Sorry stepped away for a sec.
Yes, keep in mind the sprayer rating is associated with pressure. At the end of the day, the goal is to match the VOLUME of spray water and its TEMPERATURE with the latent heat in the steam. The volume is going to be associated with your line pressure as noted above. For some reason, some homes are fed with 30 psi and others with 75. The temp is an important factor too - hence why I posted up the calculator - so you can get a fairly educated guess. If your volume is way high as a result of big line pressure, then jump down to the smaller sprayer.
I do suspect the smaller diameter tube at some point limits the amount of mixing. Once spray water hits the inner wall, it becomes lost efficiency & "wasted" water. The exit temp of your condensed liquid should be your guide. If its colder than ~175 degrees, you are likely losing efficiency and wasting water.
Regarding the 1BB question by @
obeahsf... per above, at some point the tube becomes a limiter. I wish I could tell you when. The calculations assume ideal scenario, where all the steam is mixed with spray water. With a 1BB system, I would honestly upsize to something like 3 inches or bigger. You can have the tube be too small, but never really too big, unless the spray cone never reaches the wall of the tube.
Someone willing to get wet should take some pictures of the different sprayers to see how "wide" the cone gets - this might help give us more guidance. I may try to do it at some point. I bought another sprayer, but it doesnt have a pre-screen, so I needed to install one upstream to prevent junk from clogging the nozzle.
Oh, as @
ancientmariner52 said... probably not a good idea to modify nozzles at all - atomization is key, and our hand tools will do these things no justice!
