How to Repair and Maintain Outdoor Taps and Fittings

February 14, 2025

Most tap problems are a couple of dollars and 10 minutes

An outdoor tap is one of those things you don't think about until it stops working, and then you're standing in the yard with the hose in one hand wondering why the water is going everywhere except where you want it. The good news is that most of what goes wrong with a garden tap is a small part and a bit of time, so before you ring anybody it's worth having a look yourself, because I reckon the tap will usually tell you what's wrong with it if you know what you're listening for.

What the tap is telling you

Where the water comes out matters more than how much of it there is, and it points at a different part every time.

It drips from the spout while it's turned off. That's the jumper valve, which is the little rubber washer sitting down inside the tap body, and it's the fault you'll hit most often.
It weeps around the handle while it's turned on. That's the O-ring on the spindle rather than the washer, so a new washer won't fix it and you'll want both parts in your hand before you start.
It's gone stiff to turn. The spindle thread has usually dried out, or the washer has flattened and bonded itself to the seat.
The flow has dropped off. Take the hose fitting off and look at it before you pull the tap apart, because grit and scale collect in the fitting long before anything goes wrong inside the tap.

Changing the washer

You'll want a shifting spanner and a screwdriver, and the whole job runs about 10 minutes once the water is off.

Turn the water off at the meter, or at the isolating valve if there's one on that line, then open the tap and let it drain.
Take the handle off, which is usually one screw under a plastic cap on top.
Undo the bonnet, the hexagonal collar under the handle, with the shifting spanner, and lift the whole spindle out.
Pull the old jumper valve off the bottom of the spindle and take it with you when you come in, because sizes vary and matching the old one beats guessing.
Fit the new washer, wind a bit of thread tape onto the bonnet thread, put it all back together and turn the water on slowly.

When a new washer doesn't fix it

This is the part most instructions skip and it's why people end up buying the same washer three times. Every time a tap gets cranked shut hard the washer presses onto a brass seat down inside the body, and after enough years that seat goes pitted and scored, and once it's rough no washer on earth will seal against it. You can feel it with a fingertip while the tap is apart. The fix is to reseat it, which is a tool that shaves the brass seat flat again, and it takes about a minute while everything's already in pieces. So if you've just put a washer in and it's still dripping, the washer isn't the problem and another one won't help.

Turning it off properly is the whole trick

A tap only needs closing until the water stops, and every extra half turn after that is crushing rubber onto brass, which is exactly how a washer goes flat and how a seat gets chewed up. The commonest reason a washer gives up early is that one last heave for luck when the tap gets shut. Leaving it a fraction open is no better, because a slow trickle wears a groove in the washer, so the honest answer is to close it until it stops and then leave it alone.

Sun is the enemy here, not frost

A lot of what you'll read about looking after an outdoor tap was written for places that freeze solid every winter, and around here that isn't really the problem. What wrecks a tap and its fittings in this part of the world is ultraviolet, because plastic connectors go chalky and brittle in the sun and then split the first time you give the hose a good tug. Brass fittings cost a bit more and they don't care about sunlight at all, so I'd put brass on any tap that lives out in the open and save the plastic ones for somewhere shaded.

Where the leaks actually come from

Once the tap itself is sorted, the joins are next, and there are only two of them worth worrying about. The threaded join between the tap and the wall wants thread tape, wound the same way the fitting turns so it doesn't unravel as you tighten. The join where the hose meets the tap wants a hose washer, which is a flat rubber ring that sits inside the fitting and costs almost nothing, and a fair few "leaking taps" are a perished one of those.

Shop related products

Renew 20mm Hose Cock Male Rough Brass. A straight replacement garden tap when the old one is past repairing.
Pope 12mm Brass Tap Adaptor 20BSP. Brass adaptor to take a 12mm hose fitting off a 20mm tap outlet.
Pope 12mm Soft Grip Hose Connector. The connector on the hose end, easier to get on and off with wet hands.
Pope 12mm Hose Stop Connector. Shuts the water off at the hose end so you're not walking back to the tap.
Pope Simple Set Single Tap Timer. Screws onto the tap and waters for a set time on its own.

Did you know we also keep the repair bits in the shop that never made it onto the website. Jumper valves in the common sizes, hose washer packs, thread tape, hose repairers for when you cut the hose with the whipper snipper, and the reseating tool and tap spanner kit if the seat is the problem rather than the washer. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.