Garden hose repair connectors

[Lee Schierer]

Ive had real good luck with these for hose repair.
hose.JPG

[Bill Dufour]

Beware of poorly designed male ends. Sears and Harbor fright hoses often have this problem. There is not enough distance behind the male thread to grip. I have several top quality sears rubber hoses that I have to use a service wrench to tighten enough to stop leaks. There is not enough room for american size fingers or even a normal crescent wrench or open end wrench to grip the male end between the rubber and the female thread. I have returned several air hoses to Harbor fright as unusable since I could not stop the air leaks. The hex section needs to be wider then 1/4".
Bill D.

See the picture Lee posted to see what I mean. If you are a preteen Asian with small fingers maybe you would have a chance but no adult male can do it. Of course they are saving five cents worth of metal.

[Lee Schierer]

Beware of poorly designed male ends. Sears and Harbor fright hoses often have this problem. There is not enough distance behind the male thread to grip. I have several top quality sears rubber hoses that I have to use a service wrench to tighten enough to stop leaks. There is not enough room for american size fingers or even a normal crescent wrench or open end wrench to grip the male end between the rubber and the female thread. I have returned several air hoses to Harbor fright as unusable since I could not stop the air leaks. The hex section needs to be wider then 1/4".
Bill D.

See the picture Lee posted to see what I mean. If you are a preteen Asian with small fingers maybe you would have a chance but no adult male can do it. Of course they are saving five cents worth of metal.

I find that hand tight is usually tight enough if you have a good hose washer in place. On the fitting I suggested, you get plenty of grip using the clamped part to tighten and loosen the connection.

[Bill Dufour]

I agree that hand tight is enough for garden hose, not for air lines. I have had some hose fittings were the hose spins so the clamp portion is not helping to get it tight it just prevents me from gripping the metal part so i have to use a thin wrench to grab the metal portion
Bil lD.

[Rick Potter]

My problem with that type hose fitting is that the threaded part is not brass. It is aluminum(?) with a brass like coating, and it corrodes quickly. Same stuff they use on many new hoses.

I try to find real brass couplings, but they are getting hard to find.

[Steve Demuth]

I try to find real brass couplings, but they are getting hard to find.

Yup. Last time I looked in a store, everything was thin pressed metal. Might have had some brass on it, but none of the solid brass with real mass that I look for. One more think I have to order online to get something worth owning.

[Gary Ragatz]

Yup. Last time I looked in a store, everything was thin pressed metal. Might have had some brass on it, but none of the solid brass with real mass that I look for. One more think I have to order online to get something worth owning.

My local Ace Hardware carries solid brass fittings. They don't always have a big selection in stock, but can get what they don't have on the shelf in a day or two.

[mike stenson]

It's probably not that expensive to have a hose shop crimp on a new end, to be honest.

[Mel Fulks]

You can get quick dis - connect stuff that is more of a plumbing thing and much better than garden hose grade. Out side,
garden faucets are too low to ground . I put steel braided washing machine hose on both. Quick-connects between them
and garden hose.

[Michael J Evans]

It's probably not that expensive to have a hose shop crimp on a new end, to be honest.

This^^^^ like I said earlier.and more then likely they will be selling machined brass / crushproof couplings.

[mike stenson]

This^^^^ like I said earlier.and more then likely they will be selling machined brass / crushproof couplings.

DOH! I totally missed that previously

The last time I had any work done by a hose shop, it wasn't much more than the cost of 'fancy' diy fittings.. and they were far better anyway

[Rick Potter]

I bought a kit at the fair that works well. It does double wraps of stainless wire around the hose, and ties off tight. When done, it is tight and also not in your way like a clamp.

Works pretty well, one has been on a rubber hose for 10 years. It's finding good couplings that I need to pay attention to.

As an aside, I also find that rubber hoses are the best for me. I have the above one from Sears that is at least 30 years old, and have replaced couplings several times. They don't kink badly, or get hard like some. The only problem with my old one is that it is black, and the color comes off on your hands. I picked up a couple red ones from HD about two years ago, and so far so good. About $30 each.

The problem here is the sun. No freeze.

PS: the coupling on that rubber hose is the original that came with it. It was solid brass, and I cut it off the end, sawed off the crimp part, and put it back on with the SS wire the last time.