Independent Home

The tub has a maintenance-free gel coat interior, the double door seal, and the five-inch threshold step. We have an 18-inch wide door and an ADA compliant 17-inch contoured seat. I'm a really small person and I float off that seat when the water gets to a certain point. We also have the adjustable wall mount and shower thing. So the shower mounts in the tub itself, but I can pull the shower out and mount it to a bar, so I can just walk in and do a stand-up shower. Or I can sit down and do it.

The installation was pretty quick and we were surprised because my house is 50 years old, so we're not a standard size anywhere in my whole house. It's a round house too, to boot. So, the installers took out the old shower, carried everything out through my patio door in my bedroom, and nothing ever went through my main living area. They only had one little glitch when something had disconnected and the water just poured out. But they jumped right on, got it all cleaned up, and cleared everything away. They did all that, from start to finish, in four hours and the quality of the work was really good. But I've seen a couple of areas where the caulking has not solidified, so I'm going to to some patch-up work. Other than that, it's really beautiful. Plus, it's easier to maintain than the last shower I had in here.

Over Labor Day weekend, I had taken a nice soaking bath in the tub, then my husband got in and did the jets. For some reason, he kept pushing the button and it did another 45 minute thing. The water was out of the tub by then and it said "Do not run the jets without the water." So I was freaking out and I called Independent Home. I left messages on two different systems, one for their local office and the other in their New York office. Since it was the weekend, nobody was available but somebody from their local office called us back, walked us through it, and got it to turn off. Then on Tuesday after Labor Day, we were really impressed that their main headquarters place called us immediately. We also enjoyed the gentleman who came. All in all, we're really happy with our walk-in tub because it guarantees that we can stay in our home for the rest of our lives.

Independent Home's price was great. Their install team was great. I told them I was gonna take my husband out for the day. They made sure that they made all the noise before we came back. So, when we came back, they were just doing the final touch-ups. I felt so comfortable with the team. I did call them because the head guy gave me his phone number. What went above and beyond was I called him and said, "Where are you guys at?" He said, "You can come back." They were all done by the time I got back in here. They were waiting for me, they signed everything off, and they showed me how to work everything. They asked me if I had any questions. I did have a couple. I can't praise that company enough and I was very happy with the whole team and the whole experience.

We had a little glitch in our schedule and the lady that called to make the appointment worked it out with us. Nobody made me feel bad about anything. Everybody was really kind, and that meant a lot. From the beginning to the end and the follow-up, it has been fantastic. I like the compassion that they showed, the understanding, and the willingness to work around everything.

I love the tub. I feel much safer and it's very relaxing. But it was sold to me and it was in my contract that they were gonna do this quick drain. That was one of my concerns. I had gotten a lot of feedback from people who had walk-in tubs about the time it took to drain. Independent Home told me it's not an issue anymore because they have these quick drains and it drains in 90 seconds. My tub has the button that you push on it to have that, but it was never hooked up.

The installer said that that wasn't what he was hired to do and that it would require him to replace all of the piping. It's a much bigger project if that were to occur and they weren't paid to do that. He even said to me that this is kind of an ongoing issue with the installers, where they get there and something was sold, but that wasn't what installers were hired to do.

I tried to talk with the people at the office and as a result, they sent me back $500 for the pipe issue. It would cost me a lot more than $500 to install it and I tried initially to tell them about this issue. I felt like the people at the office who I spoke with were like it's not a big deal. I appreciate the $500 compensation but at the end of the day, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when I'm told something will happen and it doesn't. The salesperson, the installer, and the head office were all on different pages. But I don't regret buying the tub and I would recommend Independent Home. The cost was significantly less than the other bids from other companies and the actual tub itself is wonderful.

The tub is very high quality. I’ve not run into anything in the design or controls that are not user-friendly. It is a walk-in and has a heated seat in the back. It has air jets rather than water jets. It has the handheld shower plus an overhead rain shower. So, it's the shower-tub combination. It's got where the normal pipes are that you would fill the tub and the handheld showerhead. And from that, it's a rainfall showerhead. They added a shower curtain to match the tub. So, if I wanted to use it just as a shower, I could.

However, I didn't realize it takes so long to fill the tub. It takes at least 20 minutes. And I find that I don't like the way the door is on the step-in. That the way it's made. They got it wide at the top of the door and they have it go small where you step into it. And when you have the door open and get into it, and close that door, you gotta wiggle around that door in order to get the door closed. Other than that, I love sitting in it once it's filled up, and it empties out fast. It has made my feet much better. Just getting a tub of water and that water is nice and warm, and you just sit there and let it fill.

We told the salesman that we didn't want a textured backsplash. We wanted a smooth one and they said it was fine. We never saw it until they were done and ready for us to sign that it was done. I kept calling them and told them that we were supposed to have the smooth one. They ended up saying, "Well, to do that. It would cost you another $1,000.” I'm not spending another 1,000 for something smooth. So we still have the textured backsplash. It's hard to clean. But the thing of it was, if we hadn't made such a point about it when we were buying it, it would have been a different story.