Paint Sprayers

A paint sprayer trades the roller for a fan of atomized paint, and that trade changes every part of a painting job. A roller covers a flat wall steadily and slowly. A sprayer covers a fence, a house exterior, a set of louvered doors or a kitchen full of cabinet fronts in a fraction of the time, but it also demands masking, drop cloths, thinning checks and a cleanup routine that a roller never asks for. The right sprayer is therefore not the most powerful one on the shelf. It is the one whose spray system matches the surface in front of you.

The twelve sprayers below fall into three honest families. Airless units from Graco and Titan, plus Wagner high-efficiency airless models, push paint at high pressure through a tip and suit walls, fences, decks and whole exteriors. HVLP units from Wagner and HomeRight use a turbine and a large volume of low-pressure air to lay a finer, softer coat on furniture, cabinets and trim. Handheld sprayers, both airless and HVLP, shrink the whole system into one gun for doors, shutters and single-room jobs. Every pick is sold on Amazon, every specification below comes from the maker or the listing for that exact model, and every flow, tip and pressure figure is stated as the maker rates it.