Fixed my garden hose with a $2 epoxy stick after 3 years of leaks

I kept patching this hose with duct tape and it would just start spraying again after a week. Three separate leak spots along the same 50 foot hose were driving me crazy. Then a guy at the hardware store in Portland told me to try epoxy putty instead. He said he fixed his own hose 4 years ago and it never leaked again. I tried it last Saturday and so far no drips at all. Has anyone else had luck with epoxy on rubber hoses?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.noah20d ago

Wait does the epoxy actually flex with the hose or does it crack when it bends? Because thats the main issue I had with tape, it would just pop off at the creases when I coiled the hose up. Some of those 2-part epoxy sticks are pretty rubbery once they cure though, might be worth trying on my lawnmower gas line that keeps leaking.

vera_murphy20d ago

Stick with the epoxy and skip the tape, it bonds way better to rubber than any tape ever will.

paul34616d agoMost Upvoted

Nah I gotta disagree with you on that one Vera. Epoxy is great for a lot of things but on a gas line that moves and bends all the time it gets brittle after a while no matter how rubbery it feels at first. I've had that stuff crack and start leaking again after a few weeks of coiling and uncoiling. A good quality self-fusing silicone tape actually bonds to itself and flexes with the hose way better than any epoxy I've tried. It's not the same as cheap electrical tape. You wrap it tight and it fuses into one solid piece that moves with the hose.