Graco 17D889 TrueCoat 360 VSP Handheld Paint Sprayer

This tool is very simple and easy to use. I let my seven year old son use it while I was painting some trim and he did fine . I found that it sprays evenly from any angle shooting up or down as long as you keep your distance and the tool perpendicular to the work piece, I just use warm water to clean it and it cleaned up just fine. Nothing compared to cleaning a bunch of brushes and paint pans. It uses a little bit more paint than I expected but it’s not wasting anything. The finished looks so much better than brushed or rolled, and it gets into areas that you can’t reach very easily with a brush. I sprayed thick exterior paint through this tool with no problem I’m going to try stain this weekend. I have a big deck that is stained and I want to read stain it. This tool will make it a breeze. You definitely need to cover anything behind your work piece. You don’t want to get overspray because it definitely overspray’s. There are a few things that cannot do like painting around spindles on a railing but it can get so much else done so much faster you’ll have time to hand paint those small details.

The VSP model of the 360 is excellent. (1) It uses a 42 oz cup rather than 32 oz. You'll appreciate refilling much less often with a larger capacity. The weight difference is 8 oz of whatever medium you're using which is minor. (2) The variable speed has many more options than the 2 speed models which helps me greatly. You get a "feel" for what speed to use very quickly. (3) You can paint at any angle, even upside down. I'm applying preservative on the joists under a 50' x 12' deck, and I'm using paint sprayer is upside down most of the time. (4) You don't have to thin your paint or preservative. That usually ruins a lot of products if they are thinned. (5) Very easy learning curve. This is my first time using a paint sprayer. Even after it arrived, I worried that I couldn't use it, but I found that it is very user friendly. I researched all of the main brands and a few "Amazon Choices" along with watching many Youtube videos that compare various sprayers. This is my choice, and I'm very, very happy. It's the first time I've ever used a spray gun, and it was easy. I recommend having a brush on hand to brush out any uneven places or drips. Just takes a few seconds to make corrections with a brush. A very conservative estimate is that I spent 25% of the time that it used to take me with a brush. Wish I had bought one years ago.

Bought this to paint a new 54-ft x 6 ft high solid wood fence. Only took a few minutes to get up to speed with it. Took around 2 gallons of Kilz 2 primer, around 8 reloads of the paint cup, and about 2 hours. Would have gone faster but the fence surface is not an entirely flat surface, with wood batten strips every 6 inches, giving lots of angles to cover. The Kilz-2 paint looked pretty thick so I added probably 3 - 4 oz of water per gallon. This unit has a 1 to 10 speed setting, and I found 4 to be a good choice. After the initial minute or so I got the pump speed and hand movement speed worked out and had no noticeable runs. Due to the ridged fence surface I had to go at it from both directions. I was able to use the same disposable paint cup for the entire process. There is a handy little device packed with the pump I almost overlooked. It's a little slide-on extension of the handle that makes the handle the same length as the paint cup, allowing you to set it down on a level surface. Huge help when refilling, juggling paint cans, or just taking a short break. If there was one area that I had issues with it would be the clean-up. Now, before I even loaded it with paint, I foresaw this could be an issue, so I wiped the entire unit down with a paper towel and a bit of Pledge furniture wax. Wasn't certain how much it would help, but at least it smelled nice. In the end this seemed to help, but the paint found many more tiny crevasses than the wax did. After I was done spraying, I commenced the well-detailed cleaning process, and if there is ONE thing I can stress, it is, have LOTS of clean water, LOTS of empty buckets, and a clean-up area you don't particularly care about. Preferably set up beforehand, outside, on a tarp, with a table, sawhorses and a piece of plywood, . . . some sort of raised work area. You could fumble around on the ground if you wish, but I'm pushing 70, so working at a more comfortable height was a blessing. I had a large canvas tarp on the concrete, with a small folding table, covered with cardboard. Disposable gloves also help. Still managed to make a mess. Also, the Amazon sales info showed a small bottle of Graco Pump Armor liquid to purge and protect the pump for storage. This is incorrect. There was none in the box. When you fill out the registration, the card says if you do it on-line, they will SEND you a small bottle. In 4 to 8 WEEKS! Not much help. BUY some Graco Pump Armor ALONG with the sprayer. When refilling, you need to remove the paint cup and invert the main body of the sprayer, setting it on a work surface, upside down. This is a bit unstable, and drippy at best. If the sprayer topples over, and / or, when reconnecting the now refilled paint cup . . . . Again, have a paint-proof work surface setup beforehand. With tons of paper towels and some damp rags. There is the listed cleaning process with lots of water, and a final rinse with the pump armor, but that says little about cleaning the REST of the device. Being brand-new, I wanted to make it look that way again, so after the major cleaning was done, I took it inside to our laundry room sink and went after the exterior runs with an old toothbrush, a scotch-brite pad, a plastic spoon, and some dish soap. You cannot immerse the unit, but I was very tempted. After some intense scrubbing it looks pretty decent, but after all that, I ramped up the wax job and went at it with some Johnson's Paste Wax. Still have the final paint to run through some day soon when the wind cooperates. Will see if that does any better. One disappointment I discovered after the fact is that it isn't recommended for fine finishes. Graco openly discusses this on-line where users post reviews. They admit freely that another sprayer would work better for this. When I bought it, it was with the idea that I would use it when we repaint our kitchen cabinets, but among the few comments on this, unhappy users said it looked like their young child went at their cabinets with a roller instead. Some of this could be related to paint choices, preparation, thinning, technique, etc, but when Graco themselves discourage it, maybe I better rethink it too. A few last thoughts on spray tips. The two spray tips that come with it vary only in fan width. 4 inch and 12 inch. They stress that NO OTHER TIPS WILL WORK ON IT. PERIOD. And the tip you don't use at the moment has a convenient storage location - a hole drilled into the lower part of the handle. Not thinking other of it, I found my unused tip fell off somewhere and as yet remains lost somewhere in my side yard. Park your spare tip in a safe place. In all, a decent sprayer for house and yard stuff, but on smaller jobs the clean-up could make it impractical, and the frequent refills of the 42 oz paint cup could get tiresome on a really large job.

