Is a walk-in tub door glass or acrylic with a metal frame?

It depends on which door platform your Ella tub uses, because the answer is different for each one. The inward-swing door on the Elite, Petite, Royal, Deluxe, Ultimate, Companion and Escape has a brushed stainless steel frame with a frosted tempered glass panel, the outward-swing U-shape door on the Capri, Monaco, Front Entry, Mobile, Lounger, ShaK, Big4One and Tub4Two has a white plastic composite frame with a tempered glass panel, and the Standard, Standard60, Zen, Zen60 and Flow have a door molded from acrylic with no metal frame at all. Is the stainless steel door on an Ella tub silver or gold-toned? describes the stainless door's finish in detail. This page sorts every Ella door by material so you can tell which construction a given model has and what that means for care.

Door Materials by Platform

What the table means for you: only one Ella door is a metal frame around glass in the way the question imagines, and that is the brushed stainless inward-swing door. The U-shape door looks like a framed glass door too, but its frame is white composite rather than metal, so it does not take metal polish and it swings the opposite way. The S-shape door is not a framed door at all. It is a shaped piece of the same acrylic as the tub, and everything you do to the shell applies to the door. The Ultra is the one model with a metal frame that is not stainless, so stainless-specific advice does not carry over to it.

How to Tell Which Door You Have

The model name on your order paperwork settles which door you have and what it is made of. If you are looking at the tub instead, these are the tells:

• A soft satin metal frame around a frosted glass panel that swings into the tub, with a chrome handle on the inside, is the brushed stainless door. The frame is solid stainless, not plated or coated, so its color is the color of the steel itself.
• A white frame around a tempered glass panel that swings out toward you and closes with three latches is the U-shape composite door. The Front Entry video on this page shows this door and its three latch gear and shaft mechanism up close.
• A door that is the same bright acrylic as the tub, with no separate frame or glass panel, swinging inward, is the S-shape door.
• An extra wide L-shaped outward-swing door built to fit over the toilet, closing with a two-latch gear and shaft lock, is the Transfer door. The Transfer video shows it opening and the two-latch lock engaging.

Spec Sheet Wording That Does Not Match the Door

Several printed specification sheets describe the door incorrectly, and the owner rulings below are the authority, not the sheet.

• The Zen and Zen60 spec sheets say U-shape. That is a misprint. Both tubs use the inward-swing acrylic S-shape door, the same door platform as the Standard.
• Spec sheets for the U-shape outward-swing family carry a line describing an Elite U-Shape stainless steel and tempered glass door. That wording is a misprint. The door on the Capri, Monaco, Front Entry, Mobile, Lounger, ShaK and Big4One is plastic PVC composite with tempered glass and the 3-latch gear and shaft mechanism, and it swings outward.
• The current Tub4Two spec sheet lists an inward-swinging removable stainless-steel door in its feature list. That line is wrong. The Tub4Two has an outward-swing door with a tempered frosted glass panel in a white composite frame, using the 3-latch gear and shaft mechanism.

Why the Frame Material Matters for Care

The material decides what can safely touch the door. On the brushed stainless door, light scratches can usually be blended by hand with a non-scratch pad, a fine abrasive pad or a mild stainless steel polish, working in long straight strokes along the brushed grain after testing a hidden spot, and keeping the abrasive off the acrylic shell, the glass and the seal. Can Scratches on the Brushed Stainless Steel Tub Door Be Buffed Out? walks through that method. The same approach works on the towel bar, which is brushed stainless finished to match the door.

On the U-shape door, stainless polish and abrasive pads have no place, because the frame is a plastic composite, not metal. On the S-shape door, treat the door exactly like the acrylic shell and use only cleaners that are safe for acrylic. The Ultra's door is brushed aluminum, a different metal, so the stainless method was not written for it.

Finish questions have one answer across the line. Every current Ella walk-in tub is white with chrome trim, the door comes in brushed stainless or white composite or acrylic and nothing else, and the faucet set is the only item you can order in another finish. There is no gold, brass or bronze door, and the chrome handle inside the stainless door is the polished member of the same silver family.

Where the Rest of the Metal Is

The door is not the only place stainless steel appears. Every Ella walk-in tub is a thermoformed acrylic shell reinforced underneath with fiberglass, sitting on a rust-proof stainless steel frame with adjustable leveling legs, and water reaches the faucet through stainless steel supply lines. What Is a Hybrid Stainless Steel Walk-In Tub Made Of? lists each part. So even a tub with an all-acrylic S-shape door has a steel structure under it, and a tub with a stainless door still has an acrylic bathing surface. No fiberglass is used on the bather side, so the surface you touch is acrylic throughout.

Watch: Front Entry Walk-In Tub, Acrylic, Outward Swing Door & Low Step Entry | Ella's Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Using Your Stainless Steel Inward-Swing Door: Opening, Closing, and Handle Adjustment
• How to Open and Close the Inward-Swing Acrylic Door on Standard, Zen, and Flow Tubs

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