On 1 Jul 2006 07:25:22 -0700, wrote:


Jim Wheeler wrote:
I like the concept of filling paint in the handle and not having to
continually dip into a tray, but are they any good?
- hard to fill?
- hard to clean?
- leave a good paint surface?
- leaks at seals?

Thanks - jim

I don't have a Wagner brand, just some no-brand stick roller I picked
up many years ago, when they first came out. I love it! It works great,
has never leaked, there's almost never any drips even when painting
ceilings, which is what I bought it for. With the extension pole I can
stand on the floor and paint for 15 minutes before I need to refill the
roller. It fills easily. I finished the kitchen ceiling (20"x22") in
less than an hour. Yes, you still have to finish the edges with a
brush, but that's true for any roller. For cleanup you really need to
use the tub, or at least it's easier because of the length of the tube,
but you just keep forcing water through the tube, and it cleans up
fine. The roller cleans like a regular roller. Since mine's an ancient
no-brand I can't recommend the Wagner, but I love paint sticks.
However, as always, YMMV.

Ditto on what Hillary said. I forget what brand I had, but I think
Home Depot sold it about 8 years ago, maybe now too. I have only used
it for latex paint or stain. don't know if oil woudl be different.

I used it outside, while on a extension ladder, so that would have
made it even harder to dunk a roller over and over. By the time I
needed a refill, going down the ladder seemed fine.

Encouraged by this, I used it in the house, and I also bought the
small one, with a pad, for doing trim. I liked it a lot too.

I also bought a second big one so I could have two kinds of paint
running at the same time. I eventually cleaned the second one and
stopped using it after my transition was complete.

Being the lazy nogoodnik that I am, after a while, I stopped cleaning
every day and would just put the first long one and the short one in
the refrigerator every night, from around 6 or 8 until 9 or 11 the
next morning. I had to rearrange a shelf to do that, but that worked
fine too. I did that 10 or 15 nights until one night I left them in
the refrigerator for 2 years. That was too long.


I was still able to clean everything but the curved tube that holds
the roller. I only have four inches to go, around the sharp turn, and
it will be good again. I've tried funneling that latex dissolver
(Oops?) into it, and letting it sit, and using a door screen to ream
it out, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. This surprises me
because I was able to clean all the rest of it, even after 2 or 3
years.

Hilary

Frankly, I thought if these things were as good as they claimed,
everyone would be using them. Well they are as good as thbey claim,
and here I see that quite a few people are using them. Why not more,
I don't know.

My father was a dentist and he came home tired every night. Younger
dentsts were taught to do their work sitting on a stool, and my father
tried that but couldn't get used to it. So he continued to stand. He
graduated dental school about 1914. I'm not saying the two situations
are parallel, but there may be some similarity.