Best Walk-In Shower Companies

Walk-in showers can make bathtime more luxurious, plus they have accessibility features that help make showering easier for anyone with mobility or balance issues. Choosing the best walk-in shower for your needs can be tricky, though. Before making your decision, take a look at our picks. Read our methodology to learn how we selected our top walk-in shower companies.

• Our pick for unique designs: KOHLER LuxStone Walk-In Showers
• Our pick for walk-in showers with seats: Independent Home
• Our pick for older people: American Standard
• Our pick for safety features: Safe Step Walk-in Showers

KOHLER LuxStone Walk-In Showers’ collection is highly customizable and has more than a dozen wall designs and over 30 showerhead options. You can also select from different shower door styles, including sliding and pivoting doors, plus a variety of options for shelving.

Installation can take as little as one day when you work with an authorized dealer. KOHLER provides a lifetime limited warranty on walk-in showers.

What reviewers like: Great customer service and bench seating

A reviewer in Georgia wrote on ConsumerAffairs that representatives “handled the sales process very well. They answered all my questions and gave me numbers that I could call ... that were personal numbers, not just the business number.”

Multiple reviewers said that installation got started soon. “Now that the shower is installed, it's beautiful. We love it. We did have to call a repairman in to make a slight adjustment to the door but other than that, it's great,” another reviewer in Georgia said.

What to consider: Expense

KOHLER LuxStone showers are on the premium side of the market, but financing is available to help you manage the cost. The company is also transparent with its quotes, according to a reviewer in Colorado: “They were very professional, upfront right away that it was going to be fairly expensive, and very down-home and easy to deal with.”

A reviewer in Ohio said they initially passed on Kohler after an estimate but ended up coming back: “They came out and we settled on a deal … The product is easy to clean and the quality of it is awesome. I love how much space I have in my shower now to put all of my shampoos and all that other stuff in there."

Independent Home offers walk-in tubs that come standard with hand-held showerheads or rain showerheads. These tubs let you comfortably shower while sitting.

Installation takes about a day to complete. Independent Home provides a lifetime warranty on all products.

What reviewers like: Reasonable prices and ease of use

Even though walk-in showers aren't exactly cheap, Independent Home’s prices are relatively affordable. A reviewer in Missouri said they compared a few walk-in shower models before deciding that Independent Home “would fit our needs the best… it is not that much different from many that we had looked at. However, its price was somewhat more reasonable.”

A reviewer in South Carolina also highlighted the installation process and simplicity of their tub: “The two guys who did it were nice and it took them no time at all. We needed the walk-in because we’re handicapped and this makes it so much easier to get in and sit down and take a shower or a bath. I like the shower part because that’s easier for us to do.”

What to consider: Possible supplier delays

At least one Independent Home review refers to installation delays. In May 2021, a reviewer in Texas said, “The salesman told me it would be about 7 to 10 days before they could start and was told that someone would be contacting me in a couple of days. I was contacted and told it could take 2 to 3 months because their supplier was running behind.”

However, this appears to be an isolated incident.

American Standard offers a wide variety of walk-in shower components, including showerheads, shower bases and pans, shower walls, walk-in tubs and shower doors. The company also sells ADA-compliant faucets and walk-in tubs.

American Standard showers come with a five-year limited warranty, but we couldn’t find an estimated installation time from the company.

What reviewers like: Ease of use and good looks

“The salesman was really explicit and I couldn't ask for anything better. He really sold the job. The shower I got is perfect. Everybody that looks at it loves it,” a reviewer in Connecticut wrote on our site recently.

“I told my husband that this is the easiest shower I've ever had because you can sit down and use the handheld shower thing. It really meets all of our needs and it will allow us to stay in our home longer. I'm still learning all the bells and whistles of it ... but it doesn't seem to be overly complicated,” a reviewer in Virginia said.

What to consider: Water heater size

Make sure your water heater is the right size. “American Standard had the best price and they had the shower option. One thing I got kind of upset with was the rep told me that my water heater was good to do the job, and it isn't. I have the 40 and it was not heating up enough water to fill the tub. I have to get a new water heater to get the tub warm,” a reviewer in Maine said earlier this year.

Safe Step’s walk-in showers come with hand-held showerheads, built-in L-shaped grab bars and anti-slip bases. Optional sliding glass doors and medical-grade safety seats are available too.

Installation takes about four days, according to some recent reviewers. All Safe Step walk-in showers come with a lifetime warranty.

What reviewers like: Quality features, good installation techs

A reviewer in Alabama said that the shower features are “excellent” and highlighted “the glass doors and the shower spray handle that goes up and down” for ease of use.

Another satisfied reviewer in Virginia recently said that “the installers were great. They really worked hard and did a good job. The shower I got is of really good quality.” A reviewer in Connecticut said that the feature they liked was the rain showerhead.

What to consider: Height of shower parts

A reviewer in Ohio and a reviewer in Delaware said parts of the shower — the hose and “the thing where we hang our shower on” respectively — were too high to reach.

