Spent $150 on a cheap paint sprayer, got a total mess instead of smooth walls

I figured I'd save time painting my living room and grabbed a budget HVLP sprayer from the hardware store. But man, it spattered paint everywhere and clogged up after 10 minutes. Ended up spending another $60 on better brushes to fix the mistakes. Has anyone else had luck with these things or should I just stick to rollers?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_eva13d ago

Bought a $130 Wagner sprayer last year. Worked great for the first 5 minutes then just started spitting chunks of paint everywhere. I had to sand down three walls and start over with a roller.

rosebarnes13d ago

Oh man, I literally just read this article last week from some DIY blogger who tested like 8 different cheap sprayers and basically said the same thing you did. She compared the $150 ones to the nicer $400+ models and found the cheap ones just can't keep a consistent pressure, which is why they spit and clog. The trick apparently is thinning the paint way more than you think you need to, like almost to the consistency of milk. But even then she said the cheap ones still clog after a while because the filters are too small. Sounds like a total headache, I'd probably just stick with rollers myself.