self feed paint roller

[vavet]

I hate painting. I HATE painting. It's one of the few things I've historically been happy to pay someone else to do. It's just boring and mind numbing to me.
I recently became aware of a Wagner self feeding paint roller that could change my mind. It looks like there are a couple versions. One holds paint in the handle, you start rolling, and squeeze the trigger and the paint in the handle saturates the roller. Seems straight forward. It's about $35.
The other one looks like a regular roller, but it's connected by a hose to a pump that hangs on the side of your paint can.

Rollers

Refill from the paint bucket less with Wagner's Rollers Series. Effortlessly achieve smooth finishes with our electric & paint in handle rollers!

www.wagnerspraytech.com

Who has used one of these? Thoughts? Concerns?
It seems like the one with paint in the handle could get heavy. The one with the hoses could be cumbersome to keep moving as your paint your way around the room.

I'm guessing the cleanup time is the big downside to either of these. At what point do your savings make up for the additional clean up time?

 

[yatg]

Have a roller attachment that goes on my Graco airless. Works good for ceilings.

 

[cgrutt]

Sounds gimmicky. I actually have a pole and roller for my airless sprayer but never used it. Have two small airless sprayers and each cost about $1000 so don't see how you could do it with good results for $35. Even when spraying paint its common to backroll with conventional roller for texture and consistency. Even though I own the equipment I always just use a conventional roller and cover when rolling out. I suppose having an automatic feed could save some time on larger projects but not convinced the results would be as good as just doing it the 'Ole fashioned way, as boring as that might be...

 

[cgrutt]

Have a roller attachment that goes on my Graco airless. Works good for ceilings.

Yeah I could see how that would help with ceilings... what a pain in the neck lol...

 

[engineer2]

I had a Wagner power roller years ago until I sold it at a garage sale. The time it saved was made up by the time you spent cleaning it.

 

[billconner]

I had one and got rid of it after one or two uses.

 

[Stelzer]

Painter of 35 yrs here, so my opinions will be more based on whether these can be effectively used in a professional environment, which they can't. Between clogging of the lines, having to fiddle with the underpowered pump, and the limited mobility you'd experience by having the very end of your roller tethered to a line would render it inefficient and unwieldy. The line on the end of the roller limits the ability to telescope the paint pole on taller walls. On short walls, the line gets tangled and smacks into your freshly painted wall, so there's that to look forward to as well.

Graco has a few offerings that can be time savers, but they can also be frustrating and messy when trying to use in confined spaces. I think a lot of DIY'ers tend to hate the rolling aspect of painting specifically because of frustrations when having to work out of a painting pan, which is something I never do unless I'm working with 14"-18" rollers. Even then, I'm using an oversized pan-shaped bucket like thisthis
Typically though, if I'm using a smaller frame such as a 9", I'm rolling out a 5 gallon bucket and using a screen, which is way easier to move around without fear of spilling paint when shuffling a paint pan around. I've also seen plenty of painters step in their paint pans, or at the very least, trip over them and send paint flying. The roller and screen set up looks like this

 

[MileHighRover]

I had one nearly 20 years ago. It was awesome while using; you could paint a room very quickly. Unfortunately, like others have mentioned, any time saved painting was spent cleaning it. Just an absolute pain in the **** getting everything clean.

 

[71goldss]

I had a Wagner power roller years ago until I sold it at a garage sale. The time it saved was made up by the time you spent cleaning it.

You beat me to it!
I had a Wagner power roller I purchased years ago. Can’t really remember which model it was? It worked great for large projects, like painting multi rooms at a time, but cleaning it after the job was done was a huge pain! Flushing the latex paint out of the roller and tubing took forever! Definitely not worth getting it out if only doing one room or small projects!

 

[demarpaint]

Painter of 35 yrs here, so my opinions will be more based on whether these can be effectively used in a professional environment, which they can't. Between clogging of the lines, having to fiddle with the underpowered pump, and the limited mobility you'd experience by having the very end of your roller tethered to a line would render it inefficient and unwieldy. The line on the end of the roller limits the ability to telescope the paint pole on taller walls. On short walls, the line gets tangled and smacks into your freshly painted wall, so there's that to look forward to as well.

