Power Washer as Sprayer

[PJx]

Anyone ever heard of using a power washer as a pesticide sprayer for backyard fruit trees. How high can it shoot?

PJ

[B]

A garden house can out-distance a power washer any day. There are all kinds of nice nozzles for hoses these days. -B

[Pop]

I agree a power washer isn't always very useful for spraying pesticides as you have no verifiable control over the ratio of pesticide to water, etc., IF it'll reach where you want to go, but ... empiracal testing would be possible. Anyway, nozzles with canisters are readily available for garden hoses as you mentioned.

Now: I happen to have done the fiddling it takes to figure oiut the mixture ratios with a power sprayer. So, given a proper problem, I might just use it, if it occurred to me, albeit the extra trouble it would make.

But: What kind of experience do you have with power washers? They also have all kinds of "nice nozzles" for them, ong and short wands, all sortsof things, and I'm sorry to have to tell you, they can FAR outdistance a garden hose. In particular I used mine to knock down some bee hives in the peaks of the house this last fall - the garden hose wouldn't come close to them, and the nozzle that would reach them, well, all it did was make the hive paper wet. The power unit, however, provided the power behind the stream to completely obliterate them in a few seconds! So what if it carried an air-load? It hit, and it hit them hard. Because you've seen one or two of them, does NOT mean they are all created equal. It would appear to me that yours won't allow much control of the air to water mix; which is why your garden hose outdistances it.

Pop

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[PJx]

The one I was considering has a 4 gallon bucket for holding the liquid. So there is no ratio math needed, I think..

I'm just concerned if I need a special wand and special orifice to hit the tops of my trees. I've been advised to create a 1/4" hard copper tube about 15 feet long and put an orifice at the end - to reach the maximum height.

PJ

[NoOne N Particular]

What about possible damage that the pesticide could do to your water pump?

I'm just asking.

Wayne

[Duane Bozarth]

Minimal with common insecticides...Roundup is another story, but he won't be spraying that on foliage. Thourough clean up (hot water and detergent) and then a flush with a light oil mixture should be all that's required...

[PJX]

What brand do you have?

PJ