How do I seal a garden hose against a nipple?

Question

I put a nipple on the end of a garden hose.  It leaks when I close the valve at the other end of the hose.

I have pushed the hose all the way up the nipple.  It's sealed really tight. I could barely get it off. I have tried using one and two hose clamps to seal it even tighter, without any success. What should I do?

The nipple and hose look like these:

mike · Accepted Answer

Assuming the nipple is not bent out-of-round or otherwise defective, and assuming the hose is not so old as to be brittle, cracked, inflexible, I'd suggest:

scrub clean the inside of the hose with, say, a tooth brush
let it dry well
apply almost any kind of caulk (silicone, construction, or ...) to the inside of the hose smearing it against the inside wall of the hose
apply more to the full length of the nipple
assemble 
apply hose clamps
use

Michael Karas · Answer

Just last month I was attaching new hose ends to repair some hoses at my daughter's house. I was using hose ends like these equipped with barbed ends and die cast clamps as shown:

I found that the hoses being repaired had molded in ridges inside the hose that interfered with the sealing of the barbed fittings. The drawing below shows what a cross section view of the end of the two types of hoses had inside:

I found it necessary to use a narrow very sharp blade to trim away the extra material on the inside of the hose. Without doing that the hose ends would leak no matter how hard I screwed down the clamps around the hose.

It makes me wonder if the hose manufacturers are putting those ridges inside the hose to discourage DIY repair and force more new hoses to be purchased.

valdonatas · Answer

That's easy - you have to tighten end of the hose on to the nipple using a hose clip like this:

How do I seal a garden hose against a nipple?

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