How do I fix a leaking garden hose connection?

Question

I just moved to a new house last week. Today I tried connecting several garden hoses to the both spigots. Each combination of hose and spigots leaked water (more like sprayed) below the connection before the hose (I'm not sure what to call this part). I hand tightened each one. I also used a wrench to make sure the connection was tight without over tightening. I thought that the hoses were old so I bought a new one from Target which comes with a new rubber washer and connected it to both spigots. The same thing happened.

Am I doing something wrong here? Any suggestions? Could the spigots be defective?

Answer 1

God, I hate garden hose connectors. They are complete crap.

The main problem in your case is that the male end is too shallow. You fix this by using a file or grinder to grind down whatever is preventing the coupler from screwing completely on.

Answer 2

If it's leaking there, on a brand new hose with brand-new washer, I'm going to have to bet on the threads on the hose spigot being damaged. That should be evident if you look at them, and may be amenable to fixing with a triangular file.

The hose is not tightened, so the rubber seal is not sealing on the end of the spigot. If it's cross-threaded, or suffering thread damage, it may not be possible to tighten it until it's either put on correctly, or the damage is removed. If it's been cross-threaded with excessive force, the threads will also be damaged.