The Scrubbing Bubbles power sprayer
A brilliant design costs you only pennies per spritz.
Paul Rako, Technical Editor -- EDN, November 17, 2011
Two AA alkaline batteries power this SC Johnson & Sons spray bottle.
The bottle’s motors and gears make a bit of noise, but the pump works
fine as it dispenses the contents of the bottle. You can repeatedly refill
the bottle, and plenty of battery capacity remains after pumping out
a bottle of fluid. The design of the plastic housing includes adequate
structural bracing and no thick sections to cause dimpling on the surface. Internal
components include a microswitch and steel shafts in appropriate places;
seven screws, all of the same length, hold the unit together. All of the internal components,
except for a sliding trigger lock, fit into the bottom clamshell; the trigger lock mounts in the
opposing clamshell. The position of the trigger lock is not critical to assembly. The clamshells
fit, no matter what the position of the trigger lock.
1. The two green cover clamshells encapsulate the pump assembly. A slotted receiver that fits over the gearbox crank drives the pump piston.
2. The trigger presses on a small, black microswitch behind the battery compartment that feeds power from the two AA cells to the motor. The spur on the bottom of the trigger operates a vent valve to allow air into the container as the pump empties the fluid.
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Click here to watch a video of the inner workings of the sprayer. |
3. A free-floating plastic tube serves as the fluid’s one-way check valve.
4. One screw holds the motor and g
earbox
assembly onto
the outer housing.
Molded-in tabs in the
battery compartment
do a good job of wire
retention.
5. The battery-compartment
cap has an O ring
to keep out moisture. The self-retaining screw
has a gasket under the
head. The manufacturer
ultrasonically welds in a
flat piece that holds the
battery terminals.
6. The opposing
cover has a sliding
trigger lock.
It works like a
hammer block
on a revolver.
When you slide
it downward,
it blocks the
movement of
the trigger. The
outside button
snaps into the
slide, which has
a molded-in
spring.
Talkback
-
I also reverse-engineered the pump. It pumps fluid on both strokes of the piston. It has two ball valves to keep fluid from going back into the bottle (one for each stroke), and a two-input flapper valve at the output. I removed the insert from the bottle and cut off the 4 hooks holding it on. Now, the straw and everything comes out with the pump, making it super easy to refill. I think that's why S.C. Johnson stopped selling them. People were buying the starter kits and refilling them with something cheaper. They still sell the Raid ones, though. Probably because people don't want to mess with the poison.
Andrew R. Morris - 2011-22-11 17:48:49 PST -
Most chemical spray bottles have one failing over time, the o ring in the nozzle either are destroyed by the fluid being used or just wear out and dribble. Then whatever fluid is sprayed is black, Has teh o ring been upgraded on this to make it last as long as the pump will?
CEDUP - 2011-18-11 06:28:52 PST
