How To Clean A Graco Airless Spray Gun

Matt is a professional painter who owns and operates his own painting business concern, specializing in interior and exterior house painting.

How to Clean Graco Airless Sprayer Parts

I've owned and used Graco airless pigment sprayers throughout my painting career. Their contractor sprayers are built to last if you take care of them and carefully clean parts after every apply. I've owned a Graco 495 Ultra Max since 2009, and the sprayer still sprays as good as the showtime time I used it.

If you don't flush paint out of the sprayer with the appropriate cleaner and clean parts thoroughly, pigment particles start sticking to everything inside, causing loss of pressure level or issues with the spray gun. There is nothing more frustrating than having to take apart and troubleshoot an inoperable sprayer when you need information technology the most for a painting project. You can avoid problems and having to supplant parts prematurely through preventative maintenance.

Flush Out the Sprayer

The pigment, or whatever material was used in the sprayer, should e'er be cycled out of the pump and spray hose right after you're done spraying, using the right cleaner until the cleaning fluid comes out of the spray gun nozzle articulate.

While you lot tin can leave paint in the motorcar overnight, I don't recommend it. Whatever you practice, never exit Zinsser BIN primer (white-pigmented shellac) in your Graco sprayer overnight, or even for more than a couple of hours at a fourth dimension. Otherwise, you'll ruin the filters and potentially impairment the pump.

Before y'all cycle cleaner through the machine, unscrew the spray tip guard from the spray gun and turn off the pressure. To wheel your cleaner through the motorcar at a low pressure, squeeze the trigger and proceed the pressure adapted at a very low setting.

• Latex Pigment and Primer

First, pour warm water into a 5-gallon bucket. Wipe paint off of the siphon hose with a clean rag so your make clean h2o saucepan doesn't go contaminated. I use a mix of water and ammonia to clean latex pigment and BIN primer from my airless sprayer. Ammonia breaks downward and loosens pigment particles really well to keep your spray hose and pump clean for storage.

• Oil Paint and Primer

Echo the same process for removing latex paint from the machine, except utilize paint thinner or mineral spirits instead of water. Never endeavour to remove oil paint from the spray hose using water.

• Alcohol-Based Shellac Primer (BIN)

Affluent out the sprayer with ammonia or denatured alcohol. I use ammonia mixed with warm water to make clean BIN from my sprayer. You tin can buy cheap bottles of ammonia for a couple dollars. Denatured alcohol is more than expensive, but also works really practiced for cleaning clogged filters. Wear protective gloves to prevent peel exposure.

Clean Graco Airless Spray Tips

Don't forget to clean your Graco spray tips later on each utilize. Leaving paint inside the orifice of the spray tip clogs the hole when the paint dries, and next fourth dimension you need to spray, the tip volition be unusable.

The best time to clean spray tips is right later you're done flushing cleaner through the sprayer. In one case your sprayer is clean, screw the tip guard back onto the spray gun. Insert the tip into the baby-sit in the reverse position. Plough up the pressure and pull the trigger to clear the spray tip of any paint stuck inside.

Clean your spray gun filter after each employ.

Read More From Dengarden

How to Make clean Graco Spray Gun Filters

The Graco airless sprayer parts and filters might be unlike on your model, but either mode, ever clean the filters after each use. Running h2o through the sprayer alone isn't enough to remove paint from the filters, specially enamel and viscous coatings like BIN primer.

A clean filter keeps everything flowing smoothly, while preventing debris from entering the gun. If the filter clogs, the gun won't piece of work.

Spray Gun Filter

Unscrew the spray gun and remove the pencil filter inside. If you bought your sprayer brand new from Graco, they include a special cleaning tool that works neat for cleaning this filter. You push the tool tightly through the center of the filter to remove gunk and pigment build up. Swoosh the filter effectually in your cleaner to clean the mesh screen.

Manifold Pump Filter

If you're losing force per unit area, cheque the manifold. The manifold filter prevents debris from entering and dissentious the pump. When information technology'due south clogged, you'll lose force per unit area. Past keeping the manifold make clean, you lot'll prolong the life of the machine.

On my Graco 495 Ultra Max, the manifold unscrews and lifts out for cleaning. The easiest way to clean it is with a toothbrush and the advisable cleaner. The mesh holes should be clean and unobstructed.

Clean Clogged Airless Filters

When airless filters become clogged, I've establish the easiest way to remove the build-up is by soaking them in denatured alcohol, or ammonia, depending on the fabric in the sprayer, but denatured alcohol dissolves primer and paint fast. Scrub the surface with a toothbrush to remove remainder from the mesh screen.

If you spray BIN primer, the filters on your sprayer will clog badly and interruption if you lot expect likewise long to clean them. When spraying BIN all day, I clean the filters every hour with ammonia.

Clean the Inlet Strainer

The inlet strainer is the metal screen where paint is siphoned directly from the container into your sprayer. This strainer is the starting time line of defense against debris that tin can crusade clogging and pump damage.

Even though the inlet strainer is supposed to filter out debris, pocket-size chunks already in the paint can from the factory, or fifty-fifty a blade of grass, can pass through the strainer holes and cause problems.

The all-time mode to avoid this is to get in the habit of placing a pigment strainer bag over the inlet strainer. Tie information technology off or use a safety ring to continue it in place. The small-scale holes of the strainer handbag are more effective at preventing debris from passing through into the machine.

The inlet strainer should be carefully cleaned after painting to articulate the screen holes likewise. Over time, the holes become clogged, reducing paint menses. The best way to clean the strainer is with a garden hose, or if clogged, soak the part in denatured alcohol. If the screen is damaged, or totally chock-full, replace it with a new one.

Store Your Graco Airless Sprayer

Properly storing your Graco sprayer is very important. Don't shop your sprayer with water in the pump, especially in beneath freezing temperatures. Leaving water in the pump for a prolonged catamenia time can cause corrosion and pump harm if the water freezes.

Always release pressure during storage to prolong the life of the packings. Flush the h2o out of the pump and bike in pump protector for storage. Y'all can use Graco Pump Armor, which I used for years, simply information technology's expensive. An inexpensive alternative is to go to a major home improvement outlet and buy a inexpensive bottle of marine anti-freeze. The bottle is double the size of the pricey Pump Armor and does the same thing.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the writer's noesis and is non meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional person.

Questions & Answers

Question: Where can ammonia be purchased?

Answer: You tin can observe ammonia in the household cleaner section of a grocery store, or a abode improvement shop. I buy mine from Menards and Home Depot. The toll is only a couple dollars per bottle. You can lodge ammonia from Amazon too if you can't buy it in a shop about yous.

© 2022 Matt G.

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