Spray Equipment - Don't Wait for that Problem

When it comes to your spray equipment, if you know you are about to have a problem, fix it now, don't wait.

A good friend of mine once told me, "if I have to eat sh-t, I want to eat it all now. I don't want to come back for seconds. I don't want to nibble a little bit for a few days. I want to be done with it".

The same applies to your pest control equipment and your weed sprayers.

Look at this photo of a mosquito fogger.

The plastic hoses and PVC fittings are severely sun damaged. The pest control technician came in one day and said, one fitting on my fogger broke, can you fix it?

We said yes we can, BUT! Here is the but: All the fittings and hoses are made from the same material, they all had the same amount of hours of operation on them and they all had the same chemical through them and the same exposure to the Arizona sun. We told the technician that since one fitting failed, it was a certainty that all the fittings would eventually fail. We suggested he let us replace them all.

He said he could not spare the time and would take his chances. 3 days later he was back with another broken fitting. We repeated our concern. Again he was too busy. The next day, when the 3rd fitting failed, he called us to schedule an appointment to replace them all.

Think of all the downtime his company incurred. Not to mention gas and payroll to and from our shop three times and having to explain to the client three times why the job wasn't finished. Also, by definition, every hose or fitting break on this machine is a chemical spill.

I run a business; I understand schedules. But this was crazy. We (and the tech) knew there was going to be a problem. Technician was so worried about spending an hour that he wasted many times that.

If you see something on your spray equipment is going to be a problem, get it fixed. It will be faster and cheaper than putting it off. Comments?