Runs Out Of Steam!!! (Paint Runner System)

Member Name: lilmsnaughty79

Product:	Paint Runner System
Date:	16/03/09 (590 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Speeds Up Painting, Less Mess

Disadvantages: Hard To Clean, Wears Out Too Quickly

Runs Out Of Steam!!!
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My fiancé and I had just bought a house and had to wait for two months before any of the furniture arrived so we decided to decorate throughout. With it being quite a big house compared to what we're used to, we wanted something to make the job of decorating easier. I came across Paint Runner while flicking through the TV channels.

The Paint Runner is not a normal paint roller, it's shorter, fatter and hollow, and you don't need a tray. What you do get in the box is a paint runner, an extendable pole, a filling jug and a smaller version for edging. The way the paint runner works is you use the jug to fill it with your paint. Yes you put the paint on the inside. You can fill it a litre at a time. The paint will then slowing be dispersed through a foam cover as you paint. This allows you to paint continuously for ten minutes. The small roller also works in the same way, and it is set at an angle so you can edge your walls without touching anything like door frames or window sills. The extendable pole also enables you to paint ceilings without having to stand on something. The manufactures claim that you can have clean, drip free painting so no need to cover up your furniture.

When we got the paint runner we set to work on painting our house. We bought two, as they were on offer at the time, so we could both paint at the same time. We filled one with paint and off we go. Nothing happened; I was so disappointed as the infomercial made it look so good. We discovered that the roller needs to be primed to get going. The easiest way to do this is to spray it with water and then roll it on the wall that you are painting. After a while the paint starts to come out and you are off!!! A disadvantage of the roller being filled with paint is that it is really heavy when it's full, so can be quite difficult to hold it up high. The pole does help, but I felt I couldn't get the required pressure when using it. I also found that the aluminium on the pole rubbed off on my hands, and made them black.

It is true, you can keep painting for a long time, you can easily do a small room in ten minutes with this roller. When it starts getting harder to paint and the roller is feeling light, it's probably empty. All you have to do is open it up and refill it. The hard part comes when you want to change colour or clean the roller. The instructions tell you to just put the roller underneath a running tap and let the water flow through until clear, which should take a few minutes. I found that this wasn't the case. It really is a nightmare to clean. I found that the easiest way was to use a small brush and try to clear as much of the paint inside the roller with this whilst running water through it and then keep the water flowing through while squeezing as much of the paint out of the foam cover. Once the water seems to be running clear, which took around 20 to 30 minutes, it is best to let it soak in soapy water over night. Unfortunately if you want to change colour you have to keep cleaning until it is clean enough.

The other problem with cleaning, and then changing colour is that the roller becomes very wet. If you fill with another colour straight away and then paint, you end up with lots of water all over your walls, and it becomes very hard to paint with. As for the edger, I found it to be a complete waste of time. I only used it once, and it just did not work. I quickly went back to using a brush to do the edges.

After using the paint runner for a while, like I said we were painting a big house, we noticed that it started to leak, and there would be speckles. We thought maybe that the lid wasn't on properly, but on closer inspection we could see that the foam cover was slowly wearing away. According to the information they are supposed to last for years. Well ok, we had done a lot of work with it, so maybe it was fair enough and we still had another one to use. But no, this one was doing it too. This became quite annoying as we then had to keep cleaning it off things, or had to use a dust sheet. When cleaning the rollers this time, I could see that the foam was bulging and there was no way I was going to get them to clean.

Although I was disappointed with them in the end, they had served their purpose and painted the whole house quickly and easily. When working, they do leave a perfect finish with no brush or roller marks. I would probably recommend them for bigger jobs, but would personally be sticking to a normal roller for smaller jobs.

Price - £29.99 for two from Ideal World

Recommended.

Summary: A Great Way To Take The Pain Out of Painting