My Walk-In Tub Is Leaking or Caused Water Damage: What Do I Do?

If water is showing up under or behind your walk-in tub, or as a stain on the ceiling below, drain the tub, dock the hand shower in its deck base, and work through the short list of causes below before anything else, because most leaks are found and corrected from the top of the tub without a service visit. Then report it: open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850 with your model, serial number, faucet style and photos, and the team takes the review from there. How do I report water leaking behind my tub from the deck hole? covers the single most common hidden-leak source. This page covers all of the usual sources, what to send with your report, and what the warranty does and does not do once water has reached your home.

Right Now: Stop the Water and Note When It Appears

1. Dock the hand shower. If the sprayer hangs on a wall bracket or slider bar, or lies on the deck, any water running down the hose drops into the sprayer base and through the deck insert hole into the space behind the tub. That is where it shows up as drips under the tub or a stain on the ceiling below. Returning the sprayer to its deck base closes that path at once.
2. Drain the tub and leave it empty until the source is found, so no more water reaches the floor or the ceiling below.
3. Note when the water appears. Water that arrives only while the hand shower is in use points toward the hose, the head or the deck hole, while water that arrives while you sit with the door closed points toward the door seal and the leveling legs. Photograph the wet area before it dries, because photos are the first thing the team asks for.

Source One: The Hand Shower, Its Hose and the Deck Hole

With the sprayer docked, check these in order. They all produce the same wet spot behind the tub, and they are the first things the team looks for in your photos.

• Hose orientation. The conical connector belongs at the sprayer head and the hex nut connector belongs at the deck mount or shower column. A backwards hose is the first thing the team checks.
• The small blue check valve inside the sprayer head threads. An empty hole there means the head can drip at the joint, and a replacement head ships with the valve installed.
• Both hose washers, which are easy to lose and are never reused from an old hose. Replacement hoses ship with new washers.
• The sprayer mount base. If it wobbles or lifts, re-tighten the nut underneath if you can reach it. Without access, run a generous bead of silicone around the base and let it cure about 24 hours before using the hand shower.
• The braided hose itself. A split, a bulge or a crack near either connector means the hose is replaced on its own; the wand and the deck base are separate parts, so you do not need a new faucet set. Hoses are matched to the faucet, and the 5-piece hose does not fit the 2-piece faucet, so photograph the fitting or find the original order name. How Do I Replace a Cracked, Leaking Hand Shower Hose? walks through the swap.

If the hand shower has been wall mounted, the correction is the wall attachment and water leak elimination kit: a 5 foot extension hose with a stainless steel barrel connector that seats in the shower base and plugs the deck hole. The printed instruction is direct: do not attach the hand held shower to the wall unless you have an extension hose with barrel protection, because this may cause water to leak behind your walk-in tub. The kit threads onto the factory hose of both the 2-piece and the 5-piece Ella faucet sets, so tell the team which set you have so the right hose ships. What Is a Barrel Extension Hose (Leak Elimination Kit) on a Walk-In Tub? shows the five installation steps. Ella does not offer plugs for the hand shower hole or the towel bar holes, so the kit is the part for that hole whenever the hand shower lives on the wall.

Source Two: The Door

The number one cause of a door leak by far is leveling. Many Ella tubs have as many as eight adjustable leveling legs, and if even one is not carrying its share of the weight, the frame flexes, the door goes slightly out of alignment, and water finds the gap. Work through this list in order, and never lean on the door while it is closed.

1. Legs and level. Every foot firmly on the floor, no gaps, weight shared equally, tub level on all sides. Extending or shortening legs is also how you close a visible gap between the door and its frame.
2. Clean the seal and frame. Debris or residue on the gasket or the door frame is a common cause. Wipe both down with a common household cleaner or rubbing alcohol.
3. Inspect the gasket. Look for a section that has pulled out of its channel or stayed compressed. A shipping-deformed seal can be restored by squeezing it with your fingertips and pulling it away from the frame, and a loose seal can be re-secured with a thin bead of silicone, set 20 minutes, then a 24 hour cure.
4. Let the seal reform. If the door has been kept latched, leave it open for about a day, or at least overnight, then fill and check again.

Most door leaks are resolved at home, and a whole new door is almost never the answer. Water at the Door: What to Check First and Why You Should Never Lean on the Door has the full checklist and the leveling video.

What to Send with Your Report

• Your model and serial number. The serial number is on the label behind the magnetic access panel next to the door. The original order name works as well.
• Your faucet style, 2-piece or 5-piece, with a photo of the faucet set, and a note on whether the hand shower is wall mounted.
• Photos of the wet area, the hose ends, the sprayer base and the door seal. If the hose has split, add a photo of the damaged end and say whether the end is threaded or quick connect.
• When the water appears: while filling, while using the hand shower, while seated with the door closed, or after draining.

Ella does not send technicians. The team reviews the photos, helps you pinpoint the source, and ships the correcting part once a defect is verified, and a local licensed plumber does any labor. Technical support by phone and email is free for the life of the tub, so your plumber can call (800) 480-6850 during the repair.

What the Warranty Does About Water Damage

The walk-in bath warranty ships a replacement part once the defect is verified, with emailed or mailed photos and a description of the problem required. It does not cover water damage to structures or property for any reason, and it does not cover the labor to remove or replace parts. In practice that means the team can review the leak, confirm the part that corrects it and send that part, but repair of a ceiling, floor or wall is not something the warranty provides and not something the team can promise. Keep your own dated photos of the damage for your records, and correct the leak source first so the damage does not continue while the report is reviewed.

Related Guides

• Door seal or gasket looks worn, loose, or leaks: care, repair, and replacement
• Faucet drips or the handle feels stiff: replacing your faucet cartridge step by step
• Water Under or Behind the Tub: Finding the Source at Unions, Air Fittings, the Hand Shower, Drain Elbow and Supply Lines

Common Questions