A safety bath is a very specialized bathtub that allows its owner to walk into it via a side door and sit/stand in the tub safely whilst being partially submerged in the water. It sounds simple, but the technology required to create such an installation is quite complex and it’s important to know what to expect from your safety bath before you buy it. There are numerous places to buy them, but the obvious place to get one would be safetybath.com.
Before you rush off to buy one though, here’s what you should expect to get from your safety bath. The material of the bath should be high quality, durable acrylic. It shouldn’t mar easily, and it should be very easy to clean with any normal household bathroom cleaner. Most safety baths are typically white and soap and liquid residues can build up just like any other bath installation, however a quick wipe with a cleaning sponge after each use should be enough to keep it clean and looking new.
You should also check that if your bath comes with a seat, that it fits your height well. You can check whether you will be comfortable sitting down in your bath before you buy it, simply by asking your salesperson to allow you to try it out in the showroom. The door opening should be wide enough for you to step through comfortably, and obviously the door should be configured to swing outwards. Make sure you measure your bathroom to allow for the width of the door, as well as the width of the tub itself.
A decent safety bath should come with a locking mechanism within easy reach to stop any accidental opening of the safety door while the tub is in use. To prevent you from waiting too long for the tub to fill, a good safety bath will have a fast fill mechanism. But who uses safety baths?
These tubs are generally used for people with mobility impairment and especially the elderly who may have issues raising and lowering themselves into and out of a normal tub. With a good safety bath, it should be simple for anyone with mobility impairment to access the tub through the door, sit down, fill up quickly and enjoy a nice relaxing soak. There should also be a mechanically controlled release valve for the water that will allow quick and efficient draining of the water, allowing the user to exit quickly and thus dry off quickly.
There are many sizes of safety tub available and indeed most safety tub companies can make them to fit a range of differently configured rooms, or to the user’s specification.
