Graco Paint Sprayers

[Borrego]

Going to be in the market for a paint sprayer to paint the house in spring or summer. Probably going to buy a used unit, as my budget does not like the idea of buying a new unit. This is a rough estimate of what I have seen browsing the local Craigslist ads:
Graco XR5 - $200
Graco XR7 - $250
Graco XR9 - $300

I am in no hurry and do have time on my side to wait for the right deal to come along. Not against paying for an XR9 if it is head and shoulders above the others. I would appreciate any insight you have.

 

[Carl B]

I bought an XR-7 on sale at Lowes several years ago. Used it to paint my house and garage. Loaned it to my son to paint his house. Loaned it to him a second time so he could help a friend paint his house. I intended to resell it after my use... but now it seems to have become a "family or extended family" asset.

Go buy a new one - you can buy them for $350.00 to $399.00 - use it and take care of it - then resell it yourself for $200.00. That way it only costs you $150.00 to $200.00 to use a new one on your job.

I was very happy with the performance and results.

 

[54FordPanel]

I found a XR7 that I got at 1/2 price as a customer return from Lowes. They had it marked for $350 ($50 off), and I offered them $200. They said ok. I love it.

After using 1 half a dozen times, there's no way I would buy a used one from Craigslist. There's just too many ways somebody could have put it away without cleaning it properly. In my opinion, it's worth it to buy a new one. Yes, they're pricey, but the pros use them.
Clean it up good (filters!) after every use, and it'll last for years.

Edit: My boss has a XR5, and I borrowed that before I got mine. He wasn't happy with it, until he upgraded the gun to a 'pro' model gun.

 

[Norcal]

NEVER, EVER loan it if you want to keep a sprayer around for the long haul, people don't clean them up properly & it turns a good machine into ****.

 

[JCQuick]

yeah I bought a new wagner from costco($299.00) a couple of years ago its done 3 houses so far. There was a thread on here about them thats why I bought it

 

[Dale Rogers]

I have an older 495 ST and wouldn't want anything smaller.
A common miss understanding is the paint still needs to be brushed or have someone rolling behind the guy spraying. The sprayer just keeps you from having to dip your brush into the paint bucket.
DR

 

[trbomax]

If you are useing it w/ latex,clean and flush it well with water,then flush it one more time w/ mineral spirits to keep things from rusting. I have stored mine for 3 yrs that way and it cranks up and runs perfectly.

edit) another thing a painter friend of mine told me was to not bleed the pressure off when you make the final flush. Store it in a pressurized state. This keeps any air from entering the system and causeing gum-ups or rust if there is still some water present.

 

[terabyte]

I have a Graco ProX9 and I love it! Painted most of my house with it and it makes life easier.

 

[ducati]

I have the HVLP 9.5 and absolutely love it. I know this is a different animal than you are looking at, but just wanted to chime in on how good their stuff is. My sprayer puts down factory type finished products. Like others have said, don't loan it out. I loaned mine once to a friend, that won't happen again. I got it back to it's original state, but took some elbow greese and time.

 

[harvey4804]

I have the ProX7 myself. I've painted an exterior and (pressure rolled) interior of 2 different homes using 100' of line and it worked great. Definitely NOT for professional painters though.