Why does water run down the deck hole and how is it fixed?

Water running back down through the deck hole almost always means the pull-out hand shower was lifted onto a wall hook or slider bar without the barrel extension kit. Water left in the hose and the handset drains back into the sprayer base, passes through the deck insert hole that the hose runs through, and lands in the space behind the tub where you cannot see it. The fix is the wall attachment and water leak elimination kit described in What Is a Barrel Extension Hose (Leak Elimination Kit) on a Walk-In Tub?, and fitting it is a top-of-the-tub job that needs no service call.

Why the Deck Hole Can Pass Water

On an Ella tub with a deck-mounted faucet, the pull-out hand shower rests in a base on the tub deck and its hose drops through a deck insert hole to the faucet connection below. That opening exists only to pass the hose. It is not a basin and it is not sealed, so anything that drips into the sprayer base runs straight through it to the underside of the deck. When the handset stays in its base, the hose hangs down and water that drains out of it goes back toward the diverter where it belongs. When the handset is hung on the wall without the kit, the hose runs up and across, and the water left inside it after you shut off has only one way out: back down into the base and through the hole.

Ella's printed instructions put it plainly: do not attach the hand held shower to the wall unless you have an extension hose with a barrel protection, because this may cause water to leak behind your walk-in tub. There is no plug for the hand shower hole either, as Unused Towel Bar or Hand Shower Holes on the Deck: Are Plugs Available? explains, which is why the kit is the part the team recommends whenever the hand shower moves to the wall.

How the Leak Shows Up, and What It Is Not

Because the water goes through the deck rather than onto it, the first sign is usually not on the tub at all. Owners notice drips under the tub, pooling behind it, or a stain on the ceiling of the room below. Water under or behind the tub near the deck-mounted hand shower is the classic sign that a hand shower was wall-mounted without the kit, and it is common enough that the team checks for a wall hook or slider bar first when a photo arrives.

Do not confuse this with the open hole you may see on a brand new tub. Ella ships the water spout uninstalled, so a new tub has an empty opening on the deck where the spout mounts, and the spout itself is among the loose components in the crate. There Is an Open Hole in the Deck of My New Tub: That Is Where the Spout Installs covers that case. The leak described here happens on a tub that is already plumbed and in use, through the hand shower opening rather than the spout opening.

The Fix: Fit the Leak Elimination Kit

The kit is a 5 foot extension hose with a stainless steel barrel connector. The barrel seats in the shower base and plugs the hole, and the extension hose gives the handset the reach to a wall hook or slider bar. It installs from the top of the tub in five steps:

1. Unscrew the shower head mixer from the existing hose.
2. Screw the stainless barrel onto the end of the hose.
3. Screw the extension hose onto the other side of the barrel.
4. Seat the barrel in the shower base so it plugs the deck hole.
5. Screw the mixer onto the end of the extension hose.

Once the barrel is seated, water that drains back from the wall-mounted handset stops at the barrel instead of passing through the deck. The kit applies to any Ella tub with a deck-mounted pull-out hand shower, whichever Ella faucet set it shipped with, whenever the handset is going to live on the wall. On the LayDown family the warning applies only to the 32 by 72 with the hand-mixer option, since the LayDown60 has no deck faucet. If you are planning a slider bar, order the kit before the bar goes up rather than after the first leak. Ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 if you are unsure whether your configuration needs it.

If the Handset Still Sits in Its Deck Base

If your hand shower has never left the deck and water is still finding its way down, the cause is one of the smaller checks covered in Hand Shower Leaks at the Head or Deck: Hose Orientation, the Blue Check Valve, Washers and a Loose Mount Base. Work through them in order:

• Hose installed backwards. The replacement hose has two different connectors. The conical connector attaches to the handset and the hex nut connector attaches to the deck mount. A hose fitted with the conical end at the deck can leak, and the team sees this in photos often enough that it is the first thing checked.
• Missing washers. Every replacement hose ships with a full set of new washers. Use them, do not reuse the old ones, and check that the gaskets inside the nut under the deck are in place before tightening.
• The small blue check valve. Inside the threads of the sprayer head sits a blue backflow prevention check valve. If the threads show an empty hole, the head can drip at the joint. The fix is a replacement sprayer head, which comes with the valve installed.
• A loose sprayer mount base. The base is held to the deck by a nut underneath. If it wobbles or lifts, water can run under it and through the hole, so the nut needs to be snugged from below.
• A slider coupler without its rubber washer. If a slider bar coupler was fitted dry, water weeps at that joint and tracks down the hose.
• A tub not resting on every leveling leg. A tub that rocks puts the deck out of level, and water on the deck finds the lowest opening.

If the tub sits against a wall and you cannot reach the nut underneath, the magnetic access panels on the front apron give access to the plumbing. Hoses are matched to the faucet set, so a 5-piece hose does not fit the 2-piece faucet; have your faucet style ready when you order.

What to Send the Team

Ella does not send technicians, but this repair rarely needs one. The kit and the hose checks are done from the top of the tub, and a local licensed plumber can handle the nut under the deck if you cannot reach it. To get the right part on its way, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850 with your model, your serial number, your faucet style, and photos of the hand shower base and of where the water is appearing. A photo showing whether the handset is on a wall hook or in its deck base usually settles the cause in one look.

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