Wagner Power Painter Max – Review

I am sure by now you have seen the commercials on TV advertising the Wagner sprayer.  If not you need to be more lazy like myself and watch a lot more TV.  While Wagner dates farther back, in 1953 Wagner developed their first paint sprayer.  So it would be safe to say the long history means they are doing something right.  At least one thing they are doing right is building a pretty good paint sprayer.  Neither Dan or Myself like painting.  In fact I would rather be pulling weeds in 101 degree heat surrounded by thorns, then paint.  Now we never had a chance to use a Wagner before, so we were pretty excited about seeing what this can do.  Would this make painting more bearable?

We checked out the Wagner Power Painter Max part of Wagners EZ Tilt line.  I have to say when we first opened the box and took the sprayer out, it seemed like a quality sprayer.  We know its hard to tell because the quality is inside the sprayer.  But the handle had a nice feel, the weight was good and the overall layout was very nice.  Now our intention was to use this sprayer for our basement project.  However our project is being put off because we are fixing some leaks and doing some foundation repair which will take longer than we expected.  Since we can not leave things along, we had to try this spray out.

What makes the Wagner EZ Tilt so special is you can paint below, in front and above you.  The sprayer doesn’t have to be straight in order to paint.  With other sprayers, you have to leave the sprayer in the upright position as it draws paint from the container.  With the EZ Tilt system, the suction tube is free and uses gravity.  So when you are spraying overhead, the gravity makes the paint seek the lowest position in the cup, but the suction tube does the same thing so you always have a suction.  Very cool idea.  A couple other cool features this sprayer has is the low level paint indicator and speed control.  With the speed control a user can select wide or narrow patterns.  The painter comes with a 1-1/2″ quart cup or you can hook this system directly into a paint can using the included paint can lid and the suction hose.  A user can also select between paint and stain with a movable switch.

In the video below you can see we filled up the cup about 3/8″ or half way with latex paint.  We could easily paint above us, in front and below us without having air or anything get into the lines.  We really like this system as it does make painting more easy.  This system is definitely faster than brushes and less aggravating then sprayers that don’t have the EZ Tilt.

Clean up was a snap.  It took about 10 – 12 minutes the first time we used it and about 7-9 minutes the second time we used.  Once you clean the system one time, it is very easy.

Ok the two things we don’t like about this system, which we hope they fix on the next release.  While the sprayer is awesome, the case is not.  Once you take the sprayer out, it is hard to get everything back into place and the case shut.  We were able to do it, but it took longer to close the case then it did to clean out the sprayer.  The next thing was the cord.  For some reason Wagner went with a small cord.  Instead of using a 7-10′ cord, they went with a cord that is about 1 -2′.  This means when you attach another extension cord on the tool, you have more weight pulling.  Plus the extension cord will keep coming off unless you tie it or us a system to secure each cord to each other.

I accidentally made the mistake of telling my wife I have a paint sprayer, naturally she got out her or I should say my to do list.  She added painting all the closet doors.  Not that I am complaining about painting, which is weird, but I really didn’t feel like taking all the doors down, hauling them in my garage.  I had a chance to hook the sprayer up again and use them on the doors.  I have to say the EZ-Tilt feature is great.  I had the doors sitting on the horses and I could just apply paint.  No messing around with getting air in the lines and could paint them at any angle.

Overall this is a good sprayer and we are looking forward to their new Pro series which comes out in April of 2012.  If you hate painting, the Wagner makes it much easier or more bearable.  I can honestly say if I use the sprayer, I don’t mind painting.  Someone just need to figure out a way to cut in corners and do trim so that part of painting is easier.