Can soaker hoses be repaired?

I have some soaker hoses that are already in place and moving them would be a major project and possible fatal to some of my plants. They have gotten holes in them that allow the water to escape, thus not enough pressure builds up in the hoses. Is there anything I can do without completely replacing them?
Thanks,
Lisa

they make a hose splicer. looks like a coupler go to the hard ware store and tell them you want one for putting a hose back together that is brok in the middle . if you have several places get several but beready for a shocker they are a lil high and you need to know what size the hose is to . good luck

OK thanks the price cant be any worse then a whole new hose and the labor involved

that is true ; )

The hard rubber ones are pretty easy with couplers the right size for the soaker hose. HOWEVER! I don't splice like that any more because several times the section downstream from the repair just would not deliver water at the same rate as the upstream piece. Very annoying.

The soft hose, the ones with the fabric on the outside, is trickier. The only way I've made the repair work is to saturate the fabric and plastic at the cut off ends with Goop or similar glue and to bind them down hard with stainless screw down clamps.



This message was edited Jun 2, 2010 12:22 PM

Its the hard rubber kind. That's whats happening now because the water is leaking out the stream is weaker after the leak.
TarHeel- if you don't splice like that anymore what do you do?
If I were to replace these now I would really have to tear stuff up.

Would 'duct tape' work ? It saved Apollo 13 so I figure it can save anything...

I also use duct tape for these purposes as well. they don't do 100% of controlling leak but I will take it for 90%.

I'm in for DT as well. I used it where my soaker went from one area to another, so it was a LITTLE less swampy. I wrapped the area I wanted to keep dry(er) in dollar store duct tape, and it did just fine. Didn't interfere with the flow, but kept it directed where I wanted it.
This year I have two hoses....*G*

there is a plumbers tape that sticks to itself--i have even fixed them when they were wet! the tape is expensive but cheaper than replacing, at least a few times. it would be perfect for in situ repair. the tape goes further than you might think because you stretch it as you put it on, and it is quite stretchy.

"stretch & seal" is the name of the product i got.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2010 5:03 PM

I hate to admit I did think about Duct Tape. I'll try it if it doesn't work I will look into the plumbers tape. THANKS

Thanks TH but DT seems easier.

I've never tried duct tape (didn't think about it) but I will next time.

I have a geyser in one of mine, but I just live with it. The back part of the grden gets a shower and the first box needs to be hand watered, but I can live with it until I decide to redo the whole ki'n'kaboodle!

I can't because when I go out of town I can't trust other people to hand water some of the garden, its enough work as it is.

I don't trust anyone anyway, so I just limit my trips in the summer to 3 days or less!

My family in CA would never speak to me again, with the kids summer is pretty much the only time I can go. I have 2 horses, 2 donkeys, 4 goats, 2 pigs, 2 dogs, some cats and a few other things. One of the dogs is diabetic so needs shots twice a day.
The one hose had multiple holes so there was not much pressure in it, so nothing got watered well.
The duct tape worked ok. I have some friends that do a great job. Sometimes the garden looks better when I have been away for a couple of weeks.

I have to go away for 10 days in July, and I'm already worrying about it :(. It's for my Mom's 93rd Birthday, so I want to go, but leaving all my furred, feathered and flowered babies is very hard....

On thing I found with duct tape is it tended to leak out the ends of the repairs. Hose clamps fixed that, even though there's now a duct tape balloon.