OT- Garden hose seals ?

Ridiculous I even have to ask this, but got a situation where the garden hose needs to be on all the time and bought a new one recently and was amazed it leaks at both ends no matter what torque I put on the connectors. Here we are in 2007 and some fools *still* haven't figured out how to make a garden hose sealing ring ?

Anyhoo, any suggestions on the ultimate seals...actual O rings perhaps ?

O rings work great, I don't have the correct size in my head. It's a fairly fat o ring that fits snug in the female end. Just plain old garden hose gaskets will work too if they are soft, not the cheap hard ones.

O-ring won't work. It'll roll out when you try to tighten the connector. A face type o-ring has to be in a U shaped groove to stay in place.

Is it leaking at the thread itself or between the swivel and fixed parts of the hose end? At the thread, a softer rubber hose washer rather than the typical rock hard plastic ones oughta stop it. Even the cheap hardware store replacement hose washers seem to be a lot better than the typical OE washer. If between the two parts, I've never had much luck getting anything to stop the leak consistently. I think its usually a defect in the way the stub on the fixed part is flared and flattened inside the nut at manufacture. This seems to be a lot more prevalent on hoses where the nut is stamped or drawn than on the ones where the nut appears to be machined.

Added: Mud, how about posting the dash # for the o ring that works if you happen to run across it. I've tried them several times and never have had any luck.

A new good quality rubber flat washer is the best. If it leaks with hand tightening I replace the washer.

Just after Katrina in New Orleans I worked as relief for one week a month as the maintenance man for 30+ 30' and 40' camp trailers and offices the railroad was using for temporary housing. I just scheduled my work at home around this week each month. The dollars made me do it. Garden type hoses were the order of the day. We had maybe 6 water tanks, toilet trailers, Kitchen, diner, ice trailer, and in and out fittings on all trailers, inline valves, pumps, etc. All of it was garden hoses and those type fittings. Can you imagine the number of connections? Their yard was in the Upper 9th Ward and all permanent buildings were lost with the storm/flooding. Drinking water was outrageously expensive and had to be trucked in every few days. We chased any leak down with new rubber seals. We could go for weeks without a leak too. I was really surprises at the reliability of it all. This thread reminded me of that "trailer city".

Milacron,
Go to a quality hardware store. I thank the man above that I have three real hardware stores near me.

At my closest hardware store, Brilharts in Scottdale PA, they sell garden hose washers made from real red rubber. These things are so soft that a two finger turn stops any leak. The down side is that they will not stand sunlight if left uncoupled.

The next grade of hose washer is a soft urethane washer with the little nubs to keep it in the barrel. It takes a little harder turn, but they stay soft for years and never crack. The last grade is for permanent applications and they are hard black HDPE. Pliers is needed to seal the deal.

I also love the hose washers with different meshes of stainless screen molded in. A little grain of sand or rust raises the dickens with solenoid valves.

You can always spot a true man's man. Just go to the hardware store and see them shopping. Real hardware stores are manned by white haired men with a limp. The twinkle in his eye tells you that he may have forgotten the year, but he remembers how to mix paint better than Picasso. There are little old ladies there that can make change with out a calculator. Those little old ladies call everyone honey and they recite the thread and grade chart from memory. Just ask them about garden hose washers. They will tell you what you need and wipe off the dust with a lace hankey, before they put it in your hand.

Burn down the Louie-Louie and blow up the Home Despot. Then stick in a real store for men. End of rant. You may now return to your regularly scheduled arguments..........

Garden hose seals ? O Rings, internet visitors from China are knocking the door Don.

Let me add the value-added keywords:密封件,O型圈,密封圈.

[ 06-09-2007, 04:58 AM: Message edited by: chinahand ]

Buy, purchase, looking for, China, O Rings, seals, sealings,
Dont go alibaba, come here.

There are little old ladies there that can make change with out a calculator. Those little old ladies call everyone honey and they recite the thread and grade chart from memory.

Click to expand...

