Tank Size Isn’t Everything When Choosing a Spray Drone

When you first start looking at spray drones, it’s natural to focus on tank size. It’s the easiest number to compare, and right now it’s often the first thing people bring up—DJI Agras T100 with a 100-litre tank, and the XAG P150 Max at 80 litres.

On paper, that looks like a meaningful gap. Bigger tank, fewer refills—it sounds like an easy win.

But once you get into the paddock, especially in New Zealand conditions, it doesn’t really play out like that.

No matter what brand you buy you are often not running full tanks. Between application rates, terrain, and how jobs are set up, you tend to be working somewhere in that 60 to 90 litre range. So, while the extra capacity is there, you’re not always using it, and the real-world difference ends up being a lot smaller than it looks on a spec sheet or an American YouTube video.

That’s not to say a bigger tank doesn’t help. On the right job—flat country, square blocks, higher rates—you might save a bit of time here and there. Over a full day you might notice it.

But it’s not the sort of difference that makes or breaks your operation.

What matters more is how the machine performs in real conditions.

Take today, for example—we were flying full loads over 650 metres before even starting to spray, working in proper steep New Zealand hill country. Not a tidy, flat paddock—it was real terrain, where lifting capability, battery performance, and efficiency matter far more than just tank size. These stats are something no other drone on the market is doing right now.

That’s where the conversation starts to shift.

Because once you’re operating like that, it’s not about how much you can carry on paper—it’s about how effectively you can move product, how the drone handles the terrain, and how productive you are over the course of a job. That’s where the P150 Max, with its 20 kg lighter airframe but still almost identical amp-hour battery capacity to a T100, really starts to shine—it doesn’t have to piggyback that extra 20 kg all day; instead, it can turn that energy into flight time and performance.

The other big factor—and the one that tends to get overlooked early on—is what happens when something doesn’t go to plan.

No matter what brand you choose, you’re going to run into challenges. These machines are working hard in tough conditions, and that’s just part of the job. When that happens, tank size becomes irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how quickly you can get back up and running.

That’s something we’ve built our whole approach around at Airborne Solutions. We’re not just selling drones—we’re out there using them ourselves, dealing with the same early starts, tight spray windows, and pressure to get jobs done as our customers.

With operators all over the country doing all sorts of work, we’re constantly working alongside them to keep their operation moving. Operators aren’t being left sitting around waiting weeks for parts to come out of China. Either we’ve got them here in New Zealand, or we find a way to keep the job going—whether that’s swapping parts or putting a loan unit in place.

And that’s where the real difference shows up.

You might save a few minutes here and there with a bigger tank, but if you lose days—or even weeks—waiting on support, your business reputation and performance start to slide.

There are more spray drone options in the market now, but not everyone selling these drones is out there using them day in and day out. That practical experience matters when you need help because you’re talking to someone who understands the job—not just someone quoting specs.

The P150 Max is lighter, easier to handle, quicker to load in and out of the ute, and generally more manageable than most—especially in rolling or hill country, or for a one-man setup. Those are the things that don’t always show up on a spec sheet, but over a full season they make a noticeable difference.

At the end of the day, tank size does matter—but it’s only one part of the picture.

What really counts is how efficiently you can get the job done, and how reliably you can keep going when things don’t go perfectly.

Because it’s not the few minutes you might save on a perfect job that define your season—it’s the days you don’t lose when something goes wrong.

To see the P150 MAX in action anyone is welcome to come with us to a real spray job anytime – we are out there doing it daily and happy to show you guys how these impressive machines work.