Thinking about buying one of those airless piston paint sprayers from Lowes. Not the Wagner buzzer. The one I’m looking at is 2800 psi 0.23 gpm. Is it worth buying? I only do occassional painting.
Do it right, or do it twice.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
This compact detatched accessory dwelling has an efficient layout with a vaulted ceiling that enhances the sense of space.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
I don't do much painting, but one of my biggest contracts asked me to paint a few units. I hate painting so i bought the Greco DX? It's a small airless. It worked great, made me want to paint. Dont' skimp on masking though.
Can't I go 1 day without spilling my coffee?
" The one I'm looking at is 2800 psi 0.23 gpm."
Thats a very small unit. The smallest I would reccomend is .5 gallon per minute and even then you will be thinning latex paint. You are on the right track with the piston unit. If you dont want to spend the money try a Cambell Hausfield for an inexpensive unit that also goes buzz [.33 to .5]. LOL. I think they are 300 to 350 respectively and they can be rebuilt for 50. I use one to spray laquer and stain only . I have a .6, .75, and a 1 galllon per minute units. It pretty well takes .5 . Graco has a nice .5 unit in a pistion for about 1600 I think. They are a quality unit pros use . You never said how much the one you were looking at costs, and I may be wrong about the price of the Graco.
Tim Mooney
Our local paint supplier sells "rebuilt" units for a considerable discount over new. I think they are rentals the store has rebuilt, they replace them every year.
I do not know much about this but thought I might throw out the idea, maybe others can comment?
I have 3 airless diaphragm pumps that were/are made by Wagner/SprayTech and the are not the "buzzer types" They work adequate for around the home and are really great for lacquer. I have found that when spraying latex, you do need to thin the paint as was previously stated. I would not buy a sprayer that does less than .4gal per min again but price is always an issue. I have sprayed MANY home with these and the one I like the most is the one I bought 14 years ago and I have never repaired it except for a minor cleaning and one or two major cleanings. The last major cleaning was after leaving paint in it for over a year because I forgot to clean it before my neck surgery. Flushed it out with lacquer thinner and started spraying. I'm probably going to sell 2 of mine and buy a bigger one though.
Make sure you buy a GOOD quality gun. If you don't, when you let go of the trigger, it will shoot a straight stream out on the wall. especially when using an extension wand
How good are these airless sprayers (Graco, for instance) at:
1) Getting the paint where you aim
2) Not spraying the paint so hard that blowback coats everything in the room?
I read the FHB article a few years back on spraying. I recall he used a HVLP unit, which are touted to save 30-50% of paint used. That 30-50% is getting into the air instead of on the wall. I expect the typical airless sprayer is HVHP, so I'm wondering how much paint gets in the air and whether it coats everything in the room with fine particles of paint dust? I tried a spray gun once on my compressor and I got more paint blowing back into the air than on the object to be painted (and no, my compressor doesn't have the CFM to support a HVLP conversion gun, and yes, I had the PSI set correctly).
Also, whenever I look for HVLP paint sprayers, all I find is the type that furniture makers use (eg. Fuji). Anyone know of one for spraying walls?
Thanks in advance,
Tim