Mine stopped working after three uses for smaller jobs. It is an ordeal to clean it, but I have done it multiple times, and it is easy now. Two main reasons why this fails: 1) air leaks in, and the tool cannot create vacuum to suck paint out of bag. 2) small solid pieces of paint clog pump. That when pump/compressor inside sounds weird and different. I cleaned everything first in cold water (rough cleaning)a and then in hot water with liquid soap. I take nozzle off and clean it. You can take filer off filter to clean but do not squeeze it. If you reshape the filter then air will easily leak in, and the tool will not be able to create vacuum, and paint will not flow in. Do not squeeze very solid plastic frame where paint bag sits in. Be sort of gentle with it. Again, if you reshape/deform it even little bit, air leakage will prevent the sprayer from doing its job. Most important cleaning process is using the sprayer to shoot out hot soapy water. This will melt any solid particulates that may be clogging pump, compressor, and what not inside. After cleaning paint bag and the plastic frame in hot water, add liquid soap and hot water in. Attach it to the sprayer and flip it upside down. When you flip it upside down you do not have to squeeze air out of the bag. I shake it little bit to see soapy bubbles as much as possible, and then sprayer should be primed on on the highest speed for 10 seconds, but I go little bit longer. Then, you just let it sit upside down for 5-10 minutes. I repeat this routine twice, and every time the sprayer works much better. Apparently, I often get solid pieces of paint to reduce flow of paint in the sprayer. Then, I repeat this procedure but with only hot water without soap, so I do not get soap and paint mixed on my next job. Graco customer service told me about this cleaning trick with hot water and soap, and flipping the tool upside down. The tool works very well, but everywhere where sealing has to be air tight, be very careful. Do not squeeze it, do not be rough with it. Solid paint will cause clogging problems, so I clean paint very well from all the parts I use. Do not have old solidified paint because it will get inside and clog pump/compressor. Another problem that happened I would squeeze air out of bag, close the tip on it, prime the sprayer for 10 seconds at maximum speed, and the sprayer worked very well. However, if after priming, I climbed long ladder, the sprayer wouldn't work. It was a puzzle. What happened while I was climbing, the paint would go down by gravity and push air toward the sprayer filter, and air would prevent the sprayer sucking paint in. So, I have to squeeze air bag, and prime the sprayer just before using it even if I was on the top of ladder. After several times, it became sort of easy. This tool is only for smaller shorter projects. I am spraying exterior house walls, but one by one, and it is going pretty well.

