Kohler Walk-In Bath

One thing that really struck me after I signed the contract was he took a lot of pictures to give to the company. They have measured the opening for where the tub is going. After my price was quoted to me, the salesperson had to call, give some measurements on the phone, and he had to inspect my circuit breaker box. They tried to be very inclusive of everything to make sure that the unit would properly function. They didn't sell me a tub and say, “Okay. This is it.” They told me that there are certain criteria that my home needs to meet. My electrical box had to have enough room. My husband and I planned and we made sure that this box had enough room for expansion. I didn't have to then have the cost of an electrician added on to everything else to make sure that my electrical would support what I was getting.

The installer was right upfront and said, “I'm not going to tell you you're going to have it done in a day. My job would be two days, possibly three.” It was two days, but they were here and they worked all day. They were two men and they were very kind and cordial. They tried to make sure that none of the demolitions would get into the rest of the house. They put in a tarp all the area that they would be walking on so that they wouldn't walk on the bare floors or any rugs. On the first night, they cleaned up before they left. On the second night, they didn't leave any junk. I was impressed.

I got all the bells and whistles for the walk-in tub. It’s primarily for my mother. She's 93 and I wanted her to have comfort. When you get in a tub, you’re laid back and the tub is cold. With the Kohler one, we got the little element in there that warms up the back. It has jets that will do the massage on the back, calves, and feet. There are four levels of jets in there. It also has bubbles, which just give you bubbles and a very gentle aeration of the water. This tub also has three speeds. Also, the heat temperature on the back has three temperatures. It's the same thing with the bubbles.

It has a shower hand and it comes all the way over. It also has a larger opening than most walk-in tubs and a shorter step. This one here is just under three inches and it's easy to get in and out. It's easy for me to tend to my mother. When the investment was made, it was made on many things. It looked like it was going to be something that could be a little spa thing. You can get a two-seater but that was cost-prohibitive for me. One seat is fine. I find that this tub fills up just as fast as the regular garden tub and it drains in less than three minutes, which is faster than my garden tub.

My mother gets in the walk-in tub probably four times a week and she loves it. She wished she had done this when my dad was alive because it would have been great therapy for his back. This tub gives my mom a lot of pleasure. She can soak in it. With the old bathtub, I had to put a side rail on it and it was hard for her to get up to pull herself up and get out or get in. When she would get in, she would fall in. With this Kohler one, she just walks in and sits down, and it fills up. The other nice thing is compared to the garden tub where you can't turn any of the jets or anything on it until the water is above the very top bubble or jet, the Kohler one we can turn it on as long as there's water over the bottom jets. This way, my mom can start feeling the therapy on her body while the tub is filling.

All in all, Kohler's customer service is excellent. The installers ended up having to take the toilet out and having to reinstall it. When they put the toilet back in, they didn't put a new seal in, which most plumbers will do. It isn't necessary and I understand that. But I kept smelling an odor. I texted the project manager and he called within five minutes and said, “Somebody will be out there by Saturday.” He called me after hours last night to tell me somebody would be here this morning to put in a new toilet.

Lowering is not gonna help because it's gonna damage the tub door. The tub door cannot be adjusted. I initially said, "Just come take the dang thing out. I don't want the tub scratched up, and I don't like the waterfall thing. I'll put a curtain up and that'll be simpler." The installers came back once and they adjusted it to make it a little higher to make the part that's over the door less heavy on the door itself. But that still didn't get rid of the gap underneath the seal. I studied it and I figured out to close the window and have the seal backwards. I push it out so that it would sit there. That extended it down.

The only trouble now is there is a little seam between a shelf that extends from the tub to the wall to the tub. It's sealed but it's a little lower. Water goes where it's lowest. It is just a drip now instead of a waterfall. I solved that by rolling up a washcloth and laying it inside right there and it catches. If you're just washing your hair, it's not a lot of water. I'm gonna be having back surgery and that's why we invested in this walk-in bath. I love the whole system. I've had it in use for a couple of months now. It provides comfort and relaxes the tension. I have a lot of pain in my back so if I get a half hour relief, that's wonderful.

One of the things that I was worried about when we were looking at those tubs was they looked narrow. They are narrower than a regular tub, but the Kohler one looked like it was wider than some of the competitors. It also looked safer, in terms of the ability to grip the side of it as a way of supporting yourself, getting up and down out of that seating area. Some of the other ones that I looked at, you could grab around the edge of it, but it's flimsy, almost like a sharp-edged part of the tub up there. Whereas the Kohler thing looked like it was designed as something to grab on to to support yourself.

