Wagner Paint Crew Plus - Review

Paint Sprayers exist in that terrifying realm of contractors only. But now, Wagner, makers of the great PaintEater, have produced the Paint Crew Plus for the DIYer who wants to take advantage of the wonders of paint spraying.

The Paint Crew Plus (PCP) has the general look and feel of a pressure washer. It has the same two-wheel dolly set-up, complete with a telescoping handle. The machine is easy to roll around, and when it comes time to carry it up a flight of stairs, it's relatively light. It has a removable hopper, 25' of hose, and a roller head that attaches to the sprayer. After some minor assembly (putting the wheels and handle on), we were ready for action.

For our painting project, we chose a couple of cabinet doors that have been sitting around for about seven months now (they're only temporary, which is why we skipped the priming step). We then found the paint we wanted (a white latex) and set up the PCP as instructed. We got a test piece of plywood and, after turning the machine on, we gave it a shot. At first we got a nice even spray, but it quickly became a stream that went on in a brutally ugly fashion. Figuring we had done something wrong, we went over the directions again and, finding that we had done everything accordingly, we tried again and got the same result; a nice mist for a few moments and then an unsightly stream.

At this point we gave up for the day and started the lengthy cleaning process. To first clean out the hopper, we dumped in some warm water and started spraying it through the hose. What we got was a perfect mist. We checked the directions again and read in the troubleshooting section that we may need to thin paint if we get a reduction in pressure. We had ignored this earlier, thinking that the PCP should be able to handle paint straight out of the can. So, with our thinned paint, it took us less than two minutes to paint both sides of both doors (and that was while taking pictures). Getting the spraying pattern down is definitely tricky and takes some time getting used to. But after a little bit, we were starting to get pretty good at it.

We then tried the roller attachment. It connects to the nose of the gun, so you still have control over how much paint you feed it. It worked well for us, laying down a nice even roller's worth of paint with each pass. The tool comes equipped with a toggle so you can adjust the pressure depending on what you're spraying/rolling.

So once we got started, the PCP was great. Getting going and breaking down are no small tasks though. Clean-up, particularly, is both time-consuming and messy. When we use it again, it's going to be on a large project, and not just some junky old cabinet drawers. There are clean-up directions for short-term storage (overnight), if you're going to bundle a bunch of small projects together, but other than that, it's just not worth it. But on a big project, like a room or two, or a deck, or the exterior of your house, this tool will speed things up like you wouldn't believe. Just make sure that you've got everything operating correctly and that you've practiced with the sprayer, before putting any finish paint on a nice surface.

What we really would have liked to have seen is some sort of start-up card, different from the technical manual. Something that would have let us know what to expect (because we certainly weren't expecting to have to thin the paint right out of the can). Since this is such an unfamiliar piece of equipment for most people, it would be nice to have a guide to what is normal behavior for the PCP.

Wagner's Paint Crew Plus retails for about $280 and like a lot of tools, if it's something you're going to use, the price is completely worth it.

At Amazon

December 12, 2007

Wagner Paint Crew Plus - Review