Choosing the Right Pressure Sprayer for Your Lawn and Garden
You work hard in your yard, hoping for luscious, thick grass and gorgeous, weed-free flower beds. You aim to have the most beautiful garden or lawn on the block. But it would help if you had the right tools to make those goals a reality—and one of the most important tools you can choose is your pressure sprayer.
Here’s everything you need to know about pressure sprayers, whether they be hose end sprayers, backpack sprayers, or handheld (or compression) sprayers—from what you should use them for to why they will save you time, energy, and money as you cultivate the best yard on the block by using a garden sprayer.
What is a Pressure Sprayer?
A pressure sprayer allows you to spray and dust areas of your lawn and garden with anything you need to treat your outdoor spaces. That includes water, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, or even air. Many garden sprayers apply that pressure using compression—an invaluable tool in your arsenal.
Why Do You Need a Pressure Sprayer for Your Garden?
The question should be: Why wouldn’t you need a pressure sprayer? No project is successful without the right set of tools, and garden sprayers certainly make it easier to apply lawn and garden products. Pressure sprayers are essential when tackling many seasonal lawn care responsibilities like:
- Watering your grass, flowers, or vegetable gardens
- Fertilizing your lawn or flower gardens
- Applying herbicides and insecticides throughout your outdoor spaces
- Feeding plant food to your greenery
- Cleaning your patio with water or chemicals
What Functions Does a Pressure Sprayer Fulfill?
Pressure sprayers are essential because they serve a functional purpose in completing lawn care tasks.
The four main functions of a pressure sprayer include:
- Breaking chemical solutions into fine droplets that are an effective size to be absorbed
- Uniformly distributing the droplets over the plants
- Regulating the amount of liquid applied to the plant to avoid excess application
- Applying chemicals with sufficient pressure to touch even the hardest-to-reach plants
The 3 Types of Pressure Sprayers We Love to Choose Froom
Just like there are many uses for sprayers, different types of lawn and garden sprayers can be used for different outdoor tasks.
Our three favorite types are:
- Handheld sprayers (sometimes known as compression sprayers)
- Hose end sprayers
- Backpack sprayers
What is a Handheld Sprayer?
A handheld sprayer is a portable tank with an attached wand or nozzle that uses compression to turn liquid into a fine spray. And it’s easy to use: Just hold the handheld sprayer in one hand and the wand (if it has one) in the other.
When To Use a Handheld Sprayer
Use a handheld sprayer to easily spread applications to smaller gardens and lawn spaces, like soil and mineral amendments or organic liquid fertilizers. Our handheld sprayers are known for efficiency and allow a consistent application of any product because of an in-tank filter that prevents clogging. (We’re especially proud that Popular Mechanics has named our handheld sprayer one of the 12 best garden pump sprayers for a great-looking lawn.)
How to Use a Handheld Sprayer
The best part about using a handheld sprayer is its ease—just like the name implies, it fits in one hand. Ours features an adjustable spray nozzle that transitions water or product streams easily utilizing a compression pump (it can go from a fine mist to a thick stream with a simple twist), an ergonomic handle to prevent hand and wrist fatigue, and an anti-clog filter to ensure continuous spraying.
Just fill the mouth of the handheld sprayer with your product and let the compression pump take over. And it’s a powerful tool, spraying between 40 and 60 PSI under 25 strokes, while reaching 25 feet vertically and 23 feet horizontally.
When is a Handheld Sprayer Not the Right Tool to Use?
Handheld sprayers are great tools when feeding flowers with fertilizer, rejuvenating plants with water or plant food, killing weeds with herbicide, misting beehives with water, and cleaning around your home and garden. However, if you have a large yard or garden you’re trying to spray, choose another tool besides the handheld sprayer. Fertilizing a large lawn, for example, would be easier with a backpack sprayer.
What is a Hose End Sprayer?
A hose end sprayer attaches to the end of a garden hose; products are then mixed into the water from the hose and distributed to your lawn or garden. Our reusable bottles incorporate a universal hose end attachment to connect to any water hose, giving you the ability to mix and dispense many different lawn and garden solutions.
When to Use a Hose End Sprayer
It’s best to use a hose end sprayer to apply lawn and garden products over a larger area than you would apply products using a handheld sprayer—say, a vegetable garden, cut flower garden, or a medium- to large-size section of your lawn. Hose end sprayers are great when it comes to applying almost any lawn and garden product, like liquid fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides that you need to spread widely over an area.
Our hose end sprayer’s 100-gallon application capacity and built-in anti-siphon feature are perfect for tackling your medium-sized lawn and garden projects. With options for multiple spray patterns, you can mist your concoction using the fan nozzle or select a continuous spray for more direct application.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind when considering a hose end sprayer. When choosing a hose end sprayer, consider if it can be customized for different product-to-water ratios. Also, confirm whether it automatically mixes liquid concentrate with water to ensure a consistent ratio every time.
How to Use a Hose End Sprayer
The great thing about a hose end sprayer is how easy it is to use. Simply connect your water hose to the hose end sprayer, hold the ergonomic handle, pull the trigger, and there you have it! Apply your garden or lawn care products with ease.
When is a Hose End Sprayer Not the Right Tool to Use?
Hose end sprayers are great for applying products over a large area where precision isn’t as key—think fertilizing your lawn, for example. However, some have found it hard to mix product concentrations while simultaneously using a hose end sprayer, so in instances where precision is necessary, it might be best to use another type of sprayer, like a handheld sprayer for smaller projects or a backpack sprayer for larger ones.
What is a Backpack Sprayer?
A backpack sprayer can be worn on your back (although it doesn’t have to be) and offers a helpful way to cover a lot of ground with a product quickly. They are great because they offer consistent spray coverage and can be especially useful for tackling hard-to-reach areas. Our backpack sprayer also provides you with a battery-charged option with adjustable PSI, so we are sure this is the sprayer you’ll gravitate to for every large outdoor project.
