Anticipating and Preventing Power Sprayers Problems

One of the best ways to avoid costly downtime with your pest and landscaping business is to prevent accidents and problems before they happen. In this blog/video we will point out a few problems we have seen over the years and give you some ideas of things to look for with your equipment.

I’m going to start with some problems on trucks. The first bit of advice is not to keep your toolbox too close to the tailgate of the truck a tech can easily pinch their hand between the tailgate of the truck and the toolbox.

Here are a couple issues with hose reels. The first is a hose reel that is hanging off the side of the truck. It is easy to see that there are numerous ways one could hurt themselves on this setup. Another problem we’ve seen is a hose reel that was too far off the back of the spray rig and the tech backed into something and completely ruined the hose reel. That was a costly problem!

We have also seen  power sprayers without belt guard – you need to have a guard around anything that is hot or moving. And rusted out parts are not something you want your techs to be dealing with. It is just dangerous.

These are just a few of our recommendations on how to prevent these kinds of issues. It is important to do inspections and to ask techs what issues they're having with the equipment.

It is important to train and retrain your technicians on safe operation of your equipment and for supervisors/owners to ride along with techs and see how techs are using the equipment.

We hope this helps you prevent some problems with your spray equipment. We hope you will think of www.qspray.com when you need anything for your spray equipment.

Andrew Greess : Hi. This is Andrew Greess at Quality Equipment & Spray, qspray.com, your power sprayer equipment experts. Wanted to share some thoughts today on how you can take a look at you power sprayers to anticipate and prevent accidents and problems. We have some great photos to share with you. Hopefully, it'll spur some ideas for you, and you can take a look at your equipment.

Here's the first one. A guy brought in a sprayer in for service, and we noticed the toolbox was really close to the tailgate. We found that because the toolbox was so close to the tailgate, if you weren't careful, you could slam your hand between the tailgate and the toolbox and really hurt your hand. It happened to one of our techs. We've learned our lesson on that one. We look for that before we slam tailgates.

Here's a sprayer where the hose reel was hanging off or overhanging the side of the vehicle. I just worry about this. You could catch your shirt on this. You'd catch a rib on this and get an abrasion or a bruise or something, hurt yourself. That's something you want to look for.

Here's a hose reel that was hanging too far off the back of a sprayer and the tech backed into something and totally destroyed the hose reel. Look for equipment that's overhanging your vehicle because that could be a problem. Here's something we probably all learned from.

I know I've kicked a whole bunch of these tailgate hitches with my shin. It hurts like heck. On my truck, I used to keep one in there. I kicked it a few times and now I learned. I keep it in the backseat floor. I only install it when I need it, so I protect my shins.

Here's a power sprayer that was built without a belt guard. We don't see this as much anymore, occasionally we'll see and old sprayer that a guy built himself. You clearly want to have belt guards or guards on anything that's moving or hot.

Here is a fender of a termite sprayer that was rusted out. Clearly, this is a risk to your skin. You want to replace this fender.

Just some recommendations to prevent these kinds of problems. One, do your inspections. Number two, ask your techs what issues they're having with the equipment.

You've heard me say this before. Train and retrain your technicians on safe operation of your equipment. Lastly, if you're the supervisor or the boss or the owner, do ride‑alongs and see what it's like for your techs to use your equipment.

When you need a power sprayer, or any of your parts, kits, or components for your power sprayer, please think of qspray.com. Thank so much for watching. Have a great day.