Mrs. L.A. bought one of those expandable hoses a year or so ago, and it’s sprung a leak. I bought a can of Flex Seal, but the leak is in the interior hose and cant be shot because of the sheath.
How about cutting the hose and putting a male and female hose coupling on? Can that be done? (Obviously, it can be done since there’s one on each end. I mean is it something anyone can do?) What size hose ends would I use?
They make such things that only require a screwdriver to put on plus something to cut the hose. I don’t know if they make them for the size yo uneed.
Here’s an expensive brass one
I’d probably do a male-to-male barbed coupler like this held in place by a worm gear hose clamp on each side. If you can find the hose clamps individually the total cost should be less than $3.00.
Aside from the cost, is there a reason to use a coupler instead of hose ends? (FWIW, I was planning to use hose clamps anyway. My motto is: If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing!)
The plus is there will be less places for it to leak.
The minus would be that you are limited to one length of hose.
FWIW, I’m not doing anything until the replacement hose arrives.
IME, those expandable hoses are essentially non-repairable. The way they work is the inner rubber lining is very thin, and the outer sheath is lined with longitudinal elastic bands. So when there’s no pressure in the hose, the elastic can pull the rubber liner to a shorter length, when there is pressure, the rubber liner stretches the elastic and the hose expands to its full length.
The problem is that when the rubber liner springs a leak (which doesn’t take much), the normal replacement hose ends don’t fit. They’re designed for a standard thick walled hose. - you insert the replacement nozzle into the hose end, which is normally a very tight fit, then put the clamp around the attachment point. But on the expandable rubber hose, the thin & flexible rubber liner doesn’t really catch onto the nozzle well, and the clamp doesn’t have enough material to hold it all together. And if you tighten it too much, it cuts right through the liner and into the thin rubber lining. So it leaks a lot, and falls off frequently.
Bingo, a solid coupling give your repair one less place to leak.
I was wondering about this as well. Not sure one can repair one of those type hoses. I haven’t tried, so gave my answer from the standard hose repair perspective.
There are a few specialty connectors like these for expanding hoses. I don’t know if they work, or last if they do, and at $10 for the cheap ones the money is better spent on another hose.
Those hoses aren’t strong. I know someone who had their hose burst after leaving it pressurized for a few hours. Someone else had one spring a leak from rubbing against a deck post.