Tech Tip; Relieve your pressure

This tech tip was submitted by Dan Weeks from Pest Pro in Ocala Florida. Unfortunately for other sunshine state techs it may be to late because the weather has come back to somewhat normal. For our more northern PCO’s it will definately still apply for another month or two. This is what happens when we get snow in Florida, well this and snowflake fights.

Thanks Dan
Great tip & thanks for the pic!

It has gotten very cold in Florida over the past few weeks and pest control service men and women who’ve been around awhile may automatically know to bring those sprayers inside so they don’t freeze up and possibly burst. I’m sure managers everywhere were reminding their route guys just in case.

B&G’s are great tools and very sturdy but the wands are soft metal (brass I think) and when the water inside the wand freezes it tends to swell the metal and sometimes rupture in extreme cold. You can run water over it to free things up in short order if you have forgotten to bring them in or if it freezes in between stops.

The biggest problem with cold weather and sprayers however is the adjustment screw in the handle of the spray wand. The brass handle and the steel screw apparently are affected by the cold much differently. With the cold weather the adjustment screw becomes loose and the sprayer will leak. To solve that problem I always relieve the pressure in the tank when storing it inside and make sure I carry my 3/16 inch open end wrench with me the entire next service day. It’s a very annoying set up and tightening to tight will cause the cable to stick and to loose it will leak so it’s not hard to see how even a little loosening from the cold could cause this.

Unfortunately for me I forgot to remind my tech about relieving the pressure the other day and it did indeed leak. I figured this might be a good tip to share with your readers and I hope it helps someone else in the cold avoid the same problem.

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