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A Comprehensive Overview of 5 Types of Paint Sprayers – Features, Pros, and Cons

Paint sprayers are very useful when it comes to painting large surface areas. Often you’ll notice undesirable brush strokes in the finish when you’ve used a paint brush. You might also want to avoid using multiple coats. Painting using paint sprayers is a great life saver in all these cases.

Not only does it save time compared to a traditional roller or brush, but it can also paint things you could never paint with a brush. If you want to do some paint job on your motorcycle, you’ll need a paint sprayer.

With so many options available on the market, it’s best to take a look at the different products which will greatly guide you on how to start painting. In this article, we’ll explain the features, pros, and cons of each type of sprayer to help you find the products that best suit your needs.

Airless Paint Sprayers

Airless paint sprayers pressurize the paint into tiny droplets. The result is an even pattern. The pattern also sits nice and smooth on the surface. Airless paint sprayers accomplish the task in a very short period of time. You can thus handle big projects with one without worrying much about the time factor.

Airless paint sprayers also excel in another area: large volume work. You can paint large surfaces like walls within a few minutes; traditional painting methods would’ve taken hours for such a task.

Airless paint sprayers are great for the speed but have one key downside: oversprays. Oversprays occur when you spray out more paint then you desire. This situation is pretty common in airless paint sprayers, especially in inexperienced hands. For complicated paint designs on furniture, we certainly recommend getting another type of sprayer.

Also, these sprayers are not great for outside use. The slightest changes in the winds can not only cause problems with accuracy, but can also ruin the work.

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Pros

  • You can paint very quickly
  • You can paint large surfaces
  • The patterns are even and clean

Cons

  • Not recommended for intricate works or outside use
  • Risks of overspraying

HVLP Paint Sprayers

The High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) paint sprayers work in a reverse principle compared to the airless paint sprayers. HVLP sprayers don’t use pressure but rather minimizes it to produce the paint. The result is large volumes of paint produced.

These sprayers are not known for their speed but excel at precision work. If you want to paint your cabinet with a precise design, HVLP paint sprayers are the way to go. The finish is accurate, beautiful, and precise.

HVLP sprayers are however notorious for their clogging problems; these sprayers clog more than other types. You should regularly clean the parts to avoid this from happening.

Pros

  • Affordable compared to other types
  • Great for close proximity, precision work

Cons

  • Clogs more than other sprayers

LVLP Paint Sprayer

For the average layperson wanting a good paint job done, Low Volume Low Pressure (LVLP) paint sprayers is the option to go for. These sprayers are quite inexpensive, too. This, combined with its easy operation, makes it a perfect beginner paint spray.

You won’t need industrial sized air compressors for these sprayers due to the low pressure these sprayers use — only around 10PSI. You’ll thus save money and space using only basic air compressors.

Keep in mind though these sprayers won’t be able to work with some thicker paint types. Due to its limited pressure, LVLP sprayers have limited paint types to work with. So professional paint artists usually avoid these sprayers.

Pros

  • Pretty affordable
  • Paints large surfaces in short amount of time

Cons

  • Cannot work with thicker paints due to the pressure limitations

Gravity Feed Spray Guns

These sprayers are quite similar to HVLP sprayers. These spray guns produce multiple types of coats.

Gravity Feed Spray Guns are actually not another ‘type’ of spray gun. The design of this tool is what makes it different. It has a siphoning element resting on top, causing the sprayer to require less pressure. This results in great accuracy in your paint work. You also won’t have to deal with any overspray issue.

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Initially when it first came out, its use was mainly restricted to automobile painting for its precision. Nowadays, these sprayers are used for other projects too.

Pros

  • High precision
  • No overspray issues
  • Cleaning up is easy after use

Cons

  • Not good at painting large surfaces or volumes

Compressed Air Paint Sprayers

This is another option you can get in the market that is greatly valued by amateur painters. In principle, these are pretty similar to LVLP paint sprayers. In design, however, compressed air paint sprayers only contain a spray gun and an air compressor.

This simple design is an advantage of these sprayers. These sprayers excel at doing high volume work. But they can also be adjusted to do more precise work by adding certain accessories.

These products are prone to clogging and oversprays. And you won’t find too many of these in the market. LVLP sprayers have replaced most of this type of paint sprayers.

Pros

  • Simple design and setup
  • Very user friendly for amateurs

Cons

  • Clogging and oversprays
  • Hard to find these days

Last but Not Least

Professional painters don’t usually settle for one type of paint sprayer. They use a combination of paint sprayers in order to get the job done. This totally depends on the project that they’re working on.

If your work is complicated and intricate combined with high volume, we’d suggest you to get multiple types of sprayers according to the nature of your task. On the other hand, for a layperson with a simple paint project, it makes more sense to get one type that will accomplish your task.

Hope the information presented in this article will help you in your painting endeavors. Paint, and let your creativity fly!

 

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