What Is a Barrel Extension Hose (Leak Elimination Kit) on a Walk-In Tub?

A barrel extension hose on an Ella walk-in tub is a 5 foot extension hose with a stainless steel barrel connector that plugs the deck insert hole so a pull-out hand shower can be wall-mounted without water leaking behind the tub. Ella also calls it the wall attachment and water leak elimination kit, and owners call it the hose extension with barrel fitting or simply the leak kit.

How It Works

The pull-out hand shower normally rests in a base on the tub deck, with its hose dropping through a deck insert hole to the faucet below. When the hand shower is lifted to a wall mount without the kit, water from the hose can drip down into the hand shower base and travel through that deck hole to the space behind the tub, where you cannot see it. The 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. The barrel seats in the shower base and plugs the hole, and the extension hose gives the handset the reach to the wall.

Which Ella Models Have It

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 32x72 with the hand-mixer option, since the LayDown60 has no deck faucet. Ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 if you are unsure whether your configuration needs it.

What to Know as an Owner

• Installing it takes five steps: unscrew the shower head mixer from the hose, screw the stainless barrel onto the hose end, screw the extension hose onto the other side of the barrel, seat the barrel in the shower base so it plugs the hole, then screw the mixer onto the end of the extension hose.
• Water under or behind the tub near the deck-mounted hand shower is the classic sign a hand shower was wall-mounted without the kit. This is a common fix that avoids a service call. Our water under the tub article lists the other places to look.
• Plan the kit before mounting a slider bar; see hand shower slider bar installation.
• For a ticket, have your model, serial number, your faucet style and a photo of the hand shower base ready at ellasbubbles.com/support. The hand shower problems guide covers the hose and diverter too.

Related Guides

• Do walk-in tub doors leak, and how are they sealed?
• Do walk-in tub doors leak, and how is that prevented?
• What are the disadvantages and common problems with walk-in tubs?
• Do Walk-In Tubs Leak and How Is the Door Sealed?
• Are walk-in tubs worth it, and what are the common problems?
• Does the Ella walk-in tub door leak once it is filled?

Common Questions