When to Use a Backpack Sprayer
Backpack sprayers make a lot of sense when you don’t have a water hose hookup nearby and are especially great for applying products like organic garden fertilizers or lawn weed killers to a large yet concentrated area. At its highest output, our backpack sprayer can spray over 76 gallons of product at a distance of 30 feet—making it the most powerful of the three sprayers in our arsenal and your best sprayer for large lawns and gardens.
How to Use a Backpack Sprayer
Either adjust our backpack sprayer’s ultra-thick straps to wear the padded foam back comfortably or hand-carry the backpack sprayer using the ergonomic handle to monitor the front-facing battery lights—however it’s most comfortable for you. Our three quick-connect nozzle attachments will help you adjust the pressure accurately to accomplish whatever project you’re tackling.
When is a Backpack Sprayer Not the Right Tool to Use?
While a backpack sprayer is great for tackling huge projects, like applying weed killer at once to your entire lawn, it’s not the best option for gently applying lawn and garden products, especially to very small or targeted areas. For delicate projects, choose another sprayer, like a handheld sprayer or a hose end sprayer.
How Do Handheld Sprayers, Hose End Sprayers, and Backpack Sprayers Apply Compression?
One of the most popular reasons to use a sprayer is to apply a product using compression. A garden sprayer uses a pump to fill the chamber with a compression of air and liquid. These methods allow the liquid you’ve applied to the chamber to be distributed under pressure when you release the sprayer’s trigger.
While you often see handheld sprayers offering a compression mechanism, hose end sprayers and backpack sprayers may also provide these features, depending on the model. To utilize compression in a garden sprayer:
- Fill the handheld sprayer, hose end sprayer, or backpack sprayer partially—about one-quarter to one-half of the way full.
- Fill the rest of the chamber with air using the pump.
- Operate the sprayer to release the mixture of liquid and compression to your plants.
Which Lawn and Garden Projects Benefit from Using Compression?
- Indoor and outdoor growing—You can use a compression feature on your sprayer to feed your plants, get rid of lawn weeds, or raise the humidity within a greenhouse or indoor growing space.
- Cleaning—You can use a compression feature on your sprayer to apply cleaners or simply use air and water with extra pressure.
- Construction—You can use a compression feature on your sprayer to apply sealants or foam-release solutions. Just ensure that you have cleaned your sprayer thoroughly after undergoing this type of project.
How Do You Know If You’ve Chosen a Good Pressure Sprayer?
Since you’ll be using your pressure sprayer for specific and important projects, including those that need compression, you want to ensure you’ve made a good investment.
A pressure sprayer worth its salt possesses the following qualities:
- Steady stream—Pressure sprayers should produce a steady stream of the material you’re spraying in the desired droplet size. The goal is to cover all greenery with treatment uniformly.
- Sufficient pressure—The pressure sprayer you choose should deliver the liquid at the appropriate pressure for the solution to reach all of the intended foliage, spreading uniformly across all the leaves.
- Lightweight yet sturdy—A good pressure sprayer should be lightweight so you don’t tire quickly during use. However, it needs to be strong enough to handle the job (especially when compression is involved) and, in the worst of scenarios, repairable if and when needed.
Considerations when Choosing Your Pressure Sprayer:
As you’re looking for a pressure sprayer that is sturdily lightweight and offers a steady stream and sufficient pressure, you’ll want to consider a few things. Keep the following in mind when choosing between a handheld sprayer, hose end sprayer, or backpack sprayer:
- Understand how each pressure sprayer works—each project will benefit from a different type of sprayer.
- Anticipate the size and scope of your project—the larger the area you’re treating, as well as the amount of product needed, will help you determine the best pressure sprayer to use.
- Know your area’s daily weather conditions—pay attention to temperature, wind speed, and precipitation before committing to a spraying project. Spraying when conditions aren’t ideal for the products you’re applying can harm your lawn and garden or dampen the effects of the spraying solutions you’re trying to apply.
How to Safely Use a Pressure Sprayer
Just like with other garden tools and equipment, there are important safety precautions to consider when using a lawn and garden pressure sprayer. Some important health and safety tips for using portable pressure sprayers include:
Become familiar with the equipment—Understand how every part of your handheld sprayer, hose end sprayer, or backpack sprayer works so you aren’t surprised when you’re in the middle of a project. Knowing how each sprayer will respond to nozzle adjustments and changes in pressure, especially when using compression, is important for success.
Wear personal protective equipment—Cover your eyes with safety goggles or glasses, protect your hands with work gloves, and wear long sleeves, pants, and closed-toed shoes (ideally boots) to shield your skin from exposure. Always bathe or shower when you’re finished to ensure you’ve properly washed any chemicals off your skin.
Avoid inappropriate contact with the pressure sprayer—Don’t spray people, pets, electrical outlets, or objects that will ignite. While all Rocky Mountain BioAg® products are organic, still be cautious when spraying and seek immediate medical attention and care if needed. (Be especially careful when applying air compression using your sprayer.)
Maintain the equipment—Follow the proper care instructions for each sprayer to ensure excellent use and a long shelf life. Clean the pressure sprayer after each use and store it out of direct sunlight and out of the reach of children.
Lawn and garden sprayers help you make quick work of applying organic fertilizers, amendments, pesticides, weed killers, or even just water to your green spaces. They are also critical tools to use when compression is needed. Whether you’re better off with a handheld sprayer or hose end sprayer for quick jobs in your backyard or a backpack sprayer for your large lawn or garden, you’ll appreciate the ease and speed at which you can tackle your projects using a pressure sprayer.
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