diaphram pumps are supposed to last longer with wetable powders like surround...although I doubt it is very abrasive on the piston.

We've had many different brands of pump sprayers' over the years (Chapin, Gilmour, Flo-master, Hudson). They've all given good service. We use different sprayers for different purposes (e.g, one sprayer for 'edibles', one for rose chemicals, one for herbicides , etc). Some of those are quite old but still work fine. We prefer poly tanks. Metal tanks - even stainless steel ones - will spring a leak eventually. We also prefer poly wands - they do tend to bend annoyingly, but they don't break like the metal ones can. If you take care of your tools, they will take care of you. After each use, we triple rinse the tanks and then spray about half a tank of clear water at pressure. As needed during the season - depending on what materials we are spraying - we clean the nozzles and head fittings with a toothpick (metal tools can scratch). We lubricate the pumps before the beginning of the season according to the directions.. We NEVER store spray materials in the sprayer tank - we use it all up. At the end of the season, we use an ammonia and water solution (1 cup/5 gallons) to thoroughly clean each of the garden sprayers. Supposedly, that solution will even remove tough herbicide residues. But we don't chance that - we reserve a separate sprayer for herbicides. Then we spray a tankful of clear water mixed with a tiny bit of oil, dry them out, and store them for the winter..

Okay, gang, for those who are interested... here's the upshot on how the modifications on the Mantis Sprayer worked this weekend. First off, RJ corrected what I previously wrote - it was a motorcycle battery (not a bicycle battery) that he put on the Mantis. It is a Yuasa battery sold by Honda as # YTZ14S, their heaviest duty motorcycle battery. It worked FANTASTIC!!!! Instead of taking 2 1/2 to 3 hours to spray the garden, I was finished in less than 1 and 1/2 hours (including mixing, cleaning up and putting away stuff). The only possible downside is that it sprays so vigorously that I needed to use an extra 3 gallons of spray mixture. So I had to go back and mix up another 3 gallons. But I got great coverage, and it still brought me in at 1 hour & a half including the remixing and reloading. The new hose was also a joy. I could walk 4 times as far with the expandable capacity, without dragging around an overly long hose. And when I store it, I don't have to wrap and wrap and wrap the hose around the handle. It collapses down to a nice neat circle on top of the sprayer. This has really made my week - heck, it's made my season to have a sprayer that works so effectively. RJ has earned a really big hug!

David, the girl I lived with when I was commuting to San Fran had one of "those things," and as far as I'm concerned, it was more of an Exercise Machine than it was a HOSE! It was like playing tug-of-war with a tug toy and a pit bull! I had seen them advertised and kind of thought, maybe a good idea for certain applications---and then I TRIED to use hers! OMG! When I tried to water pots and stuff, it was a constant fight against the tension, and when I wanted to slowly, deeply water the in-ground plants she had, dying in dry soil, under a garage overhang, I couldn't just turn it on a trickle and leave it lay there for a while! I had to stand there, fighting the tide, and HOLD it the whole time! You can't water slowly and deeply hand holding a hose! A couple times I found something heavy enough to kind of hold it in place for the plants closest to the spigot, but even then I had to keep looking to see if it had gone SPRONG! I'm sure glad I learned about them by trying to use hers, tho, because I had half debated with myself if I should try one myself! BUT, last spring I did finally find a good, non-kinking hose! Every year I've been buying another new hose or two---always looking for one that REALLY wouldn't kink when I was dragging it around! Even bought a real rubber one one time, Craftsman, I think it was, and it wasn't cheap! It was no better than any of the others I had! Last year Target had "kink proof" hoses on sale, and I decided to try again! After five years, SUCCESS! This thing is a Heavy Duty, NeverKink (brand) Series 2000! (I always keep the packaging long enough to find the same thing should I happen to like it!) I'm pretty good about keeping it straight when I'm pulling it around, but every now and then I'll wind up turning in circles when I'm doing something, and it will start to get twisted up if I do that enough, but I don't remember it EVER kinking yet! ALL the hoses say they're kink-proof, but with this one that seems to actually be true! I'm hoping Target, or somebody, has them again this spring so I can get another one for the front yard! The only thing I'm not wild about is that it's red, but if I'm not always trying to get it unkinked, I guess I don't really care what color it is! So, Connie, I recommend one of those to go with your new Magic Wand! Oh, and I took a couple minutes to look around the Dramm site before I x'ed out of it, and I discovered that they DO have the colored wands with the cheap plastic cutoffs, so be sure you check which kind of cutoff you're getting if you decide to get one. And I also noticed in the pictures that the "blue breakers" aren't necessarily blue anymore. Looks like the ones that come with the colored wands with the brass cutoff have a black "blue breaker" now, and the ones that come with the colored wands with the plastic cutoffs have a "matching" breaker! Except for the "special" red one with the "soft flow" ( more holes!), the other ones will all be the same as the "blue" ones, regardless of the color! Life was easier before the "improved" things! Skybird P.S. again! Since I brought up hoses, here's a Helpful Hint some of you may not have thought of for dealing with hoses! When you're "coiling" it up to put it away after using it, instead of coiling it in a "circle," do it in a figure 8! If you do that way, it'll "pull out straight" when you go to use it the next time! If you do it in a "circle," you wind up with "twists" in it when you pull it back off of "the pile!"