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Spent $150 on a paint sprayer that clogged after one use
Bought a Graco budget sprayer from Home Depot last Saturday to paint my living room ceiling. Got through maybe half the ceiling before it started sputtering and then just stopped working altogether. Took it apart and there was dried paint crusted in the nozzle that I couldn't even clean out. Anyone else had luck with those cheap sprayers or is it just a waste of money?
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troyc175mo ago
Bet you didn't check the paint viscosity first. Those cheap sprayers need really thin paint, like watered down a bit, or they just choke up instantly. I learned that the hard way with a Wagner I bought for a fence project, spent an hour cleaning crusted latex out of every tiny passage. Even then, you gotta run cleaner through it the second you stop spraying, not when you think you're done for the day.
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shane_morgan5mo ago
Man, you nailed it with that part about running cleaner through the second you stop. I made that mistake exactly once. Thought I could just take a quick break, grab a coffee, come back and resume. Came back 20 minutes later and the tip was already starting to gum up, had to tear the whole thing apart to get the dried paint out of the nozzle. It's like these things are designed to punish you for stopping. And I feel your pain on the latex cleanup, that stuff turns into cement faster than you think. My go-to move now is keeping a bucket of warm water with a little fabric softener in it, dip the tip in there anytime I set the gun down for more than a minute. Not sure if it actually helps but makes me feel better.
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casey3425mo ago
Yeah but here's the thing nobody talks about. Even when you thin it perfectly and clean it right away, the seals on those cheap guns start leaking after a few uses. The little rubber o-rings just swell up and crack from the solvents in the paint. I had a $40 sprayer where the cup just started dripping down my arm halfway through a job because the gasket gave out. So you can do everything right and still end up with a mess.
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