Need a hand held sprayer

I know this topic has been discussed repeatedly before, and I’ve re-read some posts on it, but I’d like to bring it up again because there hasn’t been a lot of clear recommendations.

I’ve bought many hand held sprayers and only been satisfied with one (which they don’t make anymore). I own a couple back packs but need a good hand held (about 2 gal.) The last one I bought had a filter about the size of a pea and would plug up very quickly. The filter was completely worthless.

So I’m looking for one with a decent sized filter, good efficient hand pump (some of these hand pumps require a crazy amount of pumping to pump them up) and impervious to oils. I like an adjustable spray tip. We use hand helds all the time for spot spraying, so I’m not necessarily looking for a low end model. The two hand helds I’ve got now are pretty low end and I hate them.

Any suggestions? @alan has mentioned he likes his SP Systems Industrial Construction 20C sprayer, but I Googled that and couldn’t come up with anything. SP Systems makes lots of sprayers, but I want to get one that has been “field tested” by folks that have used a few hand held sprayers. In other words, if I’m going to spend over $100 on a hand sprayer, I don’t want to get the wrong sprayer.

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Lesco makes a tough 2 gal. hand can sprayer for about $36. I know they have stores in both St. Louis and KC. I have about 6 of these things, work very well and are adjustable, designed for most pesticides, oil and water. Lesco changed from Lesco to John Deere landscaping to Siteone name in the last few years, but they still have a good sprayer.

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I know what you mean. I only need hand held sprayers and most are worthless! I found one that works super well. It never leaks, 15 pumps is enough to start. The filter clogged once. The wand nozzle and barrel are brass. The filter is brass. But it was made for English Gardens nursery and no manufacturer info is one it.Mine is now 4 years old and works well, but now the trigger is getting worn, as it was used hundreds of time, if not thousands.

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Can’t help but wonder about the newer Chapin line of sprayers. 20+ years ago I bought a couple of metal 2 gallon Chapin hand helds. Still using one of them for spot spraying roundup. Always liked those sprayers although they were not strong sprayers. Since then I have purchased a plastic off brand hand held from one of the big box stores that I do not like. Piece of junk.

Best hand held sprayer that I ever used for spraying tall fruit trees was a sprayer that used a five gallon plastic bucket that my father gave me as a Christmas present 25 or so years ago. The filter end would go down in the bucket and the sprayer would pump against itself and it would really shoot that spray out there. Finally rusted out. Don’t know if they still make those types or not.

My 0.02 cents.

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I love my Chapin. It takes a lot of abuse (like left outside in the veggie patch an entire winter) still works great. 4th year running , no problems. I also bought a different sprayer just to keep for roundup. Not sure of the brand, only bought it because they didn’t have Chapin in the store. Piece of junk. Waste of money. Will only buy Chapin going forward.

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Just wanted to follow up on this thread. I ended buying a Smith r200 ag sprayer. I got it from Amazon for a little less than $60 including shipping and tax. I don’t have a lot of experience with higher end hand held sprayers (all the ones we’ve used were low end models). That said, I’m pretty impressed with this Smith sprayer.

Viton seals, good filter. Sturdy longer wand and longer hose to minimize bending over to spray weeds. Apparently parts like seals are replaceable. The pump is efficient and doesn’t require much pumping to pump it up. I like the tear drop shape because it doesn’t tip over very easy in my pickup. It also has a nice wand storage, so the wand doesn’t just float around. This seems like a quality sprayer to me.

Some of the negatives:

The hose, although seems like good quality, is soft and kinks when there is no pressure in the tank. It kinks right where it connects to the tank. It’s absolutely no problem with spraying because there is pressure, but my concern is that the hose could eventually weaken where it kinks. Probably not a big deal because one could probably cut out the bad part and re-hook it up.

The top could have a little better design. The top has some weak looking tabs w hich catch on the handle to unscrew the top. Those tabs look like they could eventually break, but at the same time they do look like they are made of a high quality rubberized plastic. If these tabs do break, they are part of a small insert that can be replaced. Beyond that, I don’t see anything else which might break easily.

Lastly, the adjustable spray tip puts out too much spray, regardless of the adjustment. However, they include two other fan tips with the sprayer, so I’ll probably switch to one of those. The sprayer takes Teejet tips, so that’s a positive.

The sprayer also includes a shoulder strap and a pressure regulator. I think both of those are worthless. I can’t figure out how anyone could pump up the sprayer easily hanging off one’s shoulder. The pressure regulator doesn’t put out enough spray.

Overall I was impressed with this sprayer. I don’t see much wearing out,and if it does, the parts are replaceable. I used it once and ordered another from Amazon.

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