Rich Engelhardt
07-18-2013, 7:43 AM
10 years ago I bought a Wagner Paint Crew airless to stain both sides of 300 feet of cedar fence.
It was only $149.00 & from past experience w/Wagner products, I thought it would make it through the fence, but, didn't expect it to last beyond that.
My son surprised me by staining it (the fence) one day while I was at work.
The downside was that is idea of cleanup was to just unplug it (the sprayer) and let it sit in the middle of the yard...
Fortunately, it was an oil based stain that took forever to set up and start drying. Even after a few hours in the heat of a Summer day, I was able to flush the pump/lines/gun clean.
~ 3 years after that, I had to spray some primer on a kitchen ceiling, so, I dragged out the Wagner and figured I'd give it a shot.
Very much to my surprise,,,,it still worked!
I finished up - flushed and cleaned it - and stuck it on the back enclosed porch - where it sat until this past Saturday.
On Saturday, I dragged it out, hooked up the hose and gun & filled the hopper with water.
It took it a bit, but, it started to pump water - much to my delight/surprise.
Just to be safe though, when I stopped by HD to get some more stain, I picked up a low end Graco for $299 - just as "insurance".
My wife and I spent Saturday, part of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday scraping, power washing and wire brushing the fence - plus replacing some pickets the dogs have chewed up.
Yesterday I fired up the Wagner and had at it on the fence. The temperature was in the mid 90's and so was the humidity....
There was also no escaping the direct sun. I could take a break from the sun every so often, but, the sprayer couldn't.
Midway through the first section, the sprayer started making some "unhealthy" noises - like nuts and bolts rattling in a can. (I've repaired enough airless units to know that sound equals only one thing - a bad or failing ball check valve)
I told my wife that I guess we're out of luck and won't be returning the Graco.
Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to just run the Wagner to death.
Good thing because it ran for the rest of the day and was still going strong when I finished the last picket!
So = bottom line is - LOL!
I pretty much broke even @ this point!
An airless rents for ~ $50 for four hours & I got three ~ 4 hour jobs out of my $149 Wagner.
But - what fun would that have been w/out all the suspense?
(sorry this is so long - I'm just killing time before I head out to HD to return the Graco and wanted to semi-gloat about a cheapie tool working out well)
It was only $149.00 & from past experience w/Wagner products, I thought it would make it through the fence, but, didn't expect it to last beyond that.
My son surprised me by staining it (the fence) one day while I was at work.
The downside was that is idea of cleanup was to just unplug it (the sprayer) and let it sit in the middle of the yard...
Fortunately, it was an oil based stain that took forever to set up and start drying. Even after a few hours in the heat of a Summer day, I was able to flush the pump/lines/gun clean.
~ 3 years after that, I had to spray some primer on a kitchen ceiling, so, I dragged out the Wagner and figured I'd give it a shot.
Very much to my surprise,,,,it still worked!
I finished up - flushed and cleaned it - and stuck it on the back enclosed porch - where it sat until this past Saturday.
On Saturday, I dragged it out, hooked up the hose and gun & filled the hopper with water.
It took it a bit, but, it started to pump water - much to my delight/surprise.
Just to be safe though, when I stopped by HD to get some more stain, I picked up a low end Graco for $299 - just as "insurance".
My wife and I spent Saturday, part of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday scraping, power washing and wire brushing the fence - plus replacing some pickets the dogs have chewed up.
Yesterday I fired up the Wagner and had at it on the fence. The temperature was in the mid 90's and so was the humidity....
There was also no escaping the direct sun. I could take a break from the sun every so often, but, the sprayer couldn't.
Midway through the first section, the sprayer started making some "unhealthy" noises - like nuts and bolts rattling in a can. (I've repaired enough airless units to know that sound equals only one thing - a bad or failing ball check valve)
I told my wife that I guess we're out of luck and won't be returning the Graco.
Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to just run the Wagner to death.
Good thing because it ran for the rest of the day and was still going strong when I finished the last picket!
So = bottom line is - LOL!
I pretty much broke even @ this point!
An airless rents for ~ $50 for four hours & I got three ~ 4 hour jobs out of my $149 Wagner.
But - what fun would that have been w/out all the suspense?
(sorry this is so long - I'm just killing time before I head out to HD to return the Graco and wanted to semi-gloat about a cheapie tool working out well)