How Is the Drain Assembly Installed on an Ella Walk-In Tub?

On an Ella walk-in tub you do not install the drain assembly yourself. The gravity dual drain is fitted at the factory, and the tub arrives with its drain body in place and four open ports, so your plumber's job is to connect those ports to the house drain line, which is best built before the tub is set, as explained in Choosing the Drain Side for an Alcove or Slab Installation and Prebuilding the Drain Line. This page explains what is already on the tub, what the plumber connects and in what order, how the handle and chain go on, and which pieces can be swapped later without touching the rest.

What Is Already on the Tub When It Arrives

Every Ella walk-in tub uses a gravity dual drain with a multi-port drain body under the tub. The tub ships with that dual drain installed and four open ports, ready for your plumber to connect, and the motors and pumps are also fully installed at the factory, so there is nothing to mount in the field. The two drains sit on either side of the tub's center line, and their exact positions are dimensioned on the spec sheet for your model, which is why Ella asks you to share that sheet with your installer ahead of delivery.

The assembly is made up of a few pieces worth knowing by name, because they are the ones that come up if a part is ever needed later:

• The drain body, the multi-port piece under the tub floor that both drains feed into.
• The drain elbow, which joins the drain body to the house piping. A dual drain may use one for each side.
• The threaded nuts and rubber gaskets that screw onto the drain tailpieces and seal the joints.
• The drop-in drain cover or plug at the bottom of the tub, which simply drops into place.
• On tubs with a cable-driven plunger, the seat the plunger drops into.
• The overflow plate, the drain handle and the emergency pull-up chain, fitted at the top of the assembly.

One layout rule governs everything else: the door and the drains are on opposite sides of an Ella walk-in tub. A right-side door tub has its drains on the left, and a left-side door tub has its drains on the right, with sides described as you face the tub. Choosing the drain side therefore fixes the door side, and the item description on your final invoice states the hand of the tub, so read it carefully before you confirm the order.

What Your Plumber Connects, and in What Order

1. Locate the house drain connection before delivery, using the drain positions dimensioned on the spec sheet, so the rough-in is ready when the tub arrives.
2. Build the dual drain line to the house drain before the tub is set in place. There is only about half an inch of clearance under the tub for the drain line to fall toward the house drain, so the line has to be planned rather than improvised once the tub is sitting on the floor.
3. On a slab, consider a shallow trough in the concrete for the drain line. It is worth considering even where it turns out not to be strictly necessary.
4. Set the tub and join the drain body to the prebuilt line through the drain elbows, with the nuts and gaskets seated on the tailpieces.
5. Make and check the final connections through the front of the tub, underneath the pumps, so nothing has to be moved to reach them.

Existing rough-in plumbing does not have to dictate the drain side. Installers often move the supply and drain lines to the side that gives the best access and the right door swing for the room. In a three-wall alcove the side walls are closed off once the tub is in, so the only way to reach the drain connections afterward is through the front of the tub. Order the drain side that puts the drain ports where they can be reached from the front, beneath the pumps. If a side wall stays open, or the tub stands free on one end, access is easier and either side works.

Fitting the Drain Handle and the Emergency Chain

The handle is the one part of the drain assembly that is fitted on top of the tub deck. It slips onto the brass mounting on the drain assembly and is held by a single set screw that takes a 2.5mm Allen key. Before the handle goes on, slip the key ring at the end of the emergency pull-up chain over the brass mounting so it rests in place under the handle. If you skip that step the chain has nothing to anchor to. Then slide the handle onto the mounting and tighten the set screw until the handle is snug and turns the drain cleanly. A handle that later spins or wobbles usually just needs the same set screw tightened rather than a new part. The full procedure, and the note that the updated handle fits the older drain assembly without changing the drain body or overflow, is in Replacing a Drain Handle or Overflow Plate: The 2.5mm Set Screw, the Chain Ring and the Updated Handle.

Replacing Drain Pieces Later

Because the assembly is made of separate pieces, most of them can be replaced individually without disturbing the rest. Ella supplies the drain elbow, the nuts and gaskets, the drop-in cover, the plunger seat and, when the inside of the drain is damaged, the complete drain assembly. The nuts and gaskets are tub-specific parts that can turn brittle over time and start to weep, so order them from Ella rather than searching for a generic fitting. Drain designs have varied across tub generations, which is why the team matches every part to your exact tub from photos. Replacing Drain Elbows, Nuts, Gaskets, Drain Covers and Plunger Parts on a Walk-In Tub lists what the team needs.

• A photo of the model and serial label, found on the sticker behind the magnetic access panel next to the door or on the paper label on the side of the shell.
• A photo of the drain from above the tub floor and, if your plumber has the apron off, of the drain body and elbow underneath.
• Where you purchased the tub, whether you are the original owner, and the address the part should ship to.

The lifetime parts warranty covers the waste and overflow hardware for the original purchaser at the original installation address. It is not transferable, so a later owner of the tub purchases the part and pays the shipping. Either way, Ella ships the part and does not send a technician; a local licensed plumber does the labor. Open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850 with the photos attached.

Related Guides

• My drain will not open or close: replacing the drain cable and adjusting drain height
• Broken Drain Lever, Drain Cable or Full Drain Assembly: Which Part You Need and How It Is Replaced
• Ordering a Complete Drain and Overflow Assembly and How It Is Replaced

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