Use this Web site to compare drift, percent coverage and droplet size for any two nozzles listed.

Start Nozzle Comparison

Instructions:

• Choose one nozzle from each column by clicking the button to the left of the nozzle name.
• Click the "Compare Nozzles" button.
• A black screen will appear. To begin the video comparisons click the "Play" button at the bottom of the black screen.
• Click the "Stop" button at any time while the video is playing to stop the action in the video display.
• Click the "Nozzle Comparison" link at the top of the Nozzles window to return to select other nozzles for comparison.

Each nozzle was operated in laboratory conditions with the manufacturer's recommended pressure. We repeated each demonstration using 5 and 10 miles per hour wind speeds.

The blue and yellow spot cards and statistical analysis displayed below the video clips were collected separately in the laboratory using spray nozzle comparison equipment and software.

The droplet sizes are listed in microns. One micron is 1/1000 millimeter, or approximately 1/25,000 inch.

The volume median diameter (VMD) is a droplet dimension which indicates that half of the spray volume is in droplets smaller than this number and half of the spray volume is in droplets larger than this size. It can also be indicated by Dv0.5.

Two other values are also important. They are the 10% volume and 90% volume droplet size and are indicated by Dv0.1 and Dv0.9. The Dv0.1 value indicates that 10% of the spray volume is in droplets smaller than this value and may be a major part of the driftable particles. This number should be near or above 200 microns to help reduce drift. The Dv0.9 value indicates that 90% of the spray volume is in droplets smaller than this. Larger Dv0.9 values indicate that some large spray drops are produced which may result in poor coverage and wasted pesticide.