Teflon Tape Alternative for Corrosion Prevention in Garden Hose Couplings

For me garden hoses are a throwaway commodity, they are not built to last anymore...I use a 10' heavy duty hose from both ends of an expandable hose to prolong the life of the expandable hoses because they always seem to fail at the connection from stress...I don't use any connection lube, just make sure you have a good washer...another strategy is if you use water in a particular location on a regular basis and that location is some distance away, that you install a "Y" connection and run PVC underground to that location from the "Y" connection and add a hose bib at that location, then you can get by with a short hose...never leave a hose outdoors exposed to the sun....never leave a hose pressurized, turn off the spigot and relieve the pressure....

I'll try one on my next hose purchase, I'm stocked up right now....I like the expandable hoses because they don't require much effort to use...

If a connection has a rubber washer, no teflon should be necessary, the washer makes the water-tight connection. The metal parts should not corrode. If so, you are buying the wrong parts. The expandable hoses are handy, but do not last. A good quality hose, (buy as large as possible), with quality (brass) connections should last a very long time. Keep pliers handy, it may take two to un-do hoses sometimes. If you use the pliers to tighten the hoses, they probably won't come undone while moving them around.

Teflon tape is not being used as a water seal. Teflon tape is being used to keep parts from corroding together. High end hoses hopefully won't have threads corrode together. In coastal Florida we seem to have all Home Depot and/or Lowes hoses corrode together and corrode to the spray head. If using two hoses and one spray head then if any one item goes bad you throw away all three. Corrosion also prevents reconfiguration.

Man, you've got some really mean water! No problem like that here in Tennessee, and we use city water! Get two pair of Channel-Lock pliers and your troubles are over.

You might try soaking them in white vinegar to dissolve the deposits...

..." Vinegar and baking soda can also be combined to make a paste for scrubbing calcium deposits."...

...and you might try cu-al paste as a preventative measure....or this stuff...

I've never noticed corrosion on the spigot or hose. Maybe what you're seeing is galvanic corrosion.

If the hose fitting and spigot are made of different metals, what you have is a shorted out battery. This would be exacerbated if your water is somewhat brackish, which is more conductive than non-brackish water.

https://beplumbsmart.com/what-is-galvanic-corrosion/

"...Vinegar and baking soda can also be combined to make a paste..."

A paste? More accurately a foam.

How should aqueous sodium acetate help to scrub hard water deposits on hose fittings?

"Baking soda and vinegar are two of the most useful household products that can be used to clean many things, including hard water stains in the toilet.Sep 17, 2020"

https://www.thespruce.com/hard-water-stains-in-the-toilet-2719033

Is there a problem in your neck of the woods with getting plastic clicklock hose fittings? They are available everywhere this side of the pond and some are even directional to stop water being sent back into the supply line.

Metal hose fittings from my experience have some interchangeability problems with slightly different threads, imperial BSP or Metric, luckily no NPT much here. Besides that the metal hose fittings are 5 to 10 times the price of the plastic alternatives.

If I need to use a brass barb fitting into an alloy sprayer then I use Loctite 567 sealing compound, a white paste which should be used sparingly. It hangs on and prevents corrosion and can be undone and redone several times before needing another application.

Still here we have no town water, a close cousin of glyphosate for plants and caustic for car paint and window glass, and rely on dam water or rain water for all our watering. Bore water is a slightly less or more toxic equivalent of brackish water so that is out.

I'll look into it. I have been trying to avoid liquids or pastes due to the problem of sand if ever disassembled (and they will be). It burns me to be throwing away the expensive sprayer heads just because a hose went bad. During usage the head is pulled back and forth, up and down dragging the hose behind it. Teflon tape prevents corrosion but the hose and head just won't stay together.

Thanks.

I should have been more specific. It is galvanic corrosion. I don't have fuzz-balls growing on the hose connectors. I just have the items "welding" themselves to their mating item. I can take huge water pump pliers (channel locks) and twist until I start breaking things. The parts just don't come apart.

I don't recall this being true in the past but now when you shop HD/Lowes for a "good buy" on a hose and sprayer head and then a few weeks later go back for another "good buy" on more hose you will often end up with a mixture of brass, aluminum and mystery metal.

I guess there is a lesson to learn here. At $12 -$18 for a sprayer head and $30+ for a hose I don't really feel like being "upsold" to a better investment. There is a problem to deal with. I don't think HD/Lowes can be a consistent source for items if you want brass-only sprayer heads of the type my wife uses and brass-only ends on hoses. Thus, I am trying to make peace with HD/Lowes items.

I'll Google a "plastic clicklock hose fitting". I don't know if we have them by different names or if they are only sold on your side of the pond.

I'll give it a try. Thanks.

I never heard of Cu-Al paste. That is good to know about for a variety of reasons.

After the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire I thought aluminum wiring was gone. Wikipedia doesn't seem to list it but over the years many people have told me that the fire was caused by aluminum wiring.

Phew, I was beginning to think I was on another planet. Over here Hozelock is the brand leader:

But I got better mileage from a lookalike set from Poundland (about $1.4).

