I dug out my Ronseal fence sprayer yesterday only to find out that it didn't work. I took the mechanism apart and found it to be very clean inside but even with new batteries the motor appears to turn far too slowly to have any effect.
I think it has only been used for one season - which I guess is typical of many consumer-grade garden products. And I noted that the manual said not to put any "solvent-based liquids" in it as they will damage it.
Rather than buy another cheap (and I use the term advisedly as I don't think it was very cheap) fence-protector sprayer I thought I would ask you guys if you would recommend a sprayer which could be used for various liquids. I only plan to use it to spray my fences just now but would rather pay more for something that would last a long time and could be used for other purposes.
I've used an old Hozelock pump-up garden sprayer for treating the beams in the garage for woodworm. I don't know what sort of solvent or medium is used in woodworm stuff, but it didn't do the sprayer any harm. Not tried it on fence preserver though.
I have used a pump up hoselock style sprayer for this in the past. Just make sure that you also get some paint filters[1] to make sure that no grit or other lump get into the sprayer, or you will be forever unblocking the jet (DAMHIK, but lets just say that a rusty can of cuprinol was not a good idea!)
It does depend on how much you want to pay, but I have an Apollo HVLP spray unit which works with any type of paint - and gives good results even with car cellulose. The turbine unit is also very handy for drying out pipes, etc. Mine cost about 200 quid. Could well be cheaper these days.
I was more going on the 'other uses' and that mine can be used with solvent paints. Something many forbid. I'd go as far as saying it's much better than any similarly priced high pressure unit - except that you don't have a high pressure compressor for other uses. But makes it easier to store since it's smaller, not having a tank.
Yup I am a fan of HVLP in general (no pun!) I have the Earlex HV5500 once and find it very good, especially for furniture use. (I have a conventional high pressure unit as well, but don't use that nearly as much). Its one of those things I bought for a specific job, but found it more useful that expected after.
Speaking of filters, I was surprised how "dirty" last year's fence treatment had become as it had separated out, and how gelatinous parts of it seemed.
Is the idea of HVLP twofold: (1) that it has a high volume of /air/ rather than the medium and (2) that it mainly pushes the air rather than pushing the medium.
From pictures, they seem to push the air past a tub of the medium. I presume that medium has a small injector to push it into the air stream.
Yes. As I said, it was clean inside and not clogged up. The motor had two power leads and two leads which were effectively at the other end as part of the filter unit and were for some unknown purpose. All were connected to a circuit board. Not knowing how it was supposed to work I decided not to fiddle with it - at least for now.
To be fair, that's much the basic process for most air based spray systems. (and even the so called airless system frequently use compressed air to push the liquid to the spray - however there is not the same mixing of air and finish that you get in conventional air spray systems)
The HVLP uses a greater volume of air but at a much lower pressure (usually less than 0.5 bar rather than 4+) compared with a conventional compressor based spray system.
It tends to create less "fog" of finish in the air. So less paint dust in the air, less overspray, better directionality etc. Its also better for spraying thicker finishes (although that does depend on the power of the turbine - or more particularly the number of "stages" it has).
Yup there is usually a feed from the reservoir to the needle valve. That can be adjusted to change the amount of paint that can flow. There *may* also be a small air injector into the reservoir to help "push" the paint up the feeder tube (some "suction" will be created by the venturi effect of the airflow anyway - so this is not used on all guns) - but the ones with this feed are better at spraying thicker finishes.
Some guns are so called "bleeder" guns that spray air out all of the time, and the trigger just controls the paint flow. Some however "non bleeder" guns also control the air flow as well with the trigger.
There are pros and cons with both. With the bleeder type you get "instant" atomisation the moment you pull the trigger, so no risk of globbing finish on the surface. There is less chance of them blocking due to a buildup of finish in the jet.
On the downside you get slightly less overall control since you can't alter the air flow, and with very high solvent finishes, you may find you flash off the solvent faster due to all that air flowing about - that can make blending into the "wet edge" of stuff you have just sprayed more time constrained.
One really big benefit of HVLP is it doesn't produce lots of water during the compression process. Drying air for spraying with high pressure can be a PITA, and adds to the costs. Other thing is what is basically a fan produces a pretty consistent flow without a reservoir - unlike a piston compressor.
Which basically adds up to an HVLP complete unit costing a lot less than an equivalent performance HP unit.
Of course, those with a well equipped workshop may already have a good supply of HP air. Only therefore having to add a decent spraygun. But such a setup isn't portable, so not much use for fence spraying, etc.
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