The Safe Step Tub is a walk-in tub with a big door that opens so that an older person can walk into it and not risk slipping while stepping into the bathtub. But with a door that opens in the side of the bathtub, that means the bather would have to step in and then sit there the whole time while the bathtub filled up with water, and then sit there the whole time while the water drained out before they could get out of the tub. And with the door there like that, how many times have people forgotten about this issue and opened the door with a tub full of water, spilling it out into a torrent of rushing bath water, flooding the bathroom and more?
I’m sorry to have to say this, but the Safe Step Tub doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me. But this issue of an older person getting into a tub really isn’t all that hard to solve without such an elaborate scheme. All you’d really need to solve this problem would be to have a little stool on a swivel at one end of the bathtub. (I’d suggest the end away from the faucet, just in case someone slips anyway, which could still happen in the walk-in tub.) So the person would simply run their bath, then get undressed, sit down on the stool, swivel around 180 degrees, put their feet into the water, and then lower themselves into the bath from there. They could install hand grips on the wall to help them sit down and stand up, and grips inside the bathtub stall to help them sit down and raise themselves out of the bathwater. And all they’d have to do is design a swiveling stool that could be inserted into the top of the side of the bathtub. The swivel could have a stopper that only allowed it to swivel around exactly 180 degrees so that the person couldn’t slip and spin off onto the floor easily, and it could even have a lock switch on the stool to keep it from swiveling at all until they’re ready to turn around, so the stool doesn’t slip or spin while they’re sitting down or getting up off of it. And it would probably be easy to just drill a hole in the top of the bathtub and fit one in, for any handyman. But if you’d really rather have to sit in the bathtub while the water runs and drains out, or else forget and open the door and spill a whole bathtub’s worth of water in your house or apartment, please don’t let me stop you.
