Airless Sprayers - Wagner Paint Crew vs. Magnum by Graco DX - Opinions?

[Dan in Pasadena]

I already did a search and there were some old threads, but not much.
Need any advice from someone who has used one of these machines.

I have used rental airless units before and been happy with them so I am not new to the process, just these machines.

I need to paint one 2 bedroom rental unit out of three in a triplex. Needs a full interior paint job. Thereafter I will use it for general home use maybe a small amount some deck staining....but infrequently. The rental units (so far) have not been vacated more often than once per year in the last four years.

I have read very good things about the Magnum DX. It is at Home Depot for $298. Every review I read was 5 of 5 stars and very positive. Tip size up to 0.015 in. comes with 25 ft of hose, .24 gallons per minute max so about a full gallon per minute if you go that fast. Planned on buying it.

I went to the Depot today and the Wagner Paint Crew is on sale for $179, down from $198. Very similar stats and some good reviews online. Fewer reviewsthan the Magnum unit. My impression is that it is a little less serious a machine? Puts out about .20 gallons per minute. Comes with 35 ft of slightly smaller diamter hose.

Your opinions if you have some experience?

[Jims5543]

I have a Wagner Paintcrew and the over spray that comes off of it is staggering.

I cannot comment on the Magnum other that it appears to be more on level with the airless units you see in rental places.

[Dantilla]

I won't use a "happy homeowner" type airless. You're better off renting a good one a couple times a year, instead of finding out that after sitting on the shelf for a few months, it won't work any more.

I bought an airless that was one of my local paint store's rental units. They get new ones fairly often, and sell off the old ones quite reasonably. I knew the manager, and he sold me a sprayer that I used for years with no porblems whatsoever. I recently sold an apartment complex, and left the sprayer there, since I won't be painting much any more. I got more than my money's worth out of that machine.

[RickM]

Perhaps you can look at Harbor Freight and see which one is sold more as a reconditioned unit. I've never seen any other product (Wagner) so defined by it's "second" life.

[krichard]

I just painted my 90% of my interior with a wagner paint crew. I considered it dissposable at $200. It did the job in 1/8th the time and I only had to do 1 coat. Last weekend we were finishing the dinning room and study with different colors so I rolled them on. It took longer then the rest of the house to roll those two rooms and took 2 coats each. What a pain in the ass..... The paint crew does throw a lot of overspray so make sure everything is covered extremely well.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

I won't use a "happy homeowner" type airless. You're better off renting a good one a couple times a year, instead of finding out that after sitting on the shelf for a few months, it won't work any more.

I bought an airless that was one of my local paint store's rental units. They get new ones fairly often, and sell off the old ones quite reasonably. I knew the manager, and he sold me a sprayer that I used for years with no porblems whatsoever. I recently sold an apartment complex, and left the sprayer there, since I won't be painting much any more. I got more than my money's worth out of that machine.

+1000000, from someone that has used both. If you don't want to spring for a professional unit, rent one. It is vastly superior.

[cab83_750]

Dan,

I was on the same boat as you. Based on what I have read and feedback from various HD stores, both are 'disposable' units (though the Magnum is somewhat better).

How much painting are you planning on doing? Maybe you and I can split the cost 50/50!!!!

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by cab83_750

Dan,
How much painting are you planning on doing?

Now that I'm out of the apartment business, not much!

The nice thing about a commercial quality unit is that even when not used for an extended period, I know it will work as soon as I plug it in. All stainless construction internally, so it won't rust to pieces like the disposable toys. I would usually store it with diesel fuel inside to keep everything lubed. Lasted for years, still going strong.

[JMPRO]

I have found that using any kind of sprayer is only useful if you are doing a large volume of work. With all the paint dust and overspray it takes just as long to prep and clean up to do 1 room as it does to do 10 rooms. If I am doing 1 room I just use the old roller and brush. When I did my rental house it was getting new floors anyway and it was empty so the airless came out. ceilings and walls in all rooms done in 1 day.
Jerry

[RickM]

FWIW, I used a pressure pot and small compressor for quite a bit of interior and exterior painting in the past with excellent results. You can utilize an old spray gun head (as I did) and inexpensive air hose to get very precise flow, pattern and texture.

Another nice aspect is that you can simply place a gallon can of paint into the unit to minimize clean-up. I even lined the pot with a plastic bag to further protect the interior. If you lived nearby I'd lend it to you.

Below is the $39 HF counterpart to my old Sears unit.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93119

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ok, finally back to this thread.

I worked selling paint, air compressors and the early airless units while I was in high school and college so I have some familiarity with spraying equipment. The old bugaboo on airless was they were hard to clean properly and if not done right they could be useless thereafter. The owner's reviews I read on the Magnum were uniformly positive on the cleaning process...very easy.

I used paint pots in the old days (70's) and was happy with the results but I guess I consider them to be old school requiring thinning using a viscosimeter, and resulted in a lot of overspray, etc. Maybe they have changed over the years. Despite opinons to the contrary, airless doesn't result in "overspray" but they CAN generate "bounce back" if the tip size is incorrect or the pressure set too high, I AM experienced with that and know to avoid it. Bounceback (if tip/settings are correct) is largely dry and cleans up easily. But even if it happens a prudent amount of masking and drop cloths ought to make that not much of a clean up issue. At $80/day to rent them a rented airless doesn't make sense to me now that we have several rental apartments.

I've decided to go with the Magnum unit. The Wagner paint crew is probably fine for homeowners but I like the overall heavier duty look and feel of the Magnum unit. Also, every owner's review I read about it was positive. Plus it comes with a storage fluid that I think will be adequate for the amount of time I will store it between uses.

[Rot 911]

I've used the sprayers, and like the previous guys said, all the prep work seems to defeat the idea of the sprayer being more efficient and faster. I suppose if you were painting the inside of a new house before trim and carpet it would be worth getting one. My last one was a Wagner. Worked ok, but the overspray was unbelievable.