When deciding on the best paint sprayer for your project, you will need to choose between two types; airless sprayers and HVLP (high-volume, low-pressure) sprayers driven by air.
Airless sprayers are the fastest and minimize overspray and hence wasting paint. They are suitable for a variety of paint products so are useful if you like to use both thin stains and thick paints of a latex nature. This means you don’t need to worry about complications such as needing paint thinners. Although they should be sprayed from around 12 inches from the surface, the uniform coverage provided makes them ideal for walls, doors and other large projects.
HVLP sprayers require less masking and drop cloth use than airless sprayers. However, paint thinning is sometimes needed and they must be used from a closer distance of around 6 to 8 inches. They are therefore much better for smaller jobs and detailed work — often in interiors. For jobs requiring thick latex paint, airless prayers are better.
There are several reasons to choose a paint sprayer over simply brushing or rolling. For a start, they give a more uniform finish and are much easier to use in tighter areas. In addition you can finish the job at an estimated 4 times quicker than rolling and 10 times quicker than brushing.
The speed can be greatly improved by choosing a sprayer with high horsepower. But bear in mind that you need to ensure that you can still control the extra power when holding the sprayer!
Along with power and pressure, tip size is the most important attribute. A bigger sprayer tip is required for thicker coatings and such a bigger tip in turn requires a higher pressure capability.
As an example, a project using heavier coatings and paints requires more pressure and larger tip sizes. The opposite is usually sufficient for projects using stains. The spray pattern width is also important when choosing a tip size. A larger pattern width is needed for large surfaces such as walls, ceilings and other larger surfaces. Smaller surfaces use a smaller pattern width.
Although all of this can begin to seem complex, the most important thing is to know the size of surface involved and the type of paint or stain that you wish to use. Once you are sure of these, choosing the best paint sprayer is quite simple.
Don’t forget to use your new paint sprayer safely, though. Wear proper eye protection and a suitable respirator mask while ensuring that you never spray at an animal, window or person!
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