Maintaining your spray equipment—using the appropriate cleaning solution after every job and keeping filters and pumps in good working order—will help keep your gear out of the shop.

“Paint is an adhesive,” says Chris Noto, director of professional product development at sprayer manufacturer Titan Tool. “When you don’t clean the sprayer between paint jobs, the inlet/outlet balls will stick to the seats, and the next time you go to use it, it won’t prime—or if it does prime, it won’t build up the correct pressure to spray.”

Clean and properly tuned equipment will ensure you’re getting the best possible finish, too.

“Whether you work in residential, commercial, or very large industrial, we all generally have to worry about the same things,” adds Peter Weiss, president of industrial painting contractor, Induspray. “Attention to cleanliness is particularly important for residential and commercial painters, because they tend to use smaller spray pumps, and the components and orifices are all smaller.”

In addition, residential and commercial painters generally require a higher attention to detail since a lot of the work is at eye level—whereas an industrial paint surface might be hundreds of feet away. If your sprayer isn’t achieving the right pressure or a spray tip is worn, it negatively affects the quality of the finished work. That’s much more noticeable in a home or commercial property—and particularly important when you’re working on ornamented surfaces.

For Noto, paying attention to your filters is your best line of defense against lost pressure, along with pre-filtering coatings whenever possible.

“Obviously, clean paint will help you avoid clogs and mechanical issues such as pump malfunctions,” he says. “But the second benefit is that keeping debris out of your paint will help eliminate imperfections on the finished surface.”

To learn more about sprayer maintenance, read the full-length feature article in the August/September 2017 issue of inPAINT magazine: inPAINTmag.com