What Is an Air Bath or Air Tub and How Does It Work?

An air bath, also called an air tub or bubble tub, is a bathtub that massages you with streams of warm-water bubbles: a blower pushes air through small jets set into the tub, and the air rises through the bath water around your body. On an Ella walk-in tub this is the air massage system, a three-speed blower feeding brass jets in the seat, the base of the seat and the footwell floor for a gentle, effervescent full-body bubble massage. The jets themselves are described in What Are Air Massage Jets on a Walk-In Tub?, and this page explains the whole air bath experience from the first press of the button to the automatic dry-out afterward.

How an Air Bath Works, Step by Step

An air bath moves air, not water. Nothing is pumped out of the tub and back in. Here is the sequence on an Ella tub.

1. You fill the tub. Every air jet must be under water before you start the blower, which on most tubs means a full fill.
2. You press the Air button. On the push controls, pressing the button sends a puff of air through a small tube to the control box, which starts the blower.
3. The blower pushes air through lines under the tub. The air comes out through three groups of jets: upper jets in the seat and backrest, bidet jets at the base of the seat, and lower jets in the footwell floor.
4. You choose the speed. The first press is high speed, the second is medium, the third is low, and a fourth press turns the system off.
5. The system dries itself. About 20 minutes after you turn the air pump off, Auto Purge starts on its own and blows the lines dry for 120 seconds so no water lingers in them.

The video on push controls and the digital touchpad shows both ways of running the air massage. On the push control you see the high, medium, low and off sequence. On the digital touchpad you touch the air bubble icon once to activate it, use the plus and minus buttons to raise or lower the intensity, and hold the icon for two seconds to turn it off.

How an Air Bath Differs from a Hydro Massage

People often use the words air tub and jetted tub as if they were the same thing, and they are two different therapies. In a hydro massage, a pump pulls bath water in and sends it back out through the hydro jets as a directed stream, and an intensity dial adds more or less air to that stream for a stronger or gentler flow. In an air bath, the blower sends only air through the jets, and what you feel is thousands of rising bubbles across the seat, the back and the feet. That is why the air massage is the softer counterpart to hydro massage.

There is one practical difference to know about heat. The in-line heater on an Ella tub sits in the hydro massage loop and runs only while the hydro pump runs. It does nothing for the air massage, which has no heater, as explained in What Is an In-Line Water Heater on a Walk-In Tub?. For an air bath you simply fill the tub with comfortably hot water from the faucet, with your home water heater doing the heating, and keep bath water at or below 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Which Ella Tubs Can Be an Air Tub

Air massage is offered as part of a therapy package on most Ella families, including the stainless-door, outward-swing, Transfer, two-seat and LayDown tubs. A few details help when you are comparing models.

• The Deluxe ships with a fixed Air + Hydro package.
• The Shak and Big4One ship with digital air massage alongside their dual hydro pumps.
• The Standard, Standard60, Zen, Zen60 and Flow are hydro-only platforms and do not carry air jets.
• The typical air pump is a 4.5A 500W three-speed blower, and the Elite uses 6.4A.

The jets and air lines are built into the shell at the factory, so air massage cannot be added later. If a bubble bath is something you want, it needs to be part of the therapy package chosen with your order. Your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 can confirm which packages are offered on the model you have in mind.

Bath Products, Foam and Keeping the Air Lines Fresh

Because the blower churns the water constantly, anything that foams will foam far more than in a standard bathtub. Bubble bath, shampoo and body wash can be used, even with the jets running, but use a fraction of the usual amount and watch the foam level. If the foam gets ahead of you, switch the jets off for a moment and it will settle. The details are in Can You Use Bubble Bath or Shampoo With the Jets Running?.

Epsom salts will not harm the jetting system as long as they are fully dissolved. The best practice is to enjoy the air therapy first, then add salts dissolved in a cup of warm water for a still soak afterward. Bath bombs are the one product to skip in any jetted Ella tub, because their oils, dye and glitter lodge in the jets. The full list of verdicts is in Can I Use Epsom Salts, Bath Bombs or Bubble Bath in My Walk-In Tub?.

The air system looks after itself between baths. Auto Purge is fully automatic, cannot be stopped, and is completely normal, even if it starts while you are still in the tub. Once a month, and before the first bath in a new tub, run the vinegar flush: combine 2 cups of white vinegar with 2 cups of water, fill the tub to 1 inch above the highest jets, add the mixture, run the tub for 10 minutes, then drain.

If the Bubbles Do Not Start

An air bath that will not start is usually a small connection issue and not a failed blower. The push button does not carry electricity. It sends an air signal through a thin tube to the control box, so a tube that has worked loose leaves the button with nothing to say. The video on securing air and hydro connections shows the check: the tube is pushed firmly onto the nipple on the control box with a twist and push motion, and the connection behind the button is reached by gently prying off the chrome ring and the button.

A few other points are worth a look.

• Count presses from off. The first press is always high and the fourth press always turns the system off, so speeds that seem out of order are often just a miscount.
• Confirm the water covers every air jet before starting the blower.
• If the tub has not been used in a long while, reset the GFCI and look for the green LED on the blue control box first. The full restart routine is in How Do I Start Using a Walk-In Tub That Sat Unused for Years?.

For a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support, note your therapy package, how the button responds to each press, whether the Auto Purge fires after a bath, and your model and serial number.

Watch: How to Secure Air & Hydro Connections in Your Walk-In Tub | Ellas Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• What Are Hydro Massage Jets on a Walk-In Tub?
• Hydro Massage vs Air Massage vs Microbubble: What Each System Does and How They Combine
• My walk-in tub turned on by itself: the air massage Auto-Purge is normal

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