| They might not be bank breakers when it comes to investing in equipment, but sprayers, spreaders, aerators and dethatchers play a vital role in most lawn care businesses. So we asked several contractors what they look for when buying these products. “Seek out the product with the highest quality, it will be the cheapest in the long run,” says Clint Culver, operations manager at Nitro Green Helena in Helena, Mont. In addition to the advice, look for the newest products on the market here. SPRAYERS. Steven Johns is thinking of selling his ride-on sprayer after just a few years of ownership. The president of Envisioning Green in Alton, Ill., mainly does commercial work that requires covering large areas. And the sprayer just doesn’t get the distance he needs. “Because we bought our first one without (testing it), it was really $6,000 or $7,000 down the drain,” he says. “It was a disappointment.” When it comes to buying new equipment, Johns says understand what you’re going to use the equipment for and test the options. In looking for a replacement, Johns attended the GIE+EXPO and tested sprayers until he found what he wanted. He bought his original sprayer from a local supplier. “I thought, hey, well if that’s the only sprayer they sell then this must be the right one for us,” he says. “I didn’t realize how much of an important role that it played.” When it comes to ride-on sprayers, Johns says larger areas might require equipment with additional fold out arms. Secondly, know what type of application you might be using. “With a sprayer, I was expecting it to be more universal, but those sprayers are definitely designed for different types of applications,” he says. Culver says he looks for reliability and ease of use. “When you have 10 guys, and you have to train them, you want it to be very simple to be able to train them and then for them to not make any mistakes,” he says. “Then, I would say easy and consistent calibration.” Nitro Green uses spray trucks for large applications and hand-can sprayers for spot treatment. Culver says when using hand sprayers – it’s hard to find – but look for ones that don’t leak and are easy to calibrate. He spends about $30 to $70 on each hand-can sprayer and they last about a season. SPREADERS. There are two things contractors look for when it comes to spreaders: durability and clogability. “We like all of our spreaders to be the same, so that if you send a guy out he has the same model and type,” Culver says. “It’s very important for them to operate reliably, not clog. We don’t like them to clog because then it’s a missed application.” Matthew J. Gilligan, owner of Magnolia Landscape in Virginia Beach, Va., says he doesn’t only look for clogging but how easy the spreader is to clean out. “If you look underneath, you want to always be able to hose it down clean,” Gilligan says. “If there is just a lot of working parts that aren’t easy to clean out, you might have to take some things apart. (Then) you’re just losing time.” Gilligan bought a $200 spreader last year. A top of the line model can cost anywhere from $500 to $600, he says. But he bought a cheaper spreader because he doesn’t do a lot of fertilizer treatment. Price can mean better quality, he says, especially when it comes to sturdiness and durability. He says questions to ask are, “Does it have good sized tires? Does it have a nice axle? Is the frame nice, sturdy steel? Because once you’re bouncing them around in the yards, transporting them in your trailer or truck, they can just fall apart easily if you don’t spend money on a decent one.” Culver says he tries to get 10 years out of each spreader and the durability of the frame is usually where the equipment fails. Typically, out of eight spreaders, Nitro Green has to weld a couple each year. When looking for new equipment, Culver says he reads reviews and looks at photos to judge quality. “Sometimes you can just look at how it is built and you can see that it’s going to be way too complex that if something went out of adjustment that your guys wouldn’t be able to fix it.” AERATORS. Gilligan has used his aerator for three years and is looking to replace the $150 piece of equipment with a better and more expensive one. He’s looking to spend about $1,000 on a top of the line one he can pull with a mower. “The top-of-the-line is going to have a good solid plugger on it that’s going to give you a huge plug when it aerates,” Gilligan says. “And it’s also that the metal is thicker and the axles are thicker. You know it’s going to last.” When Matt Williams of Primary Grounds purchases an aerator, he looks for quality, ease of use and price. “Obviously everyone needs to feel like they receive a fair price on purchases, but price should not be the determining factor, and is not for us,” he says “Quality for us incorporates durability, ease of maintenance, availability of dealer support.” Williams also wants ease of use as it relates to productivity in the field. “We have found some aerators easier to use through hydraulic drive systems as opposed to chain/belt drive systems,” he says. “Ease of use for us also includes various sizes of machine. We look for the largest machine we can get while still considering the access points to the properties we service. A huge machine is useless if you can’t get it through the gate, but proves very beneficial on open areas.” Johns says to avoid single drum aerators because you have to turn the machine yourself, which takes up a lot of energy. “You literally have to lift up the entire back of the machine and like manhandle it to turn it around completely by hand,” he says. “And it’s a 300-pound machine, so it gets very tiring. “By the time your employee is aerating all day using that machine, they’re so worn out it’s not even funny.” Johns says to buy the alternative to that machine, which is called a split drum, but is $1,000 more expensive. “But by the time you’ve spent that extra $1,000, you’re getting 30 percent more yards done per day with the aeration because you don’t have to pick the machine up and turn it. It turns more like a zero-turn mower might turn.” DETHATCHERS. When Brian Anderson of Farison Sports Turf in Louisville, Ky., buys dethatchers, he looks at what the tines are made of and the length of them. “I don’t want to have to replace tines every use and I want a good plug that comes out,” he says. “Also, I look at how it moves and operates. Ideally I would want something that isn’t too heavy but still pulls a good core. All in all, I want a good machine that gets the job done for a good price. I don’t want to go bankrupt buying these type of machines.” Gilligan says he has rented dethatchers before, but is now in the market to buy one. He says there are ones you can pull with tractor that work OK, but you can’t set depth on it as far as how far you need to go to get the grass up. “There are ones that are all motorized and you can set the depth as far as how deep you want to go. Those do a pretty good job getting it all out of there,” he says. Gilligan also says you want to know how much area you have to cover before buying one. “If you have a really big yard, you would probably want to get a dethatcher you could pull with a riding lawn mower,” he says. “If you had a smaller yard than you’d probably want to get the push one with the motor on it.” |
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