Tony Bilello
12-01-2010, 3:10 PM
One year ago I purchased an Earlex 5000 Spray Station Pro.
Within 2 or 3 months, I was on my 4th gun. There were continual problems with the siphon tube leaking due to weld failures. Well, that problem was fixed by Earlex and their vendor and I havent heard of anyone else having that problem since.
So here is the latest.
The Earlex comes with a teflon coated cup which I always thought was a bit of overkill. Anyway, a few months back, I was clear coating and finding black specks getting into my finish and soon figured out that the teflon was coming off. Since I had shot well over 70 gallons or so of lacquer through it, I figured I would just buy a new cup from Woodcraft which is where I purchased the gun in the first place. (BTW, A Harbor Freight cup from their cheap cup guns works well for a while.)
I asked Woodcraft if they had a cup with no teflon and they did not, so I bought another cup with teflon lining. Well, that lasted me about 2 months before the teflon started to flake again. This time I called Earlex. I spoke to a woman named Melissa. I told her my story about the previous problems and now with the cups. I asked what was causing the teflon to peel and told her I shoot lacquer almost exclusively. She told me it was probably the lacquer solvents and thinner...DUH !!!. I thougt that was what the gun was made to shoot. I asked her if they had a cup without Teflon and she told me that they didnt have any in stock at the time but were expecting a shipment and how much they cost. So I kindly and softly stated that I wanted two cups but had no intentions of paying for them.
She told me to send her my 2 old cups and she would send me 2 new ones in a few weeks when the new ones came in. Three weeks later, there they were in the Marina Office where I asked them to ship them - free of charge.
So, as Earlex works out their problems, their Customer Service is very good.
Over all, I am happy with the gun performance. I have never used any other HVLP to make a fair comparison to.
As for HVLP in general.....A). My lacquer goes approx. twice as far and B). I can spray black, red or whatever color all day long with short pants on and never have any colored lacquer on me or my shoes other than dust which easily blows off.
__________________
Within 2 or 3 months, I was on my 4th gun. There were continual problems with the siphon tube leaking due to weld failures. Well, that problem was fixed by Earlex and their vendor and I havent heard of anyone else having that problem since.
So here is the latest.
The Earlex comes with a teflon coated cup which I always thought was a bit of overkill. Anyway, a few months back, I was clear coating and finding black specks getting into my finish and soon figured out that the teflon was coming off. Since I had shot well over 70 gallons or so of lacquer through it, I figured I would just buy a new cup from Woodcraft which is where I purchased the gun in the first place. (BTW, A Harbor Freight cup from their cheap cup guns works well for a while.)
I asked Woodcraft if they had a cup with no teflon and they did not, so I bought another cup with teflon lining. Well, that lasted me about 2 months before the teflon started to flake again. This time I called Earlex. I spoke to a woman named Melissa. I told her my story about the previous problems and now with the cups. I asked what was causing the teflon to peel and told her I shoot lacquer almost exclusively. She told me it was probably the lacquer solvents and thinner...DUH !!!. I thougt that was what the gun was made to shoot. I asked her if they had a cup without Teflon and she told me that they didnt have any in stock at the time but were expecting a shipment and how much they cost. So I kindly and softly stated that I wanted two cups but had no intentions of paying for them.
She told me to send her my 2 old cups and she would send me 2 new ones in a few weeks when the new ones came in. Three weeks later, there they were in the Marina Office where I asked them to ship them - free of charge.
So, as Earlex works out their problems, their Customer Service is very good.
Over all, I am happy with the gun performance. I have never used any other HVLP to make a fair comparison to.
As for HVLP in general.....A). My lacquer goes approx. twice as far and B). I can spray black, red or whatever color all day long with short pants on and never have any colored lacquer on me or my shoes other than dust which easily blows off.
__________________