Kohler Walk-In Bath

I usually take a bath every other day and it worked. About the third time after that, it wouldn’t open again. I played a little bit with the handle, and it was loose to open and shut. I went down and held the drain open again. The next day, I called Kohler. They sent somebody out the same day. It was Carrie, a really nice guy. He came in and said that some of the stuff needs to be tightened. He was here an hour or two and tightened everything. Then I took a bath that night, it worked fine. I took a bath two days later, and it worked fine too. My husband soaked in the tub one of those days, and it worked fine as well. A week later, the drain wouldn't open again. My husband was getting angry. He told me for $21,000, it should work better than that.

I called Kohler and told them it happened again. Carrie called me 10 minutes later after I got off the phone with this gal. He told me he was gonna look into it and and would get back to me. He got back to me about a half hour later. Some people never call you back but Kohler is wonderful with their customer service. I didn't have to argue with anybody. Carrie told me they were going to replace the tub. We had the original tub put in January 10th and 11th of this year. The seats started having hairline cracks. There were four of them, and they were spidering out. Carrie and Rick came this morning, and they brought a new tub. Now, they’re installing it.

When the installation was about completed, Roy filled up the tub and walked us through the operation of everything. When they were done, we sat down at the table with all of the booklets and the paperwork. He went through everything with us again about how to clean it, air out the jets, and everything that we could possibly need to know. He pointed out all of the functions on the sheet. He also went over sort of the cheat sheet, which we do keep in the bathroom until we really get the hang of how to use it. They left the bathroom cleaner than when they got there.

We got the Kohler tub with the bells and whistles. It's really lovely. We've used it and the only issue we may have is our water heater may not quite be big enough to handle it. So I turned the temperature up on the water heater because what was happening was we were getting about halfway full, and then it was completely going cold. Even though it was a lukewarm sort of bath when I first tried it, it was really nice. My husband is older than I am and has some health issues including balance issues. So with the tub, there's a much better confidence level of him if he's home by himself and showering or bathing. There's less likelihood of him slipping and falling because it's got the safety bar. We also have extra safety bars. We absolutely love the tub.

The installers were supposed to be here on the 11th. They said they might not get here until around 12:00 and the installer showed up at 6:30 that night. He said he was gonna take some pictures and that they'll be back. He was a real nice guy and very neat. I took a picture of the bathroom before I even cleaned anything up right after he left, and you can't tell that they've been doing any construction there. So, I’m pleased with the construction.

The installer started the work the next day. For the next two days, he worked 11 hours a day with some boy. They had to carry this 300-and-some-pound tub up the steps. They knew I had to put in a 50-gallon hot water heater because I only had a 40-gallon. They had to go to Home Depot to get the hot water heater. They took pictures when I signed up for it. Why isn’t the hot water heater in with the tub if they knew I had to get one? The installer spent three hours between wanting to get something to eat and getting the tub from Home Depot. I figured when the installers go to pick up their stuff, everything would be right there, and all they would do was load it up and head to the job site. The installer had to go around finding the parts for it. For a big company, why did the guy have get everything together and put it on his trailer and go two and a half hours away? I pictured a little more put-together situation and it seemed kinda helter-skelter.

He also had to get a piece of pipe to hook up the hot water tank and I took him up to the hardware store because he didn't know where it was at for sure. So, we bought quite a few pieces and what he didn't use, I took back and got my money back. There was only one tightened up bolt that he needed to connect the gas line to the hot water tank. But I didn't mind that. I cut up the boxes and got rid of them and put them in the back of my truck and took them down to where I work and threw them in the dumpster. The only thing that the installer took back was the old tub he took out that was cut up into pieces. He put that on the trailer and strapped it down. But he was great to work with and I didn't mind them being in the house. He was very polite.

Sure enough, he was here Friday and Monday morning, a lady called me who lived on the property, said she had been called. I was perfectly welcome to come over and see her tub, which she had had installed for her husband, who had physical issues. So, that was why I ended up going with Kohler. I was happy with that. I called the rep back and said, "I've seen the job. That's fine. Go ahead." However, there was a long wait. Initially, he thought it would be about six or eight weeks, but it was longer than that. I joked that maybe it was one of those things that was stuck in the Suez Canal because there was a delay in getting the parts.

But they did such an excellent job of installing it. I'm very happy with the installation. It certainly looks very nice. It fits in the bathroom well. Doesn't look like it didn't belong there and doesn't look like something was modified to make it fit. Those people who have looked at it said, "Wow, look at that. Look at the jets." I also enjoy it particularly on my lower back because I have had some problems in the past with the lower back and it's good for that. I'm very pleased with it.

But I was going to call them today to ask what the average drain time is because I find it a long time to drain. It seems like I open the drain, and then it partially shuts. I don't know whether that's right or not. But it's very comfortable. The instructions are easy to follow and the tub itself is of high quality. The installation team was so diligent and clean too. I could not believe it took them two full days. That surprised me. But when they were done, everything was just absolutely fine.

There was some confusion during the installation but it worked out okay. They were gonna install it one day but they've got a new girl running the scheduling and she forgot to call the electricians. The guys who brought the tub to install it were running behind and it was gonna be nine o'clock before they were able to get it done. Plus, we wouldn't get to use the tub until four or five days later. They didn't think that that would be too cool so they discussed it with me and came back on Thursday. Those two guys were awesome. They knew exactly what to do and how to do it. They did the installation in a great timeframe. They took out our old tub and cleaned up every five minutes. When we went in there after they finished, you couldn't tell there’d been construction going on in there. It was so clean.

We love our Kohler walk-in bath. The best thing we ever did was buy it. It is expensive but it is awesome. My favorite features are the ability to get in and out of it. The jets and the bubbles are wonderful. It is so relaxing and makes you feel good. My husband has brain damage and had to relearn how to walk. I always believed that if we could get him something like this tub, the warm water, the jets and the massage would relax his muscles and help him walk better, and they do. He gets in it every day now and lets those jets and air bubbles massage his legs. Now, he walks a lot smoother than he did. His legs and back are much more relaxed. He jumps out of the bed now instead of having stand up, fall down, stand up, fall down.

The installation was wonderful. They said it would take two days. But it was more like a day and a half. The team was great. They answered my questions and let me watch. They gave me options on my handlebars on where to put it. I did not like the showerhead because it was too big. So they came out about two weeks ago and replaced it with a different one that might work better for me. I love the product itself, the team, and the follow up. I love the whole experience. I'm really, really happy that I chose Kohler. They're top-notch. You pay more for it, but you cannot get any better in quality and service.