Wood – Switch Between Paint and Sealer for Sprayer

First off, I'm no expert on compressor/air type sprayers. Most of the time, these type sprayers are used for very thin paints such as automotive, lacquers etc. They also have fairly small paint reservoirs attached to the gun itself. They tend to put out a lot of over spray and should be used in a controlled area like a spray booth with proper ventilation. I never see this type of sprayer on building jobs.

The airless sprayer, such as the one you noted, use a high pressure pump to push paint through the hose to the gun. They deliver a good pattern (depending on tip selected), are easily controlled and since they don't mix air with the product, have far less atomazation of paint in the air. the other huge advantage is that the pick-up hose can be put directly into your 1 or 5 gallon can of paint. Follow the directions on priming and cleaning, but it is easy. I personally have a Graco model 17 and love it. It is a professional grade sprayer and retails around $450-$500. Just two weeks ago, I and a helper painted and back-rolled a complete two story house and detached garage in one day.(very long day, however!) This saved 3 or 4 extra days of labor and the results were fantastic. We shot both semi-trans stain on the house and matching color solid stain on the garage. This sprayer handled both products easily. (I always use apx 10 to 15% flowtrol with thicker solid latex based products)

The only disadvantage of this type of sprayer is on very small jobs. It takes about a pint or more of paint to fill a 25 foot hose and closer to 1/2 gallon for a 50 ft hose when priming the unit. This amount product is usually wasted at the end of the job when you get ready to clean the pump.

From the type of jobs you plan to do, I would recommend the airless sprayer hands down.

There are several good professional grade airless paint sprayers out there at reasonable prices. The base unit is the airless pump and the different nozzles used in the sprayer head make the difference in the style of application. The spray pattern and volume the nozzle allows as well as the types of paint or stain it can handle determines how it can be used on different projects.

I for example have a Graco Pro LTS17. I have a variety of tips that range from 14 inch wide high volume which makes shooting out a house a one day job, down to much finer spray tips that shoot properly thinned cabinet enamels in very tight patterns. One of the advantages of this type of pump sprayer is that you can feed product directly from a 1 gal or 5 gal can.

As with all sprayers, using the right paints/stains for the job and thinning them with Flotrol for latex or mineral spirits/linseed for certain oil based products makes all the difference on how the sprayer preforms and how well the product covers.

i kick myself for not having used one years ago. Once I started using mine a few years back, projects for painting a house exterior, decks with hundreds of spindles, priming new construction drywall, and refinishing wood cabinets became so much easier, faster and with not that much practice, a very nice finish.

Don't go cheap. Be sure whatever unit you buy is versatile and accepts all the tips you need for your varied projects.