Wagner Power Products 0156060 Cordless Power Roller

List Price: $64.77

Features:

• Dual-speed, self-feeding, 9-inch roller system
• Paints up to 40 gallons of paint on one set of 4 "D" cell batteries (not included)
• Two speed paint flow control
• Includes faucet adapter and brush for faster clean-up
• One year limited warranty

Customer Reviews:

Wagner Power Roller [Posted on 2004-06-13]
I would not recommend this product. I bought the corded model (Roll Fast Power Roller). Out of the box it applied the paint evenly and much faster than I could have using a manual roller and 5-gallon bucket. The biggest drawback was in painting the ceilings as the wand was heavier than a manual roller and I had to apply more pressure on the roller to distribute the paint. Another drawback to the product is the roller system itself. The rubber gasket on the roller arm, which seals the roller, rubs against the roller creating resistance which must be overcome during painting. Another drawback is the clean-up which took me over 45 minutes (despite a 5 minute claim on the box). Finally after 3 hours of painting I had to quit using the tool when dried paint prevented the roller cog from turning. The pluses for the tool are (1) it is definately much cleaner to use and (2) it does apply paint evenly. But I am going back to my five gallon bucket, screen and manual roller.

Nice little time saving machine [Posted on 2004-10-13]
I just finished painting a 1,700 square foot garage with the Wagner Power Roller 929. It took a couple of cans of paint to get the flow speed down. The whole inside garage took around 20 hours to do. I used 2 coats of Behr paint and primer. I did the same job last year with a regular brush and roller that took about 40 hours to do. I would honestly say that this machine cut the painting time from 1/2 to 1/3 of the time. There is no constant bending and dipping the roller as with a regular roller. The cost was around $49.00 for the unit and around $7.00 for a Wagner roller cover (about the same at Home Depot). I would highly recommend this for a person painting a single family house. The only draw back is the cleaning time. After cleaning it a few times, it still took me about an hour to clean. The rollers were actually easier to clean than a regular ones due to the perforations in the roller cover. I would suggest reading the manual a couple of times before starting, and have a fairly big tub and drying area when cleaning. The main thing is to clean this immediatly after use. Do not wait to clean. I would say to clean the tubing first, and keep very good track of the small parts. Overall, this did a great job for the big project I had to paint (1,700 sq. feet). Clean up is a pain, but you have to weigh out the time (6 hours painting-1 hour cleaning or 12 hours painting-30 minutes clean up with a regular roller kit). Wagner also sells more more upgraded models at Home Depot that you can directly hook up a paint can to save even more time. This model 929 can be purchased form here, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot for around the same price.

The test of tests. [Posted on 2005-01-24]
I own a 103 year old home, with 12 foot ceilings. It was time to paint the living room, and when I was looking at supplies, I saw this. I purchased it, got home cleaned the ceiling, with a broom. the ceiling was redone in the late 1980s with popcorn texture. i opened the box, read the directions and assembled the unit. I poured in the paint. Dutch Boy ceiling latex. The painter took about 2 minutes to prime and get paint to the roller head. I also had bought a long nap roller sleeve for the power roller. I climbed a ladder, and began to roll. With the drop guard on, I was able to roll fairly quick, and the paint flowed well. I had the unit on my shoulder, and had a gallon of ceiling white in it. So it was a bit heavy. But after I got the flow right, I would flip off the switch. I managed to get about a 18 foot by 16 foot celing done with less than one gallon of paint, and with no splatters! It did save me the time of reloading the roller. I got half of the room done. Then I finished the celing the next day with a spayer.
I also painted all of my walls with this. And the walls are large. 12 feet high, and the room is thirty one feet long! The paint calculator on the glidden website recommended three gallons of paint, but with doing the trim, and all the cutting in, I used less than one and a half gallons. I recommend. Read the directions. Learn to use the power switch to turn the pump on and off as you get the flow set right. Clean after use, it took me about a half an hour to clean the unit both times I used it. Use latex for ease of cleaning. The speed you can paint smoothly is amazing with this. I painted the walls in about an hour. The weight can be much, but you can set the unit on a step ladder, or in the case of a ceiling I hooked it onto the ladder so as to not have to carry it. The extension gives you about a extra 16" of reach.

