freezing paint rollers and brushes

[billconner]

I'm very old school, still dislike but use latex paint instead of alkyd, but have wondered if the technique of freezing rollers and brushes in zip lock bags overnight instead of cleaning, works. Experiences?

 

[mz44]

Just wrap in foil or plastic and leave it lay, no need to freeze

 

[tarmy]

I just put my stuff in zip lock bags…keeps them fresh for weeks…

 

[FMB4]

I placed such in a 5 gal bucket with a lid when I did a lot of Int/Ext painting as an apartment 'super'. These rollers and brushes were plastic handled of course.

 

[FredWanaker]

Saran wrap overnight but I find it easier to clean them every few hours of painting. The professional painters I used would dip them in something before using them that made them easier to clean when done too. I forget what it was called.

 

[rlitman]

Freezing doesn't help. Just seal it to keep the water from evaporating. Plastic bags are enough.

With rollers and latex paint, if the roller is small enough, store it off the frame in the can. The mess-less way is to hold the roller vertically a few inches over the can, and then bang the roller frame down on a hammer handle. A few good whacks, and the roller will fall off. I've retrieved a roller stored in the can TWO YEARS later, and it was still fine. We shook the can on my mixer/shaker with the roller in it too.

With brushes, before painting, I'll wet my brush with water, and then shake and spin it dry. The moisture up in the roots of the bristles slows paint from wicking up in there, and really extends the lifetime of the brush (dried paint near the bristle root is what kills them). A plastic bag or saran wrap should extend you for perhaps a day or two (works over a roller on the frame too, and even for a roller pan), but any longer than that and I'll just wash my brushes.

 

[Bucko]

If I'm in-between coats I just wrap the rollers in a shopping bag. If its longer I throw the roller i. A gallon zip lock in the fridge with some paint on the roller and not "run dry". Brushes get cleaned with brush cleaner after each use. The brush cleaner really helps keep them in good shape.

 

[yeldogt]

Full size give them a quick water rinse and use my fingers to squeegee off the excess and put them in a plastic bag .. cold part of the refrigerator.

People freeze for long term storage .. normally when I am doing a project over a couple weeks the refrigerator is fine .... you don't want mold or anything else to grow. I don't keep my rollers project to project or try to use when changing colors unless it's within whites.

For flat wall paint or ceiling I like giving them that light rinse off .... there is always some paint thickening on the edges -- or maybe it's been sitting a bit. Quick rinse takes all the gunk off .... often do another to get it ready. Flat paint needs a wet roller.

The smaller rollers are so easy I often clean them a bit more ....

I only do it with brushes if I'm using it the next day and I clean the heel well -- make sure any gunk is gone. Some latex paint sticks like glue

 

[dfiler2]

I just wrap in plastic if overnight but if it's going to be a few days I wrap in plastic and throw them in the freezer. My wife does interior painting for a living and does this all the time.

 

[nadogail]

I wash them at the end of the day. Rollers are consumables, good brushes are worth the time to clean them. A lunch break will find that the Rollers and Brushes are wrapped in a wet rag.

 

[brownbagg]

when i did apartment maintance we had a freezer in the shop, where we kept the paint brushes

 

[billconner]

Thank you all very much for all the replies. Not finding consensus here, not sure what I'll do. Seems saran wrap might be better than zip lock bags. Or I could just continue washing at the end of each session.

 

[PoorUB]

I just stuff the roller in a plastic grocery bag and wrap it up. I have no clue why freezing would help. You just need to stop the evaporation of the water and/or solvents from the paint.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If I'm doing a second coat, I'll do the shopping bag thing or plastic bag and stick in the garage fridge. I only keep it for a day or two, after that, it's in the trash.

Small paint jobs get a chip brush which gets tossed. The larger stuff, a decent brush and washed out.

I have a small stock pile of Purdy rollers, new in the plastic that were dump dived for. I'm not really concerned about what they cost new.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I've wrapped brushes in Saran Wrap and put them in the refrigerator, but never in the freezer. It works for at least several days.

 

[rburke65]

Stick em in a plastic bag or a Saran type wrap and into the freezer. Ezpezy

 

[like2wheel]

I wrap & freeze mine, but I'm not sure it helps. Once I was delayed for a week or so & the roller seemed dried out. I think the freezer self-defrost cycles had an effect.

 

[The Cobbler]

I wipe my rollers with a 5in1 tool to get the bulk of the paint out, toss em into a bucket of water . spin them when I re use them.
when done the job I clean them.
oil rollers are used latex rollers so there's no fluff . between coats gets same treatment , and tossed into a bucket of water . after job is done they get tossed

 

[Justind97]

Been there, not worth the frozen popsicle the next day you have to thaw.

Wrap in a thick plastic bag, I like to use the heavy duty Husky garbage bags from HD. Grocery bags breathe.
Leave in a cool damp place, this keeps the moisture from evaporating.
Conversely, I see rollers as disposable. Not worth the headache of possible junk in the paint when you pick back up.

Brushes get cleaned about 5 hours into a job and left to dry. Use secondary brush. I have found trying to use a wet brush has undesired performance on the bristles.

I have found the real secret is to keep the paint from going up the bristles into the steel. When I paint ( and that's very often) the paint goes no higher than about 1/2 way up the bristles.

 

[jar944]

I just stuff the roller in a plastic grocery bag and wrap it up. I have no clue why freezing would help. You just need to stop the evaporation of the water and/or solvents from the paint.

This..

My wife does all the painting at this point. We keep a loaded roller for every color in the house. (Walmart bag, double wrapped in the fridge/freezer) they keep for years.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I have found the real secret is to keep the paint from going up the bristles into the steel. When I paint ( and that's very often) the paint goes no higher than about 1/2 way up the bristles.

That's a good point. People often dip the brush deeper in the paint than is necessary (although if you're painting overhead it's hard to keep the paint from getting up into the ferrule.)

 

[wolfhawk73]

I'm very old school, still dislike but use latex paint instead of alkyd, but have wondered if the technique of freezing rollers and brushes in zip lock bags overnight instead of cleaning, works. Experiences?

A brush with water-based paint is entirely too easy to clean with water and a brush cleaning tool. I clean them at the end of the day or when the paint reaches 2/3rds of the way to the ferrule, whichever comes first. Knock out the excess moisture, brush out and shape the bristles, and put it back in its original holder to keep its shape.

If you want to hear a dissertation, ask my wife how peculiar I am about my Purdy brushes.

After rolling the first coat, I wrap the roller in a couple of layers of shopping bags and set aside until it's time to roll the second coat. After the second coat, I use the same shopping bags to pull the roller off the frame and deposit it in file 13. I've been burned a couple of times on keeping them wet too long. Sometimes the fuzz starts to detach from the core and shows in the final coat. I feel like all the time spent cleaning a roller properly (or thawing!) can be better spent actually painting, since rollers are relatively cheap compared to brushes.

 

[billconner]

Having washed brushes and rollers meticulously for years after each session (2-4 hours) I see I should change, and no matter what I change to, someone here will support it. I may try the wrap and fridge, as sort of a compromise between free air and freezer. Or just keep doing what I'm doing.

I will say the tools for water modified tung oils (Waterlox) are easy because they dry slow like oil and clean easily in water. Likewise, shellac is a very cleaning friendly coating.

 

[Sumboodie]

I wrap in plastic till end of project then throw it out.
I'm not making a mess cleaning a $5 brush

 

[rayra]

Freezing? I'll be darned.
I just wrap them up in a disposable plastic grocery bag, fully in contact with the wet bristles. If it is just several hours or overnight. If it will be longer I clean them out.