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Thread: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

  1. #1
    Junior Member ludrock's Avatar
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    Default Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    Excuse my ignorance. But I would like to know what the advantages / disadvantages are of the two sprayer types (piston/diaphragm). And I was wondering if you could leave your spray mix in the sprayer instead of washing it out every time. I have a solo domestic back pack sprayer at the moment and was thinking of getting a second unit so I could use one for Glyphosate and one for general lawn care spraying such as bindi/clover spraying etc.
    Thanks
    Dave.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mow And Go's Avatar
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    Default Re: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    Best to always clean out, personally I find it even more important to do so in a diaphragm pump. Started with solo commercial diaphragm backpacks and got sick of stuffing seals, went to shindaiwa piston backpacks and wouldn't go back. Leave glypho in it all the time and its yet to give me any issues.
    I dont break things ...I just use them beyond their operational limitations
    www.mowandgogardening.com.au

  3. #3
    Member Redeye's Avatar
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    Default Re: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    def wash it out, glypho turns into a gluggy gel if it sits long enough - I bought this one in '92, used it every day, all day, for 18 months spraying bitou bush under contract to our council and on and off since....still works perfectly, only parts replaced were the handle & lance - I'm fussy about rinsing it thoroughly after every days use
    20150425_120526_01.jpg




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  4. #4
    Senior Member seliment's Avatar
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    Default Re: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    Definitely wash out sprayer after each use for the following reasons.
    1. Mixed chemical solutions can/will 'go off' and lose their effectiveness.
    2. Some chemical can get absorbed into the plastic and contaminate future mixes with possibly bad consequences.
    3. Longterm contact with chemical can speedup aging of

    My pref would be a diaphragm pump as chemical is in contact with less moving parts annotate with a 'sliding' piston and it's associated moving seals.
    Always we go for diaphragm pumps on larger ag scale farm spray machines as they are much less problems.

    Joe

  5. #5
    Junior Member ludrock's Avatar
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    Default Re: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    Thanks for the info fellas.

  6. #6
    Senior Member GardeningSolutions's Avatar
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    Default Re: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    Just went through this process and bought the commercial 425 due to needing the higher pressure to operate the 4 nozzle boom. Apparently the diaphragm pump is more suited to using powdered or granulated chemicals that are more abrasive.

  7. #7
    Senior Member PaulG's Avatar
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    Default Re: Piston or diaphragm sprayer?

    I'll never buy another Solo product again after the trouble I've had with them over the last two years. Don't ever pull apart those diaphragm backpacks as you'll most likely never get them back together and sealing properly because of the stupid clamp design. The handheld sprayers also have a flaw as the tabs on the top of the black pump part used to push against to open and close the unit after filling fatigue and snap off leaving the unit ony able to be opened by taking off the entire red collar with everything attached.

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