My butt has a crack and it's leaking ......

[Rollerball]

Water butt that is.

So I have one of these:

Cloudburst 200 Litre Water Butt Kit

Collect roof rainwater with a 200 litre water butt, lid, stand, tap and diverter kit. Made in the UK from recyclable plastic.

evengreener.com

which is about ten years old

it has a vertical crack very low down on one side, about 3 inches long.

I've sealed it inside with bathroom silicon sealant a few times over the past couple of years and it holds for a few months then opens a fraction of a millimetre wider which messes up the sealant's seal and the leak recommences . Also drilled out the top and bottom of the crack and that has at least stopped it getting any longer.

I know about 'welding' it with plastic and a heat gut but given the location of the crack (near the base so more pressure) I doubt if that would hold.

There's some tapes on the market but they're not cheap and on reading reviews they're not that good.

So any other ideas I could try please to save some money or should I replace my butt?

 

[Stivino]

Maybe caulking the crack will help.

 

[Rollerball]

Which particular caulking material would you recommend ?

 

[Mr Chibs]

Stick this in your butt .

Hot staples and araldite.

 

[Rollerball]

An interesting suggestion, thank you.

 

[JohnD]

take it to the tip and get a new one. Perhaps the plastic has perished and cracked after exposure to sunlight. If the old construction has failed I'm sure no patch will be as sound as the original construction that has failed.

if you want a cheap substitute, you can get plastic dustbins very cheaply in places like Wilko. It will last for a while

my current waterbutt I saw advertised secondhand on local facebook. Bloke clearing out his shed and garden.

 

[Charlie George]

Have you tried a butt plug? or a strap on to pull the crack closer and seal it with quick drying cemen t.

 

[StephenOak]

I know about 'welding' it with plastic and a heat gut but given the location of the crack (near the base so more pressure) I doubt if that would hold.

Interesting, I thought the exact opposite about a crack near the base, that the increased pressure there would hold the plastic 'patch' on.

I used a patch (from a milk carton) that was quite a bit bigger than the crack and then sealed the edges with silicon sealant.

That was a long time ago, many years, and it has held since then. If you want I can probably find out when and some photos.

take it to the tip and get a new one. Perhaps the plastic has perished and cracked

And perhaps it hasn't perished. 10 years is not that old and they are made of pretty thick plastic. So unless it obviously looks degraded a repair is the first option.

 

[StephenStephen]

Roughen it up with some coarse sandpaper and glue a patch on with milliput...

 

[ellal]

Have used gorilla tape and then a quick blast of a heat gun in the past and it's worked well...

The only problem is as your leak is at the bottom of your butt it's difficult to enter and extract yourself without some difficulty

 

[Rollerball]

Thanks.

Thankfully my butt is pretty wide, but using anything that generates fumes isn't a good idea if my head is inside it at the time.