It seems that every spray bottle I get, be it Formula 404 or whatever fails to spray by the end of the bottle. The trigger to the spray handle works fine when the contents are full, but when it gets to the end fails to spray properly or starts to stick. And this usually happens right when the bottle is empty, or very close to it.

It's not because the bottle is empty. When I attempt to refill one of these bottles with a solution of water and Mr. Clean, the spray action still exhibits the same problems.

Why do these spray bottles consistently fail near the end of the bottle?

Welcome to the land of consumables. If I were a company that made spray stuff and wanted to ensure that my product continues to be consumed, I would design the spray mechanism to fail after so many sprays, an amount equal to the total amount of useful sprays the bottle contents could provide. But why? Simply put, to force the customer to buy another bottle rather than try to extend the life of it by adding water or even using other solutions in it.

I'll admit, it's a pretty crappy way to do business. In todays economic climate it would be useful to have a spray bottle that could be re-used. But, a companies job is to survive... if we demand re-usable spray bottles, we would be putting dozens of people out of work.

The thing that really grinds my gears the most is the fact these bottles begin to fail before they are empty! I might just have to do an experiment and see if the bottles do indeed begin to fail after so many pumps. And then mail bomb (not with explosives, violence, or intent to harm person or property you paranoid son of a guns!) a box of these broken spray pumps to the companies that produced em. That will do absolutely nothing, but at least it will make me feel better...