A few years ago, I wrote a couple of articles on how to repair a damaged electrical cord after a mishap with a hedge trimmer. I recently had another mishap with the hedge trimmer, but this time it involved the hedge trimmer and a garden hose.
Maybe you have better luck with hedge trimmers, mowers, or weed whackers. But if you ever end up with a hole in a garden hose, with water spraying everywhere but out the end, here is how you can repair the garden hose instead of throwing it out and buying a new one.
Repairing a garden hose is a quick DIY repair that takes less than five minutes and costs less than $5. With this method, you will have a much more permanent repair than if you had used duct tape to fix the garden hose.
Table of Contents
Tools and Materials
You will need the following items for this garden hose repair job:
- Utility knife or scissors
- Screwdriver
- 5/8” coupling fitting (or 3/4” coupling fitting) or pipe, approximately 2 inches in length
- Hose clamps (2)
Step 1 – Remove Damaged Section
Cut out the damaged section using a pair of sharp scissors or a utility knife.
Step 2 – Install Hose Clamps
Slip a hose clamp onto each piece of the garden hose.
Step 3 – Insert Pipe or Coupling
Push the half of the pipe or coupling into one end of the garden hose. Join together with the second half of the garden hose.
If you do not know the diameter of the garden hose, you can take the piece that you had removed to the hardware store to slip onto various couplings until you find one that fits snugly. Most garden hoses are either 5/8” or 3/4” in diameter.
For cheap couplings, you can find a 1/2” x 1/2” copper coupling fitting at Home Depot with an outside diameter of 5/8” for less than a dollar for 5/8″ garden hoses. Get the 3/4″ x 3/4″ copper fitting for 3/4″ hoses. These fittings are used to solder two copper pipes together. There is even a dimple in the middle that you can use as a reference for how far to push the coupling into the garden hose.
Step 4 – Tighten Hose Clamps
Slide the hose clamps together until they are over the coupling or pipe inside the garden hose. Tighten with a screwdriver until the hose doesn’t leak when the faucet is on.
Closing $ense
This DIY guide is a simple way to repair a garden hose. The repair takes less than five minutes and will allow you to use the garden hose immediately afterwards. This repair will likely last for the life of the garden hose.
For less than $5 in materials, you can avoid adding another item to the landfill or spending upwards of $20 for a new garden hose. You can also buy a hose mender for about $6 to do the same repair.
The drawback with using hose clamps is that there is the possibility of the clamps getting hung up on things around the yard. However, the repair using stainless steel hose clamps and a copper insert will likely last for years. Depending on the quality of the material, a plastic hose mender may eventually deteriorate after sitting in the sun and heat.
Have you had to repair a damaged garden hose before? What are some ways you’ve fixed a leaky garden hose?