Since using this, I have read reviews here that I should have read before purchase. This machine has good marketing spin by Graco. I had faith in their products and years of experience. It was interesting to see 2 or 3 stars for a job that the reviewers were clearly not happy with. So, the good. I like the idea of the collapsible bag and being able to not have to clean everything immediately after use so that it can be used later that day. The bad. It is a terrible sprayer. Both spray tips are 0.015 inches and that is all that Graco makes for this. This will not do a fine finish. This is a blunt tool for painting. It does throw paint on the target, in pulses. This leaves an orange peel kind of finish. I have been a painter for years and at first I thought it was me, but it isn't. I prepared a room for painting the baseboard and door frames. I spent a lot of time repairing and sanding everything smooth in anticipation of a professional glossy coating. This was a disaster. When moving fast enough to not have runs and it would run if any part got more than 1 really quick pass. I was using PPG breakthrough alkyd gloss enamel which is a $75 a gallon high end paint that dries quickly and in other sprayers could be use for cabinets. Not here. What a mess. I purchased the VSP thinking this would give some finer control. It only speeds up (runs) or slows down (spatter) the mess with not middle ground. After allowing it to dry, I sanded it all down and tried again. These are days I will never get back. Time, effort, money for paint, materials, and the sprayer. Certainly, a poor value in terms of the overall job. I should have spent more on a higher end sprayer. So, I am not sure where this sprayer has a place. The pictures on the box show a latex wall and a fence. But where sprayers shine is with no brush markers on items, cabinets, furniture, baseboard and the like. When other here have complained about a dearth of tip sizes, Graco responds that these two are enough and that if you wanted a good sprayer, you should have bought a higher end sprayer. Bad taste in my mouth, maybe a competing brand would be better. Sorry, I really wanted this to work. I would have loved to be giving a glowing review for a great experience.

Don't get the cheap gun! This gun is sweet but the customer service is even sweeter. Lays on a nice even application of paint and it is easy to use. One coat is all you need. We sprayed the entire inside of our house over several weekends with this gun. Would not recommend anything bigger. Graco didn't skimp on quality either. I was working the gun pretty hard and it shut off on me. I thought I had blown an internal thermal fuse but the gun is smart enough to have a thermal cutoff and started working after it cooled down again. The sweet thing is that customer service offered to send me a new gun the next day if it didn't start up again. Just do it.

This little monster is amazing! the controls are easy and intuitive. The only downside is the weight, it can get annoying after 15minutes, but it is not bad at all, considering in 15min you have complete what would take an hour manually. Loading and priming are a breeze, but it does use quite a bit of paint and coverage will depend on the quality of your paint. I have used zinsser oil primer and behr ulta latex - amazing results. The cleanup is cumbersome, but worth every minute of us. spray patterns and zebra striping will happen until you learn to control it, however, 10-15 minutes of practice on scrap plywood or drywall is worth gold. You'll have to get thinner for oils and plenty of the pump cleaner solution otherwise im sure the pump may get screwed after long periods of storage between usage. This is a must for anyone seeking professional results with minimal investment and not having to store tons of equipment.

The sprayer did a nice job for 1.5 projects, but then it stopped spraying paint half way through the 2nd project. I followed the recommended cleaning procedure, but it still would not spray. I used the Pump Armor for storage in between uses. This is just to say that you might have problems even if you follow directions and treat it well. I returned it. While spraying, it does a nice job in covering the surface well. I sprayed a concrete basement wall and the inside frame of a garage. I was looking for good coverage of rough surfaces, not a perfect finish, and it delivered in both situations. If you are going to buy one of these sprayers, I do recommend this larger capacity model. It sprays paint quickly and I felt like I was refilling frequently even with the larger capacity. I didn’t get to fully appreciate the variable pressure, but I feel that is a good feature to have for a variety of projects. I had 2 main issues with the sprayer before it stopped working. While it’s pretty easy to get used the the sequence to fill the cup with paint, evacuate the air, prime the pump, and spray. It is difficult to learn the nozzle clearing and cleaning sequence since they involve a lot of steps, turning the nozzle around, setting spray or prime, and spraying upside down sometimes. It requires looking at the manual for every step. The biggest issue is that a fine “dust” of dried, aerosolized paint travels far and gets on everything. Even in the garage, it landed on surfaces I had already painted. In my basement I had to clean a lot of surfaces that were pretty far away after I was done. This really limits the situations where I would want to use this paint sprayer.