It's that time of year in the south, rain is falling and weeds are growing.
So! pulled out the plastic fantastic garden spray I bought from the local hardware store last year for about $20, loaded it up with water and Roundup, gave it a few pumps and the bloody thing exploded, burst at one of the seams, grrrrrrr.
This is the second plastic unit I have purchased in the past few years that has failed, first was a Hills, another piece of rubbish.
So what to do, did an Ebay search and came up with this
Asked a few questions, sounded good, so ordered one, it arrived yesterday, have used it twice and so far am impressed, certainly a much better unit than the plastic ones.
Yep, quite a price difference but I hope this one will still be in service for many years to come.
That looks pretty good Santa, plus it comes with spare "O" rings etc. Would probably also make a good camping shower. I've had a few plastic ones disintegrate usually when full of poisons clearly labelled "do not allow to come in contact with skin". A bloke up Here on the Darling Downs died a few months ago after he was drenched with a herbicide.
Les has a Hills plastic sprayer, he is still using it after 10 years. He's never had a problem. I guess even the best ones will have a flaw in one or two.
J've used a Solo (425) 15l backpack sprayer for about 500 hours (ie on acreage), without fault.
Its robust, comfortable to carry, virtually leakproof (and thats a MAJOR concern when so close to chemicals), easy to clean and works well under a range of manually-adjusted pressures.
For sure, its not cheap...in any sense of the word.
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A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. ~ Lao Tzu
Same experience as you with hardware shop rubbish. I eventually did what I should have done in the first place and went to a farm produce supplier to get a Chapin, which is a quality unit like Solo. I also bought a quality extendable lance.
The sprayer you bought was a bargain with Viton seals. You wouldn't expect they would put quality Viton seals in if the rest wasn't good as well.
Same experience as you with hardware shop rubbish. I eventually did what I should have done in the first place and went to a farm produce supplier to get a Chapin, which is a quality unit like Solo. I also bought a quality extendable lance.
The sprayer you bought was a bargain with Viton seals. You wouldn't expect they would put quality Viton seals in if the rest wasn't good as well.
Seems to be well made John, everything about it is superior to the plastic stuff, I imagine time will tell.
kincrome make a good cheap one with Viton seals as well. the bloke that died was using Paraquat, not sure why he was using that, should only be sold to farmers as it is an S7.
My sprayer broke so now for my use (not a very big yard etc) I use the 5ltr packs of roundup which have their own hose and adjustable trigger spray on them, saves a lot of mucking around and suits my limited purposes...
