What does a walk-in tub with a shower look like?

A walk-in tub with a shower looks like a seated walk-in tub with a shower fixture rising from the tub deck or mounted on the wall beside it, often framed by a folding glass screen or a tiled surround that keeps the spray inside the tub. The clearest way to picture it is the customer photo album described in Where can I see pictures of Ella walk-in tubs installed in real bathrooms?, which shows walk-in tubs, shower designs and accessories in finished rooms. This page describes each shower configuration you will see in those photos, so you can recognize what you are looking at and ask for it by name.

The Starting Point: A Deck Faucet with a Hand Shower

Every walk-in tub with a shower begins with the faucet on the tub deck. Ella air plus hydro jet tubs include a 5-piece Ella fast-fill faucet with a handheld shower, two stainless steel grab bars in a chrome finish, and a 2-inch dual drain with two openers. In a photo, that faucet set sits on the wide deck at one end of the tub, with the hand shower resting in its own holder next to the spout and the controls. Because the hand shower is on the deck rather than on the wall, the bather can reach it from the seat and rinse without standing up.

Many of the installed tubs in the gallery stop right here. The tub is set into the room, the faucet set is on the deck, and the shower is the handheld unit. If you want to know what a particular picture shows, this is the first thing to look for: a hand shower on the deck means the simplest configuration, and anything rising above the deck or hanging on the wall means one of the additions below.

The Shower Column Kit: A Shower That Stands on the Tub Deck

The most recognizable walk-in tub shower is the Ella shower column kit, and the video on this page shows exactly how it fits onto the tub. The kit connects to an Ella 2-piece or 5-piece fast-fill faucet set. The existing hand shower is removed, the shower column base attachment is installed into the receptacle that is now vacant on the deck, the water supply line is replaced, and a new one-half inch supply line is attached to the diverter on the faucet set. The result is a column that rises from the deck at the faucet end of the tub, so the shower is part of the tub itself rather than part of the wall behind it.

In a finished bathroom this looks like a slender chrome riser standing up from the deck beside the faucet handles, with the shower hardware carried on the column. It is the configuration people usually mean when they search for pictures of a walk-in tub with a shower, because the tub and the shower are visibly one piece of equipment. The setup steps are in Showers, Shower Screens, and Accessories for Your Ella Walk-in Tub, which points to the column kit installation guide.

Wall-Mounted Options: Slide Bar, Hose and Rain Shower

The second family of configurations moves the shower hardware onto the wall. Ella offers these attachments for a walk-in tub:

• A slide bar for wall installation that holds your handheld shower. A 24-inch hand shower slide bar is available, so in a photo you will see a vertical chrome bar on the wall above the tub with the hand shower clipped to it at an adjustable height.
• A 5-foot stainless steel shower hose with a coupling kit, which gives the handheld enough reach to move between the deck and the wall bracket.
• A 10-inch rain shower as an accessory option, which appears in pictures as a wide round head above the bathing area.

These pieces are what make two walk-in tubs of the same model look different in the gallery. One room shows a bare wall and a hand shower on the deck, another shows a slide bar and a rain head over the same tub. Your Ella dealer can confirm which accessories suit your model and which are already part of your order, and the team at (800) 480-6850 is happy to help too.

Screens and Surrounds That Frame the Picture

Once a shower is added, something has to keep the water in the tub, and that is the part of the photo that changes the look of the whole room. Ella offers glass shower screens, and the style depends on the tub. A bi-fold shower screen is available for lay-down tubs, which are tubs without a seat. A four-fold shower screen is available for the Capri model. In an installed photo the screen is a set of clear glass panels hinged together along the open side of the tub, folded back when the tub is being entered and swung closed when the shower is running.

Ella also offers tile plans for installation, which allow the tub to be tiled. A tile plan is available for tubs without a lid, and in the gallery these are the tubs that appear built into a tiled alcove with the surround carried up the wall, so the tub reads as part of the bathroom rather than a freestanding unit. Acrylic bolster rounds are available in different designs as a finishing piece. When you spot a tiled-in tub with a shower you like, note the model, the screen and the accessories in the picture and ask the team for the names behind them.

Where to See the Real Thing

Three sources show these configurations in pictures. The installation gallery at ellasbubbles.com/walk-in-tub/installation-gallery/ is built from pictures customers sent after their tub was installed, and it covers walk-in bathtubs, walk-in shower installations and lay-down tubs across many models, shower designs and accessories. It is the best place to see a shower column, a slide bar or a folding screen in a finished room rather than in a studio. The gallery shows finish and layout, and the dimensions you need to plan with still come from the spec sheet for your model.

Every model also has its own product page where you can scroll through a wide selection of images and magnify parts of the photos, and the Downloads tab beside the photos holds the spec sheet with its dimension drawings, the brochure and the manuals. On the Deluxe page the bather pictured is 5 feet 5 inches and 165 pounds, which gives a sense of scale against the seat and the door.

Finally, the team sends photos, key specifications and diagrams for the models you name, by email or by text if you prefer, as explained in Where Can I See Pictures of Ella's Bubbles Tubs and Showers?. Printed brochures are not mailed out, so a digital request is how tailored pictures reach you; the details of that request are in Getting Ella's Bubbles Tub Information by Email or Text. Ella's Bubbles manufactures over 28 different walk-in tub models and also offers walk-in showers, so naming the model and the shower accessory you want to see gets you the exact pictures rather than a general set.

Related Guides

• Common Questions About Showering Add-Ons and Accessories: 4-Fold Screen Fit, Full-Length Screens, Rain Heads, Two-Seat Shower Heads, Slide Bars, Samples, Windows and Swivel Tray Fit
• Installing the Shower Column Kit on Your Walk-in Tub
• Do You Sell Folding Glass Shower Screens for a 60 Inch Walk-In Tub?

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