However, this could be a plus for taller people: “We love the shower. It's easier. It makes the whole bathroom bigger and more accessible. It's very convenient that the showerhead is up high because my husband's tall,” a reviewer in Arkansas told us.

The term “walk-in shower” typically refers to a shower that does not have a tub wall to step over for entry. The floor of a walk-in shower is often level or nearly level with the rest of the bathroom floor. However, some walk-in showers are essentially just walk-in tubs with an added showerhead.

As with most home fixtures, walk-in showers are available in a wide range of materials, but they are most commonly made out of glass, tile or plastic. Walk-in showers are a great idea for small bathrooms because they provide more shower space than traditional walk-in tub designs.

For more, compare the benefits of a walk-in shower vs. a walk-in tub.

Choosing the right walk-in shower for you requires looking at a variety of factors, including whether you are more concerned about safety features or aesthetics.

Showerheads

Various showerhead designs are available for walk-in showers, including high-pressure showerheads and water-saving showerheads. Walk-in showers have almost all the showerhead options you might find on a conventional shower as well as options that aren’t common with normal shower-tub designs, including rain showerheads.

Walk-in shower enclosures

Your enclosure is somewhat a matter of preference, but certain shower enclosures may fit better in your bathroom space than others.

• Enclosed: An enclosed shower stall is completely surrounded and easy to access through a door.
• Open: Open walk-in showers have no door and a wide expanse of floor space. They usually require a larger area so that excess water doesn't pool on the floor of the bathroom.
• Surround spray: In this design, multiple showerheads are placed around the walls of the shower so that you are hit by the spray from multiple angles.

Safety features

While many people install walk-in showers for their looks, you can also add important safety features.

• Grab bars: Shower grab bars provide support to keep users safe, especially those with limited mobility. Grab bars can be installed on virtually any surface inside the shower space.
• Anti-slip floors: Textured floor coatings provide grip for your feet and help prevent falls.
• Bench seat: A bench seat is good for those who like to relax in the shower or sit down for more stability. Bench seats are also great for shaving.

Special additions

These features are not normally included with a basic shower, but they can be useful or add comfort to your walk-in shower.

• Programmable settings: Programmable showers let you save settings, such as temperatures or spray types, for different users.
• Foldable or flexible doors: If you want a full enclosure, these doors let you bring walkers or shower chairs into the shower and provide extra room for caregivers to assist bathers.

There are various kinds of walk-in showers, and each type of walk-in shower has slightly different features.

• Floating walk-in showers: Floating walk-in showers have one glass panel on the side opposite the wall. The other sides are left open for left- or right-side entry.
• Recessed walk-in showers: Recessed walk-in showers are tucked in between three walls with a glass panel door that can open to the left or right.
• Wet rooms: Wet-room bathrooms feature walk-in showers that are open to the rest of the room. Wet-room showers may have one or more glass panels on the sides of the shower, but there is no door (similar to a floating walk-in shower).
• Corner walk-in showers: A corner shower fits into one corner of your bathroom, making efficient use of smaller spaces.
• Suite shower: A suite shower is a large enclosed space separate from the rest of the bathroom, making it appear like an entirely separate room.
• Round shower: Round showers are a popular trend. These circular enclosures are often treated as a central feature of their bathrooms.

The best walk-in showers offer an alternative to the classic shower-bathtub combination. They can improve the look of your bathroom and help make bathing safe and convenient for people with limited mobility. They are an especially good choice for older people and those with certain physical disabilities because they let you enter and exit without stepping over a bathtub rim or shower riser. However, there are some potential downsides.

Before installing a walk-in shower in your home, it's important to consider all of the benefits and drawbacks. Walk-in showers are great for people with limited mobility, but they may not be ideal for every home or family.

Walk-in shower pricing depends on the size and quality of your unit and your installation costs:

• Simpler options can cost as little as $800 to $1,000.
• Custom, high-end walk-in showers can cost as much as $15,000 for the custom design and professional installation.

Walk-in showers generally require professional installation, which can add as much as $3,000 to your bill, depending on any layout changes or plumbing work that might be required. DIY installation can save you money, but installing your own walk-in shower is not recommended unless you have extensive plumbing and framing experience.

For related info, read about average walk-in tub costs and the price of aging-in-place remodeling.

Walk-in showers can improve the look of your bathroom and reduce the risk of accidents. If you decide that a walk-in shower is right for you, you have a lot of options to choose from. Between the various styles and many features available, you should be able to find a walk-in shower that suits your needs and budget.

For more, read about how to find the best bathroom remodeling companies or explore low-cost ways to make your bathroom safer.

To select our top picks, we started with a list of seven popular walk-in shower companies. To narrow it down, we first eliminated those with an overall customer satisfaction rating below 3.5 stars. We then analyzed recent review data to determine which brands have the best ratio of good reviews to bad reviews. We required all of our top picks to have at least twice as many 5-star reviews as 1-star reviews within the last year (collected between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021).

Companies were then ranked by highest overall satisfaction rating, as of publishing date:

• KOHLER LuxStone Walk-In Showers
• Independent Home
• American Standard Walk-in Tubs
• Safe Step Walk-In Showers