cleaning out your sprayer - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

aspenpainting · 04-22-2006, 10:15 PM

hey guys ive always cleaned out my sprayer after using latex by flushing until i get clear water then leaving thinner until the next use. now i was shown the other day by another painter whos been painting for about 18 years that you can flush until you get pretty clean water then you pull your suction tube and let the gun spray out completly untill the gun is empty then shut it off and your good. i know he knows his stuff but im not sure on running my sprayer empty. this is only something he does in the summer. thinner for freezing temps. any comments

Woz the Painter · 04-23-2006, 01:52 AM

I would still clean the pump till water is clear, wheather you leave the pump under pressure or not. I like to run some thinner through the pump after latex to re-lube internal parts. Years ago i worked for a large contractor whose two best go for it spraymen were shooting two component esther epoxy, and decidedto leave the pump under pressure without flushing, till the next day. These idiots didn't know that unlike oil or latex, the epoxy was setting up inside the pump and hoses within a few hours. the pump and hoses were completly trashed by the morning.

phinsher · 04-23-2006, 06:49 AM

I always run thinner through mine too, just to keep things from rusting.

aspenpainting · 04-23-2006, 07:44 AM

thanks for the input. i agree just looking for another opinion

AAPaint · 04-23-2006, 08:05 PM

I always run spirits through my rig and store it under pressure. I like knowing that one, nothing is sticking to anything inside the sprayer or the lines, and two, that everything is looobed up nice and good.

painterofeveryt · 04-23-2006, 09:32 PM

dont you need to get it re packed more often due to that ?

johnjamesalaska · 04-23-2006, 11:44 PM

Leaving you pump under pressure especially with thinner in it is a bad idea. I knew this guy who left his pump under pressure on a job and his hose got a pin hole leak while no one was on the job. When you get a leak like that it spews this thin stream of whatever is in your pump for yards. He left paint in his pump. When he showed up the next morning paint was over everything like silly string. I was in the middle of spraying an exterior and set my gun down to move a ladder or something and I heard this loud shhhhhhhhhhh sound and I turned around and there is my hose and gun flying 40 feet this way and that. And it was a fairly new hose. Now if that had happened while I was at lunch

And its not just the hose that can fail. If for instance you leave your pump under pressure with thinner, in a garage with any open flames such as hot water heaters, ceiling hung natural gas heaters ect and your pump is under pressure and gets a leak which happens alot more than you'd think, and shoots over that flame, well you got yourself a problem. And if you got kids around old enough to figure out the gun lock and they get a eye full of thinner or worse injected. Leaving pumps under pressure .....not good

AAPaint · 04-24-2006, 10:03 AM

Well, I guess I should have said full, instead of under pressure. When I cut it off, I've got the lines full of spirits, but not enough pressure to barely drip. I leave it in prime, which on my pump is hardly any pressure at all. Basically, the prime valve is closed, the lines are full, but you couldn't get it to squirt by pulling the trigger if you wanted to. Simple really.