Anyone used the Wagner Power Painter? (1 Viewer)

My wife needs me to paint/stain our new fence and I was thinking of using one of these to make the job go a bit faster. I tried looking up their website to check out a manual but I could not find it. Has anyone used this tool before? Did it work well? Was it hard to clean?

It works, but you have to dilute the paint with water since it's too thick to go thru the sprayer. That makes the color vary if you don't get the paint/water ratio exactly the same for every load.

As for cleaning it, what do you think? You'll get enough paint out of the sprayer mechanism to reuse it, but all the parts will be the same color as your paint.

I know where you can get a used one cheap.

I've used them...

If you have a lot to paint, they work pretty well (like your fence say)...you do have dilute most paints (latex), but on your fence, color variation should be minimal. Cleaning them is a bit of a chore...you do it often enough, you can become pretty profecient at it...

I painted all of my mouldings/crown and base, and all of my doors with it. I used the Behr Premium White paint. It worked fine for me. I also painted the outside of my house with a Behr Brick paint, burned up two of them...paint was still too thick, even cut down.

TimK

> only if you are using latex paint of course

If it's not latex, I'll bet it still has to be diluted with oil or whatever.

If diluting sounds easy, consider that when you open a gallon can of paint, it's full. There's no room to add liquid, so you have to use another container. Then if you're going to measure the paint to try to keep the ratio the same for every sprayer load, you need a third container that's going to be fun to clean. But I guess the diluting does make up for all the paint wasted.

I used mine to paint my fence. Worked fantastic. Make sure to get the model that comes the external paint "can" and strap. You can dump an entire gallon of paint AND the thinner into it. I used the thinner that is made especially for the Power Painters. It really does work the best. No drips from the from of the painter and a nice consistent spray.

I wouldn't, however, use one indoors unless you are dealing with new contruction. (It gets paint EVERYWHERE)

Every Wagner thing I've ever purchased was a POS and didn't last very long, and I've had many. Those vibration sprayers may be the worst of the lot. Rent an airless sprayer if you have more than a couple days brushing or rolling, or if you regularly do outside painting, buy an airless sprayer, but don't buy the cheapest one because the gun will fail after 20-30 hours. A little better gun will last indefinitely and work much better. You can use these inside if you have a lot of painting to do, like days and days worth of rolling, but you need to cover stuff up more effectively. Good luck.

I was thinking about renting a pro rig for painting the outside of my house. Will the paint "stick" as well with the gun as it will with a roller? Also, do the spray guns work with stain?

Interesting. I've been considering buying one of these for a while to use on my fence and deck. Do the more expensive models work better or all they all junk?

Sure, a better vibrational model would outlast a Wagner, but I really don't recommend/like vibrational sprayers.
K

We tried one and it was a disaster. You couldn't tell how much paint was left in the bottle and when it ran out, it would splatter all over what ever your painting and mess it up. As far as cleaning it, I couldn't comment. I was so p!ssed off at it that I just thru it in the trash.

yeah don't get a wagner power painter...either rent or buy (if you do alot of painting) a nice spray setup. Already mentioned was an airless sprayer which are good, but i like air sprayers better, you can just get an air compressor, a regulator, and a nice gun. brands include devilbiss, sata, and binks...

Steve, maybe that's what they mean by "easy cleanup"- it takes just seconds to toss the whole thing in the trash.

Here's my experience with a Wagner Power Painter:

I just recently finished painting the interior of my mother's house. Every piece of furniture was removed and everything else was covered in plastic as we planned on painting the (vaulted, "popcorn"-textured) ceilings as well as the walls. Figuring that it would be faster to just spray the ceilings, I purchased the cheapest Wagner model plus a few gallons of the cheapest flat white "ceiling" paint at the local Home Depot.

The Wagner worked quite well with the cheap flat paint. No drippage, no clogs, and only a small amount splatter when the tank became empty. I did all of the ceilings in the house in about 5 hours with no major problems. And as others have noted, it does get paint *EVERYWHERE*--the result of overspray.

Clean up was is easy as long as you do it right after you finish using the gun. If you wait even 5 minutes, it becomes exponentially harder.

Next, I tried using my newfound toy with the higher quality Behr paint we chose for the walls. That is where trouble began. As others have noted, thick latex paint must be diluted to work with the Wagner (a lesson I learned the hard way). After much experimentation (and tons of wasted time), I finally got an acceptable mix and proceeded to paint. I got about a 30 square foot area done when the Wagner crapped out. Nothing could coax the thing to do anything more than emit a loud buzz.

I feel I got $60 worth of use out of that Wagner, so I am not overly upset it died on me. Would I buy another one? No. If I was looking at a job that big again, I would probably rent an airless sprayer from the local rental shop.

-Mike

I was just about ready to buy the $99 model from Home Depot to do all of the new doors in my house and the new screen I'm building for my FP.

After reading this, I'll think I'll save the $99.


Peace Out~

What kinds of places would rent a professional rig for home use? I might need to paint the house this summer and a power sprayer wouls likely make it a lot easier.

I worked for a professional painting crew in the 70's and was a Sherwin-Williams CC rep for 10 years and I must say I DON'T reccommend ANY type of sprayer for outside use! The overspray is a problem even for pros.... much less a weekend handyman. Overspray cannot be helped and you'll be surprised just how much of those little droplets of paint becomes airborne.... Save yourself a probable headache and liability for the overspray and just roll/brush it..........

Inside spraying is not that much trouble but the work is really about masking and covering up areas not to be painted.

The Wagners are simply a tool of a weekender and are a very poor design anyway.... A Graco or Devilbiss (among others) airless is much much better but still, the controlability of overspray will be the largest issue to deal with.....