Refill Picaridin Insect Repellent Pen Sprayer

Sawyer makes an pen size sprayer that contains 0.5 oz. of Picaridin insect repellent for $3 which works out to $6/oz. You can buy a larger sprayer containing 4 oz. for $6.62 which works out to $1.66/oz. I'm using the 3 oz. bottle because that's what I bought on sale. It only takes a minute to refill the pen sprayer and you save money and keep more plastic out of the landfill.

I feel a little silly making an Instructable for this but I just wanted to let people know how easy it is to refill the pen sprayer. I could see that somebody looking at the sprayer might think you can't remove the sprayer or removing it would damage it because it's on pretty tight.

The pen consists of three parts -- the cap, the sprayer and the reservoir. Remove the cap. Take a knife or other thin piece of metal and place it between the sprayer and the reservoir. Twist and the sprayer should separate from the reservoir.

With the sprayer loose, pull the sprayer and attached feed tube out of the reservoir.

Pour the insect repellent from the larger 3 oz. bottle (after unscrewing it's sprayer) until the reservoir is almost full but leave a little space for the feed tube and attachment.

If you want to switch insect repellent, put in 100% DEET, 19% DEET, etc. Don't use the lotion but only liquid.

Push the sprayer back on until it snaps into place. Put the cap back on and you have 0.5 oz. more to spray.