What to lubricate a pump-up sprayer with?

The pump should have been cleaned and flushed with water before storage. It's probably too late. The plastic has been softened by the chemicals you left sitting in it.

rusty redcloud

Not sure about the lube Dean, but I discovered years ago that if you only make enough mix and empty, flush with water and set upside down to drain after each use they will last for years. I have two one for herbicide and another for pesticide both are cheap plastic tank units and both are at least ten years old.

I learned to never leave spray in the sprayer or you will be buying a new sprayer every year.

My two cents, Fred

dean wrote:

I'm liking heavy mineral oil for some of my sprayers. It keeps things moving smoothly.

First step is to clean it. I have used petroleum jelly on some and it has worked well.

Ok thanks all. It may be hosed, we'll see, but the general concensus is to use an oil-based lubricant?

-D

using oil-based things on rubber causes them to break down. use silicone based things instead.

Ok. have some silicone grease.

-D

It really depends on what the plunger washer is made of. On the farm as a child I watched my grandfather use a squirt of motor oil. The plunger washers were made of leather at that time.

I doubt that is the case anymore.

Silicone won't hurt leather, rubber or any composite material.Not sure about the silicone grease.

Have you tried just adding a 1/4 cup of plain water or water with a splash of Joy or Dawn down the plunger shaft from the top of the unit. This "priming the pump" has worked for me before.

Colbyt

Years ago a plumber friend of mine saw me lubricating a washer or "O" ring with vasaline and he told me that was a no no. He said most hardware stores sell tubes of plumbers lub/grease and it doesn't damage "O" rings and wahers. I've been using the same little container for years and it seems to do the job. It's probably just a standard silicone lubricant repackaged as a specialty product so they can charge extra for it.

From a technical standpoint he is right. I still use it however since it is there and I will never remember to do it otherwise. It is not all that bad, but yea, to do it right use the right stuff.

According to the directions, use Vaseline. But that won't help if you left something in there that ate the O ring. I have been having a Dickens of a time finding the right size O ring, without buying the whole rebuild kit. Been to specialty hose houses, etc. The only thing I can do is use a 1/8" O ring, and put a rubber band in the groove first. It works, but not as good as new.

Steve

i use a plastic pump up sprayer and i hose some water around the pump handle shaft to get it working. lucas

Nonsense. Plenty of rubber in contact with oil and gasoline in your automobile.

Disassemble to get at the O-ring and use Vaseline..the real petroleum jelly, not the handcream, etc. Worked well for me

AT the end of every year, I do a very good clean out and give all the rubber pieces a spray of silicon lube. Sometimes I will use a heavy silicon grease (available in pool supplys for lubricating pool O rings). My sprayer is going on 10 years and it was cheapy $10 wonder when I bought it.

It's not rubber. It's one of the synthetics that can tolerate petroleum products. And the gaskets in a sprayer, which must expect some contact with petroleum products, should not be rubber either. --- SJF

I never tried this, but how about some of that PAM cooking spray. It's a vegetable oil of some sort, so I cant see it hurting anything. and likely will help.

Quibble.

THAT is hardly a quibble, Kinch.

rusty redcloud