I mentioned this on another topic but thought I’d start the discussion again since many with small orchards could probably benefit from input from others on spray equipment and although my experience with battery sprayers is limited the contrast between the products I tried is huge. I hope others will share their experiences- most of us have all winter to make purchasing decisions. .
I had a a two gallon battery Jacto sprayer that was adequate for spot spraying but when the small rechargeable battery pack wore out, I was annoyed to see a replacement would be $80 given how short lived the first one was. The company doesn’t even keep them in stock. The sprayer now has a standard price of $239.
I decided to order a Ryobi sprayer of similar size for $139, but with the battery and charger it ends up costing over $200, unless you find a deal, which is certainly possible. I gave it a try because I had recently purchased a Ryobi battery powered stapler which works very well. The sprayer- not so much. I won’t go into details but the design is poor for at least 3 important reasons.
During the growing season I saw a man with a 4 gallon backpack sprayer working for a major spray company in our area. It was putting out a lot of spray for a small sprayer so I asked him who made it. I ended up purchasing one for $229 which included the price of the house battery and shipping (they offer custom attachments to other batteries such as Milwaukee).
We are at the end of the spray season, so I’ve barely used it but it works so damn well for the price that I decided to post this because this is all the sprayer people need for a typical backyard orchard.
It reaches 100 PSI which doesn’t really tell the story. It puts out about 3X the material as the other sprayers I mentioned here. It also has the most comfortable harness I’ve ever seen on a backpack sprayer and is in all other ways well engineered. For a bit more money they have a 5 gallon sprayer that gets up to 150 PSI.
It is designed for professionals and comes with a 2 year warrantee, which hopefully means it will last. However, it is too early for anyone to take this endorsement as truly solid. I’m very happy for now.
I assume they are able to price their product as low as they do because they sell their product directly to their customers and don’t advertise.