As you get older, renovating your home becomes a large but necessary investment. There are many areas in the home that could use more safety-minded additions and one such place is in the bathroom. The bathroom can become a dangerous place for people who suffer from mobility issues as they grow older. One investment you might consider to increase your bathroom safety and the value of your home is the walk-in bathtub. There are plenty on the market all in differing styles, sizes, and features; it’s enough to make your head spin. Fortunately, there are guides out there to help you understand everything you need to know about walk-in bathtubs and the options they offer.
When shopping around for your walk-in bathtub it’s important to consider the sizing and water heater. You need to make sure the walk-in bathtub will fit through your doors and hallways so you won’t have to spend extra on cutting walls just to install the bathtub. You also have to consider your own body type to make sure you will fit comfortably in your walk-in bathtub. The larger bathtubs tend to have a larger water capacity. This means you might have to install a larger water heater if your current one can’t handle the water load. This can be a costly expense so be sure to keep an eye out for the required water heater size and what you currently have.
Another affordable pricing factor to consider is the features the bathtub comes with. Walk-in tubs can include varying amounts of features depending on where you get it and what style you choose. Adding features to your walk-in tub might increase the cost a bit but it will also increase the value and product satisfaction. When making a large investment such as this it might be important to maximize all the comfort options you can get. Some features you can include are hydro or air jets, chromotherapy, heated seats, and much more. Adding features gives you the biggest bang for your buck.
Even with all the information provided, there are still a lot of companies and brands to choose from. A good way to make sure you are choosing a well-trusted product is by reading customer reviews. However, you should be wary of fake review sites that just inflate the quality of a certain brand whilst degrading the quality of competitor brands. The biggest culprits of this are specialty review websites for a specific product category. Some good places for reviews are toptenreviews.com, bbb.org,  yelp.com, and angieslist.com just to name a few.
Shopping around for the perfect walk-in bathtub can take some time, but with due diligence and proper research, you can purchase the best-valued walk-in tub your money can buy.