I just bought the Wagner 1700 today; no second thoughts.
I had paid $300 for a Wagner 250 (???)(.29GPM) at HD in 1994. In just the first paint job, the Wagner more than paid for itself. I used it to spray primer, latex, stain, even a real thick clay/paint mixture to achieve a smooth sheetrock finish (as opposed to a knock-down or orange peel finish). The Wagner does .29GPM, 2000PSI, 25 ft hose. And 1/3HP
I literally wore it out around 2000. The way it went was like this: sometimes I turned on the motor, but no paint would come out. I had to recycle power and repeat priming a few times before it would work properly. The Wagner 250 has a diaphram. I was guessing that the diaphram might have developed a hairline crack. The 1700 uses a piston, no diaphram.
But over the years the Wagner 250 has saved me a ton of dough so I'm not complaining.
For my next gig I bought a Graco 9xx PRO series (not the X9) for < 1K at HD. (The Graco uses piston).
I did not find a huge difference between the Wagner 250 and the Graco in terms of the quality of the finished paint, both professional looking.
The main difference for me is that the Graco does something like .8 GPM, and runs a 50 ft hose.
The truth is, I'm not a professional painter and 0.29 GPM is already too darn fast for me.
If I didn't move fast enough the paint would start to run.
Inexplicably, twice in 5 years the Graco refused to start up, no pressure. I had to repeatedly disassemble, flush with water, cycle power before it finally came around.
(I was painting my brother's house and he was worried that he would be out a paint job. I only paint for myself and family)
Last month I bought a Graco X7 for $400 at HD, partly for insurance in case the other one acts up again, and partly because the Graco 9 series is too bulky to haul around.
When I saw the Wagner 1700 at costco today for $220, it was a no-brainer. I was real happy with the pro-quality results I got from the Wagner 250. Compared to the 1700 the Wagner 250 looks like a piece of toy.
The Wagner 1700 does .29GPM, 3000PSI, 35 ft. hose; and it has 1/2HP.
Here are some tips:
1) after a paint job, thoroughly flush sprayer with water, and **** a mixture of antifreeze and water into the sprayer for long term storage. Keep the sprayer under pressure and disconnect the hose and gun. I'm using half water and half antifreeze. If anyone knows a better formula please correct me.
2) I find that straining the paint can prevent the gun tip from clogging due to a piece of solid in the paint; also sometimes, reversing the tip and spraying back into the paint-can may dislodge the clog. You can pick up the strainer from HD, S-W, K-M paint stores.
I would start a job without straining. Only if the guns keeps clogging, then I strain the paint.
3) on stucco, it is recommended to follow the spraying with a roller; to push the paint into the nooks and crannies. I was told if I didn't do this, the paint could peel. I have done both ways, with and without rollers, haven't seen any peeling yet.
Also use large pieces of card board to shield the house from over spray; and use roller instead of spraying around windows and doors.
4) for wood works it's best to spray the wood product when it's lying down. Doors, lay it flat on top of saw horses. Ditto for trims, base boards, mantels. If you must spray vertical wood works, be patient. Spray a light coat at a time, let the paint dry, or the paint runs.
If you can spray wood works inside an enclosure (like a garage) as opposed to outdoors, do it. Otherwise bugs will land on your paint job and drive you nuts.
5) If I had to do the ceiling, I'd do celing first, then walls, then replace the carpet. If you want to keep the carpet, use a roller. I would use the same color for the ceiling and walls.
A massive over-spray can diffuse from one end of the house into the other end; it can bend around corners and move upstairs/downstairs to do damage. It can find the smallest crack in the protective covering around your furnitures.
Massive over-spray results when you spray too much paint into the air and saturating the air. (like when you're spraying ceilings) The atomized paint particles refuse to dry and just hang in mid air. I found spray painting ceiling in small bedrooms on a hot summer day to be one unpleasant job. I had to cover my entire head and hair and hands. The windows were covered with clear plastic sheeting; but after a short while the clear plastic is covered in paint. So the room got very little light even though the outside is broad day light. All the windows were taped and closed. So after a short burst the humidity and temperature of the room shot up. I couldn't see because my face mask is covered in paint. I couldn't breathe because of the wet paint hanging in the air. (it smelled like ammonia) I had to take off the face mask to see where it needed paint, hit the spot and run outside.
Spray painting a large open area is better. You can more easily avoid saturating the air with sprayed paint. But you must tape and drape off the area, or the over spray can travel and cause damages.
All window panes, doors, hinges, knobs, floor, cabinets, fixtures must be taped or covered with plastic sheeting.
Use the blue masking tape; or remove the masking tape quickly or it becomes hard to remove. If the masking tape breaks off and gets stuck on the window pane, or if over spray finds a crack and gets on the pane, use acetone and a razor blade to scrape it off.
6) Behr is a very good paint. I found out that both Behr and Walmart paint are made by United Coating. On one job (my own house) I started out using Behr and switched to Walmart half way. Even my expert wife couldn't tell where one left off and the other began.
7) You can cheat if you paint on consecutive days without cleaning the machine. At the end of the day I would open the hole (uncap the pour hole) in the 5 gal paint can lid (for the sprayer intake hose to run through) and make a cut from the rim into the hole; then I bend and wrap the hole around the hose and snap the lid back on the can. I put a big trash bag over the sprayer and paint can, reverse the tip to point inside the gun, triple-wrap in plastic bags the gun and don't release the pressure on the sprayer, hose, and gun.
Keep the sprayer indoors over night. The next day, I unbag, spray to clear the tip of any obstruction before I un-reverse the tip, and continue painting. (Ditto for rollers, triple-bag air-tight over night)
But if you don't paint the next few days, you'd be better off flushing the machine with water; and if you don't paint for longer duration, don't forget the anti-freeze.
Also, leave the lid on the 5 gal paint can if you don't mind. As you drag the sprayer from room to room, and it tips over, without the lid, you can have quite a mess on the floor... but I'm thinking of the Wagner 250, where the 5 gal paint can clips onto the sprayer and travels with it. I have not yet open the 1700 box. I think here the 5 gal paint can is free standing on the floor... never mind.
Happy painting.
It must be a model made for Costco then-I guess.
