Ben Meadows Blog

Clean that Backpack Sprayer

While filling my bird feeders last weekend, I heard some salty language coming from my neighbor’s garage. Naturally I had to take a peek to make sure there wasn’t an engine block resting on his toes or some furry unwanted visitor snuggled in his hay bales. It turns out that after spraying his flowerbed in August, he left his backpack chemical sprayer pressurized. A few of the softer parts looked as though they’d recently housed small but damaging firecrackers.

The lesson here is to always clean and depressurize your sprayers after use. My neighbor was only out a few dollars in replacement parts, but his job was delayed a day.

To clean your Backpack sprayer you should:

1) Depressurize the sprayer
2) Empty leftover material into a proper storage container
3) Flush out tank with cool water, mild detergent or a neutralizing agent according to manufacturer’s instructions.
4) Empty tank and flush again. This time pressurize the tank and pump the water or cleaning solution through the sprayer to flush the pump, reservoir, shutoff handle and extensions. Nozzles should be removed when flushing the pump system. Clean nozzles before replacing.
5) Empty Sprayer and dry completely with a clean cloth or by hanging upside down with the filler cap removed.

Not only will properly cleaning and storing of your sprayer ensure it will be ready for next season, failure to do so could void the manufacturer’s warranty.

1 Comments:

  • Great comments. Some additional thoughts:
    - Release the pressure on your backpack to extend life of o-rings & gaskets

    - Perform regular preventative maintenance: clean unit, replace o-rings, grease moving parts if required,

    - When cleaning nozzles, use a soft-bristle brush. Do not use pins, nails, wire brushes, etc., which will damage tip.

    Andrew Greess
    www.birchmeierbackpacks.com

    By Anonymous Andrew Greess, at 1/03/2010 10:22 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home