You can sit down on the bath seat when you use a transfer bench. Both of your legs will still be outside the tub. When you are seated safely, you can carefully lift in one leg at a time and scoot over until you are in the middle of the tub.
PROS:
Installation not required.
You don’t have to “step” over the wall of the tub.
CONS:
If you have a small bathroom, and you utilize a wheelchair or walker, note that the bench legs that are outside of the tub might limit maneuverability in the bathroom.
It is difficult to keep the water inside with these bench-style chairs because you can’t close the shower curtains properly. You can cut the shower curtain to work around this issue.
Bathtubs that have square-ish bottoms are the best options for bath benches. Curved tubs don’t provide the most stable footing for the legs of the bench that are inside the tub.
As a result, one leg might have to sit in the middle of the tub which would extend the bath seat over the wall and you might have to sit with one leg in the inside and another on the outside. If your tub is curved at the bottom, a tub bench with adjustable legs is a better option as you can adjust the legs to fit the various curves in the tub.
Similar to the bathtub bench mentioned previously, this option also allows you to sit while having a bath and you can have both legs outside of the tub before transferring.
Once you are safely seated you can transfer one leg at a time until you have access to the shower knobs. If you still have good balance you can carefully step over the tub wall and sit on the bath seat.
PROS
The 4 legs of the chair stay inside the bathtub, unlike the bath bench discussed earlier. Moving around in the bathroom is easier as the bath chair doesn’t take up any extra room for those who use walkers or wheelchairs.
Again, installation is not required
CONS
More strength and balance is needed to lean back more to sit in the bath chair that is in the middle of the tub, compared to sitting on a bath bench that has a seat that extends outside of the tub. If a bath chair is the better option for your needs, we suggest you go with a model that has a wide flat seat which will give you a larger seating surface.
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