We put some Foggers to a test.

Before we offer a product to our customers, we thoroughly test them to verify its quality, and to insure that the product we are offering brings value to our customers. (This is the reason why we only have a limited assortment of products on our website, although we have more in the pipeline, that will be making their appearance in the future).

Although our Liberty ULV Backack Fogger has been extremely popular, we have had requests from customers who want a smaller handheld fogger, as well as a cordless option. Before we went ahead and invested in that, we wanted to make  sure that we weren't investing in a product that already existed and was widely available.

There is a Ryobi Fogger on the market that has been getting some attention for use in disinfecting, so it would only make sense to compare our prototypes of the Liberty Handheld Foggers to the Ryobi fogger. I was able to locate a store that had the Ryobi Fogger in stock and purchased it for this test.

The Test

We did not include the backpack fogger in the test as the backpack fogger works with different technology. Our Liberty Backpack Fogger uses and extremely powerful 1400 watt motor to vaporize the water and push it out of the hose, a the tip of the hose there is a diffuser, which rotates from the air pressure and works further to create a fog with small  uniform particles. This provides the perfect combination of having a very large coverage area, while still having uniform mist/fog

The handheld foggers, both Liberty's and the Ryobi's work differently. They do not have a diffuser, and their motor is not as powerful. They compensate for this by having a smaller nozzle to generate  air pressure. In an effort to compare apples to apples, we limited the comparison to our two Handheld Liberty Fogger's, and the Ryobi.

For the test, I added food coloring to water and sprayed each respective fogger at white poster-board, and compared the results.

The Results

This is what I found, the Ryobi has a relatively impressive range (not the range of our backpack fogger, but impressive for a handheld cordless device) it's performance in our poster-board test was less impressive. The coverage  was uneven and spotty, and the droplets were not uniform. At times, streams of fluid came out instead of a mist. The Ryobi seemed to have sacrificed uniformity in coverage to achieve a greater area.

The top performer of our 3 handheld foggers, was our corded handheld. It did not have the range of the Ryobi, and is best used at  a maximum distance of 2-3 feet, however it produced a very fine, even mist. The poster-board we sprayed the Liberty Handheld Fogger with, was a solid blue color with no visible missed areas, with virtually no overspray.

The Liberty Cordless Handheld Fogger, achieved similar result as the Corded one. It achieved uniform coverage, however the particles, while smaller than that of the Ryobi, appeared to be slightly larger than those of the Liberty Corded Fogger, and the fog it created had slightly less volume.

The Explanation

When examining these 3 foggers and the technology they use, the results were not surprising. In fact, each product performance aligns with their intended use.

The Ryobi Fogger, was designed to be used as an outdoor fogger for pest control and agricultural use. For both of these uses, uniformity of the mist, is not necessary

If the goal is to kill mosquitoes, it doesn't have to cover every  inch of the targeted area. Pesticides have a residual effect, sometimes lasting up to 3 months, and insects move around, so even if you missed the area were a particular mosquito is at the time you fogged, the mosquito will eventually move to a spot that was covered and the goal will be achieved.

However, when it comes to disinfecting and mold remediation, uniformity of coverage is paramount. Bacteria, viruses and mold are for the most part immobile. Disinfectants have very little if any residual effect. So if the fogger does not cover the entire area evenly, it will have no effect on the areas it missed, and if someone would come in contact with those areas, it would be the same as it it were not treated at all

Futhermore, while occasional streams or very large droplets are not desirable when spraying indoors, the Ryobi was intended for outdoor use, where this is not problematic.

The Liberty Handled Foggers, on the other hand, uses High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) technology. This technology was initially designed for spraying paint, where even area coverage, without drips or waste, are of the highest priority.

For this same reason, they excel in for the purpose of disbursing disinfectants and for use in mold remediation, while at the same time, being more practical for indoor use.

As far as why the Liberty Corded Handheld outperformed the cordless version, the reason is simple. Corded devices have more power than cordless devices. Even the best cordless power tool will not have the same power as a corded version of the same tool. Nevertheless, the cordless overall performed exceedingly well, and is a good option for someone looking for the convenience of cordless, or doe snot have access to an electrical outlet.

We currently have limited handheld foggers in stock, but expect to be folly stocked in around 1 month