Which Ella Walk-In Tubs Come With the 2-Piece or 5-Piece Faucet?

Across the current Ella lineup, the single-lever 2-piece fast-fill set is the faucet that ships on the Zen, the Zen60 and the Flow, and on the two-seat Tub4Two and Companion, while the Standard and Standard60 ship with the 5-piece set that has separate hot and cold handles. The LayDown72 is faucet-ready and can take either set as an option, and the LayDown60 has no deck faucet at all. Both sets are described in What Is a Fast-Fill Faucet on a Walk-In Tub?, and because every tub is drilled for the faucet selected on the order, the set listed for a model is the starting point rather than the only possibility.

The Two Sets Side by Side

Both fast-fill sets are deck-mounted, both are built to fill the tub as quickly as your home plumbing allows, and both come with a pull-out hand shower and two 3/4 inch by 5 foot braided supply lines. The differences are in the handles, the diverter and the design flow rate.

• The 2-piece single-lever set is designed for 16 GPM at 60 PSI. Lift the lever for on, move it left for hot and right for cold, and press the diverter button under the spout to send water to the hand shower. The spout is solid brass in chrome with a high-flow cartridge, and the set is offered in chrome or brushed nickel. It is certified to CSA B125.1, ASME A112.18.1, ICC 117.1, ANSI/NSF 61/9 and IAPMO UPC with an ADA lever.
• The 5-piece set is designed for 18 GPM. The red handle is hot, the blue handle is cold, and the middle lever is the diverter: turn it toward OFF and push the faucet lever down for the hand shower.
• The hand shower on either set has 5 flow settings, is limited to 1.9 GPM, and rides on a 5 foot braided hose with a back-flow prevention valve. Hoses and handsets are matched to the set, so the 5-piece hose does not fit the 2-piece faucet.
• On your paperwork, the code 5P-FFF means the 5-piece set, and a finish suffix such as BN means brushed nickel.

Faucet Set by Model

For most bathers the difference between the two sets is how you operate them, not how fast the tub fills. The 2 GPM gap between the design figures assumes 60 PSI and ideal plumbing, and in real homes fill time runs 7 to 15 minutes depending on tub size and your water supply, so your own water pressure has as much say in fill time as the set does. If one lever that controls on, off and temperature is easier for your hands, the 2-piece set is the one to look for; if you prefer separate hot and cold handles and a lever diverter, that is the 5-piece set. Shut-off valves are not included with either set, so plan easily accessible ones near the tub.

Why the Zen and the Flow Use the Single-Lever Set

The Zen and Zen60 are built on the Standard platform with a smaller seat, 17 hydro jets, and the 2-piece single-lever fast-fill faucet in place of the 5-piece set. Everything else that matters for the massage is shared: the same 8.1A 900W pump, the same 6A 650W in-line heater, the intensity dial, the push control, the U-shape deck and wall grab bar and the same owner's manual. The Standard itself ships as a hydro-massage tub with 18 hydro jets and the 5-piece Ella fast-fill faucet with pull-out hand shower. In other words, the faucet is one of the few things that separate the budget hydro tubs from the Standard, as the Ella Zen 30x52 and Zen60 30x60: Budget Hydro Tubs With a Single-Lever Faucet profile lays out. On the Zen the deck cut-outs for the 2-piece set are 2-1/2 in, 1/3 in, and a 7/8 in diagonal hand-shower hole, which is useful if your plumber is comparing faucet footprints. The Flow is the third hydro-only model listed with the 2-piece single-lever set.

Two-Seat Tubs: A Faucet for Each Bather

Ella's two-seat tubs are true two-seaters, so each seat has its own jets, its own systems and its own high-flow faucet, with no sharing between sides. The Tub4Two and the Companion come with a 2-piece fast-fill faucet set, and the Big4Two comes with a dual 2-piece set so each bather has a faucet. The models differ mainly by door and size: the Tub4Two is 32 by 60 inches with the outward-swing U-shape door and fits a standard 60 inch opening, the Companion shares that 32 by 60 footprint with the brushed stainless steel inward door that lifts out for cleaning, and the Big4Two is 36 by 80 inches with the outward U-shape door. The Two-Seat Tubs on Video: Big4Two, Escape, Tub4Two and Companion Walkthroughs page shows each one. The Escape joined the family after those videos were filmed, and its faucet set is not listed in the pages above, so confirm it with your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850.

Faucet Choices Beyond the Listed Set

The faucet is one of the things that is decided when the order is placed. In the faucet options video, the presenter walks past tubs fitted with the 2-piece high-flow faucet, the thermostatic faucet and the 5-piece high-flow faucet, and explains that once you order, the tub is pulled with your name on it and drilled for whatever faucet and features you selected. A tub with the Ella thermostatic faucet package includes a built-in Ella Thermostatic Control Valve that mixes hot and cold to a set temperature; that valve carries a 1-year limited warranty and is excluded from the lifetime parts warranty. Whichever fast-fill set your tub has, the shower column kit connects to it: the second video shows the hand shower coming off, the column base going into the vacant receptacle, and the new one-half inch supply line attaching to the diverter on the 2-piece or 5-piece set, after which you push the diverter button on the 2-piece or turn the diverter handle on the 5-piece. Other order-time questions, including which side the Front Entry's faucet sits on, are collected in Common Model Questions. For a parts request, have your model, serial number and a photo of the faucet ready at ellasbubbles.com/support so the team can match the exact set.

Watch: Luxury Faucet Options for Your Walk-In Tub, Voted Best/Safest 2020 | Ella’s Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Ella Fast-Fill Faucets: 2-Piece vs 5-Piece, Finishes, and the Waterfall Option
• Do I need 3/4 inch supply lines for the Ella fast-fill faucet?

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