Bath Lifts

A bath lift is a powered seat that sits inside your existing bathtub and lowers you down into the water, then raises you back out at the press of a button. It is for people who can still get into a bathroom and manage a bath, but can no longer lower themselves to the bottom of the tub or push themselves back up.

Why a bath and not a shower

Plenty of people are told to give up baths and switch to a shower. For some that is right. But a bath matters to a lot of people, for pain relief, for warmth, for sleep, or simply because it is what they have always done and enjoy. A bath lift often means keeping that rather than losing it.

Bath lift, transfer bench or walk-in tub

A bath lift lowers you into the water, so you get a proper immersive bath. It fits your existing tub and needs no building work.

A transfer bench sits across the rim of the tub and you slide across it. You stay above the water, so it is a shower-over-bath solution rather than a bathing one, but it is simpler and costs far less.

A walk-in tub is a construction project: the tub is replaced, and you must wait inside while it fills and drains. It is the most expensive answer by a wide margin.

For most households, a bath lift solves the problem at a fraction of the cost of a renovation.

Two things to check before buying

Your tub surface. Bath lifts anchor with suction cups, and suction cups only hold on smooth surfaces. If your tub floor is textured or has a moulded non-slip pattern, the cups may not grip, which is a safety issue rather than an inconvenience. Check this first.

Getting on and off. A bath lift raises you to the rim, but you still have to transfer sideways onto the seat and swing your legs over. If that movement is the difficult part, a rotating transfer aid used with the lift may be what actually solves it.

Talk to us

Tell us about your bathroom and how you currently manage, and we will tell you honestly whether a bath lift will help or whether something else suits better.