Power Sprayer Hose Hints for Longer Shelf Life

Editor’s note: Andrew Greess, a pest control equipment expert and president of equipment website Qspray.com, shared some tips to help get longer life and fewer problems with power spray hoses.

Using the Hose:

1. While rewinding your power spray hose back onto your hose reel, run the hose through a rag to remove debris that could damage the hose.

2. Inspect spray hose (or train your technicians to) regularly for damage, excessive wear, leaks, etc.

3. If you see the first few feet of hose start showing wear, cut it off BEFORE it leaks. Chemical spills are time consuming and expensive. It is much cheaper to get rid of a few feet of hose than it is to miss appointments for a hose repair.

4. Periodically completely unroll your hose from the hose reel. Power up your system. Rewind neatly back onto hose reel. This can help prevent the hose from flattening out and causing pressure-related problems. This can especially be a problem with low pressure spray pumps.

5. The operating end of your spray hose wears out faster than the end attached to the hose reel. Periodically reverse your hose. This will even out the wear and extend hose life.

6. Make sure the hose is not rubbing against the vehicle or any other equipment. This will damage hose and vehicle. The use of hose reel roller guides can help prevent this.

Buying the Hose:

7. Don’t buy cheap hose. It will cause problems and downtime that are more costly than the incremental price of the hose. Purchase hose with a pressure rating higher than the top pressure on your pump.

8. Purchase hose with the smallest inside diameter (ID) needed to get the job done. Many pest control applications are only 1-3 GPM. 3/8” hose can easily handle this volume. Larger hose is heavier and costs more.

9. Because you will be periodically cutting of the end of the hose to prevent leaks, it is advisable when buying new hose to buy a longer hose than you actually need.

10. Standardize the fittings on the hose end so all pest control tools are interchangeable within and among vehicles. This will reduce downtime when a tool fails. Consider the use of quick disconnects to facilitate this swapping.

Following these easy tips will save money and reduce downtime.

The author is a pest control equipment expert and president of equipment website Qspray.com. Contact him at Andrew@Qspray.com.