Our Mesto Flori is a compression sprayer with a choice of a 5 or 3-litre capacity yellow, polyethylene tank and a maximum spraying pressure of 3 BAR which gives a maximum flow rate of 1 litre per minute.
The first thing that I notice about the sprayers is that there is no box. The sprayers are wrapped in clear plastic which, whilst maybe not being the most striking of packaging, does seem to do the job perfectly well. The tank looks, and feels, robust and the hose, shoulder strap, lance handle and lance are all well packed around the tank and the clear wrapping holds everything nice and tight.
Removing the packaging allowed me to have a look at the information leaflet. Be careful when doing this as the information sheet is attached to the outside of the tank so pulling it away too quickly will tear it. The leaflet had all the information I felt that I needed; plenty of easy to follow assembly, usage and cleaning diagrams and plenty of (but not too many) words to explain everything.
Assembly looked easy enough, but I did have a quick look at the leaflet just to make that I wasn’t going to make any silly mistakes. There are only four parts to attach to the tank the shoulder strap, hose, lance handle and lance itself. The shoulder strap is fed through the two slots in the top section of the tank with the plastic buckle used to hold the ends and adjust the strap length. One TIP for you, feed the strap through the top of the first slot then up through the bottom second slot. This way you don’t have to remove the buckle from the strap. The lance is easily attached to the handle and the hose connects to the handle and base of tank. Another TIP, some may find the hose a little hard to push onto the fittings of the tank and handle. If you do, then simply dip the ends of the hose into hot water for a few moments and this will soften them making it far easier to attach them.
Having done all of that, I was ready to start spraying. I placed the tank on the floor and turned the tank handle anticlockwise and after a few turns pulled the central housing from the tank. The design incorporates a nice wide filling area so spillages should be kept to a minimum. I managed to fill the tank with no issues, replaced the housing and gently tightened it. I only needed to pump the tank handle a few times to bring it to full pressure and spraying was just as I would expect; a nice spray pattern was easily maintained. There are two differences between the 5 & 3-litre models; the first is obviously the size and volume of the tank and the second is the length of the lance. The lance for the Flori Compact measures around 420mm.
Once I had finished spraying, I needed to release the pressure within the tank and this was easily done by simply pulling the big, bright red release valve and a satisfying hiss lets you know that the pressure is being released.
I found the Flori sprayers to be good quality, general sprayers. The build quality is good and the design makes the sprayer an easy one to use. I would have no hesitation recommending these sprayers to those who want a low cost unit that is going to last and will put up with some harsh treatment. It must be remembered that these are designed to be basic, compression sprayers so are not intended to be used with harsh chemicals, will only handle 3 BAR of pressure and are limited on the extras that you can fit to them. But this should not detract from what are good, robust compression sprayers.