Here's a selection from the range:-

Careful with the plastic quick couples.
My kids like to "throw" the hose down and I've snapped quite a few. (And that is a HUGE hurry sensor issue.)
I spent some money and upgraded to metal ones I found on Amazon.
Prior to the quick connects, my hoses just kept getting smaller. I'd cut off the corroded ends and replace with a "repair" kit.
With the quick connects, I can keep a spare hose lying around waiting for a quick change. Then, fix connection later when I really have time.
Next time I upgrade them, I'll find ones that have shut offs or don't allow water if not connected to something.
By the way, I live in an area that even Culligan won't attempt putting in a water softening system. I'm used to replacing plumbing regularly due to the mineral deposits.

Yes both aluminum and copper wire can cause fire when connections are loose, or corroded, or overloaded....check your mains and breakers for overheating with an IR gun as a regular maintenance procedure....

Plastic sprayers are the best, easiest to take on and off...I used to have the same problem...a case where the cheapest is the best, haha...

Teflon tape on its own will not jam the threads. I always use some hemp with teflon tape over the top. Teflon keeps it neat and sealed until the hemp swells up to keep it tight.

Hi Bruce, this is what I mean by click lock, they go under many different name for the same device the same thing.

I keep a tin of the fittings and when they break it is just a matter of replacing the broken bit and at the price it is no deal breaker. The metal ones here often are not interchangeable between brands so I gave up on the brass ones even on the pressure washer supply line.

The neck sizes vary as do the position of the snap ring or groove which means they appear to hold until the water is turned on but only decouple when you are in a hurry in your best clothes, never when you are wearing a raincoat.

I usually think of hemp as a fiber product like rope. What form of hemp are you using on threads?

Another problem with cheap brass fittings is that some manufacturers use free machining brass which contains a fair amount of zinc. Water supplies that are alkaline or acidic can "leach" the zinc out of the fitting and you end up with a brittle porous copper fitting. See this on fittings used around waste water treatment plants.

Aluminum and brass make a 1.0 VDC battery, some of the Junior Scientist books show the kids how to make a battery using brass strips and aluminum foil along with a little lemon juice to make a crude battery. Aluminum and Stainless Steel make a weak battery, if the Stainless is passivated, the aluminum takes a beating, if the stainless is not passivated, it rusts.

The option on the garden hose is to make sure the brass coupling is not plated or have a plastic coating.

Probably something like this...

I've tried those quick connect fittings and they always leak like a sieve...

Must be poorer quality over there as even the cheap shop ones here work without leaking and the O rings can be bought by the packets of 10.

Always leave them connected as the UV rots the O rings.

Hi Randall, Hozelock is available here as well but do I really need the RR of hose fittings. The cheap knockoffs work just fine for us.

Oxguard is nasty poisonous stuff. I use it for my wiring to Al but It's a good idea to wash up afterward.

I use Great White pipe dope and brass fittings on my commercial grade hoses with no trouble at all and the Great White is nontoxic and approved for use on potable plumbing fixtures as well as gas.

It is soft set and has teflon in it too.

I have a couple of hoses with aluminum fittings and those are the ones that get stuck! I prefer brass. I use one of the hoses (G-force) as a feed for my wet cut diamond saw as it stows well in the bag with the saw and can be easily drained prior to putting it away.

The other is use on the patio and it s@cks to work with if I have to disconnect it! But it too stows away well and the boss likes it.

I think the problem is that the EPA is trying to to get all lead out of plumbing parts. No telling how many people have died from drinking from a hose!

Anyway, I just smear waterproof grease on the threads and they seem to come apart fairly easily. Just last weekend, my wife brought me a couple of hoses that she didn't grease before assembly and I was able to finally get them apart by spraying with Fluid Film, letting them soak for 30 minutes, then using a pair of 24" pipe wrenches on them. I thought the fittings were going to break, but they actually came apart. Don't know if they can be put back together or not.

Not only did I drink from garden hoses, I would clinch the lead shot onto my fishing lines using my teeth.

Probably explains a lot . . . .

. . . but I'm not dead yet.

I'm not worried about the split shot I clinched onto fishing line with my teeth, but, I hate to think how much lead shot I've swallowed in pigeons and rabbits shot by my Dad.

" . . . that too shall pass."

That is correct. Plumbers hemp.

Plumbers normally wrap hemp on the pipe threads then apply graphite Grease over the hemp so it will come undone and help seal. The Hemp expands when it gets wet to keep the joint sealed

We don't need lead in plumbing now although the word "plumbing" comes from the Roman word for the metal, plumbum. (The English word lead is AngloSaxon.) It is good if EPA is trying to eliminate it, as we can now use plastics (which are all nontoxic, despite popular myth-information) and other metals. I doubt if many people died from lead in garden hose fittings, as it is insoluble in neutral or alkaline water, and is a cumulative agent that retards mental development. I'm more worried about the bacteria in the garden. There is a debatable legend that the Roman Empire collapsed because only the rich ruling class had lead-piped water in their homes, and their offspring became more and more retarded. It doesn't quite work that way.

Replacement hose end fittings are available.Simply cut off the bad fitting and install a new one.Use plastic fittings except at the faucet,where there is a lot of stress on the hose.Make sure you use a good silicon washer,and a thin coating of Vaseline at the metal faucet will prevent seizing.

I've been plumbing all my working life, never seen any thing like hemp, or graphite used on plumbing threads. Yes, it's probably used in packing for boat drive shafts, valve stems, and such rotating joints. For threads it was pipe dope, whatever that's made of, a glue-like substance that was hell to undo, and then teflon tape and paste. I've also used gasket cement, that was the stuff difficult to undo.