Spray Painter for Ceiling - Wagner Power Painter Plus versus Graco Magnum X5

Learn about the differences between Graco versus Wagner spray guns for painting ceilings, two of the most popular power paint guns.

For our basement ceiling renovation, we decided to dust off our spray painter that we purchased a while back. We haven't had a chance to use it until now - for the big basement renovation.

Our goal was to paint the ceiling completely white. We were going for the industrial look. The room is going to be used as a photography studio.  We had the Wagner Power Painter Plus that we purchased on a whim.

Differences Between Graco vs Wagner

On the first night, we sprayed a sample closet area just to test it out. After three refills, we got the room sprayed. This also including jostling the spray gun while standing on a ladder. It wasn't bad for the small space we were testing. At 100% power, we had a little overspray and drips, nothing that rolling a few brush strokes couldn't help.

The next day is when the trouble began - once we wanted to spray a bigger surface area. After three minutes of spraying, the Wagner was empty. There was the frustration of trying to refill it over and over again for that big space. Then, we tried creating a spray hose (similar to the one they sell for the Wagner since local stores didn't have one) to go from the 5 gallon paint bucket directly to the sprayer.

It didn't work and it caused a lot of overspray. Even if we had purchased the Wagner version, there was the problem of maneuvering on the ladder without the possibility of spilling the paint.

After a few hours of frustration, the husband gave up. We did some research, and the Graco Magnum X5 on Amazon had rave reviews. There was also a less expensive version, with a little less stars for the review. We learned our lesson and decided to go with the X5. Best purchase ever. If this thing has a fault, my husband hasn't found one yet. Here's the setup we had after investing about 30 minutes reading the manual.

Some of the tips we read were to add a little water so that the X5 could consume it a little easier. That definitely helped!

Here's what you get for buying a 3x more expensive sprayer:

• While the Wagner had the ability to change the power of the spray, the X5 had more precision for controlling the power and was smoother on contact.
• Overspray with the Wagner was terrible. Basically, once the compartment was almost empty of paint, it would shoot out gobs of paint. The X5 did not do this even when you reached the bottom of the bucket.
• The Graco X5 has an attachment that allows you to paint the ceiling without needing to use a ladder. This is AMAZING.

• It also allows you to put the tubing directly into the paint bucket, so you are not having to lug around the weight of the paint in your hand as you are spraying.
• It has 75 feet of paint hose so you can go everywhere you need to!
• Once you are set up, the spraying goes super fast!

If I had to provide a con,  it might be that it is highly pressurized, so if you are not careful, you could hurt yourself more with the X5 than the Wagner. But the pressure is what provides the power in the X5.

Again, watered down the paint as suggested by some of the reviewers on Amazon, which definitely helped with the painting process. All in all, the Graco Magnum X5 should have been our first choice for a paint spray gun! I may even have him paint the exterior of our house since this project was so successful.

So far, I am loving how our exposed basement ceiling looks, it definitely gives it an industrial feel which I love - reveal to come in a future post. My husband loves that the exposed celing also allows him to troubleshoot any issues (if they were to come up) without having to remove parts of the ceiling.

He's definitely becoming a painting ninja from his very first "complex" project for painting wall stripes to now the exposed basement ceiling! Check out the finished product on our exposed basement ceiling (painted in white) here.

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Other Basement Posts You Might Love

If you loved this post comparing the Graco versus Wagner spray guns, check out my other posts below:

• Painted Basement Ceiling