Sediment in Sprayer Lines

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Despite meticulously washing out twice after every load my sprayer lines seem to be providing a constant supply of pinky white flakes of sediment which obviously block the nozzles. I think it came from gammy trel. As I have never had this problem before in my entire career and this is the first year the agronomist prescribed it. Lumps of the sediment won’t dissolve in neat propionic acid. All clear softens a bit so I’ll fill the lines with all clear and leave it a few hours, take the end caps off and flush a tank full of water through. But I was wondering does anybody know of a decent pipe cleaner brush that would go on an electric drill or something up the lines and pipe work. 20 mm hose along the boom. Any other ideas? Never known anything like it.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Tank and equipment cleaner from desangosse is better than all clear IMO. When I had the issue you describe the only thing I could do was steam clean the spray lines by taking the end caps off. I also had to remove all the anti drip diaphragms as there were bits of crud caught up in them.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Yes it doesn’t help that it’s a crappy string of old lurmark units joined with tricoflex hose and jubilee clips. Plenty of internal steps to gather sediment. First noticed a problem when spraying off some wheat with glyphosate. Must have loosened it. Power washed the tank out. Nothing much in it anyway. But it seems to have stuck to inside of the lines and is gradually coming off.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Wazcocln. Get some fittings and some pipe to go in boom ends and put back to tank lid , have you a filter basket 👍
100 lt water and a box of dish washer tablets and set it going so it recirculAtes back into top of tank filter basket will hopefully catch some of sediment
Had to do this with an old mounted what we got to spray wild bird areas 🙈
That’s a very good idea. If I still have problems I’ll try it. Have now flushed two tanks of water through the line ends and there is much less of the pink/white eggshell stuff, just rubbery yellow specks which don’t generally block a nozzle. Was going to spray the rape for beetles but might leave for another soak in All Clesr overnight then flush another tank of water through. Spinning on some spare seed on the heavy bald bits as I go. Just didn’t get enough rain.
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I use a product called Nutralise was good at cleaning out my old Jd sprayer. The recirculation on that only went as far as the section solenoids and I was always getting gunk in the lines.

Have a Knight now with proper recirculation, I always flush through with clean water at the end of the day so there should be no chemical left in the spray lines.

Bg
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
It's usually Stomp residue, ruddy stuff still coming out in June from Autumn application, certainly on Hardi there is 2" of dead boom end after the end nozzles to act as a reservoir for it. Roundup seems to loosen it. Only way is to dismantle and powerflush.
 
It's usually Stomp residue, ruddy stuff still coming out in June from Autumn application, certainly on Hardi there is 2" of dead boom end after the end nozzles to act as a reservoir for it. Roundup seems to loosen it. Only way is to dismantle and powerflush.
Do you not have end caps , or fit some so when you wash out you can flush booms out and handy with a cam lock so you can put angled nozzle on for hedge back spaying 🙈
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Left it all afternoon with all clear in the lines. Then flushed the lines again with the end DCVs off. Finally it ran clear of the egg shell like sediment. Sprayed the rape with minerals and insecticide. No problems. Washed out and flushed each line out again with the end DCV off. Hopefully I’ve got away with it, but thanks all for the good ideas. I’ll be trying them when I get some time.👍
 
I have done pish all spraying but I do know one thing, do not rely on All Clear too heavily when changing crops and especially when SU herbicides are involved. I've known of people having issues when doing so despite using All Clear and following the manufacturer's instructions to the letter. Far better to do a couple of tankfuls of something else containing no herbicide on a 'friendly' crop first before going off to do the sensitive crops. I am told liquid fertiliser is a great cleaner (though I know some people have issues with this stuff on their sprayers) and was always told that glyphosate in solution seemed keen to strip off whatever else might be lying in the tank or lines.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
DeSangosse Tank Cleaner is very good. Dishwasher tablets cheaper. I like the idea of @Will 1594 to purge the lines back to the tank via a filter basket.

Glyphosate is an excellent tank and plumbing cleaning agent, as is liquid fertiliser. Non ionic wetter will help shift deposits but will produce a lot of foam and can get expensive if a lot is used.

All Clear Extra is actually not bad. Soak nozzles in it virtually neat and it cleans them up well.
 

quattro

Member
Location
scotland
DeSangosse Tank Cleaner is very good. Dishwasher tablets cheaper. I like the idea of @Will 1594 to purge the lines back to the tank via a filter basket.

Glyphosate is an excellent tank and plumbing cleaning agent, as is liquid fertiliser. Non ionic wetter will help shift deposits but will produce a lot of foam and can get expensive if a lot is used.

All Clear Extra is actually not bad. Soak nozzles in it virtually neat and it cleans them up well.
If you have a work clothes washing machine put nozzles in a old pillar case and put them in washing machine that does a excellent job of cleaning them
 
DeSangosse Tank Cleaner is very good. Dishwasher tablets cheaper. I like the idea of @Will 1594 to purge the lines back to the tank via a filter basket.

Glyphosate is an excellent tank and plumbing cleaning agent, as is liquid fertiliser. Non ionic wetter will help shift deposits but will produce a lot of foam and can get expensive if a lot is used.

All Clear Extra is actually not bad. Soak nozzles in it virtually neat and it cleans them up well.

I know all clear cleans up filters and the like nicely but I have had 3 differing spray contractors tell me they have had issues in the following crop having used it according to the instructions so I would be wary of relying on it. Better to use distance between crops as well as all clear. Never had any complaints about tank and equipment cleaner. It's odd that glyphosate is so good given that it is a salt as well, probably something in the adjuvant package?
 
I know all clear cleans up filters and the like nicely but I have had 3 differing spray contractors tell me they have had issues in the following crop having used it according to the instructions so I would be wary of relying on it. Better to use distance between crops as well as all clear. Never had any complaints about tank and equipment cleaner. It's odd that glyphosate is so good given that it is a salt as well, probably something in the adjuvant package?
Thought it was invented as a corrosion inhibitor or a cleansing agent
Then found it killed weeds
74 was it not when invented
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


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