Geez, Charlie, that brings back old memories.. Back where I grew up was a hardware store that had anything a person could need. It was owned by the Phillips family, but "Miss Ella" was the one that kept it going.. That lady knew more about hardware than any person, living or dead ever knew.. Store did not last long after she passed away.. She was probably the sharpest businessperson I ever met.. She knew every item in the store, treated customers well... but pity the fool that tried to get one over on her...

Water and Fire inside.

metlmuncher - I'll look tomorrow. It's been a while since I've used them. I remember them being fat enough to seal the flare and the nut together.

If you can't stick a thumbnail in them and make any kind of impression, they are too hard, plastic, forget 'em.

If you CAN stick your thumbnail in 'em, and they are resilient, spring back with just a trace of your impression, likely will hold. Compressible. If it can be compressed, at water line pressures, it will be sealed. Hand tighten, you got a seal.

Charlie, you ever been to the Herminie Feed Store? Burned down about 35 years ago. You wanted ANYTHING, you went there. They damned well had it. Might have not been made for 20 years, but if you needed it, they could probably go to the shelf or bin, or in my case, up to the attic to find it.

Loved the store. Had EVERYTHING. Like a "pick it up and touch it" Sears and Roebuck catalog. The STORE was always there. When the new Sears catalog came out, the old one went to the outhouse for as+wipers.

Ah, them was the good old days.

Coulda gone to them and bought an SB lathe, run it to death, 48 to 60 pieces per day, made a little bit of a living.

Now, you gotta go for a 1/4 million automatic machine, run full out, program a little wrong, 3 seconds too much per part, they come and repo the machine, you ain't making enough to pay the financing of it.

I feel for some of you. I can't help, but I can sympathize.

Cheers,

George

D;

Use a solid brass hose "barb" that screws onto
the faucet, and a hose clamp. They seal up better
than the cheap crap that the hose comes with.
If connecting two hoses together, just cut off the
ends and use a union hose barb and two hose clamps
to connect. Fast and cheap, and you don't have
to worry about leaks.

Jamie

Jamie- I use those barbs all the time but in this case I need to be able to disconnect on occassion (without hassel of using a screwdriver) as the hose is at a boat dock at the end of 200 foot pier.

charlieBiler;
AND NO ISO 900 BANNER. They go on service not paperwork that they produce that says they are service orientated.

Old Forge Hardware, Old Forge New York

Could tell you what you needed and WHY, not just page someone who SHOULD KNOW, and walk away.

Used to wander around those stores as a kid.

I wonder if thats what Heaven is like?

I just noticed that Doyle Hardware in Utica looks like it is gone, dumpster out front. 4-5 story old mill building, 60,000 sq feet easy. Not only did they have everything it was priced for when it was bought, pot belly stove, 1930's prices! Weird nails, original stock. Odd place really. When you went in a clerk would walk around with you and write up a ticket, when you paid at the check out they put your ticket and money in a basket that went up to a old lady on the second floor who made change and sent it back down. Don't think that this was a system that worked so well they just kept if from 100 years ago, they never knew where the simplest things were and there seemed to be some sort of territorial issue between the general hardware guys and the nail department, plus it took an hour to buy a pound of nails. Old Forge Hardware is the Venice of Hardware Stores.

surplusjohn;
Instead of paying a shrink $120 an hour, I travel to Old Forge and spend the money.

I'm MUCH better now!!!

I found the O-rings. I don't have a -number but I do have the dimensions - .750 ID, .165 thick, 1.080 OD. The first ones I had were promotional handouts from a bearings house, the ones I have now are in a bag that is marked specifically as being for garden hoses but there is no identity as to maker or part number, etc. I believe they came from a home and garden store of some sort, not an industrial supplier.

Gentlemen
The best gardenhose washer is the o-ring looking washer used on the GM 71 series diesel engine headgasket kit. I've used some for over 10 years and several hoses. They are slightly oversize so they stay put very well. I got mine from a mechanic and they were used ones removed during an overhaul.
Gary

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