The thing that I was blown away with was the skill set of the two guys that installed the tub. They've gotta be these generalists as far as construction goes. They've gotta know plumbing, electrical, and carpentry because every one of those disciplines is involved in getting the tub in there and getting it working. They had to run some electrical lines around my house outside with a conduit and run it inside the garage to get at the electrical boxes in there. Everything was complicated and time-consuming but they got it done. It was challenging to navigate around the small space, get the thing in there and get it installed, but they did an incredible job all the way around.

There were a couple of things that were bad, but I don't fault Kohler for it. One, the installation date was delayed about six months. But that was due to some difficulty in the supply chain in getting some of the wall parts. The other thing is it's ridiculously expensive. It's 22,000 bucks for a tub. But I knew that going in. It was a choice, not a surprise. It's outrageous as far as the cost goes, but in terms of the work and the quality of the product, we couldn't be happier. The tub is a wonderful product. There is also a lifetime guarantee if anything went wrong that sounded a great protection that was built into the deal.

The installation was estimated for three days. They installer would come between 8:00 and 9:00. He came at 8:45. Everything he needed was on the truck. He brought everything in and worked all day the first day. He did the destruction of the existing bath and tile and left at 5:45. He was polite and personable but not Mr. Chatty, which I appreciated. He came exactly on time the next day. Had already pre-setup the city inspector to come look at the plumbing and electrical. That guy didn't come on time, but he eventually showed up and got it all cleared. Everything was 100% good. The installer put the surround and the tub in, did all the final work, and showed me how to use it. He showed me when the final inspection was done, tagged the things that the guy would need to look at so I would know what to do, then left again at about 5:45.

I like that the tub has a shower, the faucets for a tub and a handheld. It has a little seat in it so that if I just want to go in and take a quick shower, I can do that. But if I want to go have a bath, then that's good too. I brought the whole unit because I have a funky shoulder. Every now and then, it gets to hurting and I wanted those jets for that shoulder.

I would 100% recommend Kohler. It's good quality. The hardware is metal rather than plastic. When you go buy hardware, it's usually not metal. There are 2 things that I don't care for though. The area between the tub and the wall is flat. When you use the shower, water stands there. You have to make a concerted effort to move that water into the tub. There aren't any grooves to make sure that that water can drain into the tub. You don't want a lot of standing water there because it's not a good thing. I also wish that there was a designated shower curtain. I'm gonna have to dummy up a shower curtain and cut a regular one down ‘cause the regular one doesn't fit. Sometimes, water gets out on the floor. I want to have a shower curtain that covers the entire open area of the shower.

On the day of the installation, the crew had to take out the old shower bath stall. There was a one-piece fiberglass thing and they had to cut all that stuff out. They were as nice as they could be. We had to go somewhere and my neighbor stayed around the house in case they needed something. An installer made a video himself right there in our bathroom of how to work everything and explained everything to us. He then sent that to me and told me if I had any more questions or if I had any problems, to be sure and call. He gave me his personal cellphone number.

He had some paperwork that I needed to sign so he left them. After I looked everything over in the bathroom and it looked okay, I signed the paperwork. I took pictures of it on my phone and I sent it back to him. We had an issue with the walk-in tub blowing the fuses in the receptacles and we didn't know how to fix that. I called the installer and he was really nice. He said if we had any more issues with it after we got it fixed, we were to let him know.

My husband can't walk without a specialized boot on his foot and he has no control over his foot. We thought that this bath would be really good for his leg because of moving the water around his leg. That was why we got it. My husband likes the jets and the whirlpool. It's very comfortable for him and it's not too harsh on his legs. I would recommend Kohler. They were behind schedule trying to get everybody's stuff installed and they gave us a $500 credit because they were swamped. It took a few weeks longer than what they expected to get ours put in. They even gave us a $500 discount.

On my first bath right after the waiting period for everything to settle, I spent over an hour in the shower shield. My husband just got his first bath and his was a little over a half hour. So, I love it. We also love that it keeps the water hot when it goes on. The bubbles and jets are awesome. Plus, I like the handheld shower because when I'm taking a bath, I can just shampoo and rinse my hair right there. I don't have to worry about taking in that shower too. And the showerhead is one of the rain showerheads, which I'm not quite used to yet, but because both my husband and I have long hair, that's the one we're getting used to a little bit more. Also, I've been putting this remodel on Facebook because a lot of our friends have been watching the bath, walk-in, shower, and the remodel. They wanted me to tell them about this bathtub and a lot of people are asking me questions about it.