Best hand held broadcasat spreader

[FERT-TEK]

Fellas, I just picked up a large job requesting a pre-emergent application of Snapshot in the customers mulch beds. Could you recommend a quality hand held broadcast spreader for these applications. The last hand held broadcast spreader I owned didn't last but a month. It was a Scotts hand held rotary bought from Home Depot. It was an impulse buy that I regret. Now I am looking for something more reliable and durable for these type applications that can ride along in the hopper of my PG for tight turf areas as well.

[grassman177]

i use the heck out of those and love them for this purpose alone. we have four of them for 5 years now. they are cheap enough.

[FERT-TEK]

Maybe I just got a lemon.

[grassman177]

i take mine apart after each round and clean and adjuts the parts inside it. not very hihg teck, jsut plastics. but if you do it will last longer.

[Runner]

Yeah, those work well, and I many of times have one stashed in my hopper for tight areas. I don't always use it for snapshot though,..depending on what all is in the bed. Some things I just don't like to get too close to, let alone on. I use the shaker cans from lesco quite often. They are a little slower, but work real well.

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

I use the solo broadcast spreader, you wear it like a back pack sprayer but with the tank in the front with the handle, works for me in areas where I don't want to use a regular broadcast.

[Marcos]

Probably the last thing I bought at Lesco before I finally told them to go #### themselves was a case of 6 Spread-rite G hand spreaders.

http://pbigordon.com/pdfs/Spred-RiteG-PIS.pdf

These are excellant for tight areas between sidewalks, around fountains & pools, next to sensitive annuals and turf, etc.

These days we use them almost exclusively for spot-seeding, or with Casoran herbicide in very specific landscape situations.
You definitely don't want Casoran to be able to move toward downhill turf areas, that's for sure!

[FERT-TEK]

Thanks fellas and I will look into the spreadrite hand helds or solos

[RigglePLC]

Scotts, Lesco or another brand--but make sure it has the arm brace wrist saver feature. Otherwise your wrist gets tired from the weight in about 60 seconds. Must spin the crank with right hand--lefties should be able to do this.

http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?tabs=general&proId=prod70438&itemId=cat70012&id=cat70012
Scotts holds enough for about 1000 sqft. Suited for areas not reachable with larger equipment. I added a plastic edge-guard to mine--for those tight or narrow areas , medians, sidewalks (when using salt). Rotate the handle backwards to narrow the pattern.

[ted putnam]

Maybe I just got a lemon.

If you did, then I did too. I have one right now that lasted about the same as yours. Instead of printing Scotts on the front the should have printed "POS". I've tried a very cheopo Spyker... Not much better.Bought them both because I needed something quick. I had one for a little over a year. It was an Earthway(red, oval shaped) It was by far the best one I've ever had. Held about 2 pounds of fert. Lost it out of the truck one day :cry:

[grassman177]

i have tryed the spread rite small hand held drop spreaders and they are so slow i felt myslef age using them!!!!!! good for the real sensitive areas as mentioned above but otherwise useless. i would not put snapshot or anyother dusty small granule pesticide that close to my face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 i even wear a mask when applying the snapshot and keep the hand spreader low as my arms will go.

[Jason Rose]

I bought one of the scotts handhelds for spreading ice melt. It broke (gears stripped out) in 5 minutes or less. Not to mention, even at wide open you have to basically stand still in order to actually get enough product to come out. I suppose they are made for the Scotts fertilizers that are more powder. Perhaps it does work better with products that are a smaller lightweight prill. Guess I'll have to tear mine apart and see what went wrong inside. No screws though, looked like everything was glued together (the housing on the gears).

For preemergents I usually use my hand spreader, with a glove on it. It's the same as the hand wedge I use in golf... More accurite than you would think, lol.

[FERT-TEK]

That is the one that broke after about a month.