Plant Power Tool Check: Does Ryobi's New Compact Sprayer Hold Up?

When you need to spray your yard or a landscaping area with chemicals, people frequently opt for a pump tank sprayer. These tools work well for spraying your yard for ticks or weeds. Though sometimes tank sprayers are a little larger than you need, often with one gallon of capacity or even more. Many of them have manual pump handles to pressurize the tank, which can be a bit tiring to use. If this is a concern, Ryobi has you covered with its USB Lithium Compact Chemical Sprayer Kit (FVSP51K) for about $50.

Ryobi is one of the best power tool brands you could go for. It offers a variety of cordless power tools to help you with DIY projects around the house and outdoor power tools to keep your lawn and landscaping in great shape. Ryobi makes good-quality tools that many DIYers, homeowners, and professionals trust.

So the question is, does the compact chemical sprayer continue the trend of reliability and usefulness that Ryobi power tools are known for? It weighs only 1.07 pounds and has a small translucent tank at the bottom of the sprayer with a capacity of about 0.13 gallons to keep it lightweight and comfortable to use. It has a shape and size similar to a handheld drill, which makes it easier for users to operate. The battery life is also good, allowing you to spray up to 20 tanks per charge.

On the Ryobi website, customer reviewers give this Ryobi power tool a 4.9-star rating, making it a popular choice among customers. Home Depot customers give it 4.6 stars. Ryobi says it's a great tool for watering or applying liquid chemicals to indoor plants or small garden areas, and one customer reviewer agreed. "This is great for my indoor and outdoor plants. Saves me the hassle of using a cup full of water or dragging out the hose."

You can use the tank to apply pesticides, insecticides, and similar plant chemicals. It has enough pressure to deliver the liquid stream across up to 18 feet, which one Home Depot customer reviewer liked. "I was impressed with how much pressure this little thing had and how easy it was to adjust the nozzle setting to move from a straight [stream] to a fanned-out mist."

YouTube reviewer IMJOSHV – Car Detailing and Reconditioning Tips decided to purchase several of these tools and fill each tank with a different liquid to speed up his work. "I use a lot of different sprayers for different things. ... If you're just using a traditional [manual pump] sprayer, it's brutal. Your forearm is on fire by the time you're done; also wheel cleaners, things like that, it's a lot of pumping. [The power sprayer] takes that away completely." If you need a tool to apply water along with a few different kinds of liquid fertilizers or pesticides, you could buy a few of these Ryobi compact sprayers.

One of the reasons people purchase new Ryobi tools for home improvement and landscaping is because they can share the batteries among many of their power tools. The Ryobi ONE+ 18V battery system works on over 300 different products. However, this compact sprayer does not use the ONE+ battery system. Instead, it uses a lithium 2Ah battery that has a cylindrical shape. This small battery allows the sprayer to have a compact size, but you don't have the convenience of sticking a ONE+ battery from another tool into this sprayer when the battery runs out.

YouTube reviewer Shop Tool Reviews says the sprayer has no on/off switch, meaning it'll begin spraying as soon as the battery is inserted. "Pick it up, pull the trigger, and it's pumping." Because of the position of the trigger and the lack of a power switch, you could accidentally start spraying chemicals the moment you pick up the tool if you aren't paying close attention.

Some people will find the small size of the container to be a negative aspect of this tool. At just a little more than 1/8th of a gallon, its capacity is far smaller than most handheld or backpack sprayers that range from one to four gallons. Consequently, it's not a great tool for spraying a large space, such as across your entire yard. It's better for small indoor plants or gardens. "I love this sprayer," says one customer reviewer. "[But] I wish the container was just a little bit bigger."