A leaky garden hose can be tricky to fix if you have no prior experience of dealing with them. It is natural for a hose to undergo breakage or loosening at the nozzle or spigot with time. But it is more important to fix the leakage issue in time and properly.
On failing to fix the hose correctly, the leakage issue might persist and even aggravate with time. So, to make sure that you do it the right way, read on!
Table of Contents
Steps for fixing a leaky garden hose
Follow the steps below to treat your garden hose leak at the earliest and avoid any further damage to it.
Identify the fault location
First of all, you must spot the location of leakage and identify the exact issue you are facing. Mostly a leakage can occur due to a loosened connection at the faucet or damage in the garden hose or at nozzle fittings.
Getting the right fix
Listed below are the treatments for the respective fault locations.
1. Faucet/Spigot
A leaky faucet implies the loosening of the packing nut attached to the faucet’s handle. To fix this, you will have to remove the handle and tighten back the nut using a wrench. If the issue persists, you can try wrapping up to 7-8 inches of Valve packing/Teflon tape to secure it.
2. Hose
Cuts or tears in the garden hose are also a common cause of leakage. To mend them, you must proceed according to the type of the hose.
- Plastic hose (Teflon/PVC/Polyethylene/rubber)
For mending smaller garden holes, you can make use of plumber tapes and a rubber-based adhesive. But if it is a tear, then you will require rubber cement or a hose mender to fix it.
For a metal garden hose, you must use rubber cement for fixing the small holes. But for tears or breakage, you must use plumber’s epoxy to fill the area.
However, you must make sure that you apply the fix after you dry the damaged area well. While filling rubber adhesive or epoxy, make sure that you don’t block the area of water flow. Also, if the damage is irreparable, you will have to patch the hose after severing the damaged area completely.
3. Garden Hose ends
For a loose hose end, you can either use petroleum jelly to lube the threads or use a rubber washer. Sometimes, hose ends also tend to break due to abrupt changes in water pressure or temperature or frozen water. This can cause the hose to leak due to the damage. To fix this, you can cut off part of the hose end and place a new hose fitting to secure that end properly.
4. Fittings/Gasket
With time, gaskets tend to wear out and might require a quick replacement. At times they can even go missing and will have to be fitted back in place. To take out an old gasket, you will simply have to pop it out using a screwdriver. Next, to put in place a new one, you must get a gasket of the right size and fix it in the right place.
Final takeaways
A garden hose can leak for several reasons, and fixing them immediately is essential to prevent further damage. Also, when you can easily fix your leaky hose instead of purchasing a new one, then why not! So, go on and fix them on your own and avoid unnecessary expenses.
James Fields is the founder of Gardener to Farmer. His passion for gardening goes back to his childhood days when he would visit his grandfather during the holidays and help him with the plants in the backyard. This has now translated to creating a dependable resource for gardening.