Use: Nonadhesive repair tape creates an air and water-tight seal.
Cost: $19.95 + $5.95 S&H = $25.90 total
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Fix It Tape is the brand name of a silicone-based, stretchable, nonadhesive tape that claims it can be used on everything from a garden hose to an electrical cord to provide an air and water-tight seal. It also claims to work even on damp, oily, or dirty surfaces.
In our tests Fix It Tape did stretch up to three times its length, as advertised, and sealed a cut in a shop vac hose. But when we tried sealing a split in a garden hose, the tape failed as soon as the water was turned on. The Fix It Tape we ordered came with little in the way of directions; and, at a cost of over $25 (43¢ per foot), was expensive as well.
Fix It Tape can be ordered online from the asseenontv.com website and comes in six 10’ long rolls in three different colors.
Watch the video above to find out more.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Allen Lyle: That’s right. We’re starting with the Fix It Tape. This is an all-purpose repair tape. It is silicone, non-adhesive. Ten feet in each roll. We’ve got six rolls. And this is how it comes, Danny, just like this in an envelope.
Danny Lipford: All right. How much did all this cost with shipping and handling and all that?
Allen Lyle: $19.95, $5.95 shipping and handling, you’re talking about almost $26 for six rolls, 60 feet. That’s a little over 43 cents for every foot you use.
Danny Lipford: Well, if it saves you a lot of repair costs it’s good; but, initially though that’s pretty expensive for a few rolls of tape.
Allen Lyle: It’s a little expensive to me. I think so. But here’s another thing. This is it. This is all you get with it. If you were going to do directions, Danny. That’s what you’ve got.
Danny Lipford: Wow! You don’t have to spend a lot of time reading directions, do you?
Allen Lyle: No, you actually have to go to their website to find the more precise directions. Basically, what they’re telling me is that the more you stretch it, the better the bond.
Danny Lipford: I get you. Okay.
Allen Lyle: That needs to be on this right here. It also says that it will stretch out over three times its length. I thought we’d try that first. You want to cut about a foot of this. Let’s see if we can get it to past three foot.
Danny Lipford: I’m going to hold it here, let’s see what happens.
Allen Lyle: Well, you hold that. Stretch. Oh, yeah, look here.
Danny Lipford: All right, that’s one claim that’s true.
Allen Lyle: Very good.
Danny Lipford: Now, will it repair anything?
Allen Lyle: Let’s try it. We’ve got a garden hose here that’s got a bit of a slit in it.
Danny Lipford: All right. Well, let me cut you a little piece of this. How long do you think? Six inches?
Allen Lyle: Oh, six should do it. Okay, now there’s our slit right there. Okay, so I’m gonna stretch this.
Danny Lipford: Okay. Here, you hold it. And let me turn it on here. Okay, you ready?
Allen Lyle: Yeah, go ahead. Didn’t work out.
Danny Lipford: What happened? So it just blew the side of it out?
Allen Lyle: Yeah. So I’m not real impressed with the water leak.
Danny Lipford: Well, maybe we should use more of it and everything. How about a vacuum hose?
Allen Lyle: We had a slit in this one, which I’ve already put some of the tape on. What I thought we’d do, Danny, is a little tissue paper.
Danny Lipford: Oh, I see, okay.
Allen Lyle: I’ll cover this end, and if that’s still leaking, it should hold the tissue paper to it.
Danny Lipford: All right. I know what to do next.
Allen Lyle: For air leak it looks like it’s pretty good.
Danny Lipford: Well, maybe on something like that, if you wrapped it up a little bit more, used a little bit more of the . . . you got plenty of tape.
Allen Lyle: At 43 cents a foot.
Danny Lipford: Right. Right. Well. Okay, it wouldn’t be long before you could buy
a new hose.
Allen Lyle: Oh, that’s true.
Danny Lipford: So, because the Fix It Tape is expensive, the directions are weak, if not incomplete, and it was only moderately effective, we’re giving it a two out of five rating.
