Aqua Coat Water-Based White Cabinet Wood Grain Filler Gel – Fast Drying, Low Odor White Wood Filler, Sandable & Paintable for Interior & Exterior Repairs, Upgrades & Restorations – 32 oz

The media could not be loaded. I’m redoing a 90’s house and was looking for something that could smooth out heavy wood grain on our cabinets without totally replacing them. AquaCoat Grain Filler is exactly what I needed!It goes on easily, dries fast, and sands down beautifully. The finish is super smooth and gave me the clean, modern look I wanted without the grain showing through. It made a huge difference in the final paint job.If you’re updating older wood surfaces and want a flawless, professional finish—this stuff works amazing. Highly recommend!

A very good grain filler for use when you're going to paint your project. Sand down to at least 220 grit, wiping with tack cloth between sandings. Follow the directions, and practice on a scrap piece first. It's water based so I'd suggest using water based (Latex) paints. Clean up is easy as well.

The aqua coat was much easier to use than wood filler when I was painting my kitchen cabinets that had a heavy grain pattern, but it did not work quite as well.

Initially, I made the mistake of ordering their clear gel version of this product, and attempting to put it on top of a coat of BIN primer. It instantly yellowed and cracked. Avoid the clear gel unless your topcoat will also be clear; it uses a different chemical formulation and isn't as effective as the white product.If you are painting old oak cabinets white, this is the grain filler to use. See my picture for a result of what my cabinets look like after three very fine coats. Here is my advice to getting a perfect result:1. Apply using a spreader--Amazon recommended the Dynatron 358 Spreader 3-pack from 3M and they are fantastic and absolutely essential for proper application. The flexibility of the spreader and fine edge makes it easy to "push" the grain filler into the recesses of the grain, and using the long spreader it is very easy to scrape off the excess leaving a perfectly flat finish.2. Apply VERY THIN COATS. You're only trying to fill the voids, nothing more. Aqua Coat recommends three coats and I've also found that three coats seem to result in an almost perfectly flat surface. No, it's not as flat as MDF, but that's why you're still going to want to apply two coats of primer and a high performance white enamel cabinet paint with good leveling characteristics. Do not cheap out on your topcoat! These are cabinets, and they demand a high quality topcoat like General Finishes Pigmented Poly in White (if spraying), or their Brushable White Enamel (if brushing). Spraying is always preferred.3. Between coats, hit it with a 3M scotch-brite pad (I use the purple "very fine" variety) to remove the dust nibs and scuff the surface enough for the next application. Literally a quick pass is all it takes. Then, remove the dust you just made with compressed air or a damp rag. Compressed air is better as you don't have to wait for it to dry. You don't want to apply this product to any damp surface.4. When you're using the spreader, initially apply the gel perpendicular to the grain, to "push" the material into the grain. On your finishing pass, use the longest spreader possible and go with the grain. This will ensure your spreader is riding on the highest material and you'll get the best results.5. If you see cracking once dried, it means you applied too much. I had some very minor cracking in the corners where the cabinet center panel met the rails and stiles. It's tough to really fish out all that build-up, but I didn't stress about it because I will be running a thin bead of caulk around the entire center panel. This is a best practice when painting previously stained cabinets. White is incredibly unforgiving and you'll notice every tiny gap if you don't caulk ahead of time.6. Your time is valuable. Don't waste it by grain filling the back of the cabinet. Focus on the front, and where the grain runs the deepest. I didn't even worry about the rails and stiles because I observed the solid oak in those areas to be quite flat already. Plan ahead of time for how many coats of primer and paint, and do a test to see just how well your grain is hidden. You might discover you don't even need to grain fill certain parts of your project.7. Those who are complaining about how small this tub is... Again, you are only filling the voids and most of the material you are scraping off and putting back in the tub. I ended up doing 35 cabinet doors and only used half a quart.If you have additional questions, call the U.S. manufacturer at the number on the back of the can. A human being quickly answered and was able to give me plenty of pointers.

Patience is the key here. Take your time and follow the instructions. Use a good primer first to prevent bleed through if filling deep oak grain. If using in hot weather, it cures quickly.

I don't often leave reviews but figured it'd be helpful since I wish I'd read this before I made this investment in time and effort--If your cabinets (or whatever you're filing in) have deep woodgrain, this is not the product for you. I bought one jar of this and coat after coat after coat-- it's like the cracks in the wood drank this stuff, I would say about 50% of the cracks/grain are still there. You can see them and feel them. My cabinets I would say went from a D+ to a B- after using this product. Some of the cabinets we had were not as heavily grained, and this product worked great on them and only took a couple of coats. But 3 weeks in and 2 jars of this later, I am absolutely miserable that we started this project, because our cabinets clearly needed more than this filler has to offer.It goes on easy and you think you're really making progress, but after it dries, you are so exhausted thinking GREAT looks like another 3-coater.So my advice is just to take a real honest look at your project before buying this...and possibly to research on something that will do more for you if you a lot of grain to cover.

We recently refinished the cabinets in our bathroom and this stuff did a great job of filling in the grain. You end up wiping off a lot and putting it back in the container, so you probably won't need as much as you would think. It definitely helps to do more than one layer. Is it messy and time consuming to fill and sand repeatedly? Yes . . . there's no getting around that. But if you want to smooth out the wood grain, this will give you the results you want!

This thing shrinks so much that applying 5 times is barely enough. Too time consuming to use. For oak, it is pretty much impossible to fill deeper grains with this product. Do not believe the YouTube influencers!