Because of prior bad experience I put a lot of effort into shopping for a garden sprayer. This was the best I could come up with. It's useable, but still only so-so. My first criterion was that an acceptable sprayer MUST have a pressure relief valve. Nowadays, that eliminates most small sprayers. I once bought a sprayer, without paying attention to the absence of a pressure relief valve. On the first use, I assumed I could depressurize it by the inconvenient method of letting the liquid spray out through the nozzle until it stopped. Wrong. The instant I unscrewed the top, the remaining liquid in the tank geysered up into my face. Fortunately, in that case, it was only a dilute fertilizer, but it could have been something much more toxic. As a result of that experience I will never again touch a sprayer without a pressure relief valve. This one has a valve, and it works. My second criterion was that an acceptable sprayer needs a long enough sprayer shaft (or one that can be added to) that it can reach close to the ground while I am standing upright, in order to spot spray herbicides without killing my back. Most small sprayers miserably fail that criterion also. This one is OK, although I wish it were a few inches longer. (I am 5 ft 4 in.) Beyond that, it should just work well: eg, (1) pressurize easily, (2) spray a reasonable distance, (3) be convenient to use, (4) be airtight, (5) have a nozzle with a range of spray patterns.This sprayer is good on items (1) and (2), but not so good otherwise. The plastic nozzle worked poorly so I bought a better brass nozzle for it separately. The sprayer's most annoying feature is that the tank screw top doesn't fit well enough. Even after I gunked up the threads with vaseline, in order to get an air-tight seal I have to lay the tank horizontally against a step, and brace it with my knee while I tighten the screw top with all the force I can exert with both hands. Of course, after I've emptied the tank, I have to do the same thing to open the top. Unfortunately, the small sprayer market seems to be an area where cheap, poorly designed products have driven out all the better ones. Many years ago I bought two identical 1 gallon store-brand sprayers from my local Ace Hardware. Both of them still work well. They have good pressure valves and I can easily get an air-tight seal without much effort. (The new sprayer was purchased for a vacation house, not to replace my old Ace sprayers.) Recently I could not find any similar sprayers at Ace or anywhere else. There is an opportunity here for a manufacturer (maybe even an American manufacturer?) to put out a better, safer product. I urge someone to do it, and I urge bu
