I compared two paint sprayers and the $80 one beat the $400 one

Borrowed my brother's Graco last weekend to paint my fence. After struggling with overspray and cleanup all morning, I grabbed my old Wagner from the basement. Frankly, the cheap one laid down a better coat with less mess. Has anyone else found that price doesn't always equal performance with sprayers?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_miller13d ago

Used to be a total brand snob with my tools honestly. Always figured spending more meant getting better performance, especially on something like a paint sprayer. Then I borrowed a buddy's high end setup for a deck project last summer and it was nonstop clogging and sputtering. Went back to my cheap little handheld and it laid down paint smooth as butter. Really changed my whole view on this stuff lol. Sometimes the simple inexpensive design just works better without all the extra fuss.

anna_craig13d ago

Haha, right? I had almost the exact same thing happen with a paint sprayer. I bought this fancy one that was supposed to be pro grade and it just choked on the paint every five minutes. Then I grabbed a little $40 one from the hardware store, the kind that looks like a toy, and it finished the whole room without a single clog. It's wild how the cheap ones sometimes just have fewer parts to break or get jammed.