Deluxe Spray Bottle

I needed a spray bottle for the garden a few months ago, so I headed out to the store expecting to come back with the traditional trigger spray model for about €2.  While the store sold what I was after, I ended up buying what you see above for about €15.  It’s a bit on the flimsy side, and can be a challenge to get all the pieces screwed together without leaks, but mostly I’m pretty happy with it.

I suppose now I should go on to talk about how they didn’t have these when I was a kid.  In the same way a few years ago toy stores started selling water squirt guns unlike what had been around before, this spray bottle is made the same way.  Instead of depending on trigger action to spray the water out, you pump the handle to build up pressure in the bottle.  You can then use this pressure to spray the contents of the bottle via the wand.

I guess my bottle holds about four or five liters (larger versions are available), and if I’m trying to spray as quickly as possible the bottle can be emptied in about three or four minutes.  If the nozzle is set on more of a spray rather than mist, it has a range of about three meters, making it possible to spray small trees or in far corners of the garden.  Spraying an entire bottle of liquid takes about six or seven pumps of the handle.

Since I collect rainwater as my only source of water, I don’t have the luxury of a hose under pressure I can use for cleaning or other purposes.  This spray bottle is the only thing like it I have, and for many things it works pretty well.  For example, I used it to clean and disinfect the inside of my greenhouse and to clean the algae deposits between the glass layers.  It wasn’t perfect, but it worked pretty well cleaning the places I couldn’t clean with just a bucket alone.  I guess I wouldn’t necessarily want to clean a car with it, or anything else that really needs a high volume of water, but it’s well suited for smaller cleaning jobs.