Disposable [Posted on 2005-08-16]
This tool works fantastic for one job, and one job only. Decide you need to paint your living room and a hallway, prep everything and use it for the day, then throw it out. It is not worth your time to clean this item. Figure in how much it would cost you to hire the job done, and then realize that the money you saved can afford you the luxury of throwing this item away. It is not worth the headache to clean, and frankly, even if you do spend a half hour cleaning it, it might not work right for the next job. What will extend your work time is wrapping a wet towel around the roller. Sometimes you can get by for quite a few days using this method.

One of life's enduring pleasures [Posted on 2006-01-08]
I bought my 2-speed power roller in 1988 and it is still going strong. I absolutely love this product as it keeps up with my high-speed painting technique. I have painted nearly every conceivable surface with it and I can paint at a rate of one linear foot a minute for an 8ft high wall. I painted a 15x20 garage with only an 8 yr old mist-thin contractor coat on it in 45 minutes. By the time I finished with the first coat I was able to apply the 2nd and still finished in 45 minutes. This thing is so fast it's just stupid.

It is rare you will ever have to apply a 2nd coat with the power roller as it puts on a nice, consistent, thick coat of paint. Within an hour or so of use you will find you are putting on a VERY even coat as you learn to match your rolling speed to the pump speed. Another advantage of the power roller is there are no paint feed holes near the ends of the roller so unlike conventional rollers you generally have a rather dry edge and don't leave edge lines all over the wall. This dramatically cuts down on the amount of rolling required.

A good technique to use with the power roller is to apply 3-5 linear ft of paint at a 45 degree angle, and then roll for final texture up and down. Most recently I rolled raw T-111 with 8" grooves - and if you have ever painted this siding board you know how much paint it takes to get a good seal AND fill those grooves. I used a 3/4 inch roller and pushed paint into the grooves by pushing hard on the roller. My gf used a 3" angled brush to finish the grooves as I continued to roll like a demon. In 6 hours I ended up rolling 10 sheets of T-111, 6 sheets of OSB and 2 sheets of plywood, both sides, two coats on all but the face of the T-111 (I used 1 coat of Sherwin Williams Duration paint on the face of the T-111. $47 a gallon but what amazing paint! The rest I had to use 2 coats of Behr... uuugh.... no comparison) Btw, the Duration paint is twice as thick as normal paint and the power roller pump slowed down a bit, but kept me and my assistant busy as bees trying to stay ahead of it. I'll say a bit more about cleaning below, but I just cleaned my power roller after leaving latex paint sit in it for 2 months and it cleaned up just fine. I wrapped it in 2 layers of plastic grocery bags, body, and roller separately, but it worked just fine. As a practical matter this means you only need to clean it when the project is finish or you change paint colors or types.

Now for the caveats. You have to plan ahead when using this system because it is capable of great speed and that requires you do all the prep and cutting in ahead of time. Even on a wall with no windows or floor boards the cutting in will take more time than rolling the whole wall. Really! You also need a good pour space as you will be pouring a lot of paint down its throat to keep it fed. The new system that feeds from the can should be a joy to use, provided it doesn't tip over easily and doesn't get hung up on floor obstacles like drop clothes and electrical cords. (The shoulder strap is not that comfortable - and should be a CamelPac type padded and curved one - but works just fine and has never allowed the device to fall off my shoulder.)

Cleaning, well, as you can tell, it's no joy, but not all that bad either. The 2nd or 3rd time you clean it will go much faster. The first time took me at least an hour. The 2nd time took about 15-20 minutes. Having just done it I could clean it in 10-15 minutes as I know where all the little parts (about 8-10) go. When you clean this clean it in a kitchen sink with a spray hose, use lot of detergent, USE A DRAIN SCREEN, and ScotchBrite pads with sponge backs. The main plunger and roller caps and seals like a light swab of olive oil or KY Jelly. If you can take apart and reassemble a ball mouse, a ball-point pen and stapler, you can reassemble the power roller. It has the same complexity as these three devices collectively. You can't really get it too wrong as the pieces are sized and shaped so you can only put it together one way.

If I want to paint a single room I use the old method - and usually kick myself about the time I am trying to talk myself out of applying a needed 2nd coat. For more than a room use the power roller.

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