help me with airless sprayers

[bigjbear]

I'm going to be moving before too long and will need to paint my house and garage inside and out. I don't want to pay someone, or do it all with a roller and brush. I'll probably also end up painting the house I buy and building a detached garage once my finances recover from the move. This got me thinking about buying a paint sprayer.

I was looking at a Wagner Paint Crew. It seemed like an OK unit for the price, about $150. But you have to pour the paint into a hopper, it wont suck it from a bucket. This also means more clean up. That, and Wagners reputation leaves me underwhelmed.

So I decided to look at what seem like entry level commercial units. The Graco XR7 looks like a solid choice for what I'm doing. But at $500, it would be cheaper just to rent one several times- it was less that $100/day.

Then I found a SprayTech 1620, they're about $50 less than the Graco. After hunting around the net I found reconditioned ones for as low as $260+ $25 more for shipping.

Specs' of 3 I looked at:

Wagner paint crew
1/2 HP
2800 PSI
.20 GPM
35' hose
max tip size .015
VGX gun

Graco XR7
3/4 HP
3000 PSI
.31 GPM
50' hose
max tip size .017
SG2 gun

Spraytech 1620
5/8 HP
3000 PSI
.29 GPM
25' hose
max tip size .017
GX-07 gun



So how about painters, any advice? Are any of these any good? Any other brands worth while? Or even any pointers you want to throw my way?

(edit: added GPM to the specs)

 

[thedrip]

I have one thats old as dirt, possibly older. No idea where it came from, it was in a shop my boss bought as part of a property deal. Works great. 1hp, sucks from a 5gallon. Everything uses pipe thread so I was able to get a new hose & gun for it.

Definately thin down what you're spraying, makes it work 100x better. My gun, I mix anywhere from 1/2-1 gal of thinner in with 5gals of oil paints, and a little less water than that in latexes.

 

[mxfireman]

I have used my buddie airless quite a few times and I love it. The wagner hopper style I have heard alot of bad things about them such as they don't hold up and are very cheaply made.

I was in Home Depot the other day and they had decent ones for about $250.

This is the style that he has. It runs about $300 on homedepot.com.

Here is another one that I heard good things about from some other buddies that paint and it is only $200.

Hope that helps.

 

[bigjbear]

I looked at the that Graco DX and it looked OK, but similar specs as that Wagner for $100 more. It souned questionable for exterior paint; 3/8 HP, 2800 PSI,.24 GPM .015" max tip. It also uses a 3/16 hose, the bigger units use 1/4"

The bottom one IS the hopper style, that's what the yellow part is. Its only $150 after the rebate.

 

[bigjbear]

So I poked around some paint forums and have basically ruled out the Wagner Paint Crew. Some of the professionals sound like guys on here preaching the 60/14 mantra- only theirs is Titian or Airlessco. That's not going to happen with my checkbook and the small amount of work I need to do (compared to a pro).

After a lot of reading and thinking I am leaning towards something in the $500 range. I've narrowed it down to the Graco XR7 described in the first post, or one of these;

Graco XR9 for $60 more
7/8 HP
3000 PSI
.38 GPM
50' hose
max tip .019"
SG3 gun w/ swivel

Wagner 9170 ~$450
3/4 HP
3000 PSI
.33 GPM
50' hose
max tip .019"
GX7 gun

SprayTech 1920 -just under $500
7/8 HP
3000 PSI
.42 GPM
50' hose
max tip .021"
GX8 gun

Also, I found out that Wagner and Spraytech are the same product sold under two names. Example: a SprayTech 1920 = a Wagner 9190.

 

[bigjbear]

After visiting a SW paint store, Lowes, & HD and looking at the different brands, the one that really stood out was the Campbell Hausfeld PS6521. BUT, it was $100 over my revised price limit, or double what I originally planed to spend. So I think I am going to go with the SprayTech 1920. Unfortunately, no one local will match-or even come close to- the price of a wholesaler in MS. So it looks like I'm going to mail order it. The total is under my revised budget limit (good) but $170 more (ouch) than I originally planned to spend on the DX. But that one was underpowered for what I wanted to do.

Anyone ever use a power roller attachmet on one of these? It sounds less messy indoors and faster than spraying & back rolling.

I'm going to think about it for a couple days still. So if anyone has some input, post up! Thanks for any help.