Overview
The Mesto RS125 is a backpack sprayer with a 12-litre capacity, a
white polypropylene tank and a 6 BAR maximum spraying pressure which
gives a maximum flow rate of 1.4 litres per minute with the supplied
nozzle.
Initial Impressions, Packaging and Sprayer Manual
Once you have purchased the sprayer, I suppose that the first thing
that you see is the box and the box for the Mesto RS125 knapsack sprayer
gave me a good first impression. It is brightly coloured with plenty of
good quality and informative photos and with a construction that felt
strong enough to both hold and give protection to the sprayer. As the
RS125 is slightly smaller than the RS185 (18-litre tank) it doesn’t
integrate the sprayer tank handle into the box however there is a handy
handle cut into the lid of the box so carrying is not a problem.
Upon opening the sprayer box, the first thing I found was an
instruction manual and quite some instruction manual it is; over 125
pages of instructions and pictures. Okay, so only 8 of the pages are in
English (as you can see a copy in our downloads section) but it is nice to get an instruction manual and this one tells
you pretty much everything that you need to know, from a welcome message
and safety notices through technical information, assembly
instructions, care and maintenance information and a faults guide.
Putting the manual to one side for a moment it was time to have a look
at the sprayer. Everything was nicely packed around the tank so to
remove the sprayer from the box required just removing the sprayer hose;
with a gentle pull on the handle, the tank lifted easily from the box.
My first impression of the sprayer is that it felt substantial and
looked good as did the hose and various handles and metal lance. The
next step is to assemble it.
Sprayer Assembly
I had a skim through the manual and everything seems straightforward
enough. The shoulder straps are already fitted to the tank so there are
only five parts to put together. How hard can this be? Not hard at all,
especially when you realise that there is a plastic bag inside the
sprayer that holds a couple of small fittings. Please don’t forget these
as you can’t assemble parts of the sprayer without them.
The first thing I did was to attach the hose to the handle and tank.
Remember to slip the locking threads onto the hose before doing this.
The 1.5-metre hose looks and feels like it could take some real
battering. I think that it has a much sturdier feel than many hoses that
I have seen with sprayers and matches the overall impression I have of
the sprayer itself. I fitted the hose to the sprayer handle in a matter
of seconds, but I did find pushing the hose onto the tank fitting to be a
little tricky. However, a few extra seconds of pushing and the sprayer
hose slipped into place. If you find the hose a little hard to push onto
the fittings, then softening the ends of the hose by dipping them into
hot water for a few seconds will help. The metal lance is then fitted to
the handle and assembly is nearly finished. The only thing left to do
is to fit the pump lever. This can be fitted to either the left or right
side of the tank (for left or right-handed people) and it comes in two
pieces with a small extension that is pushed into the main pump lever
and allows the lever to be set at a length that best suits the operator
with three options to choose from. The main pump lever is fitted to the
tank by simply pushing it into a hole at the base of the tank and
fitting a locking pin. Once again, you also have a choice of three
settings giving you a width to suit the operator. I found this locking
pin a bit of a pain to fit but that was mainly because I was trying to
do it in very poor light. Once I had moved, so that I could see
something, I managed to line up the holes and the pin slipped into
place.
As with the RS185, the assembly only took a couple of minutes.
Obviously, I have put sprayers together before, but I have found the RS
range of knapsack sprayers to be some of the easiest I have done, and
the manual is there to help although I found the drawings easier than
the written instructions. However, please note that the hose collars and
pump lever locking nut are in the filling filter (for safety during
transport) so you will have to open the yellow lid to find them.
Sprayer Use
The tank has a 140mm wide neck which makes filling easy. The bright
yellow lid was easy to open and close and there is a plastic filter, in
the neck, which I found easy to remove if not needed. I would, however,
recommend leaving it in place so that nothing can be added to the tank
that could block the nozzle when spraying. So, with tank filled I put
the sprayer onto my back and with padded shoulder straps I thought the
sprayer was very comfortable and sat well. Just a little word of advice,
the straps need to be clipped to the base of the tank before you can
wear it. There is plenty of adjustment in the straps, so all shapes and
sizes should be well accommodated.
All that was left was to do some spraying. A few gentle movements of
the pump lever and you can see the pressure gauge on the trigger handle
start to rise. I like the pressure gauge. I think it’s a great touch,
looks good and is helpful, letting you know when the 6 BAR maximum
pressure has been reached. Pull the trigger and you are spraying.