Graco has a few offerings that can be time savers, but they can also be frustrating and messy when trying to use in confined spaces. I think a lot of DIY'ers tend to hate the rolling aspect of painting specifically because of frustrations when having to work out of a painting pan, which is something I never do unless I'm working with 14"-18" rollers. Even then, I'm using an oversized pan-shaped bucket like thisthis
Typically though, if I'm using a smaller frame such as a 9", I'm rolling out a 5 gallon bucket and using a screen, which is way easier to move around without fear of spilling paint when shuffling a paint pan around. I've also seen plenty of painters step in their paint pans, or at the very least, trip over them and send paint flying. The roller and screen set up looks like this

I've been painting professionally since 1978. I echo many of your comments, bottom line they're more trouble than they're worth.

 

[Stelzer]

I've been painting professionally since 1978. I echo many of your comments, bottom line they're more trouble than they're worth.

Are you a member on the PaintTalk forum? If not, you should check it out. I'm a Moderator there, been a member for about 11 years, and still surprised at the amount of new things I learn from various painters across the world.

 

[demarpaint]

Are you a member on the PaintTalk forum? If not, you should check it out. I'm a Moderator there, been a member for about 11 years, and still surprised at the amount of new things I learn from various painters across the world.

I'm not. I'm retired and do some occasional work for a good friend when he's jammed up, and some choice customers. I'll check it out though. I moderate on two Jeep forums, and spend a lot of time here and Bob is the oil guy.

I just joined PaintTalk forum.

 

[jacked_72]

I have the wagner paint-in-handle model. I liked it a lot when I used it, but the clean up is really a grind. I haven't used it in years and years.

 

[Stelzer]

I'm not. I'm retired and do some occasional work for a good friend when he's jammed up, and some choice customers. I'll check it out though. I moderate on two Jeep forums, and spend a lot of time here and Bob is the oil guy.

I just joined PaintTalk forum.

Please make sure and do a proper intro whenever you have time. Lots of great folks there, but most will turn their noses to new posters who don't provide an intro. May sound dumb, but it's a fact. We have so many DIY'ers who join to ask the same questions over and over, so providing an intro is more of a filtering and vetting process than anything. Nobody judges by how much professional experience you've had as long as you have some. For all others, we refer them to our sister site on the DIY Chatroom.

 

[homebuilt burner]

I have the sidekick one. I liked it when we remodeled 3 rooms I primed and painted with it. Perfect no, handy yes.

I also used the kind that was battery operated and you carry it with a gallon of paint in it. I painted my dad’s shop. The bottom 8 feet are plywood. The shop is 35x45. I started in one corner and painted one coat all the way around. By then I could start all over again. So only one clean up.

 

[danski0224]

I hate painting. I HATE painting. It's one of the few things I've historically been happy to pay someone else to do. It's just boring and mind numbing to me.
I recently became aware of a Wagner self feeding paint roller that could change my mind. It looks like there are a couple versions. One holds paint in the handle, you start rolling, and squeeze the trigger and the paint in the handle saturates the roller. Seems straight forward. It's about $35.
The other one looks like a regular roller, but it's connected by a hose to a pump that hangs on the side of your paint can.

Rollers

Refill from the paint bucket less with Wagner's Rollers Series. Effortlessly achieve smooth finishes with our electric & paint in handle rollers!

www.wagnerspraytech.com

Who has used one of these? Thoughts? Concerns?
It seems like the one with paint in the handle could get heavy. The one with the hoses could be cumbersome to keep moving as your paint your way around the room.

I'm guessing the cleanup time is the big downside to either of these. At what point do your savings make up for the additional clean up time?

I rented an airless sprayer once (a real one, not a Wagner), and the cleanup took as long as the job did.

How long will the paint stay in the handle before leaks pop up?

Moving hoses around would be no less cumbersome than moving a paint pan or tray around.

I suspect that cleaning either of these tools enough for re-use would be a nightmare. Look at how long it takes to clean a roller cover by itself.

IF I was to try either of these tools, I would be weighing the disposable option, IF the time savings penciled out.

The handle one probably needs to be cleaned out, probably everything but the applicator.

The pump one, maybe replacing the tubing and applicator would cut down on cleanup time enough.

I pretty much never clean out paint rollers anymore. Takes too much time, messy and it's a waste of water. Even pretty decent Purdy Dove covers are only about $4 each retail. Maybe if I was using wool ones or something else that was expensive... maybe.