The other day I wen to clean my teeth with my Waterpik. I turned the Watepik on and something was wrong. Water was spraying on the wall. I thought I had the tip pointing in the wrong direction, but no. The hose was broken just below the handle. I didn’t want to have to buy a whole new unit just for a broken hose. I searched around the net and found I could get a new hose, but I thought I could use the hose I had. I just needed to figure out how to reattach it to the handle. I tried to figure out how to open the handle. I came close to hitting it with a hammer or prying it apart.
I continued searching, looking for into on how the replacement hose was supposed to attached, but I couldn’t find any instructions. I did find a replacement handle. I started thinking that I couldn’t reattach the hose to the handle I had. I ordered the replacement handle.
When the replacement handle came, I saw how it attached to the hose. I decided to see if I could use the old handle. I cut off the hose where the break was. There is a little plastic piece where the hose entered the handle. The piece locks the hose in place. Using a knife, I pried up the little piece to release the lock. The with the piece locked up, I pulled it out with some pliers.
Now with the lock removed, I needed to remove the small piece of hose. The hose is pushed onto a small plastic tube. I tried pulling the hose off, but that didn’t work. I ended up using a sharp pointed knife to slice the hose off the small tube. That worked.
I cleaned up the end of the hose. I slid the small plastic lock piece onto he hose. Then I pushed the hose onto the small plastic tube in the handle. Then I slid the lock piece down, and locked it into place.
My repaired Watepik works great. I still have the unused replacement handle. Not sure what I will do with it. I will probably just hang onto it in case the handle I have breaks.
Thanx for this explanation of how you were able to repair your waterpik device’s hose.
My hose also broke just as yours did, same place also, very near the handle.
Following your information I was able to fix mine also.
Sweet!
Comment by Clifton Buck-Kauffman — May 14, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
Clifton, I hope it works for you. I found that mine worked for a while, and the hose broke again. I fixed it again, and it broke again. I think the plastic hose became brittle. They do sell replacement hoses. I bought a newer model Waterpik, and have been using it. I don’t think it has quite the power of the older model. So I may buy the replacement hose, and fix the older one. I kept it just in case.
Comment by Rob — May 14, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
The fact of the matter is that a great product like WaterPik should not put any of us through this.
I believe that this brittle hose issue is known by WaterPik since it is mentioned in the replacement kit.
My older WaterPiks did not suffer from brittle hoses. Could this be someone’s new idea to make you buy a new one. After all, most people will not take the WaterPik apart to fix it.
It appears WaterPik has found a great replacement program idea.
As consumers, we should not be forced to fix an apparent design flaw.
Comment by Jim Alfaro — June 28, 2009 @ 10:25 am
To be successful with re-attaching the hose, you must cut off the damaged part of the hose and heat the end in boiling water before sliding it on to the handle’s tapered fitting. Don’t forget to already have the clamp further down the hose before starting.
Comment by Bill — October 15, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
I also had a hose break just under the handle. I don’t know if I have a different model (I have the WP 100W/C) but the procedure I used to mend it was a little different as the hose is attached deep inside the handle (just below the thumb-operated flow stop button) and the 2 pieces of the handle are not designed to be split apart, making the attachment point inaccessible. It was obvious that if I couldn’t fix it I would have to buy a replacement handle anyway, so inspired by this thread I decided to break apart the handle (using a knife to force the sides apart and break the glued pegs) and found the hose attachment as described above.
So the repair procedure for the WP 100W/C is:
* Break apart the handle halves using a knife (this is destructive but the only option other than buying a new one)
* Locate the attachment point just below the flow-stop valve.
* Slide the “lock tube” (a short –about 1/4–hard plastic tube just wider than the hose) away from the attachment point (may need prying away with a blade)
* Remove the “lock tube” from the broken hose end (and keep it safe).
* Cut the broken hose stub off the “barbed” plastic attachment peg using a scalpel (it wouldn’t pull off easily and if the peg breaks off it would not be repairable).
* Square up the end of the remaining hose with a blade (if the the break is not square)and slide the “lock tube” on to the hose.
* Push the hose all the way onto the barbed attachment peg (soften the end in boiling water if necessary).
* Slide the “lock tube” all the way up to the end of the hose.
Then you just have to find a way to reassemble the handle halves. I chose to tape them together with waterproof tape rather than re-glue them in case I have to make the repair again.
Comment by Steve Thorpe — November 17, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
I followed the instructions in the original posting plus warming the tube before inserting into the handle and fixed the tube break at the handle in a total of about three minutes. Thanks for all of your comments.
Comment by Selden Campen — December 13, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
Hi,
Try this. Cut the all ready broken hose.Make sure to remove the dent in the hose if any (that was the reason mine broke). Use a small piece (half inch, 1,5 cm) of the thin straw of a NEW WD Bottle to connect the two sides of the hoses again. The straw goes inside both ends and forms a bridge. After connecting run it with warm water and it will be snug as a bug. Cheap and easy!
Comment by Iemke — December 17, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
The PVC tubing will keep on splitting due to the nature of the material. The tubing needs to be semi-rigid in order to resist lateral expansion under pressure in order to maintain good “squirting” power at the business end. I know this because I tried replacing the white tubing with the more readily available clear vinyl tubing, which is more pliable.
It’s relatively easy to replace once the handle is pried open. There is half-round plastic collar that slides over the end of the tube to clamp it onto the nozzle.
In the end, I got rid of the handle assembly altogether because I never use the “Pause” button anyway and always have the blast pressure set at a maximum so the paraphernalia inside the handle was no longer needed.
I replaced the crappy PVC tubing with some .125″ OD/ 0.066″ ID black tubing that’s rated for 255 psi and used a short length of PEX tubing (household plumbing) to use as a handle.
A slotted hole was drilled in the side of the PEX for the black tubing to enter the handle. Silicone caulking was used to make a plug at the other end of the handle into which the glass nozzle could be inserted. The black tubing was inserted directly into the bottom end of the glass nozzle and it stays via friction.
A plastic drinking straw was inserted into the PEX tubing before squirting the caulking in, to pre-form a chase in the silicone through which the black tubing can easily slide and be pulled out the other end before being inserted into the glass nozzle. Then the blunt end of the glass nozzle, with the tubing jammed in place, slips nicely and tightly into the silicone plug.
Works great. and should the black plastic tubing ever need replacing, it will be easy to do because one doesn’t have to futz with that overly-complicated original handle.
Opening up the pump carcase is fairly easy. It’s just a matter of sticking four shims (flathead screwdrivers do the trick) into the joint on the underside, adjacent to the locking tabs to disengage them and then pry the two at the narrow ends and the outer shell then slides off.
Once the shell is off, everything on the inside can be slid apart including the part which has the nozzle onto which the other end of the hose needs to be fitted.
The hose end will need to be softened by soaking in boiling hot water and spread by inserting a pointed tool (ie a scratch awl) into the end.
It’s actually a lot easier than all these words make it out to be.
Comment by Garazgos — February 7, 2010 @ 7:55 pm