Help! My waterbutts leak!

[smileyt]

Hi folks. I was wondering if anyone had any bright ideas on how to stop my waterbutts leaking? I have two shop-bought ones which are ok (although one must have a teeny hole as there is a very slow drip) and two wheelie-bins. The wheelie bins leak from the tap fitting (not the tap itself) in spite of having washers attached.

I did buy some quite expensive aluminium/bitumen waterproofing tape and spent ages pressing this round the taps and carefully squodging it round the fittings, but to no avail.

What else can I use? I know I'll have to wait until the butts are empty now (they have filled up with all the rain we've had in the past few days). At the moment I have buckets underneath to catch the drips but this isn't practical on a long term basis.

Any suggestions? Is there some kind of putty I can get to squeeze around the tap fitting? Or a silicon sealant that will cope with summer heat (the yard is south facing so when the sun shines it can get quite hot) and freezing winter temperatures?

I'm a bit peed off as I spent ages pushing the taps through the holes as it was such a tight fit (used a 25mm wood drill bit) and now the blinkin things are leaking!

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Chef]

The wood drill bit would be the prob, probably roughed the edges right up boring through, this is a square flat bit with a point on the end yeah? Need to file down those holes carefully and then use some good silicon or rubber washers and take all the gunk off, I'd say it's the uneven edges from using the wood bit are your prob.

[jansman]

Ou can use "Milliput" to gunk it up. After doing what Chef says. It is an epoxy resin that will withstand heat, water,radiation( only joking there),and is the best kept secret in the construction trade. I use it on fittings to my water catchment.

[bulldogeagle]

have found standard water butts, those fitted with taps, to have this inherent weakness, so we have dispensed with them and use the industrial large blue butts instead, without a tap, and dip out of it instead.

[smileyt]

Thanks guys. I will have to wait until the butts are empty and then fix them. Here's hoping we get a few weeks of dry weather so I need to use up the water ..... (no laughing at the back, we might get some dry weather .....)

[woodpecker]

You might need to take the tap out and put a new one in, but use a proper hose tap and put some of that PTFE tape on the threads.

If you have a leak in the barrel you might be able to fix it with some silicone sealant and greenhouse tape.

[tigs]

you could try a food grade silicon http://www.sealantsonline.co.uk/Product ... afe-mastic

[short circuit]

I think personaly the best thing to do with all waterbutts is to do away with the water tap at the bottom and and use a hand pump saves you hours of messing about meanding leaking taps

[ForgeCorvus]

Thanks guys. I will have to wait until the butts are empty and then fix them. Here's hoping we get a few weeks of dry weather so I need to use up the water ..... (no laughing at the back, we might get some dry weather .....)

Just need to wait until they're low enough to empty one into the others... Fix that one then transfer the water from another...Rinse and repeat


PTFE tape on the threads... Wind it the right way round and don't over tighten




SC: hand pumps can't be used to gravity-feed an irrigation system, taps can