Bad Design = More Work And Money in Repairs

It all comes back to design. Bad design will take away time from you and waste it on complicated repairs. O-rings need to be replaced. They are worked and worked some more. Swivel, turn, coat in chemical, repeat. It’s just a small piece of rubber or silicone that will wear out and it’s an easy fix. 

In another shining example of “bad ideas in design” we have this hose reel swivel. That is being blocked from removal because the spray equipment is packed so tightly together. In a perfect world there is enough room to just pull the snap ring off, pull off the hose and replace the o-ring, easily just a five-minute fix. Except in this situation because now you have to unbolt the rig and reel from the truck in order to make enough room to make this fix. 

It’s a great opportunity to see how to NOT to build a commercial spray equipment truck. Learn from the mistakes of others and also take a moment to think through the repairs that will need to be done on the spray equipment when bolting them to your trucks. Consult the experts at Qspray.com if you have questions about how to layout your equipment . 

The next video in our series deals with Filter design. 

Andrew Greess: Here's another one. This is a competitor sprayer. Anyone who uses a power sprayer knows the hose reel swivel has O‑rings in it, and it's going to wear out. It's going need service because it's under pressure, it's got chemicals running past it, and then spinning. It's doing a lot of work.

Those swivels need to be changed about once a year. Whoever designed this sprayer, again, never had to service one because there's a snap ring on here. You take the snap ring off and pull the hose off. You can't take this swivel off without unbolting the rig from the truck and then unbolting the reel from the spray rig.

What should be a five‑minute job is now a two‑ or three‑hour job because it's so badly designed. Those are the kind of things that you need to look for before you purchase a sprayer or, if you're not the guy buying the sprayers, let your boss know, "Hey boss, this is really bad design. We're going to get..."

Think about it. This thing is going to need service. Again, it's not going to need service on Christmas Eve when it's sitting in the corner. It's going to need service in the middle of summer when you're the busiest.

Now we got to stop for a couple hours because of this bad design. You're going to lose a couple hours to change something that should have taken five minutes. Does that make sense? See what I'm talking about there?

If you missed any of the videos in this series, catch up on them here:

Experience Pays: Top 10 Avoidable Spray Equipment Problems And Ways To Avoid Them

Choosing the Right Spray Equipment Engines, Backpacks, Pumps and Trailers

Spray Fittings and Tanks - The Right Small Spray Equipment Components Matter Too

Oh The Hose Reel Problems We’ve Seen!

Cut Out Design Flaws and Down Time with Better Spray Equipment Design

Common Sense Missing in Some Backpack Sprayers

Avoid Problems By Consulting Experts in Their Field

For more information on Andrew Greess, visit https://www.qspray.com/