The aim of this work is to develop hydrophobic coatings for outdoor insulators using sputtering technique. Hafnium oxide is characterized by high dielectric constant, large band gap (5.6 eV), high refractive index (2.1) and good mechanical, thermal and chemical properties. Hence HfO2 is suitable as a protective coating for outdoor insulators used in the transmission line and transformers. Hafnium oxide coatings were deposited on glass substrates by DC magnetron sputtering technique at a sputtering pressure of 5 mTorr, 10 mTorr, 15 mTorr, 20 mTorr and 25 mTorr. The deposited films were characterized by techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), water contact angle goniometry and UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer. The average crystallite size calculated from XRD peaks shows that it increases with increase in sputtering pressure up to 15 mTorr and then it starts decreasing. The roughness calculated from AFM images shows the similar trend. The deposited films were found to be hydrophobic and transparent. The hydrophobicity of the films was correlated with the roughness calculated from AFM. The effect of sputtering pressure was also investigated on optical band gap and refractive index calculated from transmission and absorption data. The electrical resistivity was found to be high, thus ensuring insulating property of the deposited films. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.