing face of the gasket, the surface that meets the frame when the door is latched.
• Over a leaking seal. If the door still leaks after leveling and reseating, do not run silicone or caulk over the seal. A seal that leaks after reseating is replaced with a model-specific part.
• As a lubricant. A sticky seal is cleaned with household cleaner and rubbing alcohol. Silicone sealant is not a lubricant and will not make a door easier to close.
• As a fix for alignment. The warranty on the door and seal depends on the alignment staying as it was set at installation and not being changed by a bather's weight, so never lean on the door or use it as a handhold.

The door seal is covered by the Lifetime Limited Warranty and has no scheduled replacement interval. When a replacement is warranted, the team ships one after a support ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or a call to (800) 480-6850 with your serial number and clear photos of the seal and the leak point. A tube of sealant is never a substitute for that ticket.

Fitting a Replacement Seal: What the Installation Video Shows

The second video on this page shows a replacement gasket going into the door channel, and it is worth watching before you buy anything, because the one product it sprays on is not an adhesive. The technician sprays adhesive remover onto the gasket so it slides more easily into the channel, then presses it into the groove with a spatula until it is fully seated. At the curved sections where the door bends around the outer edge, four V-shaped relief cuts are made with diagonal cutters above the gasket reach line, and at the inner curves where the door bends inward, straight vertical cuts are made instead. At the end point a small angled cut lets the tip of the gasket slightly overlap while staying fully inserted in the groove. Each door uses its own seal size, so a replacement is matched to your model and serial number through your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850. When a seal is being secured as described in the maintenance video, the thin bead of silicone goes into the channel and sets for 20 minutes before this insertion step.

Silicone and the Door Handle Screws

There is one other place on the door where Ella's technical support does call for silicone, and it is easy to confuse with a gasket problem. If water weeps from the screws on the door handle while the rest of the door edge stays dry, the fix is to drain the tub, remove the handle screws, clean the old sealant out of the holes and off the screws, apply silicone sealant into each hole and under each screw head, drive the screws back in, wipe away the excess and let the silicone cure for the full time stated by the sealant manufacturer. Then fill the tub above handle height and check the outside of the door and the floor. Water Leaking From the Door Handle Screws: Reseal the Screws Before Replacing the Door Seal has the full procedure, and the advice is to do this and test before ordering a new door seal. Ella does not send technicians, so a local licensed plumber can do this work, and Ella's technical support can answer that person's questions by phone or email. Whatever you do to the seal, finish with the habit the maintenance video recommends: leave the door open slightly when the tub is not in use, which prevents unnecessary compression of the gasket and extends its flexibility and life.

Watch: How To Install a Walk-In Tub Door Seal (Step-By-Step) with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Door seal or gasket looks worn, loose, or leaks: care, repair, and replacement
• Replacing a Leaking Door Seal: Torn Seal or Door Alignment, Warranty Coverage, and How the Seal Ships
• Caring for your walk-in tub door seal so it stays watertight for years

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